The Dark Days Are Over

It's Feb 2nd.... and while that doesn't make it spring it does mean that the really short days are over. I noticed last evening that at 6 p.m. there was still light in the sky. This morning Hubby and the girls just left for school and there is light in the sky. I really like the fact that the days are getting longer.

Our living room faces due South and so in the day while the sun is still low in the sky the room is bathed in glorious sunshine. It makes for a wonderful feeling to sit where that sun shines full on me and get the benefits of vitamin D. I spin and feel that warmth on me and patiently wait till spring when I can do the same outdoors on the deck.

The thing that I don't like about February is the fact that the snow is melting and leaving treacherous ice in its wake. There's not a place you can walk without feeling like your feet are going to fly out from under you and land you on your back with a knob forming on the back of your head.

The other thing I don't like about this time of the year is the poo. It is everywhere. Dog poo, in frozen chunks shows its disgusting lumps through the white of the snow and just grosses me out. Llama poo is everywhere in great towering piles. Alpaca poo spreads out from one spot to another like a wave of algae on an infested lake. Sheep poo is just a murky squashy mess to walk in.... it is everywhere... you can't avoid it. The cats bury theirs but you can smell it under the deck waiting to make it's spring debut until I can pour bleach (two or three containers) over it to lessen the stench. Why can't animals use a toilet like people.... then it just disintegrates underground.

Hubby wants a little tractor so that he can pile up the poo to compost and be turned to soil. I'm beginning to think this wouldn't be such a bad idea. I've never had this much poo to deal with.....

I remember one of the first water colours that I painted was of seagulls on the rocks by the sea shore and I painted their droppings and all. The one thing I have discovered is that people do not want to buy paintings where poo is prevalent. We like to gloss over the fact that faeces are a fact of life and if you don't like it you had better not farm or bird watch either. Many times I have been watching chickadees come to our feeder and thought how gross the feeder looks with all the bird poo on it. Even the chicken coop is a mass of poo this time of the year. Makes you almost long for some snow to cover it up....

The fact is that I like to shovel the stuff in the evenings when it is frozen but not frozen in to the snow yet. That way you can shovel it up and away without gagging from the smell. Frozen poo is much better to deal with than soft thawed decaying stuff.

February is heart and stroke month. It's Valentine's month. It's roses and get romantic month but I think it should be ice and poo month! Can't wait till March.