I suppose you could call it a cacophony, the Canada and snow geese are flying between the river and the lake just north of us and the sky is practically dark with them. The game dept. says there are hundreds of blue geese on the river and lake now but I apparently can't tell them from the Canada.

When we get a break in the incessant honking of the geese if you listen carefully you can hear the eerie call of the vanguard of the sandhill cranes. They are so high that they are hard to find and they are also stupid for coming back this early. While there is open water at the river I can't think there would be much food available there. The cranes gleam corn from the harvested fields and the snow is melting from them so perhaps they can find lunch there.

We always have had a year round population of ducks and geese at our lake on the edge of town, domestic breeds that someone left there years ago and they have multiplied. This year there aren't any left. The coyotes have discovered them and while the lake was frozen solid they managed to make off with the last of the locals. The visiting geese seem to be more wary and apparently haven't been decimated by the coyotes.

The snow has melted off the east end of the vegetable garden and the parsnip tops are visible but it would take dynamite to get them out of the ground. Hard to beat a newly dug spring parsnip, so sweet after wintering. We even have a recipe for a cake made out of freshly dug parsnips. Uses very little sugar getting most of its sweetness from the parsnips. Amusing, people who say they don't like parsnips seem to love the cake and won't believd you when they find out it was made from grated parsnips among other ingredients.

Maybe with all the bird activity and the snow melting from part of the garden, spring will really get here someday. Am getting very tired of winter, it has outlived it's welcome. Cather wrote something about winter hanging on too long and looking shabby, well, that fits here.