Saturday, April 19, 2014

Sights and Sounds of Spring


Roshara’s pond is alive with the sights and sounds of spring, even though about three inches of new, unwelcome snow fell last Sunday evening, making the landscape look once more like winter.  But not the pond.  The ice is out and the migrants are back.  I counted twenty-five ducks, mostly mallards and wood ducks.  They lifted from the cold, black water with a flurry of pounding wings and loud quacking. 
I spotted a sandhill crane standing in shallow water on the other side of the pond.  When it saw me, it flew up, protesting my presence with its loud, prehistoric and unforgettable call.  It flew once around the pond, checking me out as it flew overhead so low I could hear the swishing of its wings.  Then it headed toward the north end of the pond and landed.  A pair of sandhills have nested there for many years.
 Hugging the east side of the pond, I glimpsed a pair of Canada geese, swimming slowly, but not attempting to fly.  Do they have a nest nearby?  Probably.
Although the landscape is winter-like—the pond is alive with spring.  Now for some warmer weather; it was eight degrees at the farm on Tuesday morning.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Short people are the last to feel the rain and the first to drown.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
April 24, 6:00 p.m. Walworth and Big Foot Prairie Historical Society, Lake Lawn Resort, Delevan, WI. Dinner.  Breweries of Wisconsin.

April 29, Noon Luncheon, Historical Society Foundation. By invitation
.
May 3, Wisconsin Dells.  District Rotary meeting. 

May 6, Noon. Retired UW-Madison Retirement Association

May 10, Noon. Madison Area Polio Survivors.  Monona Garden Family Restaurant

May 14, Young Writers Awards Meeting, UW-Madison.

May 17, Dregni’s Gift Shop, Westby.  Book signing.

June 21, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County 9-4.

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fund raiser for them):
The library now has available both of Jerry’s DVDs, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps a Farm Story.
Also available are several of Jerry’s book including The Quiet Season (on which the DVD A Farm Winter is based), as well as Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm, which are related to the DVD Jerry Apps a Farm Story.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.


Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division St.
Wild Rose, WI  54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org

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