It's been too long

Nearly a year since my last entry.  Not much has happened, just the passing of seasons back to winter again. 

The first snow of this season has come and gone and we're back to Indian Summer.  Highs in the 50s this week and our neighbor's lawns are still green.  The finches and juncos are feeding in our yard.  The sky looks weepy today, but if we get anything it'll be rain.  Our snow season is getting shorter and shorter. 

The folks at the bird refuge talk about birds that would normally have flown south staying longer and new species coming in that used to need a warmer climate than was provided this far north.  The climate is changing and with it the bird types.  My mate and I were at the refuge last week and there were dozens of species still in residence.  The refuge is for water fowl and their predators, so we saw lots of geese, ducks, pelicans, coots, cranes, ibis and egrets as well as hawks and eagles.  The road out to the main area of the refuge is finally fully paved making our journey more comfortable.  We saw a kind of hawk we've not seen before.  There were dozens of them; real beauties.  Lots of sand hills and an unidentifiable blue crane variety.  They're such large graceful birds.  The blue was a deep indigo color, almost black.  He was standing in the middle of the road looking a bit like Dracula in profile with his cloak wrapped around him.  He waited until we were very close then leisurely unwound his wings and with a few flaps, floated out above the impounded water.  Lovely!

I'll sign off now with a resolution to get to this blog more often this year.

January Rain

A gray, wet day.  Started out as snow, but quickly became rain as the day warmed up.  Stayed very dark out though.  With winters like this, I don’t see how anyone can continue to deny that the climate is changing.   Rain in January was unheard of until a decade ago and now more and more of the precipitation we get in winter is rain.  At least in the valleys. 

Our mountains have received some feet of snow over the past day and a half.  Piling heavy wet snow on light powder and setting off avalanche after avalanche.  So far, nobody’s been hurt, but, if past years are any indication, that will soon change.  Seems as the slopes, like the rest of the world, get more crowded, folks are pushing out into what’s left of the back country, putting themselves at greater risk. 

My grandnephew turned three years old yesterday.  His baby brother is just over 7 months.  The cliché is so right: they do grow up so very fast.  Spending time with them is such a treat.  The birthday boy is a bright, kind kid.  He’s been well launched into personhood by his parents and grandparents.  He’s also had the great good fortune to have his maternal grandmother (his Nanna, as he calls her) as his daycare provider.  Her demeanor is innately patient and caring.  A great combination for childrearing. 

Later in the day and the birds have taken to mobbing the front yard.  Mostly sparrows, but some finches and juncos in the mix as well.  The finches have yet to discover the seed in a special finch feeding sock my mate hung for them last weekend.  They’re still trying to hold their own against the sparrows at the main feeder.  I’m rooting for ‘em. 

That’s all for today.

Real Snow!

It finally snowed enough to shovel off the walks and driveways.  We got 4 inches early Saturday morning, then the heavens opened and the sun shone in a delft blue sky.  The sky continues clear today, though with snow on the ground the temperature has dropped.  December was an extremely dry month.  The second driest on record.  The ski resorts in our canyons have been pretty bare, but this weekend’s snow gave them enough to make their customers happy.

The cold, stark winters here can be rough on my psyche.  The foggy days, while usually warmer, don’t lift my spirits.  I look forward to the sunshine.  So the bright clear day today is doing much to put me in a better state of mind. 

New Year’s resolutions were apparent this morning at the pool.  The holidays are over and it seems everyone and her sister has resolved to get in shape.  Thus, the pool was crowded.  Several of us paddled around in the deep end, in a holding pattern until lanes opened up.  It’s always this way for the first several weeks after the New Year, then the less motivated start to slip away and by the middle of February it’s down to the stalwarts and semi-stalwarts, thank the gods.  In the meantime, I’ll start my swim circling in the deep end, like a plane waiting to land. 

Our house was filled with young folks yesterday.  Daughters and granddaughters of one of our oldest friends were here for a visit.  They filled our usually quiet house with lots of laughter and loud voices.  Food and gossip and teasing.  And, god bless ‘em, they love my hats.  So, all in all, a really great day.

Well, that’s the extent of my maunderings for today.

Between Holidays

Another of my favorite times:  the week between X-mas and the New Year.  All is so quiet.  As if the world were breathing a deep sigh and snuggling up with some hot cider beside a fire.  All the frantic pre-holiday rushing about is over (mostly; witness the brawl in the Mall of the Americas [so aptly named] the day after Christmas) and folks can relax.  Even those working are on light duty this one week of the year.  Lovely.

The fog has been back intermittently over the past week.  There’s a forecast of rain (no kidding, in late December!) for the next couple days and that should open up our visibility a bit.  As it is now, I can barely discern the houses across the street.  Very Currier and Ives.

My sister sent us a couple of amaryllis for the holidays.  Once I figured out there was something under the dirt in the planter and got some water on them, they sent large shoots up, very quickly.  I’m looking forward to their giant flowers.  I’ve never had amaryllis, but love really big gaudy blossoms, so I’m impatient for these to bloom.  In spring the bazillion irises we have all over our yard erupt in deep, flashy colors, but in the winter we’ve had to go without.  Now we’ll have some color in the house for a while.  Such a treat!

