Semi-thawed, semi-frozen & Semi-Tough: Ramble with the Lady

I expected both old clay pits to be open by this morning, but the south pit was still more than half frozen.

Why? How? I whine, therefore I am.

Yes, the photo looks drab. The end of winter is drab.

Semi-thawed.

I stretched out an extended ramble because I thought it was cold enough to freeze all the muck solid.

It was not. It was just on the edge of freezing.

Semi-frozen.

Naturally, at least naturally for me, that took me to Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson in ``Semi-Tough.''

It seems right to walk through semi-frozen muck past a semi-frozen clay pit and end up at ``Semi-Tough.''

That movie really is low-brow and raunchy, but I do love it.

But semi or not, spring signs abound.

I could hear mourning doves cooing before I even opened the door to let Lady, our family's mutt, ramble off the porch. Robins called from trees and hopped around lawns and any grassy everywhere.

I call it the racket of robins.

Canada geese called the from lake to the west.

Once I crossed the side rail separating the town from the wildness of the town pond, I heard the trilling of dozens of red-winged blackbirds around the north pit.

Only a handful of geese swam on the north pit. I did not see any actually nesting yet, but one was certainly acting close to it.

That time is near.

As we walked out the trail, formerly a side rail, above the south pit, I definitely heard a wood duck take off from the southeast corner of the south pit. How we missed it when we walked past I do not know.

Back downtown, the bank thermometer read 33 degrees. That was about right.

A pair of Eurasian collared doves croaked and flew around city hall. I wonder how many pairs we actually have in town now.

A block from home a pair of honking geese flew over low.

The first and only gray squirrel of the morning sprinted between the neighbor's oak and maple.