I can feel it in my body.  Spring is getting closer and closer.  This winter weather is almost balmy, but the temps do go down to zero yet, or in the onesies.  The sun is warm now, and rings are beginning to form around the bases of tree trunks, where the snow is melting down from the darkness of the trunks.  Although putting on boots is still a must for going outside, I often tell myself I don't need a coat on for this.  And just go out there to feed the chicken, empty the compost bucket, take out the recyclables, etc. 

New beef suet has been hung high in the oak tree for the big pileated woodpeckers, and smaller suet cakes for the little ones.  Big flocks of tiny birds are all over the ground, picking up the bull thistle seed we have thrown on top of the snow.  Red polls, titmice, purple finches, goldfinches, and sometimes other kinds.  It's hard to identify them because there are so many, and they keep hopping around, and they are so small.  All the normal winter birds are here too, black-capped chickadees and the woodpeckers.  But I haven't seen any grosbeaks yet.  Bluejays horn in for the feed too, as do gray squirrels and red squirrels.

And I feel rested and well.  Maybe I needed a long winter sleep for optimum health and muscular refreshment.  It's good to feel good.  I haven't listed all the seeds I have on hand on this blog yet, and that's because I'm still thinking seriously about not ordering anything from the seed catalogs this year.  If I start, it will turn into a bigger order than I want or need.  I, of course, am making the usual pledge to do things differently this year in gardening.  I must stop the weeds for once and for all, from taking over.  I know it's the heat and the bugs that stop my weeding efforts mostly, but it is also the rampant, I say rampant, nature of the weeds, whose growth rate becomes phenomenal in June and July.  I am seriously thinking of planting things in large bags of purchased, deweeded dirt with holes in the bottom, laying these bags side by side in rows, and MOWING the grass and weeds between them.  Would that work?  I also plan to build a garden tractor cage for my chicken, let her work the soil between rows, eating weed seeds, etc. between rows, fertilizing, and moving the cage daily.  I'm sure she would be a happy little farmer for me.  She's had a very nice winter in the greenhouse and is round as a butterball. 

I was thinking that I should stop commenting on my political opinions, as politics is a bothersome subject to me, but after reading this morning what I wrote yesterday, it seems like I make a lot of sense to myself.  So what?  But today is sunny and bright, and one more week of February brings March into the picture.  I am more determined than ever to continue to give things away to Good Will or donate to thrift stores.  One of these days I'm going to start loading up books and will soon have another load of glassware.  I have been bringing 2 boxes a week on average. 

I remember spending time with my great grandmother when I was very young.  Her house was as spare of belongings as I someday hope to be.  She scrubbed the floor every single morning.  She took ashes from a covered pail, put a scoop into a bucket, added water and mixed it together.  She used a mop to scrub every bit of wooden floor surface throughout the house.  I, watching her in amazement, could hardly wait to examine the floor after she was done.  I thought it ought to be dirty, what with the ashes and all, but there remained a clean, hard, somewhat tacky surface that had a slight sheen.  I doubt any bugs or germs could have survived that scrubbing, and I was so pleased, I danced around for her on it.  Now I also see how environmentally friendly it was, too.  She was pure Norwegian.

But the rest of this day is waiting for me to see what I can do...