Here is a video of our front yard turkeys. That’s me in my glamorous bathrobe tossing them some food! Watch for the tom’s behavior as he bumps a female, and right after as he “dances” away. As I type they are in the yard again this morning.

Wait ... ! Wasn’t the title of this post “Welcome Spring?” I am sorry to report that this is the view out my window this morning. A rather disheartening sight if I must say so. Just yesterday we had Mia out (with the top down!) for a short ride. And now look! Sheesh. It’s supposed to turn to rain later on in the day but it’s so disappointing to know that it can still do this to us.

We had great weather for viewing the Super Moon on Friday night. It really didn’t look all that much bigger and brighter to me. After all the hype I was expecting more. Here are a few pics anyway. First, a creepy one; then two pics alike except for the focal point in one was on the trees and in the other it was the moon. Rick took both of those pics.

The turkeys returned again on Sunday morning. Rick took a video that I will be posting as soon as he gets it ready, but in case you didn’t get enough turkey pics the other day here are a few more.

Watching over his harem.

If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

This guy was gobbling as I took the photo.

I think they like our yard. We counted over twenty turkeys in the yard at one time! No mating took place yesterday. Maybe they are done with that.

Even though we did take Mia out for a spin to celebrate her one year anniversary, it wasn’t all that warm this weekend. I think it may have gotten to 50 late in the day yesterday, but Saturday was quite cold with a chilly wind. We walked the dogs, played video games and other than a trip to the Rockaway mall for a disappointing clothes shopping trip (but a great lunch at the new Red Robin) we stuck pretty close to home.

For dinner last night we had a surprisingly good meal of roast venison. One of Rick’s colleagues is a hunter and he gave us a roast knowing that we like to cook and eat on the adventurous side. I was very skeptical about the whole thing, but I have to admit it was very good. The dogs and cats were all very interested the minute Rick pulled it out of the fridge to start preparing the rub for it. They thought it smelled pretty darned interesting! We made garlic smashed yukon gold potatoes and fresh asparagus with it. If I had been blindfolded I would not have been able to tell you I was eating venison. The taste was not beef, but it was hard to pinpoint. It kind of tasted like the wild boar we ate in France once.

And, that about wraps up our weekend news! Hope you’re experiencing spring-like weather wherever you are today!

Spring is definitely in the air. At least all the birds are feeling it. The mornings are filled with bird song. The other day on my walk to the end of the street to snap the crocus, several hawks were wheeling around in the sky shrilly calling out to each other. They were making quite a racket. Each morning before the sun is up I hear turkeys, either clucking like a bunch of overgrown chickens, or sometimes a full-fledged gobble.

This morning was a little different. Again, I heard them before the sun came up. After feeding the dogs and going through my normal morning routine I looked out the study window and saw a few hens coming over to where I normally feed them. I went to get some food and noticed that there were hens everywhere! They scattered when I came out the door but it didn’t take them long to all come running across the yard flapping their wings. I counted sixteen hens. Once back in the house I looked out again and to my delight and amazement four huge toms were coming—and they were strutting their stuff with tails fanned out and wings down. I quickly ran upstairs to the the one window without a screen so I could get better photos.

What a show they were putting on for the girls! So important and all puffed up!

It soon became apparent that this was no ordinary visit. This was all about mating. The toms strutted and danced around a few of the hens, courting them. It was all very intricate and there didn’t seem to be any fighting or jealousy between the toms, which is something I’ve noticed before. Almost like they work together to help each other to get a date. In fact, here is an interesting article about how male turkeys help each other out in mating season. I’ll spare you the details of the actual mating, but it was pretty interesting. Let’s just say it didn’t look like she was having much fun. How many people have seen wild turkeys mate right in their front yard?!

At times they looked like Geisha girls performing a dance with their fans. I’m sure these macho birds would not like my analogy! But just look at this “dance of three tom turkeys.”

I guess we’ll be seeing little turkeylettes before too awfully long.

(The last photo was taken through the screen as they left the yard.)

I’ve been meaning to post for days now, yet I haven’t. Maybe that’s because not much is going on.

I can’t really talk about the weather since it is behaving itself and as I type it’s a balmy 44 degrees (F) out there this morning at not quite 8 o’clock! Not the single digits; not even below freezing! We’ve had a few flurries of snow but no real snow now for well over a week. I think the spell over our winter-enchanted piece of Earth has broken. The snow is slowly melting but it’s still treacherous to walk on. Maybe today it will be warm enough to slush up that icy crust.

Should I talk about my bra fitting a week ago at Intimacy on Madison Avenue in the city? No, you probably don’t want to hear about that.

Or should I tell you about my bird rescues? Bird Rescue #1: a blue jay rescued from the mouth of Bella that didn’t turn out very well, or Bird Rescue #2: a junco that flew into our sliding glass door that did turn out well.

Maybe my topic of conversation should be about our Colorado cabin and #1: the beleaguered Board of Directors of the Homeowners Association and all the problems associated with that mess. Or #2: the neighbor who lives back behind us and can’t access his property until mid-June because of a very deep snow drift that occurs on the road that goes through our property asking if we’d let them cut another road on our property to go around said drift or build huge ugly snow fences on our property that won’t help anyway. No, you probably don’t want to hear about that either. (We said no to both proposals, by the way.)

I suppose I could talk about why I am dusting off the old Rosetta Stone Spanish software and brushing up on my español. PANAMA (and quite possibly Nicaragua {Granada} too) in May. How’s that for an exotic travel destination? Rick has business and I am tagging along. There are other wives going too, so it should be really fun. I am hoping to see a rain forest environment and people say that a visit to the Panama Canal is a must.

Plus, we’ve been thinking about places to retire (six months in the States/six months “somewhere” else) and this is one place that was on our “maybe” list. This will give us a chance to see what it’s like. There is quite a large ex-pat retiree community in both countries.

So, see? Not much!

Sunrise this morning.

Or should I say adding ice to snow? Yesterday morning we woke up to about 3 inches of snow or maybe a little bit more. While Rick was out snowblowing it turned to ice pellets. Those sting! Before long, just as predicted, we had freezing rain.

I had waited a few hours before shoveling the front steps and a pathway on the deck for the dogs and I’m sure glad I didn’t wait any longer. Trying to move that snow with a good crusting of ice on it was no fun. Plus, the snow had turned pretty slushy by then.

Everything was encased in a coating of ice. Even our clothesline. This poor goldfinch in his winter plumage looks miserable, don’t you think?

It was not a day for being outside. It kept it up all day long. The snow melted some but it only got above freezing for a short while. I could not really get out to take photos without getting me or the camera wet, so I shot a few photos from the safety of the overhang of the roof.

In this one I think it looks like a tiny ice sculpture of a bird (on the left). See it?

Can anyone tell me why snow accumulates whereas ice accretes? At least that’s how they call on the weather report. Interesting ...

This morning I went outside to take a few ice shots before it all went away. It’s above freezing out there now (only just) and as I went outside I could hear the ice melting and dripping like rain everywhere.

Now on top of this fine mess we are supposed to get more snow Thursday night into Friday. Not a lot as I understand it, probably only about four inches or so. Still, it just keeps coming in one form or another. Frankly, I’ll take the snow over the ice any day!

Look what else I saw this morning when I looked out the sun room door.

Bella, of course. I’m not quite sure how she got up on the table! I think she was after a tiny chunk of suet that I had tossed on the table for the birds before our last snow. Silly dog!