Edging northward

While out doing some errands today, I noticed that the snow is pretty well gone from the road shoulders and going from the ditches. Snowmobilers are being replaced by joggers. If I could actually run around in the 12 to 18 inches of snow out back, this would be a great day for kite flying. The suet feeder's empty and won't be refilled until the bears are back in hibernation. It's fairly easy to bring in the seed feeders each night (if someone remembers). The refrigerator is usually too full to squeeze in a suet feeder. The red osier dogwood has picked up its Spring color (not quite this much, yet).

red osier dogwood in Spring     © harrington

I saw a bald eagle soaring over Carlos Avery toward somewhere in the North Country. In another month or so, s/he should start the awesome, death-defying mating aerobatics of bald eagle pairs. The Sunrise River ice cover is getting dark and soft and covered with ochre-shaded runoff. We may yet suffer some setbacks, but it's beginning to look as if we've actually turned the corner toward Spring 2014. I wonder what it will bring. What would the country be like if Americans were more like the American eagle Robert Francis portrays?

bald eagle soaring north        © harrington

Eagle Plain

By Robert Francis 

The American eagle is not aware he is

the American eagle. He is never tempted

to look modest.

When orators advertise the American eagle’s

virtues, the American eagle is not listening.

This is his virtue.

He is somewhere else, he is mountains away

but even if he were near he would never

make an audience.

The American eagle never says he will serve

if drafted, will dutifully serve etc. He is

not at our service.

If we have honored him we have honored one

who unequivocally honors himself by

overlooking us.

He does not know the meaning of magnificent.

Perhaps we do not altogether either

who cannot touch him.

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