March Days

Spring is so beautiful here in southern Alabama that I have no problem waking up each day in a good mood and ready to greet the day.

The first thing I do is to grab my first cup of coffee of the morning and take it out to the dock where I watch the birds flying back and forth in there frenzy to make nests to raise their young.

As I sit awhile longer, the Catfish let me know that they are hungry so I put my almost finished cup of coffee and go to the storage building to get them some fish chow. Boy, are they hungry! They jump up like a trained porpoise in their desire to get as much of the food that they can. The competition is stiff as they swim en mass like so many sharks in the ocean. Finally the feeding frenzy ends as they eat the last floating pellet and they once again go down into their dark world at the bottom of the pond.

I get up and walk around the pond, which is 125' long by 50' wide looking for signs of Bluets, of the genus Houstonia (or Hedyotis), of the madder family, esp. H. caerulea, a low-growing plant having four-petaled blue , pink, violet, and white flowers. the first spring flower at our place. I spot some and am thrilled as if it were for the first time. Of course it is not as we have lived here over a decade.

My geese are in the mating mode so they squawk and yell if I get too close to a nesting mama. I carry a bamboo pole to avoid attacks by the one mean goose I have. He is so mean that I won't even name him. If I could find a home for he and his mate, I would. Mr. and Mrs. Goose-Lee are all I really want anyway.

Now I go in to start my day. I will check my email, then hang out some laundry then straighten up the kitchen and make some breakfast for the guys...the sun is streaming in the kitchen window as it dances on the surface of the pond and makes such lovely sparkling designs on my ceiling...God bless another day!

Spring in the South!

It is spring in the deep south now that mid-February is here and the excitement grows as seed starting begins and the signs of spring begin to come alive outside.

The first thing I look for are the Red Maples flowering way on the tops of the trees. You can see a faint red glow as you are walking or driving around and then you know that the race is on!

Every day there is something new popping out or up. I begin to look for the tiny Bluetes that blanket the ground around the fish pond all spring. Blue, pink, violet, and white sparkles to usher in springs arrival.

My geese are mating now and I have the first egg of the season to prove it. I'm swamped with more eggs than I can possibly make into artistic creations so may start selling the extras for a little extra feed money. Let them earn their keep! Ha! Ha!

I wish you all a wonderful up-coming spring no matter what part of the country/world you live in. It's just a heartbeat away! Later gator!