You Turkey

Saw this rafter of turkeys up behind the athletic fields at the old Hazard Street School site.   Several toms in the gang and hens galore.  Didn't want to upset them too much by getting real close, but they're a high-strung bunch, and any step I took to approach their red zone, heads would pop straight up and away they'd move as one.  

Even so, they were pretty nonchalant as they rather ambled down the side of the baseball field along Hatherleigh, then brought a few cars to a halt as they crossed  Century. 

 

One poor hen had earlier on flown over the fence but was walking on pace with the gang with only a fence between them.  When they got to the intersection and she to the high backstop behind homeplate, she just started pacing two or three steps to her right then the same to her left ever more quickly as the gang moved across the road.  She kept accelerating the to-and-fro until I could see the panic.  

I figured I had better do something, being the only one around (other than those in the cars).   Walking toward her increased her apparent anxiety until my posing threat tipped the scale against keeping visual contact with the rest of the rafter.  

She moved toward the third base line and discovered the lower fence; a few running steps and a roll of wings and she was up and across the street successfully reunited.  

It's all happening in Solvay, folks!

Listen to the Solvay High School Band - Jazz Combo play "BIRDLAND"

Winter / Spring

  Solvay is full of little surprising gifts.  For instance, we often see deer about while on a drive, or eating our gardens in the late evening. Their nuisance value can surely seem to  outweigh that of their contributions to the whole of beauty - but that's a fleeting feeling.   Other times the setting and the spirit and the timing simply come together and "click" such as happened to me in January.  Can you spot the other one?

  Today is so remarkably dull, gray, and streaked with rain and mud that I (almost) wish for that kind of snow.   It would be a visual feast at best, however, and I'm satisfied with discovering 

 

 the tease of bulbs popping through the mulch and late autumn leaves still on the ground.  Of course, all of this promise gets the juices flowing fast as maple sap and evenings are happily frittered perusing seed catalogs and exchanging  ideas for the warmer seasons.  More time is spent in the gardening section of the various H.I. stores and I guess in a weekend or two, we'll be heading out to the various nurseries to browse their perennials.  

I realize, of course, the prematurity of all of this.  We've been too many years here to believe the last snow has fallen and we can get on with easy living.  Still, it's a small joy to come to a stop sign and actually be able to stop somewhere this side of the middle of the intersection!   Any severe weather from now on, at least, should be the punctuation and not the content.   I'm ready!