Upper Dry Creek Basin News, March 18, 2006

Birdsong.

After many weeks of rain and cold and snow and cold, there are signs that spring is truly approaching. We have birdsong in Paradise. Sunshine is gracing the forest, today. The first leaves are beginning to unfold on a few alder trees. The pear trees have broken bud. Blue crocus are blooming. A welcome warmth has returned to the day.

I saw more smiles, today… from the bank teller, the grocery clerk, folks visiting the post office. We may insulate ourselves in our comfortable houses, our cloistered cars, our offices, our stores, but we have an innate connection with the natural world and the seasonal cycles. We respond, even if unconsciously, to nature’s changes in our own moods and disposition.

Praise the coming spring!

Upper Dry Creek Basin News, March 11, 2006

Thundersnow.

Friday evening snow squall. I sipped a glass of Pinot Noir and watched the snowflakes fall gazing out the big windows. I was up early this morning and slipped into the delightfully hot spa before 7 a.m. My coffee cup melted a neat disk through the snow on the tabletop next to the spa. After fifteen or twenty minutes, I took the dog for a walk on the property, crunching the thin crust of snow with each step. I was in shorts and slippers with a sweatshirt, but my skin was still radiating the hundred degree heat and I was confortable for a very long time.

Sunshine this morning has melted most everything before one in the afternoon.

Change is fast.

January has been a wet month in Paradise

December 2005 brought over 30 inches of rain to Paradise. January 2006 is an open question.