Is spring on track this year, or are we slow to spring up? I'm wondering. The ice went out this week, on the 25th--that was the last day of ice at the foot of the lake. That's not really late so maybe I'm just looking for spring in the wrong places (like, leaves on trees). The maple trees are fully budded but leafless. Lilac leaves are tiny but noticeable, barely. The alders have small (very) leaves. The woods are not even close to being green, the pussy willows have gone by and are very yellow. Maybe that should be considered the North Country's version of forsythia, it's almost that bright.
Anyway life goes on and is good. I had a meeting with the construction crew and board members who are all working on the alcove to the Archives. They included me after the plans were made, which didn't offend me but they had no clue as to the importance of the card catalog and were going to treat it pretty much as an afterthought. I explained that, as archaic as it is, it is the ONLY index to the contents of the collection, so maybe it could be placed prominently in the alcove with easy access for people doing research. Ahhhh, yes, they got it. "Thanks for pointing that out, we're glad you were here." Dodged a bullet on that one. I laugh at myself for thinking the card catalog is so important, but it is. Until we figure out a way to digitize it or develop and online index or something, the card catalog is our key and the only way we have access to the contents of the collection, short of pawing through 6000 photos (well, bad example, those are being scanned) and the manuscript collection and the still-valuable vertical file. There's so much that could be done with that collection--will I live long enough or remain interested in it long enough to accomplish much? The scanning of the photos is huge, we're closing in on the end of that project, have done more than 4000. They still need to be mounted on the Web somehow, that's the next part of the project, right now they're still only accessible from within the archives, on the computer there (and of course indexed in the card catalog). Oh well, these are intense things to ponder at 2 a.m.
Meanwhile there's the weather, rainy and dismal though the temp is 42 so it's not miserable. We're expecting snow this weekend but that's not a drastic event, it won't be much and it won't last long. Just a reminder that no, this is not always a friendly environment. We don't have tornadoes or hurricanes or tsunamis, we're lucky. I heard a red-winged blackbird in Keene Valley the other day. The purple finches have shown up and are very purple. There's at least one loon on the lake, I heard it's wail this week.
Life is good. Spring is happening. And I still have 2 cords of firewood left.
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Very springy out there
I'm home from RI, got home Monday afternoon to a nearly-all bare ground. The driveway is almost all dried up, just a couple of wet muddy spots. I did an amazing job of avoiding rutting it up this year, adding that to my not getting stuck in the snow at all and I think maybe I've learned how to be mature about weather-related driving things.
I had a nice time with my mother, she is in good shape. We didn't do much, I took her to town one day and the rest of the time we spent at home, mostly reading, dozing and visiting. And eating. I skipped the lobsters this visit, it just seemed like too much work. We had a delicious bagels & lox Easter breakfast, then lamb for Easter dinner. Those were the food highlights.
It's definitely spring here in Hawkeye. The woods are absolutely silent except for wildlife noises. I love this time of year, those pesky leaves make so much noise in the forest once they emerge, it's just a hushed world right now. I have fewer birds at the feeder but a greater variety. Wow has the chickadee population declined. I assume they're getting food elsewhere. There's a rumor of a loon sighting but the ice isn't out yet. There's just open water along the shore, it seems really early for a loon to show up here.
The ice is really dark so it's getting ready to go out. I was surprised to see how much melted while I was gone, I guess it rained a lot and was warm.
My good good good friends were busy at my house while I was away, they finished painting the living room (except for the cathedral ceiling part, we still haven't quite figured that one out). They painted the ceiling, finished the walls and did the trim. It looks absolutely wonderful. They cleaned and cleaned the tile floor and rugs. Wow am I lucky! I'm inspired to do cleaning and purging. I did take down all the artwork before we painted (duh) and didn't put everything back up, it looks worlds better with just a few pieces on the walls. Now I need to find places for the paintings and prints I didn't put back up in the living room. Freshly painted walls sure do look better without the clutter of a pack basket, keys and the odds & ends I had put up.
