Thursday, February 16, 2012

Back to normal

It's kind of anticlimactic, this thaw we've looked forward to. The snow, the bitter cold, it lasted all of two weeks. Now that the bad weather is over, it almost feels as if it never happened. But we know it did.

Dew on a desiccated wild carrot flower.

The woods and the vineyards have reclaimed their winter browns. The grass is still green. The roofs in our neighborhood have shed their white mantles, revealing their more somber colors. The looked-for winter kill has come and gone. The insect and rodent populations have (we hope) died back to normal proportions.

In fact, just yesterday I noticed evidence of Bertie's having caught a mouse, which he hadn't done since the big freeze began.

8 comments:

  1. Poor little mouse was probably glad to be out and about after the freeze... but, not for long! :))

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm glad you survived it. I was worried there for a second.
    m.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Our cat killed a flying squirrel and brought it in for us to see. I wish she'd stick to mice and chipmunks. I love flying squirrels.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Color has returned! I too feel sorry for the poor little mouse. He/she was probably very hungry. Little did he/she know he/she would be a meal for Bertie. So sad.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'd say Bertie prefers her mice chilled, but not frozen.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well said, chrissoup!
    I'm wondering how you recognised that your photo was of a wild carrot flower? I wouldn't have been able to ID it from what's left. Beautiful!
    It looks like a spider's work.

    Mary in Oregon

    ReplyDelete
  7. "like" (@chrissoup) (Well... since my FaceBook is in French, it's actually, "J'aime") :))

    ReplyDelete
  8. judy, it's a cruel world. :)

    mark, I'm sure it was a difficult second for you. ;)

    evelyn, I've never seen a flying squirrel (except on tv).

    ron, it's like a David Attenborough program around here sometimes.

    chris, lol

    mary, it was near a bunch of others, and they're pretty common around here.

    ReplyDelete

Tell me what you think!