Spring is here in Southern Maine! This is often the time when our lovely state has a split forecast, while the daffodils are in bloom by the seacoast, the ice has yet to go out in the Rangely Lakes region! I was walking one sunny day along our tidal river and noticed a small group of immature and mature Loons  starting to band together, the pull of the season upon them. Loons spend their adolescence and winters on the ocean, riding the stormy seas until the lakes have lost their ice in late April or early May.

 It feels as though I have traveled through time now that I am back on Maine soil! I left winter and came back to spring! (At least in southern seaside Maine...) The snow drifts are gone, the red wing blackbirds, robins and yes the funny looking woodcock have all returned in droves! My backyard is alive with the creaks, bleeps, and songs of these warm weather visitors. My gardens are humming with bees visiting my early snow bells and crocus. I am sure the witch hazel is in bloom in the wood swamps.

We had a bittersweet morning here on Cider Hill today....Three or our oldest trees had to go the way of the chain saw! Due to old age, poor planting conditions and the toll exerted on them by gradual climate change, our acer rubrum, Colorado Blue spruce and Sugar maple were all taken down this morning.

They were all in bad shape, planted at least a hundred years ago, the acer rubrum, was hanging on by a thread. It has graced the side of our road for a century, offering a buffer to the street traffic and shade for my garden.

Even though the snow lays deep, my gardens are always in the forefront of my mind. I pass my kitchen garden every day on my way to the outdoor water spigot that supplies my layer flock with their daily drink. A lone head or two of kale waves forlornly above the snow line, waiting for the warmer days of April. The Raspberry fence that is the western edge of my garden has only three wire rows left before it too is swallowed by the drifts! I eye the old apple tree in the background, surveying it's branches, determining which need to go in order to create the perfect shape for maximum apple production.