It's a rainy night. We tried to walk the bog in the morning but there was too much ice on the boardwalk so we didn't get far. This morning we're walking at Taylor Pond then I'll go to the thrift store for a few hours. I felt bad leaving--I think Saturday must have been really busy and they were going to be short-handed. Now things will settle down a little bit but not for long, nice weather brings out shoppers and droppers, receiving is a busy place when the weather gets nice. It will be an adjustment after the relatively peaceful pace of winter.
I had a nice time with my mother, she is in good shape. We didn't do much, I took her to town one day and the rest of the time we spent at home, mostly reading, dozing and visiting. And eating. I skipped the lobsters this visit, it just seemed like too much work. We had a delicious bagels & lox Easter breakfast, then lamb for Easter dinner. Those were the food highlights.
It's definitely spring here in Hawkeye. The woods are absolutely silent except for wildlife noises. I love this time of year, those pesky leaves make so much noise in the forest once they emerge, it's just a hushed world right now. I have fewer birds at the feeder but a greater variety. Wow has the chickadee population declined. I assume they're getting food elsewhere. There's a rumor of a loon sighting but the ice isn't out yet. There's just open water along the shore, it seems really early for a loon to show up here.
The ice is really dark so it's getting ready to go out. I was surprised to see how much melted while I was gone, I guess it rained a lot and was warm.
My good good good friends were busy at my house while I was away, they finished painting the living room (except for the cathedral ceiling part, we still haven't quite figured that one out). They painted the ceiling, finished the walls and did the trim. It looks absolutely wonderful. They cleaned and cleaned the tile floor and rugs. Wow am I lucky! I'm inspired to do cleaning and purging. I did take down all the artwork before we painted (duh) and didn't put everything back up, it looks worlds better with just a few pieces on the walls. Now I need to find places for the paintings and prints I didn't put back up in the living room. Freshly painted walls sure do look better without the clutter of a pack basket, keys and the odds & ends I had put up.
It's a rainy night. We tried to walk the bog in the morning but there was too much ice on the boardwalk so we didn't get far. This morning we're walking at Taylor Pond then I'll go to the thrift store for a few hours. I felt bad leaving--I think Saturday must have been really busy and they were going to be short-handed. Now things will settle down a little bit but not for long, nice weather brings out shoppers and droppers, receiving is a busy place when the weather gets nice. It will be an adjustment after the relatively peaceful pace of winter.
Monday, April 15, 2019
REALLY bare ground
Most of the snow on the ground has melted but it's snowing hard right now. I think we might get a couple of inches overnight but nothing serious. I hope.
It's full-blown mud season now, I've been very disciplined about parking at the end of my driveway. except for today. I couldn't resist--had to load up for the dump, then drove to the house again for cleaning. It will freeze tonight, temp is 33 now and due to be in the 20's so at least damage will be minimal in the morning. I'm going to a workshop/training session in the morning. Am I really interested and excited? Vaguely. It's training for developing a plan for conservation in Archives. Yawn. Well I always learn something from these things.
My living room is an exciting place these days. Friends and I have been painting the walls--2 have been painted and look fantastic. I chose a very light gray with dark brown trim for the windows and around the door. Boy does that look great! Today I cleaned the 4 tall windows in the living room (plus the door). So much dog snot, Treasure, really! It looks wonderful. We still have the ceiling in the dining area to paint and have to develop a plan for the cathedral ceiling in the living room. The walls look wonderful without artwork on them. I developed the habit of driving nails into the walls and sticking stuff up to get it off the floor, like the broom, a pack basket I made, a key holder, on and on it goes. I'll find another place for some of those things, not where I have to stare at them all the time. I hope. Of course "finding another place" is a challenge.
Buds on the maple trees are turning a little red! This is a huge sign of spring. Of course they're covered with snow right now. There were chipmunks at the bird feeder this morning. I don't have many spring birds, but juncos and song sparrows.
The neighborhood is relatively quiet. It won't be long before life will liven up, summer people will be coming in a month. I'm going to RI on Thursday for Easter, will come home Monday. It will be strange to be there and NOT worry about frozen pipes. We'll get pansies for me to bring home. We don't make a big fuss about Easter except for food. Plenty of food.
