March Madness: In Like A Lion, Out Like A Lion

March Madness... in so many ways.

"March is a tomboy with tousled hair, a mischievous smile, mud on her shoes and a laugh in her voice." ~ Hal Borland

Well, March came in like a lion and... looks like it's going out like a lion as well, a Nor'easter setting up and cold, cold, rain coming down. While a few days this month were warmer than usual, most were colder. I laughed at Nyssa just a week ago when we had 76 degree days and she was having snow and 32 degree temperatures. Now the roles are reversed.. Reno has 70 degree days and we had sleet and temperatures consistently in the 40's for almost a week now. That is "madness".

Secondly, one of the black swallowtail butterflies who had been hibernating and transforming in my little aquarium in the sunroom decided it was time to emerge. I believe they do so on basis of the amount of light as in the length of the days, rather than the temperatures. This group of six chrysalides settled down back in early October and have overwintered in warmth and comfort and moderate humidity. They aren't suppose to emerge until mid-April but this one was an early bird... er.. butterfly. He was desperate to leave but we have nothing blooming except pansies and I doubt they have much nectar. Still, I let him go. There is fennel that is already growing well and even though the temperature seems much too cold for them... it could still lay its eggs on the fennel and hopefully find a bit of food somewhere. It was "madness" to emerge that early.

Then there is this picture... I really wasn't going to post this as it is not a great idea to take pictures while driving down the road. But, it was so interesting. I took it this month, on one of our many rainy days and it looks so cold and dreary out and that long stream of car lights. This is Dominion Blvd... the main highway south to North Carolina and Elizabeth City area. It is always congested and lined with traffic after 2PM and when the drawbridge has been open. I never come south on this road after 2PM... though the other drawbridge is no better. But not only was it probably madness to take this photo... my point and shoot does have the screen on the back so it isn't as risky a behavior as having to put your eye to a viewfinder... but, look at the window covered with streaming water droplets.... WHERE ARE MY WINDSHIELD WIPERS? I was startled that there was so much water in the picture! If it was raining this hard, I should have had the wipers on high and I don't remember it being this MUCH rain... and I don't usually escape the black stroke of the wiper blade cutting across the corner of the picture. Please, don't panic... I DID have the wipers on.... didn't I!!!????

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PS: Going to take Mom for another attempt at her iron infusion outpatient procedure. I am hoping it will not be entangled as last week's version was but I think it has a 50/50 chance of actually happening, as we still do not have the blood pressure under the best control. My car is draining my battery for some mysterious reason and the battery is sitting there dead as a doornail and we were needing the second car tomorrow... and one of the gas fireplace burners is not working right so I cut off all gas to it... and this portends of another "Alexander" terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.... I certainly hope not. Did I take a wrong turn and step into the Twilight Zone?

Carmi's Theme ~ March Madness

Shadow Cat ~ Wicked Willow

Shadow cat Willow loves to find the sunbeam.

"Let us be honest; most of us rather like our cats to have a streak of wickedness. I should not feel quite easy in the company of any cat that walked around the house with a saintly expression." ~ Beverly Nichols

Willow loves to find the sunlight in shadows and hide or sit, half in and half out of light. She is a wicked cat... dominant.. bossy.. and yet angelic when she gazes up into your eyes. She barges in on any other cat who is eating or getting a pat on the head. In fact, now that they all love a little wet food in the evening, I sit and guard the old lady, Chloe as she eats. She eats slowly and Willow gulps hers down. Thank goodness I still have the clout as head honcho of their world.. all I have to do is point at Willow as she starts to sneak up on Chloe and she stops, stares and when she realizes that I will not blink.. she backs off. Of course this means I have to spend ten to fifteen minutes in the eating area simply sitting in a chair... alert at all times. It is at this time I am grateful for the Kindle.

In other news, Picasa and the usually simply "Blog This" button to send my pictures to Blogger is somehow broken... defunct... not doing what it says it is doing and generally acting all looney-toon on me. This was supposed to be a post for Shadow Shot Sunday, but the pictures I thought I uploaded simply disappeared. I see that at least two others have posted on the Picasa forum that they have the same problem.. now, if only a Google employee will see the problem and FIX IT!!!!!

