10:40 a.m.
What a racket! The house is surrounded by birds. I opened the window to have a better listen, wondering if there was a flock of geese in the field right next to the road. But no, it’s a flock of blackbirds that has taken over the trees all around our house, and they are singing up a storm.

When I came upstairs this morning and glanced out the window, I saw snow on the branches. It is all melted now, but two hours ago it was beginning to cover everything. Emil would not heed my advice to take a warmer jacket, and left wearing his spring windbreaker.

I left peeled potatoes in a pot of water on the stove, and a cooked roast in the turned-off oven, and went with Scott at suppertime to buy a calf near Perigord.

We went cross-country and had to turn around twice and retrace our route. But it was a pleasant drive. We got up into hillier country, but where the farmers have decimated the trees even more than they have around here. There are virtually no trees at all on many fields. The land is flat and there are no stones, and Scott says the topsoil is rich and deep, but now there are no trees. It’s horrible to see.

Then it got hilly and every road curved and dipped. Very pretty.

That black cow has been scratching against a tree at the end of our driveway all morning. She must have a hell of an itch. She is there again, alone. She’s the one that was scratching so determinedly on the tractor tire rim the other day, too.

2:41 pm
I have gotten caught up in the kitchen, making bread, washing dishes, sweeping the floor, prepping for lentil chili and a spaghetti-sausage casserole, listening to a call-in show on the radio about non-pesticide-treated healthy lawns.

4:04 p.m.
I must get out of this f’ing kitchen!! It has gotten hot now, and I feel clammy all over, and like I have been cooking all day. I guess I have.

These sandhill cranes were beside the road when we went to Wynyard to buy organic wholewheat flour the other day. And my, does that flour make beautiful, tasty bread. I’ve outdone myself with this batch.

Don’t you wish I had a more fancy camera? I do.