Adirondacks

Spring is in the air

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The weather has warmed up – a bit too much – and spring is in the air.  Yesterday, the high temperature  was 85 degrees f and the low was 35 f – a whopping 50 degree spread.  What to wear?  Actually, we don’t even notice the cool nights, except we sleep well, or I do anyway.  We’re outside doing all sorts of projects – Tim is working on his cabin; I’ve been trying to figure out what are weeds and what are not; and the boat is ready to launch.

Trees are blooming and  love is in the air (and in the hills).  I see a heart in the trees.

Love is in the air

 

Our first Humming bird returned, Bluebirds are checking out the boxes (including  the Purple Martin house, which is supposed to be used by Purple Martins) and Eastern Phoebes keep trying to build a nest inside our porch.  It’s complicated when the birds refuse to keep to their own neighborhoods.  Goldfinch are wearing their bright yellow feathers and are so colorful.

Goldfinch feeder

 

It’s so nice outside, I haven’t been doing any quilting or weaving.  I still do laundry though and love to dry clothes outdoors on a windy day.  I may find clothing scattered around the lawn, but they smell nice.

Laundry            One of my favorite pictures is my porch swing in the snow.  Here it is in the spring.

swing and laundry

Time to go enjoy another day.

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I stand corrected

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The other day, I waxed on about Spring’s arrival to the North Country. Not so fast.

Mountain Man proposed a hike to Scarface, a relatively diminutive peak by Adirondack standards, so I said yes. A nice Spring walk. NOT!

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There was an icy “spine” most of the way and I clumped along in snowshoes. It was Spring after-all and i left my micro spikes home. I can only speak of most of the way, because when it became too gnarly by my standards, I turned back and headed away from the hills.
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That’s Spring in the Adirondacks.

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My walk out provided plenty of time to collect a pocketful of lichen, which had fallen off the trees, and to contemplate rocks.

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I may not see dead people but I do see things in rocks.

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When you have lemons

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When you have snow…go skiing. Travel and surgery caused me to miss the past two winters. I downhill skied once 3 years ago, traveled to Australia in 2010 and was on crutches in 2011.

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Yet a beautiful mountain is only 30 minutes away. And we just had 16 inches of fresh snow. And it was midweek. I gave it a try on Wednesday and was reminded how much I enjoy it. Best of all, my ankle worked ( the one that had me on crutches last winter).

What fun, even if my style hasn’t changed in 40 years. I tried out the newfangled skis, shorter than me, had a group lesson, which turned out to be a group of only me, and relished the day. Sweet.

I returned yesterday with DH who immediately wanted to go to the top – he’s a mountain hiker after all. Even though I had been to the summit, three years ago on my one day skiing, I balked.

Some male-female dynamics automatically triggered in my brain and I resisted, initially. Perhaps I have been led astray in the past? Lets just say I had not been to an ER before I met DH and now I have been there twice; first due to broken face in a boating accident; and then due to an ankle injury, which occurred while following him up one of his high peaks. Just sayin’.

So away we went and it was lovely. I’m sold. And I didn’t visit the ER. The view of Lake Placid was stunning.

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I’ll be back today after a half day of work. After all, we have snow.

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Snow is in the forecast but the birds are unaware

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The temperature is below freezing again but hasn’t stopped the bird migration. It seems every day we hear new songs and see more species at the feeder. This morning a flock of common redpolls stopped by for a frenetic visit. Mourning doves have returned and their song echoes in the woods.

Today a plump, Tufted Titmouse was stopped by and settled in the tree among the spring buds.
tufted titmouse

As long as the birds don’t care about our Hazardous Weather Outlook, neither will we.

Ausable Chasm ice

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The temperature is gradually turning warmer but ice abounds. I had heard the ice jams at Ausable Chasm were at their peak. I may have missed it by a few days, but it was still pretty spectacular. There were both frozen and flowing waterfalls.

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This is the view from the road. These amazing rock formations were purchased and made private in the late 1800’s, even before the Adirondack Park was formed. It is one of the oldest “attractions” in the United States.

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Can you pronounce chasm? I usually mispronounce it and our neighboring town, Schroon Lake. Think school not shroom.

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The chop before the storm

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Preparing for a storm is different in the north country. We don’t run out to buy milk or gas. We make sure the snowblower is accessible, the generator starts and the wood is stacked.

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I split a stack of poplar the other day and it was a delight. No knotty, gnarled roots. It was very gratifying. It went so well, I decided to video the process. I imagined it would be amusing, in later years, to look back and watch myself, capably, reducing logs to firewood.

Not so much. I was capable, I did split the wood beautifully but I also grunted, breathed audibly and sniffled a lot (the temperature was in the teens). The video remains in my private library.

When I was done splitting wood, I walked down to the river to straighten out my back. The river was frozen in spots but running elsewhere.

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There were signs of summer where the snow had melted. A beachball (?) in the culvert

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Woman’s work

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Somewhere this week, perhaps in a medical journal, I read that couples who perform traditional domestic roles at home are happiest. I am very happy. But not traditional.

Yesterday I conquered the remainder of our, phase one, wood pile. This is wood we acquired 2-3 years ago and its time has come to warm the house. I developed a new way to shorten the logs because I was having all sorts of trouble with the chain saw – most importantly, I can’t start it the first time if it’s cold outside.

I split everything but the gnarly, root like pieces of wood, made a pile, then cut them to length with the table saw. Pretty sweet. I filled the wood box, made a nice pile for future use and am ready to attack the next phase of wood, popple (poplar) which splits like buttah. Very rewarding.

My back was a little broken and I wore holes in two pairs of wool gloves. Time to darn them and make a pair of traditional Adirondack buff mittens, the loggers, like me, used to wear.

This photo is from the Adirondack Museum.

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I have two knitting projects, one weaving project and a quilt in the works.

I’m working on a pair of bird mittens for a birding enthusiast. I was thrilled when I figured out how to flip the chart to reverse the pattern and to reverse the color scheme of the chart, digitally, with the flick if a switch. I was so clever, I forgot to knit the opposite chart on the second mitten.

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I put the mittens aside and started a birthday hat yesterday.
The loom is warped and I’m dazzling myself with an advancing twill.

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I have a lot to learn to keep happy.

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Mother Nature’s hot flashes

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She’s experiencing them now.  We’re in the middle of our January Thaw.  It’s a well accepted phenomenon at mid-lattitudes, and here in the North Country, that the week surrounding January 25 has higher than expected temperatures.  It’s described as a sinusoidal pattern, the curvy line from highs to lows.  The swings in the temperature increase during the January thaw to more than 10 degrees above normal.  It’s more unusual when it doesn’t happen.

Our weather station reports that yesterday hit a high of 51.  And the wind blew all night, with gusts to 37 mph ( which beats all of 2012, with a high wind of 36 mph) the birches swayed, the house creaked, rain fell in buckets, and I was tucked happily inside.

Two days ago, this was my view.

A sweet little cabin in the woods

A sweet little cabin in the woods

Today I see this out the window.

Jan 31 thaw

I’m pretty sure this will come with a rainbow sometime today because it’s sunny, cloudy and snowing lightly.  The temperature is already dropping and is  supposed to fall to 7 degrees f by tonight.  The good news is six months from now, July 24, is predicted to be the warmest of the year.