kites

Very windy this morning when going out to get the paper. That is certainly not unusual this time of the year. Thinking of kites.

The winds which passed over my dwelling were such as sweep over the ridges of mountains, bearing the broken strains, or celestial parts only, of terrestrial music. The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted, but few are the ears that hear it.
Walden
Henry David Thoreau

hydrologist

Warm temperatures and heavy rain yesterday. If you're going to live in the country here, you need to be part hydrologist, and part excavator.

looking

Vernal pool in winter.

What is the course of history, or philosophy, or poetry, no matter how well selected, or the best society, or the most admirable routine of life compared with the discipline of looking always at what is to be seen.
Walden
Henry David Thoreau

daffodils

The ground is still frozen, hard as a rock. Yet the delicate shoots of daffodils are pushing their way out of the frozen ground. How do they do it?

open winter

Political signs appearing in Rutland as we head towards town meeting day. Full moon, the "Snow" moon last night, in name only. I heard the term, "open winter" for the first time this year yesterday. An open winter is one where there is basically no snow. That's what we've had so far.

mud season

Temperatures in the 50's over the weekend. Mud season has started. Ruts in the road on the other side of our property as sap is being gathered there. Water in the fields in the usual places south of Brandon. Chickadees start to make some different calls this time of year as they begin to stake out their territories for the upcoming mating and nesting season.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

Clear and cold. Sun pillar seen in the east when driving to morning meditation. Ice melt in the roads causes dangerous driving conditions when it refreezes. Frost heaves appearing. The drive into Rutland at this time of year always reminds me of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland.

spring training

Pitchers and catchers report to spring training. This is actually important.

water

Yesterday the temperature was in the 50's with rain. Like it or not, we got to test out the new water removal system in our basement. Roads were treacherous.

Back from California. Skated into the morning sitting in Rutland. Sidewalks were a sheet of ice. Happy to be back where I belong.

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.

Henry Miller
Zen page a day calendar.