mumma yaga

 Feb. 26          Covid Day 353       This is a pandemic. "No one said it would be easy. No one said it'd be this hard." * It is harder for us grown-ups than for the children perhaps. A child takes life as it comes. It is what it is. Consider this: Charles Darwin studied barnacles for eight years in his family's home. "When George [Darwin's son] visited a friend ... and was told his friend's father did not have a study, he asked incredulously: 'But where does your father do his barnacles?' "** But you can't stop there and let things be. Children need security, hugs, love. They need to learn to trust the world, and themselves, to know that there is no problem they cannot tackle. Let's change things up. Think outside the toy box.  Hugs: minimum three a day - that goes for every human, child and adult alike. If you are lucky enough to live in a multi-person household, put hugs on the house to-do list. Hang a posy of cedar and juniper, or

 Feb. 24 What do you make of this sky? It is 0 degrees this morning and the sun shines between the passing clouds.  The snow is melting ahead of the icicles. Last year the snowdrops were blooming on March 15, and here is Indre at the beach on March 14, three years ago. She takes after her grandmother; must get in the water.    We are over the hill of winter and melting quickly into spring. The tree branches are starting to show colour. This has been the loveliest winter I have spent since I was a child, it seems too soon to see it go. Soon the snow will start to thaw and rivulets will trickle and then rush down the mountain, patches of sleeping weeds will appear and before long wildflowers in the woods. The birds will begin to return and bird dating apps will be the rage. K is having breakfast on the porch in the sun. Last year the Cooper's hawk was calling for a mate by March 2nd, and the first vultures come north each year by the beginning of March.  ***** I have had a wonderful

Today I love turning onto the road that leads to our little cul de sac; it is not sanded, so the road itself is white. A road paved with snow, it seems enchanted. How is it that I can look at snow day after day and feel like I'm seeing it for the first time, that a picture like this can make my heart beat faster, take away my breath?* ***** Feb.17 Wednesday night there was a fierce snowstorm. I took Fig out and the wind was blasting, the snow whirled around me and blew into my face so I couldn't see. Underfoot the fallen snow rose and fell where the winds had waved it, like sand under the sea. The complete darkness of the night here made the disorientation the more acute.  Feb. 18 Blackie has been hanging around our house the last two days like a homeless cat. He has a better view of the valley and the road here than at his home up the hill, or maybe he thinks we need guarding. He can guard us and his family from here because they are behind us.. He also loves little Fig and ma