It’s Cold Here Too!

My goodness, this has been a miserably cold week!  A skim of ice on the lagoons this morning, ice on the lake between the 12th and 13th fairways on the golf course, ice on the walking paths!  And not a single cormorant, egret, anhinga, or heron to be seen on the island near the 11th green where we watched great blue heron nest-building amidst the flocks of cormorants last February.  The island was visibly crowded with cormorants just last week, but this cold snap has caused the birds to seek shelter somewhere, perhaps in the tangle of foliage at the base of the trees.

But at least we can be thankful that there isn’t any snow to shovel, and the forecast for the weekend promises warmer air to lure us out into the sunshine.  Hopefully, the birds will be back in force with the warmer temperatures next week.

I am completely bumfuzzled by a raccoon who has visited our outside trash can exactly two nights, once last January or February and once last week.  Twice, and only twice, we’ve been raided and the trash spread around as the pirate searched for the empty peanut butter container or almond butter container that was buried deep in the plastic garbage bags in our trash can.  If the peanut butter or almond butter container isn’t in the trash, the critter doesn’t bother.  But how does s/he know that on those two nights (and only those two nights) I included the empty nut butter containers inside the tied-off kitchen garbage bag which was placed inside the large garbage bag in the 30-gallon bin with the lid on tight?

About Tom

Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, Appalachian State University.
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2 Responses to It’s Cold Here Too!

  1. Billie says:

    Maybe you’ll get to meet this determined little peanut butter, almond butter lover one of these dark nights…

  2. Peter says:

    Let’s hope not. One night when we were camping, one of those things opened our cooler and was going through empty drink cans. Amy asked me if I was going to go out there. I said, “NO WAY!” Those things are mean!

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