Where Did March Go?

Music Report

We have a new CD, Bards & Blarney. It isn't available on CDbaby yet, but we have some here at Harper's Wood. Here's a link to the play list and some samples. You can also order the CD from that site.
Besides songs and tunes this CD has some accompanied poems and a story. Check it out!

Road Report
One of the rites of spring the Patch the Potholes. Here is one of our town heroes at work. As taxpayers, this is seen as an effort to try and hang on to our springs as long as possible. It also helps keep the front end alignment a little longer!

Amphibian Report
We had some leaves and brush to burn this past weekend. It's an attempt to clean up the yard and also to get rid of some ticks. It promises to be a bad year for ticks - well, maybe good for the ticks but bad for the rest of us. There were numerous cases of Lyme disease reported in January and February this year, very unusual.
While I was move debris I found this little friend. I think he likes to eat ticks. I hope he brings his whole family.

On the sonic side we now have spring peepers and some of those big daytime croakers.

Flower Report
The season is advancing about a month ahead of schedule, at least the trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens), also called Mayflower, indicate that. I read a British report about the timing of first flowering over there. They have the most complete records in the world. The estimate is that the spring flowers open about five days sooner for each degree increase in average annual temperature.

Tour Report

We're back (again) after a quick tour to Connecticut and Maryland.

In Ridgefield the library is hosting a month's long James Joyce event. Our Songs of the Irish Poets program (which we're renaming Bards & Blarney like the CD) fit right in. The literary bent continued for more concerts in Connecticut, Virginia, and Maryland. The warmup for the tour was at the Southworth Planetarium, in Portland. We did the Irish Poets program with the addition of some slide which were projected on the dome. Nobody fell asleep despite the reclining chairs (as far as we could tell anyway)
It was cosmic!

We're being rained upon mightily tonight. The miniature daffodils are in bloom; the big ones are demanding either some sunny days or an umbrella.

I got back to work on the house today - the old bit. There never seemed to be a good way to finish off the stairwell - a consequence of using full dimension, rough cut lumber. All the spiffy tools Julia got last fall have come into play for making a framed and paneled skirting. Since the framing is so variable it's easier to adjust the thickness of the trim so that the front lines up. The plan is to have the stairway and hall done by Friday in time to host Martyn Wyndham-Read after his concert in Damariscotta.