Every morning for the past week I’ve woken up to honking. Not inner city traffic and pissed off commuters, but honking all the same.
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Canada geese are on their way north, and the river behind our house is a veritable goose super highway. No need for an alarm clock when these fellows are overhead…. they’re loud!
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Large groups and small, for the first hour after dawn the sky is full of travelers.
This time of year brings the return of warmer temperatures, green grass and two of my favorite things.
They’re baaaaack!
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Well, at least one of them is. Our first returning woodchuck has made an appearance in the back yard. Let the games begin.
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And speaking of games….
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Red Sox baseball is back and available for viewing in the newly used to be a barn filled with crap remodeled man cave.
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Yes, watching my favorite team at my beloved Fenway Park while perched at our private bar sipping a cocktail is the very definition of sweet.
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The first few games? Not so much. Pitching will be a problem this year and getting swept by the Orioles on our home turf was depressing to say the least. But we whooped Florida and swept Baltimore in their home park. Life is good.
In the continuing saga that is my kitchen calendar ( Bless you my loyal readers, the content here at River’s World is sometimes less than thought provoking ) we have now arrived at April.
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The rodent featured this month seems to be knee deep in a pagan celebration of spring. But seeing that we live in Maine, where May can bring snow …. our resident red bitch from Hell is probably not celebrating in kind.
No, more than likely she’s gathering up dead grasses and leaves in anticipation of building a nest for her future demon offspring in our one of our eaves.
It started out well enough, with a sighting of a beloved yet rarely seen visitor.
This time he was across the street, walking along the edge of our neighbor’s farm.
He’s a beautiful ring necked pheasant we named Phineas.
They’re not native to Maine and can’t survive the winters, but a man up the road raises them and occasionally one or two will break free. Last year, Phineas brought his woman to our backyard. She was looking for a nesting site… but we never did see any chicks.
Later on in the day….
Saturday, May frickin‘ 9th?
We had ducks.
And snow.
This is the first time we’ve ever had mallards.
Sadly….it isn’t the first time we’ve had snow in May.
The ducks stayed quite a while, raiding the droppings from the bird feeders and the leftover deer grain.
Spring has been a long time coming and I’m way behind on my garden work.
By this time I’ve usually got all the beds cleaned out and a few flowers blooming.
This year?
I’ve got weeds.
And random spikey things.
I spent 3 hours today getting rid of both.
I also reseated the brick border and tackled a bit of the bush from Hell.
If anyone ever asks if you want a flowering quince? Run.
Run far, and fast.
Preferably after you punch them in the throat for suggesting it in the first place.
Ours was here when we moved in and we’ve been battling it ever since. It grows over the roof each season and has roots that are 300 friggin’ feet deep. We’ve tried to dig it up, burn it out and hack it down to nubs numerous times.
I believe it likes the challenge….. and comes back stronger every time.
Did I mention it’s also full of thorns?
Good times.
I did 6 beds in the back and on the side of the house and felt good….
Until….
I turned over a brick and disturbed an ant nest. Within seconds those little suckers were crawling all over me and I had to run for a hose.
I rinsed most of them off but not before a few crawled up my pant leg.
Sadly, yes…. there were.
And the little bastards bit me too.
Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.