Yesterday was a very wet day.  The clouds sat heavily upon the land, breaking forth in huge copious drops of rain that fell and fell and fell.  Gradually all the snow turned to slush and then to mud.  Since the ground is still frozen the water stayed on top…filling in where the snow used to be.  Huge squishy puddles that would be fun to walk through if it were August instead of February.

All day the rain drops fell, plinking and plonking on the roofs of the house, the barn, and Terry’s work shops.  Sheets of water pouring off the sides of the roofs melting any snow that had accumulated there over the winter.

Rain always makes one feel like it is warm outside; not this rain, this was winter’s rain.  A very rare experience for us.

Then sometime in the late morning or early afternoon the rain stopped and a chill wind fresh from the snow on the Uncompahgre (Un-come-pah-gray—accent on the pah) shoved and pushed the remaining heavy clouds from us and swept them on toward Paonia. A blue sky appeared giving all of us, Terry, myself, the dogs and cats a huge desire to be outside.

Gathering the dogs up and loading them into the back of the pick-up we took off for a short ride…just to get out of the house.  Up we went toward Pea Green, then into the out-reaches of Olathe, down in the valley of Monoken (Mo-no-ken) back to Delta, where I mailed a letter, then home.

Refreshed! Open to the thoughts of spring.

This morning a huge cloud had drifted down over-night from the Plateau covering our Mesa (California Mesa), blocking the bright and joyful sun rays for our view.

The little buff hen is gradually doing better.  Every evening she comes in to sleep in her laundry basket nest, cooing and talking to us as we walk by going here and there.  As the night closes in and I’m done washing the dishes I cover her little basket with towels shutting out the light and helping her stay warm.

When morning comes I take her back out to the hen house.  She needs to stretch and fluff and eat and poop at will…in the house is not a good place for all of that.

But today, she took her little fluffy self out into the plastic covered chicken run and started digging and scratching.  A first!  I was delighted to see her busy searching for interesting things to eat.  The soil is dry in there so she will be able to dust herself–a beauty bath is always refreshing.

While watching her two little bluebirds flew right by me and sat down on the wood pile.  I was extremely grateful the dogs had stayed in the house.  They stayed a short while (of course I didn’t have my camera with me) then lifted up their little wings, turning their blue backs to me and flew off toward the fence along the lane.

Spring is coming!  I always know, once I see the bluebirds.  Sometimes there are only a few hardy souls braving the cold, then we will see more and more.  I hope I have my camera the next time I see them…to capture a bluebird’s photo is one of my photographing goals.

For now we live under a cloud, but not such a bad cloud, as we can see the sun surrounding us.

And the bluebirds are returning. How grand is that?

Linda