It has been a group of "those" days in a row. I took Mom in for an outpatient procedure... an iron infusion, since she seems to be unable to absorb iron. She was in the middle of a flare up of gout that her primary physician didn't catch on her last labs... her uric acid was very elevated and her office did not pass on our call nor did they call back. So her nephrologist reluctantly gave her medication to decrease the uric acid but on Friday her foot was still in the stages of progression with increased swelling, pain, warmth and redness that was branching out across her foot and up her leg. This was very worrisome to me.. so when her blood pressure spiked before the iron infusion and she began having chest pain and they cancelled the procedure and wanted her to go to the ER, I was not too upset... I really wanted them to check that foot. I know her blood pressure does this when she is concerned about IV's and in pain and after I looked at her nitroglycerine pump and saw that it expired in October 2009.. well, the foot was my prime concern. I must say that Chesapeake hospital was very efficient... she didn't have to wait in the lobby when we got to the ER and they did an EKG, drew cardiac enzymes, did a chest x-ray and an ultrasound of the vessels in that leg and foot within a half an hour. There were no clots in that leg... major relief. We spent the rest of the day in the ER and then they kept her in observation overnight. Her cardiologist came to see her in observation and decided not to stress her with the stress test with her gout flared up and such. A bit of morphine IV relieved the pain in her foot and that chronic pain in her back that has been really bad lately and I brought her home on Saturday morning.

So, now I have to somehow balance a gout diet with a diabetic diet and most things are diametrically opposed... low protein, high complex carbs for gout... high protein, low carbs for diabetes. There must be a happy medium in there somewhere. The biggest problem and the biggest asset to help both the diabetes and the gout is good old H2O... water. I got 64 oz down her yesterday... and all the time she complained and fought and said she was nauseated from it and she just couldn't swallow it and... well, the foot is getting better. If anyone has ideas of how to get the required water down her every day without devoting all my time to .... "drink water", "is the glass empty yet", "we haven't gotten the required amount down yet", "do you WANT to go on dialysis?"... well, let me know.

That is why I have been out of pocket.... oh, yes.... and it froze last night... temps down to 28℉. We even got a little sleet when the rain first started and folks just north of us received almost a half an inch of snow. And here I thought spring had sprung. I sure do hope they get the Picasa blog this thing fixed and soon.

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Cats on Tuesday

That Moment Before Touchdown

... and the audience watching with a critical eye. Gulls of Mt. Trashmore.
(Click pictures to enlarge)

"No bird ever flew nonstop from New York to Tokyo, or raced 15 miles high at triple the speed of sound. But birds do something else. They do not conquer the air; they romance it." ~ Peter Garrison

Carmi's theme this week is transition... and today he has two lovely photos of seagulls in flight.. preparing to land... in transition. It jogged a memory of this photo of our Mt. Trashmore seagulls.. though I really don't know if the same seagulls stay at Mt. Trashmore all the time or if groups simply come and go as the food sources do. This fellow was coming in for a landing on a rough hewn fence and he had two spectators in the background, watching his every move. The closest, in particular, seems to be giving him a very critical eye... a teacher or parent perhaps... grading a young fledgling on his landing prowess? Personally, I think landing on a rough wooden fence rail in any way shape or form and doing it without getting a splinter in one of those webbed feet is successful.. do you suppose they ever do get splinters?

Awkward in flight, but smooth in transition. Norfolk Botanical Gardens.

Our Canada geese and mallards have been rotating between the neighborhood ponds more this past week. Late in the day, just about dusk, you can see them make their approach.. a large curved path while loosing altitude and a really strange screaming sound just before touchdown. This is the first time I've heard that sound but I guess some of them are a bit bumbling and have to warn the others to clear out of the way. The smaller mallards are not so graceful in the sky, flapping their wings almost hysterically, as if they would at any instant simply fall to earth if they didn't... no gliding or finding the air currents... the mallards simply fly to get from one body of water to the next... if it isn't close enough to just walk. But... their landings and takeoffs are more smooth and controlled than those lovely geese. I wonder if they know how magical their gift of flight is.

