Leap Day

A familiar trill rang through the afternoon yesterday as I was outside. Two black birds high in the early budded sugar maple chatted and sang a true anthem of spring. Their notes bring me back to the thrill of adventuring in the boggy meadows behind the house I grew up in on the North Shore of Massachusetts. There were flocks of blackbirds there every spring - and the songs they sang along with the wind through the reeds and the cattails created a magical soundscape that's etched into my DNA as an old timey recording would have been etched into a wax cylinder. This being New England - the moment I hear said true anthem of spring - there's 7 inches of snow on the way today - one of the more significant snow falls this season since the freak storm on Halloween. At times like this - I am reminded not to take my reverie too seriously and to keep in mind the admonition of Louis Armstrong....

Life is a jazz riff baby,
The Gods are laughing at us.

To hear a clip of the red wing blackbird - follow this link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Happy Leap Day!