the male cardinal

A spot of color
on a snowy day
The male cardinal grandstands

groundhog day

It looks, it smells, it feels like springtime.  The air is warm and moist, not cold and dry, with a green and earthy scent instead of the odor of decaying vegetation usually present during the fall and winter months.  The daffodils have sent up green shoots, responding to the sunshine and the unseasonably warm temperatures.  The birds are twitterpated, but skeptical.  I bet even Punxsutawny Phil was confused and confuzzled in his prognostications.

The Great Groundhog has predicted 6 more weeks of winter.  What winter?

the red squirrel

At sunrise this morning I watched a red squirrel climbing up one of our maple trees in the front yard.  We don’t often see squirrels except for the occasional glimpse of one back in the woods.  The rest of the property — near the pond and in the meadows — is too open for them, and the hawks would likely find they make a tasty meal.  This morning’s visitor lives across the road near the old farmhouse.  I watched as she scampered up the tree, easily and quickly making her way from ground to top, following the sun from horizon to sky.

I hope she made it home safely, back to the trees across the road where the sun makes its first appearance during winter mornings here in the Bogs.