Shrouded Shore: The Many Musings of Thom Singleton

  Who or What Am I? Large  Flexible Giving Taking Silent Rooted Answer on tomorrow’s blog.

  March Winds Winds veer back and forth down the Fox River valley. As we walked east - downstream - into the wind, we thought that it’ll be at our backs on the return trip. But the veering winds fooled us. As we walked back west, the winds were in our faces again. And they were cold. We met only one walker on this popular trail today, walking out of necessity, as he was walking his dog. Though the small lot was full, the walkers must have exited at the coffee shop upstream. Even the goose flying over the river seemed to be making a honk of complaint on this cold last day of March.   

  Winter in Spring The Sun’s arc is higher each day, hopefully today to melt last night’s carpet of white. As its rays sparkle in the snowy trees, they cast a beautiful glaze in their leafless limbs. There are many tracks in the snow: rabbit, mice, squirrel, possibly opossum,  who has been our below-deck tenant in recent days. A seasonal pond, where yesterday mallards were paddling, today it’s a skating rink. The mercury hovers around  freezing, though, with a breeze, it will feel colder. Surely it does for the deer, who just now appeared, looking for their daily birdseed. While fires run wild in arid places, water in all its forms continues to grace us, keeps us safe.   

  A World of Wet Today it’s rain,  Followed by rain, Followed by, you guessed it, rain. Every version: Thunderstorms, Drizzle. Steady, Off and on, Downpour, Sleet. It’s Nature giving itself a shower

  The Return of “Our” Mallards? Early spring Woods ashen grey, though buds are appearing Grey squirrels camouflaged Only their squirrely movement betrays their presence Spring rains are falling Adding to the snow-melt pond in the woods Two mallard mates have found the pond Emerge from the woods to eat birdseed fallen from our feeder Could they be the same pair that cavorted in the pond off our deck last year Returned from their long migration? They sure seem to know their way around

  This March Morning Sunlight blazes through the trees, and sparkles on ice crystals in the brown grass, turning it red, white, and blue. Migrant birds begin to reappear after months of winter hiatus in warmer climes down South. Robins bob along the ground, avoiding the snow, on their never-ending search for worms. Red wing blackbirds land at the feeder, a sign that the seasonal pond in the woods, which the red wings are attracted to, has been created by snow melt . A mallard couple finds birdseed below the feeder, dropped down to them by choosy eaters at the feeder, grackles. A white-breasted nuthatch does his perusal of the maple in his signature style - moving down the trunk while pecking the bark. A red squirrel, almost bird-like, flits and scrambles up the tree all the way to the top, then descends and gets in on the birdseed laying on the ground that the mallards missed. Rabbits start to do what all creatures do in Spring - males chase females, cotton tails bobbing  on t...