MARCH

Here we are in the middle of the month of March 2008, the day before Palm Sunday, two days before St. Patrick’s Day, five days before the first day of spring, six days before the next full moon and the Feast of Purim, and eight days before Easter.

As many people know, for anybody younger than 95, this is the earliest Easter in our lifetime. According to the formula, Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring. That means Easter can only fall one day earlier in the year than it does this year! and that will happen in another 277 years (2285). We should all live that long, right? So enjoy it while you can – the earliest Easter in your lifetime!



I don’t know about you, but I’ll be glad to see the end of March. The last few weeks have been a real drag. Both Dickie and I have been struggling with the flu. From what I’ve heard, we’re not alone. Seems as if most of our relatives, friends and neighbors have been dealing with the same trouble. We can only hope the advent of spring will see an end to what appears to be a mild epidemic.

The consequences of not feeling so great have included a sharp drop in my photographic forays. I’ve still managed to get out a time or two, but I haven’t come up with quite as many good shots. Here’s one that I did like. If you can’t tell, that’s the head of an ostrich. He walked right up to me at the fence and would have taken a bite out of my camera if I hadn’t pulled back.



One day when Dickie was feeling like she had bested the flu (which she hadn’t unfortunately), we made a trip up to Alexander Valley north of Healdsburg. There are some dramatic views across the fields of mustard there in the vineyards just at this time of the year. This is one of the shots I took. You can hardly see it in the upper right-hand corner, but my real purpose in taking this photo was to include the moon.



The same day we traveled to Alexander Valley we also made a stop at the fish hatchery in Dry Creek Valley where there are always plenty of waterfowl – ducks, egrets, herons, cormorants and Canadian geese. That’s where I got this shot. There were actually two geese swimming together like mates. This one was in the lead:



This was a cormorant also there at the fish hatchery. He was sitting in the tiptop of an oak tree and wasn’t particularly bothered by my presence since I was far below. I probably took a dozen shots of him, including this one:



That’s it for the present. So long until next time!