A thaw arrives in the North Country

No one that we've come across ever claimed that the arrival of Spring in the North Country was neat and tidy. This is the week we enter mud and flood season, or is it flood and mud season? The latter is the logical sequence, the former usually occurs chronologically. Pardon us if we seem a little giddy today. Each and every day for the next week or more is now supposed to warm above freezing! Tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday include rain in the forecast. Experiencing mild snow blindness while walking dogs will soon be but a memory until next Winter. Whereas today, as we collected the bird feeders from the front of the house so we could refill them, we waded through snow drifts that reached over the tops of our Steger mukluks. Yuck! We doubt we'll get enough melting and thawing to make it safe to torch the brush pile as a Vernal Equinox celebration. The hose will probably still be frozen, but we should be in fine shape for Beltane at the start of May.

black chokeberries ripening by the dog run

Photo by J. Harrington

Soon we'll be back to removing buckthorn and, in some places, planting native shrubs in an effort to limit buckthorn's return. Sort of a permaculture approach to invasive species management. We may even check in with the folks undertaking the "Cover It Up" project to see if they have any insight on how long buckthorns' soil-poisoning continues after it's been removed. We want to plant, or transplant, some black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) in some locations behind the house. Then, this morning, we came across a reference to planting hazel as an understory shrub. That could be a nice option for the mixed deciduous woods in front of the house. Maybe, if the rabbits and deer have more options, they'll forego the decorative bushes like roses that they've been munching on this Winter.

decorative in Summer, nutritious in Winter?

Photo by J. Harrington

Time now to start watching for the arrival of geese, cranes, open water and skunk cabbage, not necessarily in that order. Yay!

To One Coming North

By Claude McKay

At first you'll joy to see the playful snow, 

  Like white moths trembling on the tropic air, 

Or waters of the hills that softly flow 

  Gracefully falling down a shining stair.

And when the fields and streets are covered white 

  And the wind-worried void is chilly, raw, 

Or underneath a spell of heat and light 

  The cheerless frozen spots begin to thaw,

Like me you'll long for home, where birds' glad song 

  Means flowering lanes and leas and spaces dry, 

And tender thoughts and feelings fine and strong, 

  Beneath a vivid silver-flecked blue sky.

But oh! more than the changeless southern isles, 

  When Spring has shed upon the earth her charm, 

You'll love the Northland wreathed in golden smiles 

  By the miraculous sun turned glad and warm.

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