There’s an odd bird that just showed up on my office window trellis.  Don’t have the bird book out and this one is totally new to me.  Larger than the usual sparrows and finches and darker.  A solitary visitor, seemingly uninterested in the seeds in the feeder.  As quickly as it arrived, it’s gone.  Have to get the book and try to id this guy. 

Well, that’s all for now. 

The Solstice

I guess I’m not so good at this blog thing.  It’s been a few weeks since I’ve last posted.  I don’t see the sense in diary blogging.  Posting the quotidian details of my repetitive daily routines.  So, I’ll post when I feel like writing something other than the clipping of toe nails, going out to eat or taking a shower.

On the eve of the official start day of winter, the snow is coming down with enough volume our snow shoveling neighbor may actually have to make a visit to our driveway.  Until today the snow has been easily swept off the sidewalks and driveway with a broom, but on this solstice eve, accumulation may actually occur.

We’ve had at a couple weeks of foggy days.  Occasionally, the fog would burn off in the late afternoon, giving us an hour or so of much-needed sunshine.  But on most days it’s been with us all day long.  I’m hopeful this snow will leave us with some sunny days behind it, ridding the valley of the fog.  Our area has lots of ancient volcanoes, inactive for ages, but there’s still enough magma close to the surface to provide numerous hot springs.  One source of our winter fog.  The wetlands surrounding town also add to the winter mists.  Low pressure that brings the snow also lets steam around us evaporate more efficiently, thus scouring out the valley’s air.  At least that’s my hope this morning.

This is the time of year when I most miss Hawaii.  My partner and I lived there for five years, more than a quarter-century ago.  When the holidays come around I am reminded of the Makahiki season in Hawaii.  There, before European and American colonization, the four months from November through February were a time when all the usually strictly enforced oligarchic taboos were lifted and there was extensive partying.  The violently imposed hierarchy was diminished and everyone was allowed to relax their usual guardedness with one another.  While I don’t admire the old Hawaiian monarchy at all, nor its sexism and racism, I enjoy the idea of extending the holidays over a whole third of the year. 

In the US it’s only the rich who are afforded the luxury of real rest, relaxation and recreation.  Working for all but two weeks a year is the norm for most folks, with millions having no time off at all.  Many who have their precious two weeks usually lack the resources to travel or recreate.  And so often those two weeks disappear one day at a time into doctor’s appointments, staying home with a sick child, etc.  In my job I talk to dozens of women every work day.  Most of them seem so tired and depressed.  Worn out with worry, work and loss of dreams.  At this ‘happiest’ time of the year (or so the seasonal songs proclaim) they’re really dragging.  Worried about everybody else:  the spouse, the kids, their elderly parents.  They tell me about their illnesses, colds, joint pain, ‘fibromyalgia’, depression and how it all gets worse this time of year.  Some comment on the fact that Christmas falls on a weekend this year, so no time off.   I wish I had a magic wand.  To grant them some respite from the ‘holidays’. 

On that sour seasonal note, I’ll end this post.

        

Big Winds

Big winds, some type 2 hurricane strength, swept across most of the state late last week, uprooting decades old conifers and other trees and leaving much devastation in their wake.  We were fortunate they didn’t make it all the way up to our northeastern edge of the Great Salt Lake.  But, just 15 miles to our south in Ogden, roofs were de-shingled, and cars and houses squashed by trees other flying debris. 

The winds ushered in frigid temperatures, but cleared out the usually gray, polluted winter air along the Wasatch Front south of here.  Our northern sky is a wedgewood blue with not a single cloud in sight.  The winds are still with us, but not in force, just enough to bend the treetops westerly, away from the canyon’s mouth.

My life partner will have completed 72 years on the planet next week.  Seems impossible that he’s accumulated so much time.  He’s so active and remains so young looking.  In any event, I’m trying to think of some way of celebrating this milestone.  For him, a good meal out with friends and family is a favorite, so that’ll probably be the best thing to do. 

Another work day is getting underway, so I’ll sign off.

Almost winter

It’s been a while since my last post.  Not sure why.  And not really sure why I keep posting.  It’s like having a diary unlocked and lying out on the counter for everyone to see.  Hmmmm.  There’s something Freudian about that.

Anyway, the winter is creeping in slowly.  Not officially winter yet, but it sure feels it.  Twenties at night and barely scraping the underside of 50 during the day.  We got in a supply of bird seed for the season this weekend and filled the feeders.  Not seeing many finches, but the scrub jays and our local species of woodpecker, the flicker, are showing themselves more frequently these days, along with the ubiquitous sparrows.  We like to make sure they’ll have plenty to fill their bellies as it gets colder.

My hats were evidently a hit with a friend’s son and his buddy.  Also with some folks here in town.   I might actually make more on them than just the yarn cost this holiday season.  We’ll see.  I love crocheting them.  My mate is my color consultant and his eye has been unerring this far into the venture.  He favors bright, deep colors and those are pretty popular right now.  He and I are collaborating on a couple of wall hangings; my crochet and his beading and other adorning.  The first one looks pretty good.  We might take this one with us to a friend’s Holiday Boutique in Salt Lake this weekend.  I’m taking hats, so the ‘mandala’ might be a good addition.  We’ll see.

Well, my work day is about to begin.  So, that’s all for now.