{"id":32774,"date":"2025-04-02T05:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=32774"},"modified":"2025-04-01T15:10:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T19:10:28","slug":"april-fools-day-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/02\/april-fools-day-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"April Fool\u2019s Day 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

No thirty inches of snow!\u00a0 No ice storm!\u00a0 No baseball sized hail stones!\u00a0 April Fool\u2019s Day didn\u2019t punish us here in New England.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bloomin\u2019 miracle.\u00a0 It\u2019s a pretty nice day so Camera Girl handed me her \u201cHoney Do\u201d list.\u00a0 The one item I\u2019m stalling on is walking the property with a garbage bag and a stick with a nail on it picking up all the trash that has blown into the wooded areas.\u00a0 As Sergeant Snorkel told Beetle Bailey, \u201cIf it don\u2019t walk, if it don\u2019t talk, police it!\u201d\u00a0 But it\u2019s annoying.\u00a0 It makes me feel very uncharitably toward the whole human race when I see what kind of stuff they toss out the windows of their cars.<\/p>\n

So, I was driving down the main east-west road in Dunwich in a section that is full of blind curves and rolling hills when up ahead about a quarter of a mile I see something in the road.\u00a0 I see it\u2019s moving but it\u2019s too short to be an adult human so I slow down.\u00a0 \u201cCould it be a child or is someone sitting or kneeling on the road?\u00a0 And then I can see.\u00a0 It\u2019s a huge tom turkey with his feathers and wings all puffed up.\u00a0 He\u2019s in the oncoming lane and he\u2019s staring me down!\u00a0 So, I creep past him looking for his harem.\u00a0 But I couldn\u2019t see them.\u00a0 Either they were shielded by the trees or they were gone.\u00a0 But Tom was sticking to his guns and wasn\u2019t afraid of me.\u00a0 So, I left him there and in my rearview I could see him still standing there like some blithering idiot trying to act as crossing guard to an invisible flock.<\/p>\n

After cutting down the raspberry canes last week I\u2019ve been hoping to see some leaves sprouting up from the dirt.\u00a0 So far nothing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But the hellebores are coming up.\u00a0 More confidently in the sunnier areas and tentatively in the shade.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And likewise for the daffodils.\u00a0 We have three different stages of development depending where they are on the property.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The hostas near the house have just broken ground.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And this little crocus is bravely showing its colors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So winter is climatically over.\u00a0 I will now stow the shoe spikes, snow shovels, ice scrapers, snow blower, snow boots and all the rest of the paraphernalia that litters the mud room and move forward into the growing season.\u00a0 And now that the ground is completely thawed, I can begin things like fixing fences, gates, damaged wood and all the other weather-beaten components of my poor house and adjacencies.<\/p>\n

And I will move the lawn mowers to the front of the shed and contemplate that fateful moment when I drive the mower over the grass for the first time this year.\u00a0 Right now, it\u2019s unimaginable.\u00a0 Some of the grass is overly long and soaked with winter water in the soggier areas of the west field.\u00a0 Some areas are worn away by snow, ice and rain.\u00a0 Other areas are dead and brown.\u00a0 Cementing the whole thing over sounds like a better solution.\u00a0 But in just a very few days the darn thing will revive and life will return.<\/p>\n

And in honor of this projected return of life I have put out ten preying mantis egg sacs.\u00a0 I purchased them from an American company that said they are Chinese mantids.\u00a0 Well, why not?\u00a0 Apparently, they\u2019re already outcompeting the Carolina mantis right here in New England.\u00a0 Who am I to stand in the way of Darwinian selection?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The only thing left to cap off the beginning of spring is the reappearance of the pond turtles.\u00a0 They have not made their reappearance but Camera Girl will keep me apprised of their status.<\/p>\n

\u201cO brave new world that has such people in it!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No thirty inches of snow!\u00a0 No ice storm!\u00a0 No baseball sized hail stones!\u00a0 April Fool\u2019s Day didn\u2019t punish us here in New England.\u00a0 It\u2019s a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3366,818,1263],"tags":[2979,3341,164,4491],"class_list":["post-32774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-life-in-dunwich","category-ocf","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","tag-april-fools-day","tag-dunwich","tag-new-england-spring","tag-the-compound"],"yoast_head":"\nApril Fool\u2019s Day 2025 - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/02\/april-fools-day-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"April Fool\u2019s Day 2025 - 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