It's full-blown mud season now, I've been very disciplined about parking at the end of my driveway. except for today. I couldn't resist--had to load up for the dump, then drove to the house again for cleaning. It will freeze tonight, temp is 33 now and due to be in the 20's so at least damage will be minimal in the morning. I'm going to a workshop/training session in the morning. Am I really interested and excited? Vaguely. It's training for developing a plan for conservation in Archives. Yawn. Well I always learn something from these things.
My living room is an exciting place these days. Friends and I have been painting the walls--2 have been painted and look fantastic. I chose a very light gray with dark brown trim for the windows and around the door. Boy does that look great! Today I cleaned the 4 tall windows in the living room (plus the door). So much dog snot, Treasure, really! It looks wonderful. We still have the ceiling in the dining area to paint and have to develop a plan for the cathedral ceiling in the living room. The walls look wonderful without artwork on them. I developed the habit of driving nails into the walls and sticking stuff up to get it off the floor, like the broom, a pack basket I made, a key holder, on and on it goes. I'll find another place for some of those things, not where I have to stare at them all the time. I hope. Of course "finding another place" is a challenge.
Buds on the maple trees are turning a little red! This is a huge sign of spring. Of course they're covered with snow right now. There were chipmunks at the bird feeder this morning. I don't have many spring birds, but juncos and song sparrows.
The neighborhood is relatively quiet. It won't be long before life will liven up, summer people will be coming in a month. I'm going to RI on Thursday for Easter, will come home Monday. It will be strange to be there and NOT worry about frozen pipes. We'll get pansies for me to bring home. We don't make a big fuss about Easter except for food. Plenty of food.
Friday, April 12, 2019
Bare ground, a little anyway
The ground next to my house is bare and there are daffodils--SURPRISE! coming up. The rest of the yard is still under 6-8 inches of snow. And the driveway is still mud mud mud.
It's 63 today with a slight breeze and there was some sun but it's clouded over and I think we're supposed to have a lot of rain tonight. That will be OK, rain melts snow. Doesn't help mud but you can't have everything. Tomorrow it's supposed to be even warmer. I'll be at the thrift store in the morning, maybe for a few hours. I expect it to be busy with shoppers and droppers, and we're short-handed right now because some of the volunteers are away. YIKES! Well we do what we can.
I had a good week, not terribly eventful. Did go to Plattsburgh and get paint for the living room and that was exciting. Now I have to go back for paint for the trim, the sample I got first wasn't right at all. I need to get lamb to take to Rhode Island for Easter anyway so a trip to the big city won't be for naught. And I need to get floor cleaner, I started cleaning the tile floor and man oh man will that be a tough job. Not that huge an area but dirty, very dirty tile and grout. Gross.
Life is good, pretty quiet all in all. Work was fine except someone called wanting information on a woman photographer who spent time in Keene Valley. WHAT???? Someone wants to use the resources in the Archives? How dare they! I found a few tidbits but will sic my assistant on the research while I'm gone. I leave Thursday for Easter in RI, returning Monday. I think I'm repeating myself.
It's 63 today with a slight breeze and there was some sun but it's clouded over and I think we're supposed to have a lot of rain tonight. That will be OK, rain melts snow. Doesn't help mud but you can't have everything. Tomorrow it's supposed to be even warmer. I'll be at the thrift store in the morning, maybe for a few hours. I expect it to be busy with shoppers and droppers, and we're short-handed right now because some of the volunteers are away. YIKES! Well we do what we can.
I had a good week, not terribly eventful. Did go to Plattsburgh and get paint for the living room and that was exciting. Now I have to go back for paint for the trim, the sample I got first wasn't right at all. I need to get lamb to take to Rhode Island for Easter anyway so a trip to the big city won't be for naught. And I need to get floor cleaner, I started cleaning the tile floor and man oh man will that be a tough job. Not that huge an area but dirty, very dirty tile and grout. Gross.
Life is good, pretty quiet all in all. Work was fine except someone called wanting information on a woman photographer who spent time in Keene Valley. WHAT???? Someone wants to use the resources in the Archives? How dare they! I found a few tidbits but will sic my assistant on the research while I'm gone. I leave Thursday for Easter in RI, returning Monday. I think I'm repeating myself.
