What a pretty day! The sun is squint your eyes bright. The blue sky goes on forever. Nothing is moving. It is 49°. The high today will be 53°, spring on Cape Cod. Tonight will drop back to the 30’s, back to winter.

I have two errands left. I also have house chores. I am inundated by spiders. This morning I walked around clearing webs. The fur balls are back. I need to clear yet again. That seems to occur every couple of days. I’ve been using the broom. The balls fly in the air when I sweep. I have a vacuum, but I do like a broom.

When I was a kid, the creatures around me were the usual, the spawns of Satan, an occasional skunk, garter snakes and birds. I don’t remember which birds. I never paid that much attention. I do remember watching a praying mantis, the strangest looking insect I ever saw. It looked like the miniature version of a monster from a Japanese science fiction movie, a little Rodan.

I had chickens in Ghana. My first hen was a gift from a friend. She came with a few eggs on which she’d been sitting. Her roost was the bottom half of a pottery bowl. It was kept in the toilet area of my backyard to keep her and her eggs safe; however, it didn’t keep me safe. (Bathroom talk here) the toilet room was small. I could touch both walls when I sat on the proverbial throne. The hen was right near my feet. If I moved my feet, she’d peck them. I always wore sandals so the pecking hurt. I learned to keep my feet at a distance, difficult in the small space. But there was something neat about this set up. I could watch the progress of the eggs. Sitting there, got to see the first cracks. I could hear the chick pecking away. This hen was free range. Every morning she’d leave the yard followed by her chicks. In the late afternoon she’d return, minus at least one chick then finally all the chicks were gone, taken by some predator. My students later told me she left eggs around the compound instead of in the nesting area. This hen later had a new purpose. She was dinner. I did get more hens and my flock grew. I became a chicken docent. I also became a plucker of great renown.

The nights are quite chilly, in the 30’s. The days are in the 40’s, but spring is in the air, well, maybe pre-spring, a dress rehearsal, is here, the perfect definition of our weather. In my front garden, the dafs and hyacinths have bloomed, the first colors of the season. I am still waiting for the backyard daf. It is in the middle of the yard and is the only one. I think some creature carried the bulb. I love that spot of yellow.

I have a few errands on my dance card today. My favorite errand is to go to the nursery to buy pansies for the pots on my front steps. I remember pansies in the front garden of the house when I was a kid. They all had faces. They were mostly smiling. I loved the purple and the bright orange. Those are the colors I’ll look for today.

I heard whining around 5:30 this morning. I opened my eyes and saw only Nala on my bed. Henry was the whiner. Nala and I went downstairs while I checked. He wanted out. I forgave him for waking me up when I opened the back door. I could hear birds greeting the day. I heard mourning doves. I even heard the gobbles of turkeys. The air was cold but it was morning cold which gives hope for a warmer day. Henry was quick, and we all went back to bed. I woke up again not long after. It was Nala. She was beside me whining and staring at my face. I made the mistake of opening my eyes. She starting lapping my face. Then the two of them, Henry and Nala, started jumping on the bed and on me. I got up. They waited on the stairs to make sure I was coming. I love that they wait for me. We all went down the stairs. They went out. I made coffee. It was the start of another day in the Ryan household.

When I was a kid, I could hardly wait to put winter away, to put hats and mittens and heavy coats in the closet. If it was a bit chilly outside, I never would have admitted it. I did not want to go back to winter. The field at the foot of my street was a quicker way to school than walking on the sidewalks. The only problem was the wind whipped across the field. It ballooned my coat, and sometimes I had to walk backwards. I laughed at the coat.