at my new old house there are plantings, crocus, hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, and someone’s breeches…

so tiny I almost missed them in the leaf duff (but ticks enjoyed the ride from duff to me)

the joy in learning that the ogress who lived here for a year didn’t destroy everything. she lopped down swathes of lilacs, but they are reviving. the piles of stuff she burned, including metal, glass, plastic and god knows what else, are slowing giving way since the ice is out and shoveling is possible. this old place was loved by a family and I keep hearing stories about them, the last from the auction house where I got my new/old table, desk, and chairs.

we’ve had weather in the 70’s and then this surprise, it’s spring.

i’m done teaching, a relief because it was SO DAMNED FRUSTRATING. my inability to navigate computers is really really horrific. mostly I feel like i let these students down. there were several really interested and engaged students (there are always ones i can’t quite motivate) but that’s not the problem, pandemic, is. moving out of this into a possibly safer world is also going to be difficult. but it’s spring, plants are growing, animals are busy, insects, those pollinators were out exploring that small perennial border as soon as crocuses and hyacinths appeared!.

jessica spring’s tiny broadside on beautiful kozo

it feels like i’m recording my winter count, a spring count. dusk a couple nights ago i heard a gobbler, quite close. out i went and rounding the house up flushed an enormous flurry of tom. off he flew into the poplars behind the house, and i looked, sure enough i saw not only one big bird settling high on a branch, but two. at bedtime my window was wide so I could hear them in the morning, and at 5:45 calling began, lasting through to 6:15. later at breakfast i saw two toms and four hens all harvesting ticks for breakfast (yay). they stayed around then walked down towards little river and then off and away. the toms had magnificent tail displays, but those hens were not noticing.

three ticks have found their way onto me, one was at my hairline when i interfered. ugh. turkeys, ruffed grouse, robins, little grey and brown birds, yellow bellied sap suckers and pileated and the other wood pecker family members, two garter snakes, squirrels and chipmunks. life is rich in spring when nest are being built and animals are food and sex hungry.

stopped me in my tracks, until I realized that all the trees were circled. they’ll be getting some mulch.

you’ve seen these if you follow this blog

recently found: my first tussock moth cocoon spinning. forgot to cook out the seracin!

one in a more traditional housing location

wonderful to continue ‘researching’ these cocoons. iive had a second opinion from a ‘moth guy’ that these are tussock moths and that second guy also has cecropias and some other giant silk moth cocoons that he will ship to me in june or so after this year’s moths hatch! so excited, now there may be more than my four cecropia cocoons to work with. but more, he may be able to send me cocoons next fall to winter over in my moth hotel.

for me there’s been a lightening of spirit, and perhaps this is happening elsewhere. for me, perhaps not for you, it feels like there are things possible, making books is coming back to me, all this paper, these prints, these samples are maybe going to bear fruit again. dandelions are growing in the yard, so it must be so.

that winter count? two turtles last Sunday, one snapper and this one, both so beautiful. I assisted both across the road to ‘greener pastures’. turtles fill me with hope and wonder. after posting her photo online a friend wrote that she found a large snapping turtle crossing from my yard to the south side of the road last year. there’s a steep hill there, she wondered about her fate. I'll be keeping an eye out for her.

and in paper news, aimee (www.aimeelee.net) is in korea having amazing hanji adventures. go over and take a look! and count your blessings: turtles, insects, bears and fishers, brook trout. it’s spring in the northern hemisphere! and there’s a wintery mix, meaning possibly snow, in the forecast. yay! I love this weather.