Spring skips a day or two
Less than an inch here. The Neeleys got two feet in NW Pennsylvania. 
Bradford Pears
Hadn’t realized the Bradford Pear would get this big. Nor did the city. The cafe is the Recreation Center (opposite Bike Works), where Erin says you get the best chili dog in Fredericksburg. Friend Morgan of Tree Fredericksburg says they are not good trees (despite their beauty); they tend to split and are very messy. “Bradford Pears are a disaster… grow way too tall to be planted under power lines!”
Entering Fredericksburg after crossing the Rappahannock River by the Chatham Bridge. That’s Saint George’s on the left, behind the Old Stone Warehouse, then Bike Works in the middle, and William Street as the avenue of Bradford Pears. Below, having turned right onto Sophia Street then looking back over the river into Stafford County, see Chatham Manor up on the hill, where Lincoln addressed the troops and Walt Whitman served as a Civil War hospital volunteer.
Bright sun early but snow forecast
All those pink buds turned black two nights later when we went down to 24 degrees.
St David’s Day
March 1st 2017, a drizzly morning after several days of unseasonably warm weather.
Keeping the facts straight
Here is Jupiter, from the bottom of the garden at Sunset Corner, home of Uncle Hughie, Auntie Ceturah, John, Chris, and Ruth. (Photos kindly sent this week by Helen.) I must have been told as a child who it was, but over the years I somehow remembered it as Karl Marx. At some point I must have wondered aloud what Marx was doing at the bottom of that garden. Now furnishing hard evidence setting me straight is Helen, below, with a group of her colleagues in Highgate Cemetery, Islington. Thank you, Helen!
In the bleak mid-winter
The day of the bleak mid-winter tea was one of several this month reaching 70 degrees.
After cataract surgery
Wildview camera
Didn’t catch much with the Wildview camera this month, other than myself going to check the camera from time to time. Had been hoping for a fox I’d seen go this way. But just the one squirrel, barely visible, on the small tree at lower right. That’s Sandy’s barred owl nesting box at upper left, still owl-less after all these years.
Unusual Snow Day
I measured 2.75″ on the patio table at 7am, but nothing on the patio. It had stuck to everything except hard ground. The county closed the schools anyway, so that meant the nearest middle school track was available for public use. I went to run about 10am. The track surface was mostly just damp, and almost dry in places by 11am.
