Despite the usual slogging through January and February (and it is a slog every year) March has nearly roared its way out. I catch myself questioning the same thing every year, “Where is all that wind coming from? Has it always gotten this windy?” I’ve yet to get a satisfactory answer. Probably because there isn’t one.

I also haven’t figured out the mystery of the robins. For about a week in February they visited our yard in droves. No one I talked to could remember ever seeing them in such numbers. They hungrily munched through cedar berries and all the scattered bird seed meant for the other birds that generally visit this time of year. I think some stale cereal disappeared as well. And, honestly, seeing them in such huge numbers was borderline creepy. Can you imagine thinking of robins and a Hitchcock movie in the same category? That’s just wrong.

No matter how stealthily I moved I wasn’t able to get a good picture of the phenomenon. They were simply too fast for me.

Squirrels also number among the usual visitors. What was unusual here was that there was just one. My folks go through bags and bags of peanuts feeding the little moochers. We open the back door with caution.

When not shoveling snow other things happened, like receiving this very nice chair for my 25-year anniversary of working for the college.

And hopeful harbingers of spring showed up (other than the creepy droves of robins that is).

So now I’m tending carefully to these wee bits.

I’ve more in the trays—some varieties just now peeping through the potting mix. I’ve got the seed trays under a mix of warm and cool fluorescent lights but the seedlings are still a bit leggier than I’d like. I’m thinking I probably need a span of four light tubes rather than the two I’ve got. I’ll know in a few weeks how well this is going to work out.