Tuesday, April 09, 2019
Still snowing
We didn't get much during the week but it's snowing again tonight. Just a little, enough to keep the daffodils from being exposed. It dawned on me tonight that it will soon (enough) be May. That's a month when I usually have daffodils in bloom but there's still a ton of snow in my yard. There are bare patches in the neighborhood but not in my yard. My driveway, however is a mud pit. I could host mud wrestling matches.
I'm into a good quiet routine with a big exception: we're painting my living room. I have a wonderful friend who helps me with projects around my house. She worked miracles in my mud room and library, now we're getting the living room painted. I'm really excited, I'm so tired of the color we originally painted the room in 1992. I'd love to paint pretty much every room but let's start with the walls I stare at most. I painted my bedroom with my niece's help about 15 years ago, it's a shock to me to realize now that maybe it could stand to be painted again. NO! Not yet! Anyway the pale gray I've chosen for the living room will be wonderful with the dark brown trim around the windows. Ahhhhh. Nothing beats a freshly-painted room.
Work is going well but it's mostly monotonous right now. My co-worker is in Texas visiting her family so I'm editing and labeling the images we scanned before she left. It sure is quiet in the Archives without her, plus the 40 images of rustic furniture I worked on today are less than exciting to work with. Sticks and branches.
My volunteer work at the thrift store is good. I like being a bagger but it's getting busy as the calendar marches toward spring. More shoppers, more droppers. It was busy in receiving on Saturday, we have a backlog of stuff and will be short of volunteers this week because some are traveling. Anything interesting come in? We had a Magnalite saucepan come in, which I snatched right up for $7. My mother cooked with Magnalite when I was growing up so I mostly wanted it for sentimental reasons but wow it is really nice to cook with.
Temperature right now is 28, the highs lately have been in the 40's. I think it's supposed to warm up next week, just in time for my Easter visit to Rhode Island. I'm leaving next Thursday, will stay until Monday. We have nice Easter traditions, including buying pansies for me to bring home. Pansies? Really? Won't they look nice against the snow.
I'm into a good quiet routine with a big exception: we're painting my living room. I have a wonderful friend who helps me with projects around my house. She worked miracles in my mud room and library, now we're getting the living room painted. I'm really excited, I'm so tired of the color we originally painted the room in 1992. I'd love to paint pretty much every room but let's start with the walls I stare at most. I painted my bedroom with my niece's help about 15 years ago, it's a shock to me to realize now that maybe it could stand to be painted again. NO! Not yet! Anyway the pale gray I've chosen for the living room will be wonderful with the dark brown trim around the windows. Ahhhhh. Nothing beats a freshly-painted room.
Work is going well but it's mostly monotonous right now. My co-worker is in Texas visiting her family so I'm editing and labeling the images we scanned before she left. It sure is quiet in the Archives without her, plus the 40 images of rustic furniture I worked on today are less than exciting to work with. Sticks and branches.
My volunteer work at the thrift store is good. I like being a bagger but it's getting busy as the calendar marches toward spring. More shoppers, more droppers. It was busy in receiving on Saturday, we have a backlog of stuff and will be short of volunteers this week because some are traveling. Anything interesting come in? We had a Magnalite saucepan come in, which I snatched right up for $7. My mother cooked with Magnalite when I was growing up so I mostly wanted it for sentimental reasons but wow it is really nice to cook with.
Temperature right now is 28, the highs lately have been in the 40's. I think it's supposed to warm up next week, just in time for my Easter visit to Rhode Island. I'm leaving next Thursday, will stay until Monday. We have nice Easter traditions, including buying pansies for me to bring home. Pansies? Really? Won't they look nice against the snow.
Friday, April 05, 2019
Snowing again...still
It's snowing right now but we're not supposed to get more than a couple of inches. The weather here has been pretty crappy, the warmest it got was in the high 40s one day this week, now it's cooler. It was 10 this morning. At least I saw some turkey vultures, that's a sign of spring for sure. Also had a sparrow on my deck. Wow, the birds sure have been fooled.
