Sunday, April 27, 2008

spring will come again

I got lucky this morning. I was walking out with my camera to get a picture of the flooded creek, and I heard the raucous call of sandhill cranes. They sounded like they were coming my way, so I whipped the camera out of my pocket, turned it on, and zoomed the lens to 4x. I had no time to think as the birds came in to view, I just hit the shutter button and hoped for the best. This is a crop from a bigger photo. The branch got in the way, but I actually like it.

Today I also saw/heard my first-of-year cowbird (big deal, huh? Really, they have a unique call.) and yellow rumped warblers! The spring peepers, chorus frogs and wood frogs have resumed singing, and the woodcock and snipe are displaying at twilight. Even though today's high temperature only hovered around 40, the sun was out and took away all of the snow in sunny areas.

I've been having new house thoughts lately. By this time next week, the roof may be done! I am now choosing exterior stain colors and tile for the floor where the wood stove will be. We had settled on a dark gray-blue ceramic tile a couple of years ago, but Menard's no longer carries it. Instead, The Hermit found something even better: slate tiles. They are roughly the same color we had chosen before, with some beautiful natural variation among them; no two are the same. And cut stone is a bit more environmentally friendly than ceramic tile, which takes a lot of processing. I have done tile before, for the floor underneath our wood stove in this house, so I'm in charge of this project. No hurry with it, but then again I want that in place before we move in. Which may be around the time school is out. Which isn't that far off!

6 comments:

RuthieJ said...

The sandhill cranes are beautiful. I haven't seen or heard any yet this spring.

I'm glad to here there's progress on your new house. I bet you can't wait to get moved in there.

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

I love the look of slate. Beautiful and natural. I'd like to put it in our entryway at home. Your photo of the sandhill cranes is really nice.

Anonymous said...

Wow! You could be in the new house that soon?? What a great thing to look forward to!

Anonymous said...

I'm so excited for you with your house updates. I know this is a very awesome thing for you to get this house completed.
momadness

Carolyn H said...

That sandhill crane photo is a good one! Any shot where you can tell what the bird is, is good enough on most days--especially when it's an unusual bird. Nice!

Carolyn H.

R.Powers said...

Nice shot! I haven't heard any for a while so I guess they've mostly headed your way!
Pretty exciting house news!