Saturday, January 17, 2009

Trying not to feel smug


But it ain't working. According to the WeatherBug station at our local middle school, it was 62 F here today. Whilst our friends in the north and east are making videos about the way hot water behaves when sprayed into ambient temps of -15 F, we are walking around the lake sans jackets. By the time we got back home from a walk this afternoon, both the DM and I were sporting short sleeved shirts.

At the lake goldeneye and wigeon were making "hey, baby" noises at each other. A dipper under Spiral Drive bridge was vocalizing so exuberantly that we were compelled to scramble down through Russian olive shrub to the river edge to confirm it was a single bird. Little flocks of chickadees seemed to have their knickers in a right bundle over who-knows-what. Dabblers were dabbling, divers were diving... even the nap-inclined seemed to be doing so with a certain luxuriant enthusiasm.

The problem with a surfeit of fabulous weather and tantalizing bird behavior is that we're all going to be mighty unhappy when the obligatory frigid February weather moves in. With all this raucous revelry going on it's difficult to avoid thoughts of spring and green, even when the only non-coniferous green to be found is in hardy watercress crops in protected ditches.

It seemed only right to temper all this giddiness with a little dried-plant reality check. Which I did. And now I'm going to go check on my inventory of green ink and green paint. Just so I'm ready. You know. Eventually. In April. Maybe May. They're just around the corner. Aren't they?

11 comments:

  1. Is there something wrong with smug now?

    Sounds lovely. Wish I were there. (Although it's rather nice here at them moment.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. And here I thought you would be in frigid temps. Your not smug but I am jealous. It is to cold here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's funny, but I do feel a tad...hmmm... guilty isn't the word... but perhaps slightly embarrassed by our abundance of good weather when the rest of the country is getting January in a big way. We've got at least a couple more days of this before we get our comeuppance.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Spiral Drive bridge? (And I don't appreciate being asked to type "dorke" in order to post this question.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sorry, Jeff... I might have said Sands Lake bridge. There's a sign on 291 that points towards the bridge and says "Spiral Drive," so I always just think of it that way. Don't want you to get lost or anything if you make it out of your ever-decreasing triangle of subsistence.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Artists. You're all so visual. Anyway, I have to enlarge my triangle soon or lose all semblance of fitness. It's hard to raise my heart rate riding my bike two blocks. And now the pizzeria is just a block away. Convenience can kill you.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jeff, I prefer to think of myself as optically tactile.

    There ARE other pizza places, you know. One might be TWO blocks away instead of a single street.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you, Susan.. .there's a Part II of that page, I may try to post it later. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I was so enchanted by your Spring-like weather, Sherrie it was shattering to learn that you are expecting to return to winter shortly. I'm really hanging out for Spring this year.

    Gorgeous journal page! Now we'd like a peek at the new linocut too.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I really do love your work. I've added your blog to my blogroll. Cheers from Boulder. :)

    ReplyDelete

Linocut in Progress: Color in a gray season

 Mud season came early to the midcoast this year. So. Much. Rain. Seemed like a great time to get started on a piece with a little more colo...