overwintering

Did that photo reel feel like it was never going to end, just like winter? And yet, here we are sailing through April, where spring is really starting to kick off and green shoots are poking through my garden bed and wildflowers are pushing their welcome little faces through the cold forest earth to reach the ever-warming sun. And the birds, how their little chirping and calling sounds have been missed. 

Two large pileated woodpeckers spent a March morning with a mostly dead birch tree in the woods behind our house. They didn't hammer, they just walked up and down the bark and hopped on the ground around the base of the tree. They left and I haven't seen them since. But even their brief presence was so cheering.

Mid-February, I went down with most likely the virus that shall not be named. The girls had one or two symptoms of something, and then my husband had a day or two of being unwell. Then I finally succumbed and ended up with a viral sinus infection that lingered for weeks and weeks. As far as we know, this is the first time we had the virus and the first time in close to a decade that I had been sick with flu-like symptoms. But something I realized in my search to get rid of the congestion was how little I know of our bodies. I really know very little about anything medical or the human physiology. And I learned some things that I would never had to think about if I was always in a state of good health. 

But since late March, I have started to feel back to normal and have spent the last couple of weeks working on getting exercise by walking and eating well. And with longer days of sunshine and melting snow banks, it feels great to be healthy and strong again.