A River Runs Through It

The basement, that is. We've had about 3 inches of rain in the past week and after yesterday's rain, there are little rivers running through our basement. Thankfully most of them head straight to the sump pump and are gotten rid of. More troubling is the water that's beginning to ooze from the ceiling in the sunroom off our bedroom. It means that all the time Tom spent fixing the roof this past summer came to nought. There's still a major leak in the roof. Given that it's the original metal roof and the house is 99 years old, I suspect that we need to replace that roof. But that means that Tom is going to have to rip out the drywall and insulation and replace it and that's not going to be fun. After the heinous renovation project 2 years ago (we essentially ripped off the back of the house and rebuilt it and I was without a kitchen for 4 months), any thought of any kind of demolition work makes me want to run screaming from the house.

In nature news, all sorts of things are happening. The yard is greening up nicely (mostly weeds, I think, but hey, it's green), the forsythia is blooming, as is the quince and the periwinkle. The plum will probably be in full flower later is week, and the daffodils are blooming. I can see the tulip tree across the way and it too is blooming. Our neighbor's willow is greening. Spring is definitely here. I wish it were warmer and sunnier. Now that I've said that, we'll probably jump straight to 90 degrees and high humidity.

All winter we've had a hawk hanging around the neighborhood, but I haven't been able to identify it. It isn't a red-tail; it could be a broad-winged or a sharp-shinned hawk. Last Monday, it flew into a tree in our yard. I grabbed the binoculars, focused in on it, and danged if it didn't have a snake hanging from its talons! I feel sorry for the snake, but I've never seen a hawk catch a snake before. It eventually flew away, taking the snake with it. On Friday, I saw the hawk again, perched in another tree in our yard. And, it looked like it was building a nest. I've noticed a collection of small branches at the top of one of the trees and it clearly isn't a songbird nest. I hope the hawk takes up residence there. It would be a good omen, I think.

I volunteered at the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge a number of years ago, helping with the winter bird count. It was a great experience because I got to learn how to hold birds and better identify them. On the last day of the study, I was the first out to the mist nets and, lo and behold! There was a hawk in the net! We put it in the hawk bag and after all the other birds were identified, weighed and measured, and banded, we brought out the hawk. It was a female sharp-shinned hawk. She was very beautiful. The best part is I got to let her go. It was an amazing experience to hold a hawk, then let it go and watch it soar away. I think a piece of my heart went with her. And I still get teary-eyed thinking about it, even though it's been 14 years. Looking back, I think it was a defining moment in my life.

In knitting news, I've knit about 3 inches on the sock. While working on the ribbing this morning, I dropped 2 stitches (see, the stitches did jump off the needles!) and eventually got them back on and looking proper. It's almost time to start the short row heel, as I don't like my socks to be that long. No spinning recently, but I do gaze longingly at the spinning wheel every time I go past it.