An brief intermission in winter's long performance.

The robins  from yesterday  have moved on- we saw very few today, and that was early this morning. What we did see at the feeders today were  brown headed cowbirds. I have very mixed feelings about cowbirds.  While the males are  really cool looking with their black bodies, brown heads and  short  little beaks,  they are brood parasites and may have contributed to the decline of several rare bird species. On the other hand they've developed a pretty  sneaky way of  getting  their young raised without any effort on their part, leaving them free to pursue other interests while still maintaining a biological edge. If you'd like to learn more about them, NestWatch at the Cornell Ornithology Lab has some interesting info about them.

 Today was  one of those  lovely  spring days that create a welcome interruption in the  gloomy, cold winter  weather.  Blue skies, warm temperatures,  a gentle breeze, perfect for  getting outside and  puttering around.  I'd love to say I  got my hands dirty today, but I didn't- I got my gloved hands in the dirt for awhile, though. I usually wear  gardening gloves when I'm working out in the garden, but hate wearing gloves to  pot up seedlings.  However, since the chemo has left me with a  compromised immune system and even sterilized potting soil, once opened, often contains bacterial and fungal pathogens that can cause some serious  illnesses, gloves  are  now  part of my potting attire., I wore purple  rubber gloves today when I potted up the little lettuce seedlings. The seedlings were getting their second set of leaves and were ready to come out of their vermiculite  birthplace, so now they're   stretching their roots out in  potting soil in little  six  pack type  pots.

Tomorrow  I'll probably sow more seeds in vermiculite since we are now about eight weeks away from the last frost. We're supposed to have a few more nice  days like today before the temperatures go back down and rain moves in,  so I'm planning to make the most of them. May even  trim some  shrubs and prune the roses if my energy level holds up. And the girls will be anxious for another walk- we had a nice little walk this afternoon.  We don't walk very far but  they seem to enjoy just getting  out of our yard and smelling the more exotic scents of the wider world. Needless to say, they left their own scents for the next  dog that  comes  through  to smell, but fortunately no pooper-scooper was needed today.