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Carmi's Theme ~ Transitions
World Bird Wednesday

Bashful

Bashful beauty broadcasts, " Surely Spring has sprung!"

"If one daffodil is worth a thousand pleasures, then one is too few." ~ William Wordsworth

I am reading a book... a small book.. actually, I've read it already but thought it good to go back through again. When I have finished a second time, I might post about it.. or I might simply keep it as my small treasure for just a bit to see where the journey goes... no, I won't keep it too close because a wonderful journey is even better when shared... but I did start. For now, this journey, this counting of gratitudes is in its infant stage and so my first ones are simple.. thunderstorms... we had our first today... and just the rumble of thunder said "Spring is here.... and right on cue." The yo-yo effect is slowly but surely ebbing away as the day and night time temperatures edge their way up. I don't think we will have any more freezing night temperatures... neither do the plants. Spring breezes... no longer howling around the roofline or clacking the bare tree limbs together... gentle but firm and warm with a hint of continuing cool around the edges...as I sat waiting for Mom at the doctor's office.. the soft breezes blew small white petals from the three large flowering pear trees and they floated to the ground like the winter snow. It had that "other worldly" effect.. you know, the one you feel and half expect to look up and see a golden carriage drawn by two snow white horses appear through the veil of falling petals...that effect. The tulip magnolias have bloomed and are shedding their pink petals in a carpet around their base...the buds so long in waiting and so short in staying after the opening. The same is so with our daffodils... no new ones planted, just the older bulbs well rested over winter. They opened a bit early as always and then had to brave the cold winds of early March... so this year, they are not pristine, a bit ragged and raw around the edges, but still... daffodils. One bulb managed, probably with inadvertent human help, to escape the flower bed and end up implanted in the yard. I remedied that... managed to extract it with bulb intact and placed it back among its siblings. This small variety, was hiding behind a larger yellow sister who is hogging all the attention with her big saturated golden locks... so I crept around and when she wasn't looking... I snapped the shot. Yes, one daffodil is worth many pleasures and much gratitude as well... this bashful beauty will go on my list.

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Mellow Yellow Monday

The Last Remnants of Winter

Forgotten nest in a naked tree.. the last remnants of winter.

"To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life." ~ John Burroughs

It looks like the last freeze of winter is past... or perhaps I am going out on a limb here to say that. Still we have the yo-yo up and down temperatures between 45 and 80 right now; but the night time temperatures are slowly and steadily creeping up... 39..41...45..48...50..52. The trees are flowering or leafing and the fennel and yarrow are growing. The roses on the east side of the house are leafing out while those on the west and south sides are still canes. I see the small tiny curled fronds of the ferns starting to lift the overlying mulch just a bit and the hydrangea that I thought was horribly mutilated by the freezing cold weather this year is beginning to fill in with leaves. Daffodils are in full bloom, but alas, as yet I haven't seen one of the tulips emerge. I fear I planted too late again. Even the liriope is pushing up out of the ground and will flourish although, of all the plants in the front flowerbed, I dislike the liriope most.

In fact, the oaks and other hardwood trees along with the milkweed and lantana appear to be the late comers and still with bare branches. This long abandoned nest is tucked high in a tree behind the house. This tree is hanging on by a thread, much of the top has died and already broken off in the winds of two years ago. Its lower branches have bravely leafed out each spring and have tried to be robust enough to provide shelter for this nest. All in all, pretty successful, as it was very difficult to even see this nest.. or the birds that lived there last spring. Some day soon I expect to see it fallen to the ground.. perhaps a new nest built. That is a shame. It was a strong nest for a fledgling family and weathered the summer tropical storm winds and the winter nor'easters without becoming dislodged. So, this is its final act... a last remnant of winter for all to admire.

Watch...we will probably have a snow storm for Easter this year... just to prove me wrong!

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Nature's Notes