Photo: A stone wall on the Air Line Trail in Chaplin, CT. I love old stone walls. I'm sure they have marvelous stories to tell if only we would take the time to stop and listen.

I have been so preoccupied lately by my mother’s hospitalization that I have not even thought about updating my journal. I will do that now.

Mother
Recapping my mother’s issues: she had surgery at the end of October for a small bowel obstruction. We thought that was the end of it. Not so. On January 2nd she was back in the hospital and on the 6th she was operated on again for the same problem. This time Dr. Anderson had to remove a foot of intestine that had withered to the diameter of a pencil. She spent three days in excruciating pain where I wasn’t sure from one day to the other if we were going to lose her.

She pulled through and was making a remarkable recovery and we even thought she would be released as early as tomorrow to a nursing home for rehab. That probably won’t happen for a while. She has developed blood clots in her legs and is being treated for that. She was so frightened and angry when I saw her on Saturday. Dr. Anderson and I were able to calm her down. We’ll get over this hurdle, too.

I didn’t see her Sunday because of the weather, but I did speak to our friend who did go to see her. She found my mother alert and looking good.

Nature
I have seen a flicker (of the woodpecker family) at the water and the suet cake. There is no way I can get a picture of that beautiful bird. Any attempt would be through glass and I know that won’t work.

We have two, sometimes three, deer that regularly visit the woods behind my house.

Then there is the squirrel. This morning it jumped on top of the bird feeder that was piled high with snow. It proceeded to clear the snow in the most efficient body-shoveling action I’ve ever witnessed. Then it slipped and went flailing off the feeder catching the perch in a desperate attempt not to fall to the ground. Unable to bring it’s entire body onto the perch it gave up and fell to the ground…all of 5 feet.

In the last two days the feeder has been visited to a huge flock of goldfinch…at least 18 to 24. It’s hard to count them when they keep fluttering around. There are also a goodly number of juncos, titmice (titmouses?), an occasional cardinal, and a few purple finches. Then there are the woodpeckers in four different sizes—the hairy, downy, red-bellied (whose belly is not red, it’s head is), and the flicker.

Finally, there is the weather.
The lowest temperature I had was -2°. Yesterday seemed like a heat wave with temps in the low 20s. I have had shades, curtains and drapes closed for days now and I am tired of living in a “cave.” I have not had “cabin fever” for 20 to 30 years now, but I think this year will be an exception if I can’t get out and walk and enjoy the outside seen. I do not count going shopping or making hospital visits…that’s not getting out.

Yesterday’s storm put down a total of 6.5 inches in two pulses. That brings the total in my driveway to 21.5 inches for the season. There’s a lot more to come, I’m sure.

So that’s what’s been going on. Let’s hope next time comes soon. Let’s hope next time I can tell you my mother is out of the hospital and rehabbing at the nursing home. Keep good thoughts in your heart for her.