(no subject)
Everything was coated in hard snow this morning. After yesterday's winter storm that didn't really amount to what was predicted, or it did, depending on which meteoric which doctor you listened to and what time you listened to them. We got about 5 inches of snow at the most, heavy wet snow. It was one of the more destructive storms we have had all winter. We lost,so far,bushels of small branches and 3 huge branches off live trees, one was actually the top half of a maple and was thicker than a telephone pole. That one also knocked down a gravestone. It narrowly missed by mere inches a thin marble stone that it no doubt would have shattered or at the very least broken in half if it had hit it. The stone that got knocked over was actually knocked sideways off its raised base. The stone is very thick marble, about a foot thick, and I can only guess it weighs about 500 lbs. It is something we have had put back before, but we had a professional do it.
With the way we lost so many limbs, I wonder if it does have something to do with the previous warm weather and the 'juices' in the trees flowing? We are going to be getting frigid cold weather again by Sunday, so that should by rights split trees that might have been thinking it was almost spring.
The weather has been so warm that there is not a drop of frost in the ground. I dug a cremation hole today and it was as soft as butter to dig. This is January, isn't it? I guess I'll know by Sunday.
When I was walking around surveying the damage today, the crows were up. At first I assumed they were after the hawk, but after watching them, I didn't see a hawk, and the fifty or so crows seemed to be in two groups which would suddenly become adjatated and fly at each other, then settle down again for a few minutes. While they were up and calling at/to each other, the noise was horrid. It was like the movie "The Birds". I can see why people think crows are such ill omens. They really are ominous looking at times. I wish I had my camera then to get a shot of them, black in the trees against the gray sky. It was a Kodak moment. As I got nearer, I did see that it was indeed a big hawk that had them all in an uproar. He was just sitting on a branch all puffed up, almost looking like an owl. He watched me as I watched him, then he flew off, followed by at least some of his entourage.
There were tracks in the snow that might have been a coyote. It's hard to say since so many people walk their dogs in the cemetery. These tracks were far from the road, and were spaced out rather far, but with a small footprint. Here and there they would stop and dig at something in the snow them go on. Looking for mice perhaps in the bankens?
I have more to write but it doesn't seem to go with this entry. Politics and all that. Maybe tomorrow.