If you haven’t had enough about Doris or the other bears, check out the Bear Diary for all their antics of yesterday morning.

A female Cardinal huddles in the branches of my favorite tree on this cold and snowy morning.

March around here is really coming in like a Lion. We’ve had snow squalls, and now wind. The wind blew hard all night long, and it’s still blowing. The poor little birdies that come to the feeding station are getting blown off their feet. All I can hear is the roaring noise of the wind through the trees. The trees bend to and fro, giving in to the onslaught. When it stops it will be as if I’ve been rendered deaf as I’ve adjusted my hearing to it. We have a temperature of 11 degrees this morning, with a wind chill of -11. It’s downright nasty out there. I don’t like the wind much; never have. But, perhaps it’s Mother Nature’s way of pruning the dead branches out of our trees before they leaf out. Yes, instead of sitting here moaning about the wind, I hereby choose to think of it as a positive thing. I can’t change it, might as well bend with it.

I have started a separate page for keeping track of the bears so as not to bore anybody with all my bear sightings. If you’re interested in the bears’ goings-on on a daily basis, check out my Bear Diary under Lynne’s Favorite Links. Nothing grand, just my way of keeping track of when and where I see them.

Bears aren’t the only visitors to our yard. Yesterday afternoon, very late, the bears were walking the perimeter of our yard outside the barrier of the fence and I watched them forage around for awhile. A short while later as it was getting dark [close to 6:00 p.m.] I looked out the window to see if they were still around and I saw something walking in the woods. Not a bear! I ran looking for the binoculars, but by the time I found them I didn’t need them any longer as the visitors were already crossing the driveway into the front yard. Lovely, sweet, white-tailed deer! We haven’t seen deer very often, which is strange considering the density of woods surrounding us. Sorry for the not-so-great photos as it was really too dark and I was trying to shoot over the window and got the bottom of the frame in. But at least you can see their sweet expression, even if they are a little blurry.

They were skittish, but obviously knew where the bird seed could be found. They only stayed a few short minutes before they bounded away, their white flag tails held straight up. We counted about eight deer altogether. Sometimes I feel like I am living in a game park.

Since March is coming in like a Lion, I certainly hope that it’s going to do as it should and go out like a Lamb. We can only hope!

I just took this photo of this little guy spotted at my feeder this morning. He caught my eye because he was not one of the regulars. I had to look him up in the bird book, and his rusty-colored, heavily streaked breast and plump little body gave him away. Also the fact that he was scratching around in the seeds like a chicken, flinging seed with his feet. He’s a Fox Sparrow.

My bird book shows him wintering in south Jersey and says ‘is seen under seed feeders during spring and autumn migrations.’  So there you have it. He’s made it all the way from south Jersey to north Jersey so far! Spring is on its way even though it sure doesn’t feel like it today with a chill wind blowing and temps expected to plummet to the the teens by tomorrow. Lead on little sparrow!

THE DREAM:

The pool has begun weaving its spell again. It’s been sending out tendrils of water that weave in and around my thoughts, wrapping around my brain.

uncover me ... it whispers ...
swim! swim! swim!

It’s been a long time since I’ve done any Pool Reflection entries. It seems like ages ago that we were happily swimming laps in our pool and lolling around on our chair floats. I have fond memories of the nightly swims when the only light was cast from the glow of Tiki torches and the winking of the fireflies in the grass. The cicada symphony the only sound. The silken feel of cool water against bare skin.  ~ Ahhhh…. ~  It’s getting closer all the time, this dream of mine, but it will have to wait a bit longer I’m afraid.

THE REALITY:

Our pool still lies in hibernation under its blanket of icy sludge. Sigh. Keep weaving your spell, dear pool, May 11th will be here before you know it ...

To follow the progression of our pool’s transmogrification after we moved in, see this entry from last year.
To read last year’s Pool Reflections series, just enter ‘pool’ into the search capability.