Odds and Ends

We're getting into that in-between time now when it's spring one day and late winter the next and then back again. It's an odd time of year, but one that promises some future excitement. We've had the folks who work on our yard get things rolling now and I'm eagerly waiting for the stores to set out their annuals.

We have daffodils, both full-sized and miniatures, blooming now, along with squill in the lawn and anemone blanda and ranunculoides in the ash bed, pink corydalis and white bloodroot and hellebores, a pale pink-flowered pulmonaria, vinca, turkestanica, kaufmaniana, and praestans fusilier species tulips, a few hyacinths, and rue anemone.

I finally got my new camera set up with a charged battery and a memory card and hope to add some spring garden pics to the next blog post.

It's also the time for birds to start migrating. We took a trip with our friend Bob over to Heron Park in Danville last week. It turned out to be colder and much windier than we'd expected, but we enjoyed getting out and we saw quite a few birds on the water from the boardwalk: Canada geese courting and nesting and being very vocal; Northern Shovelers, the pretty colored ducks with the big bills for sieving food out of the water sideways; Blue Winged Teal, small, quick ducks with a pretty white crescent on the males' heads; a couple of coots with their funny way of moving forward and their pale silver bills; white egrets floating seemingly without effort from tree top to tree top; and a couple of shorebirds (maybe Greater Yellowlegs?).

We stopped for ribs on the way back at the Possum Trot, not health food by any means, of course, but plenty tasty.

Not a good week for backs, however. I'm still struggling to get my pulled back muscle to stop torturing me and now David's old disc problem reemerged. I called his chiropractor, whom he hadn't visited in many years, to discover that he had just retired three months ago. That's a problem for people our age -- not only do your friends retire, which is nice because you can get together more easily -- but so do your doctors, dentists, etc. Fortunately, we got David set up with another chiropractor and he's feeling somewhat better already.

Last weekend we had a great time once again with the monthy Sandunga gig at the Iron Post. The place was packed and the dancing started almost from the first number and kept on the whole time. What fun! This time Eduardo was with them on electric bass, Will's father dropped by to visit, it was Matt Turrino's birthday, and Cody Jensen sat in with bongos. The music was terrific and a good time was had by all. Next month is their CD release party, which promises to be another great evening.

Warmer days and chances for rain seem to be in the offing for all of next week. It'll be a busy week for us too, with various doctor and dentist appointments and the Dance for PD class at the end of the week.