I live in Central Massachusetts most of the time. We're in some kind of magnetic field for snow, which means that when Boston gets an inch (and gets mightily peeved about it), we get four feet. It's not a lake effect thing. I believe the area's under an ancient weather curse. Thus, in addition to the arctic temps and charcoal-colored skies, we're buried under great mounds of dirty snow. The main wildlife is mice trying to move into the house where it's marginally warmer.
As you might expect, we don't get a lot of wading birds in my neck of the woods. Or palm trees. So these things are terrifically exciting to me. It's February! There are palm trees, some of them growing coconuts. A pelican stands so close I could touch him or her. A heron loiters in my back yard! Little lizards lurk under the doorstep and try to scurry into the kitchen when I'm not looking. They seem not to realize that people live inside—people, those giant Godzilla things they normally run away from at the speed of light.
And then I get to go back to New England before the giant insects come out.
7 comments:
I've seen references to your living on an island, and not there's this lovely post. Please can you tell us where you are, even in the vaguest terms? Anyway, so glad you're enjoying some sun and warmth. Are you noticing an increase in productivity? Or are you distracted by all novelty and action all around?
I'm so glad you're enjoying my Warmer Climes posts. The place is Florida, and we're delighting in what I'm told is an unusually warm February. Definitely noticing an increase in productivity. Though there are lots of distractions, this is a good thing: It feeds the brain & stimulates the imagination.
Thanks! I expect another American would have been able to guess, but as a Brit I couldn't.
I feel you. We're coastal but my dad works in your neck of the woods and his family is in north central MA/NH border aka snow country. Florida looks lovely and exotic! My best friend, a FL native, thought I was weird for taking pictures of lizards. She didn't know we don't have such creatures up here in the wild!
Um. That's an egret, not a heron.
Helena, I'm not sure an American would have guessed, because there are lots of possibilities. QNY, you totally understand, the thrill,I see! Anonymous, I'm sorry for the poor communication: The pictures are in no particular order in relation to the text—not that I'm so great at identifying birds in any environment. This particular egret was not in my yard but in a pool next to a parking lot. I was too slow with camera to capture the heron in my yard.
Oh boy, you just reminded me of that black petrified snow, that semi-permanent slalom course with all its former beauty smacked out of it. Here we don't get enough snow for it to lose its innocence. But we do get herons and egrets and pelicans and no giant insects. You really should drop by sometime.
Post a Comment