Also today, after the dogs and I returned this morning to our big house in the little city, and after my husband and I took a leisurely walk to his favorite café for brunch, we busied ourselves with the many to-dos of Saturday.
While we were walking back to the house from the garage, my husband noticed the very first sign of spring: tiny snowdrop shoots coming out of the earth, forecasting that their miniature bell-shaped white flowers will be showing off their petite beauties to us soon.
I also saw another indelible sign of spring and that was our very own Mr. Robin, who stopped in for a drink at the bird bath. My husband isn't convinced that it's the very same Mr. Robin of last year, but there were no other robins with him and he came straight to the same spot where he spent most of last winter getting water. Thus, I say it's definitely the same good old Mr. Robin, who was smarter this time around and spent the worst of the winter in a much warmer place.
As I'm sure you can imagine, I'm not going to miss one iota of winter. To give you a sense of what winter has been around here, I'm sharing with you a few pictures of views from outside my little apartment in the woods in my small college on the hill during the past week.
One recent morning I awoke to find that the entire sidewalk in front of my apartment was a death-defying skating rink. Now, few things make me feel more vulnerable or enervated than trying to walk on ice so this view was particularly mortifying and concerning. I've had a running battle with the maintenance supervisor of my apartment complex precisely because these views are not exceptions, but more the rule.
The view from the ground up is no better, as the stalactites (OK, the icicles) collect not just on the edges of the ceiling but also from the sad silent flutes of my wind chime.
And the nice courtyard in front of the apartment is a graveyard of snow, where everything looks like it gave up the ghost a long, long time ago.
Hail March, indeed!
3 comments:
Damnit! The ice on that sidewalk makes me angry. Salting the sidewalks isn't so difficult. And surely there's something they can do to alleviate the root cause, which is that water just collects all over that part of the courtyard? I'm no engineer, but I am an engineer's daughter, which means that I believe there's some mechanical solution to this problem--if only the minds in charge cared to find it.
Damnit, indeed! The ice on that sidewalk made me so furious that I took several photos just in case I broke my back and needed evidence! Salting and clearing of the sidewalks has gotten much better after I pestered them, and pestered them, and even asked a colleague to raise the issue of maintenance at the apartments with a faculty committee. But that area will eventually require some engineering improvements to avoid the lakes after the rain and the skate rinks after it ices over. We might end up being next-door neighbors after all, so we can fight for this together. :)
Whoa, are you trying to move into the apartments for next year???
!!!
Post a Comment