Good Morning to Spring

As I sit here looking out the window, I can still see some snow.  This week has been the first time since January I can see grass in the yard. It's brown, but it's mostly uncovered. Because of the tides, the marsh lost most of its snow cover earlier.  It shares the spring brown, which has its own beauty. Last year I was sad to lose the green and have just drab brown on the marsh.  But when the green came back, I found I had grown fond of the drab.

Canada Geese are enjoying themselves.  We've seen Mallards swimming in the riffles.  A few weeks ago we saw 2 beautiful male Hooded Mergansers swimming in an exceptionally high tide right by the edge of the yard. The temps are rising and the sun is out.

In birding news, we've had a very exciting winter, even though the King Eider has eluded us:
3 Harlequin Ducks. 2 female, 1 male, one Sunday at the Lobster Shack
14(!) Harlequins 7 of each, the following Sunday, same place
A pair of soaring  Bald Eagles at Prout's Neck
A juvenile Bald Eagle eating a Canada Goose while several ducks swam by (Hooded Merganser, Black Duck, Horned Grebe) at the Spurwink River bridge
Dozens of Common Loons and Longtail Ducks at Pine Point, as well as Horned Grebes, Hooded and Red Breasted Mergansers

We have enjoyed the winter this year, though it has dragged on a little longer than anyone expected.  Everyone up here is ready for spring.

2013- our second winter in Maine

This winter has been much more "interesting" than last! To begin with, I turned 60. I'm excited to be on more "senior discount" lists than before. Other than that, it's just a number (I'm convincing myself.) Charles and Paul visited for the weekend from the other Portland. Annelle surprised me with a limo for dinner out on the town that Saturday! Jane, Drew, Chas, Paul, Annelle and I were driven around the sites at night and dropped at Grace, a church-turned-restaurant, where we had a great dinner and visit. Then the two of us had another lovely dinner at Walter's and a night at the Portland Hilton Garden (love those reward points) overlooking the bay on my actual birthday. That followed an afternoon at the spa getting massaged. I took the whole week off!! So even though I didn't get to Georgia, it was a great birthday.
Snow. We've had lots of it. And on several more occasions than last year. I'm sure you all heard the news about the Blizzard of 2013. It was an experience. We had 30 inches of snow between Friday and Saturday (Feb 8-9). I got home from work Friday and cleared around 8 inches off the deck so it wouldn't be so bad later. We never left the house on Saturday but watched the mega snow and wind roll around in the marsh. There was so much wind there were parts of the yard with 4 foot drifts and parts where we could see grass. Sunday we went out to shovel and rake the roof. The front of the house had snow up to the middle of the upstairs windows from the roof of the front porch. The back roof was almost bare of snow. Mainers were complaining much like Georgians complain in the middle of summer about the heat. Kind of funny.
The nice thing about snow this year is that we've gotten to do some snowshoeing. Our neighborhood has trails that are great. I also went with a group from work to a park with great trails for snowshoeing as well as groomed trails for cross country skiing. That's my next project- renting gear to see if I like it. It's also part of my new-experience-every-month 60th year (thanks for the idea, Chas & Paul.)

Miss y'all.