Classy Neighbor

Yesterday the temperature hit 80 degrees and reduced Lake Esau's ice to something like a layer of slush floating on the water.  Then last night the year's first thunderstorm moved through.  Most of the heavy weather went south of Presque Isle, providing a dramatic lightning show as I sat reading in bed.  My area received only a few minutes of heavy rain.  But that must have been the last straw for our ice.  By morning Lake Esau was completely clear, with ducks swimming back and forth in front of my home.

My daffodils are starting to swell, and I expect I'll have bulbs in bloom within a day or two.  Happily, daffodils are supposed to be at the bottom of the average deer's list of favorite foods.  I know, a hungry deer will eat anything.  But until experience proves me wrong, I'll look forward to these wonderful flowers surviving my nocturnal visitors.

Speaking of visitors, at 5:30 this afternoon I went out onto my back porch and flushed a bald eagle!  He had been sitting on a branch of a poplar tree which overhangs the lakeshore.  I think he was keeping an eagle eye (so to speak) on the shallows, waiting for dinner to swim by.  (Lake Esau has some very large fish.)  When I opened the door he cast me a disapproving look, launched himself, dropped toward the water, and then wheeled north out of sight.  What a magnificent creature!  I have a very classy neighbor! •••