Spring!!!

Like some miracle that Mother Nature arranges just for my birthday, we are in the midst of a vernal explosion. The Johnnie Jump-ups (shooting stars) are blooming. When I was little, I thought that those flowers were a part of my birthday, and they only came and went for a short time just for me. The hills are covered with fresh green grasses. The Manzanita blossoms are on the wane, and they are deep into producing the little berries that all of the kids think look like miniature apples.

The Rufous-sided Towhee returns on my birthday every year, give or take a day or two. His return is hard to miss he sits outside my open bedroom window and sings to the world that he has made it through the winter, he is back, he is in great shape, and ready to make a few chicks. The Turkey buzzard usually shows up sporadically, beginning around the first of March, but in great abundance by the end of March. As you already know, some spend the winter here. The Swallows that nest in the eaves of building and under bridges are back.

Later in the spring, I will take my wife on our annual trip over the Bell Spring road down to my birth place, Laytonville. We stop in several places just to hear the Meadow Lark cry out to the world that the rock that he is perched on is his and his alone. I always thought that his plaintive lonely cry sounded like “Catch me if you can”. The Bell Springs road in the spring is a trip that all of humanity should travel at least once in their lives. That and the Wilder Ridge road into Ferndale. Wild flowers are everywhere. I especially like to find the little Fawn Lillies hiding under the Manzanita brush.

I like the start of the long warm days, when a person has a chance to move outside. I always get a great urge to build something. Well this has gone on long enough, I think that I will go build something.