Finally, a Warm Saturday

It seems like it has been a long cold month. I was finally able to get a 60F degree Saturday. I spent the afternoon raking leaves and pulling them down to the compost boxes. Jeff helped. Kathy did a little, but she is in no physical shape to do this sort of thing. I shredded two tarps and filled one compost box. Then I filled another tarp and just left it in front of the place where I shred for when I get ambitious again.

Doug Shaw told me one of his bee colonies died. He's not sure if they froze or starved. So I was anxious to look at the hive I still have in my yard. With warm temperatures, bees were coming out. I sensed they were doing a little orienting flights as well as cleaning out the hive to get rid of their dead sisters. There was a small pile of the dead in front of the hive. But, the fact that they are flying around is good news. I haven't checked the hive that is in Clarence Brown's yard recently. He told me they had been out some a week or so ago. If we have a warm day tomorrow, I will take a top feeder and load it with dry sugar. A couple of weeks ago when we checked, it seemed light.

The period between the time just before Christmas until now has been a bit depressing. I didn't recover easily from the collapse of my cold frames. So, my thoughts drifted. Much of the time was actually spent well with my wife and children (in addition to Jeff and Jenna, James and Angie came to visit as did Maya and Patrick). I couldn't do much outside. James and I planted about 20 tulip poplar seedlings. But other than that, I spent time reading -- Outliers by Gladwell (interesting but very light scientifically), Superfreakonomics by Leavitt and Dubner, Sharpe's Prey by Cornwell, and I'm mostly through Predictably Irrational by Ariely.

I am looking forward to getting back to the outdoors, if even only on Saturdays.