Rain, rain, go away

Not having an internet connection makes blog posting a difficult thing. After next Friday, we’ll have our new house and our new internet connection (thank you, Cincinnati Bell). I’ll post more frequently after that.

It’s been very rainy all spring. Everyone assures me that it’s normally warmer and drier. Maybe the rest of spring will revert to the normal pattern. I can only hope! It was dry and warm on May 5. Bob and Jack, our brother-in-law, went golfing. Parts of the golf course were too soggy to play and were blocked off, but “the boys” had fun. Of course, it rained on May 6 (and 7). But today has been mostly dry!

This week we’re preparing to move again. We’ve lived out of boxes since we got here, so much of the packing is done. We don’t have to pack everything at the level of a cross-country move – we can throw a load in the car and drive over. The cats will have to endure another complete change in environment. I hope they like the new house. There will be a lot more room than they’re used to, with the main floor having more square feet than the mobile home in California did – plus a finished basement that adds another 1500 ft², for a total of around 3000 ft². My concern is they’ll find places to hide and I won’t be able to find them.

I’ve been birdwatching. There are lots of county parks and reserves, many of which preserve prairie lands and deciduous woodlands as they were before settlement and intensive agriculture. Normal suburban birds include cardinals, robins, starlings (ugh), common grackles, crows, the occasional blue jay (their numbers are down due to West Nile virus), mourning doves, and house sparrows. But, in the reserves, I’ve seen yellow warblers, purple finches, Baltimore orioles, lots of Canada geese (with fluffy yellow goslings following along), white-breasted nuthatches, American goldfinches, red-winged blackbirds, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers, tufted titmice, dark-eyed juncos, barn and tree swallows, Carolina chickadees, American coots, mallard ducks, killdeer, red-tailed hawks, and turkey vultures. Many of these are familiar to Californians, but a few are found only east of the Rockies.

I hope all the mothers out there have a happy Mother's Day!

Bunny in the cooler

We were at Kroger on Sunday. The “Easter Bunny” was available for portraits with small children. However, inside the bunny costume, it’s very hot. So, in between pictures with wee ones, the bunny takes off for the big florist cooler in the store and hangs out with the cut flowers for a bit. Bob asked the bunny how it was in the cooler and got a big thumbs up – which right away tells you it’s not a real bunny, because of the whole opposable thumb thing.

We also went to Brukner Nature Center. The wildflowers that come out before the tree canopy are in full bloom. We saw white and red trilliums, three different violets, spring beauties, rue anemones, trout lilies, Virginia bluebells, jacks in the pulpit (or is that jack in the pulpits?), toothworts, Dutchman’s breeches, what looked like an eastern version of buttercups (don’t know what they call them), and some big yellow things that definitely look like they’re in the poppy family. I need an eastern wildflower guide!

There are bird watching places at Brukner, too, where we saw American goldfinches, purple finches, house finches, chickadees (don’t know which one), red-bellied woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches, tufted titmice, mourning doves, downy woodpeckers, and the ever-present starlings. It was at Brukner a few summers ago that we saw an indigo bunting. Absolutely the bluest bird I ever saw.

Rain is predicted for the next few days, so it was good we got to hike around Brukner on a nice day. The eastern redbuds are just about to pop – the same trees we saw in Oklahoma, where they were already in bloom. Very pretty. If we get a decent day soon, we’ll take pictures of the Ohio version.