I had a good week, pretty quiet. Went to Plattsburgh on Monday, picked up meds and had coffee with a friend. Someone made a mistake in the prescription on one of my meds--instead of a 90-day supply I'm getting a 9-day supply. Of course a simple phone call would fix this but I never remember to call during the day, I only think of it at night. duh.
Work was good this week, scanned a lot on Tuesday then spent my hours on Thursday editing and labeling the scans. Actually had a phone call (RATS!) from someone who's doing research on her family and will be here in June to see what we have. She called from Mass. and I was charming and led her to believe we would actually help her. HAH! My assistant had better be there in June! I'm not so great at digging through the Archives to find what people want. Margaret is fantastic at that. I'll get better. maybe.
Boy did I waste time today, I had coffee with a friend, talked to my mother for an hour then went to the gym alone. That didn't work out well, I only did 15 minutes on the treadmill because it was so boring. There's a TV there but there wasn't anything worth watching so I stared at the timer on the treadmill until I couldn't stand it. Came home and took a long nap. LONG nap. Boy did that feel good.
Tomorrow I'm meeting my friend at the gym, we'll go for coffee after that then I'll do some work at the thrift store. It's been busy at the store, people are coming out to drop things off as well as shop. We couldn't keep up with the drop-offs on Wednesday so there was a lot of stuff to deal with. Other volunteers work there when the store is closed but I don't have a key (that's OK, thanks anyway) so I only work when the store is open.
I had great visits with friends last weekend, they were at their camp for their annual winter FreezeFest. Getting to their camp was tricky though because the snow was (and still is) deep and punchy so we had to post-hole our way from the driveway through the woods to the camp. Not fun. But great fun once I got there.
It's supposed to rain for the next several days. My driveway is muddy and will sure be a mess if it does rain but the snow may actually melt. We're getting into mud season now. I drive to the house sometimes, if it's going to freeze overnight. That won't go on much longer, I'll be parking at the end of the driveway. I bought a big bag of dog food, enough birdseed and lots of groceries this week so at least my hauling up the driveway should be limited. I hope.
I had a good week, pretty quiet. Went to Plattsburgh on Monday, picked up meds and had coffee with a friend. Someone made a mistake in the prescription on one of my meds--instead of a 90-day supply I'm getting a 9-day supply. Of course a simple phone call would fix this but I never remember to call during the day, I only think of it at night. duh.
Work was good this week, scanned a lot on Tuesday then spent my hours on Thursday editing and labeling the scans. Actually had a phone call (RATS!) from someone who's doing research on her family and will be here in June to see what we have. She called from Mass. and I was charming and led her to believe we would actually help her. HAH! My assistant had better be there in June! I'm not so great at digging through the Archives to find what people want. Margaret is fantastic at that. I'll get better. maybe.
Boy did I waste time today, I had coffee with a friend, talked to my mother for an hour then went to the gym alone. That didn't work out well, I only did 15 minutes on the treadmill because it was so boring. There's a TV there but there wasn't anything worth watching so I stared at the timer on the treadmill until I couldn't stand it. Came home and took a long nap. LONG nap. Boy did that feel good.
Tomorrow I'm meeting my friend at the gym, we'll go for coffee after that then I'll do some work at the thrift store. It's been busy at the store, people are coming out to drop things off as well as shop. We couldn't keep up with the drop-offs on Wednesday so there was a lot of stuff to deal with. Other volunteers work there when the store is closed but I don't have a key (that's OK, thanks anyway) so I only work when the store is open.
I had great visits with friends last weekend, they were at their camp for their annual winter FreezeFest. Getting to their camp was tricky though because the snow was (and still is) deep and punchy so we had to post-hole our way from the driveway through the woods to the camp. Not fun. But great fun once I got there.
It's supposed to rain for the next several days. My driveway is muddy and will sure be a mess if it does rain but the snow may actually melt. We're getting into mud season now. I drive to the house sometimes, if it's going to freeze overnight. That won't go on much longer, I'll be parking at the end of the driveway. I bought a big bag of dog food, enough birdseed and lots of groceries this week so at least my hauling up the driveway should be limited. I hope.
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