My Quiet Little Town.....

Now, I live in one of those tiny towns that you can pass through and never notice. We are here because our family business, a grain elevator, is located just across the street. How I got here in the middle of the night, is another story for another time, but here I have been for 46 years now. We raised our family of three sons here and now the grandkids are almost grown too. G'ville has changed little over the years. Oh we've had a few people move in and out and of course lost many of the old timers. We, who were the young newbies, are now the older crowd. But, coming from a background in a college town with all the activity that offers, G'ville was a very lonely place for a twenty something with three small boys. But I got busy with family and helping in a new business and time has seemed to fly. School functions with the kids, going back to school myself, a part time job, friends, and occasionally working at the elevator kept me busy. As my family grew and left home the grandkids arrived and we repeated all those activities. Now the last two will graduate from high school in a few months and head off to college and my world will once again become quieter. As I was sitting at my computer this morning I glanced out the window and suddenly realized that this little town has all sorts of activity that I was missing. I think maybe we have to have some age to appreciate the smaller things. I know during those twenty something years I had no time to notice the small things around me. Outside my window there is all sorts of activity going on....for example that old blackbird (not my favorite bird but...) What does he know that the fat robins don't? They pick in the yard looking for food but he stays off to the side poking through a pile of leaves under a roadside bush. Are the bigger worms there? On the bird feeder a cardinal is seeking the favored seeds. Now those brilliant birds are always a joy to spot, but have you ever noticed they seem a bit selfish, squawking at the little wrens who want to share a perch on that feeder? His mate sits quietly on a pine branch. Doe she have to wait until he is filled? Scrambling across the split rail fence is a pair of squirrels. Are they courting? Maybe an old married pair? Will they have babies this spring? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to jump from tree branch to tree branch with such agility? All of a sudden all birds take quick flight and the squirrels leap for higher branches. The golden girls have invaded my yard. In our family we have three Golden Retrievers and in this small town with no leash law they are free to run and play together. One dog is older, at twelve years of age, and the other two are one and two but they all play as if there are youngsters. Like children they seem to meet early in the morning to play together. Yes, G'ville is a bustling little town.......

Looking for Spring

The older I get the less I tolerate the long cold winters of the Illinois prairie. Long ago I loved spending hours outside building a snowman or a snow fort in the yard, never too cold not to beg for just another hour to play. Then came the walks on a snowy day with a good friend or special beau...soft flakes falling on face and hair. Later, the fun of small children, themselves delighted with a snowman in the front yard, getting wet and cold but warming up with mittens and scarves dry and warm from the clothes dryer. ready to go again. More fun with grandchildren, but maybe I will stay inside and man the dryer for those wet mittens and scarves. I'll have hot chocolate for you when you can stand it no longer. After all I'm a grandma now.

Now. at 71, I don't find the same joy in a snowfall I once did. Oh I can still appreciate the beauty of soft flakes but also the cold seems to seep into my bones and I find myself earlier and earlier doing my spring ritual, looking for the first signs of springs arrival.

I will admit to waiting anxiously for that old groundhog to make his prediction. This year he did not see his shadow so that meant spring would soon appear? What happened to him? Perchance he is aging also and forgot his duty? Whatever his excuse he bungled it this year.

This has been an unusually long hard winter here on the prairie with many snowfalls and blustery winds. We live seven miles from the nearest small town and the snowplow slowly makes it's way out to us. Blizzard conditions, which have occurred all too often this year, sometimes require a bulldozer to break through the drifts along the open roads.

But two weeks ago, while sitting in front of this computer, I glanced out the window and saw the first robin to make it's way to G'ville. What a fat robin, searching the ground for any hint of food. He must have spent the winter in a warm and plentiful spot. Ah, spring is coming. Early in the mornings I can hear a hint of birdsong outside my still dark bedroom window. Soon that song will wake me at dawn every day.

So I grab a coat as it's still below freezing this morning and go outside to do my final search for signs of spring and yes, there just outside the front of the house is the confirmation...green sprouts are making their way up and out of the ground. Last fall I planted a multitude of spring bulbs and they are showing tender sprouts in the still cold ground. Soon there will be daffodil's, tulips, hyacinths and the tiny crocus. Then I will know spring has arrived. I will look back fondly at some of the events of this winter of 2011 but ahhhhhh just smell that fresh air.