Everyone sat, eyes glued to the sky... waiting... hoping,
hoping that the sun would peek out from behind the
thick, grey, downy blanket of clouds.
It just never happened.
Puffy clouds undulating in colors of steel-grey and grey-blue,
rolled across the sky all day.
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| Check out Sally's goatee...adorable! |
Clouds crowded together, pushing and shoving...
moving along so tightly,
like a crowd of pedestrians on a New York City street...
so that no ray of sun could possibly
squeeze through.
Sun or no,
blue or grey,
rain or snow...
life goes on around here.
Still, it's nice to bask in the warmth of the sun at this time of year.
Yesterday,
there was no basking to be had.
And so we contented ourselves in our somewhat monochromatic world...
slowing down...visiting with friends...
patiently awaiting another day when the clouds once again part
and allow golden light to bathe the earth.
We've had our share of wind storms this winter...
and with them, electricity brown-outs and downed trees in our woods...
all - typical casualties of winter.
Sadly, because the ground has been so wet,
when a tree goes down, it is often up-rooted.
Because this happens so frequently, we have taken great care in removing trees
that could potentially land upon structures.
Every time we have a wind storm, we lose a few more trees.
This particular tree, a massive white pine, hit the ground last week.
It's root ball, though shallow, is enormous now that it lies
perpendicular to the ground.
Looking at the soil beneath the tree, it is evident that there is barely any topsoil
in this particular area... and lots of shale.
That explains why the root system was so shallow and spread out...
and also why a strong wind was able to knock it down.
This area of our woods lies between the picnic pavilion (in the vicinity of the barn)
and our house.
It is an area with hiking trails that Tyler dubbed the "dragon tree trail"
when he was a little guy.
Every summer, during family picnics, he would wander down this trail
with his sword (stick) in hand and set off to slay dragons.
Hubbs will do a little chain saw work on this trail to clear
the fallen trees... as we have another little who is soon big
enough to slay his own dragons.
I mentioned several weeks ago that there was a hawk hanging around the farm
and at the time the birds were all confined to their yards.
It's been sometime now since we have heard that hawk's cry,
so once again everyone is back out free-ranging...
and quite happy to once again have their freedom!
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