Another Spring... Finally!

Redbellied woodpecker on the branch on the left.

As far as I'm concerned, winter was too dark, too cold, and too long! I thought I was handling it okay, but then I realized that I have been completely absent from my blog for two months.  I was busy enough since I had some special requests to fulfill: I made lots of Advent wreaths and yarn bowls in January and olive dishes in February and March. But now that the days are longer and the birds are starting to sing again, I feel like the winter fog is beginning to lift.

The old weeping cherry tree has flowered once again, but the effort seems to have taken its toll. It's a very old tree and despite our efforts, it's dying. I read somewhere that weeping cherries live 30 years and this was a mature tree when we moved into this house 22 years ago... yet it continues to flower. The redbellied woodpecker is back! It was very upset yesterday when it saw what the squirrels did to the two nest cavities it built in the cherry tree last year. But he's pecking away once again and calling loudly. Time to build another nest!

Katie

Katie is still here. My faithful Border Collie turned 14 this winter. She's having a lot of trouble with her hind legs: going up and down the stairs is an ordeal, but she still does it in order to be where we are. She's quite deaf now so we have taught each other sign language. One advantage of her deafness is the fact that she can't hear when I turn on the camera and I can now get pictures of her (she has always been camera shy). She's also taken to random fits of barking that the vet says is the doggie equivalent of senile dementia. I don't know about that... sometimes I get the feeling that she's trying to tell me something important.

 So, we are all still here: the cherry tree, Katie, and me. I think it's time to get the old creative juices going and do some "barking, pecking, and flowering" myself!