Friday, April 11

Bill's birthday and he had the best of presents -- a clean bill of health from Doctor Turner. A happy day, in spite of icy relentless rain all day and all night. A pancake breakfast on the house at Temple's Sugar Camp Restaurant, and dinner at the Fall River Pub made the trips out into the elements worthwhile. And the snow is going fast -- filling up ditches, low-lying fields, and over-flowing river banks and lakes.

At the beginning of the week, the picnic table by the washing line was completely covered -- today it is on bare ground. Soon be able to hang out washing!







The birds are coming back from the South, and our feeders are attracting them. The redpolls are still here, but their colour is changing and the males are getting more aggressive -- diving at one another to knock the females off the perches on the feeder. Chickadees are as cheerful and busy as ever, and the nuthatches are still around. We can hear -- and see -- woodpeckers tapping away at the maple trees, and today a flock of juncoes arrived. They like to stay on the ground, pecking for food on the lawn, instead of at the feeder. They have, however, discovered the seeds knocked off the feeders by greedy birds and annoying squirrels, and are doing a good job of tidying up the deck.

All week, maple sap was boiling down to sweet syrup, but the warm spell stopped the flow. It is not flowing during the present cold snap -- but we do need it as the sap will now be able to flow again when it warms up again.