No Spring In Sight

A couple of bright, sunny days the middle of last week fooled me into thinking maybe, just maybe, spring was on the horizon. Not so, it seems. Mother Nature isn't about to let us off easy - we had about 6 inches of snow dumped on us Friday night and Saturday morning.

This photo was taken along the riverfront in downtown Newburgh, Indiana on the 27th of January 2010.



What a difference a few days make. The following photo was taken in the same place this morning, the 31st of January 2010. Notice the river is high with quite a lot of debris.




I'm not giving up, though. Surely Spring is just around the bend. Isn't it?

Waiting For Spring

Looking at the date of the last entry in Rambling Thoughts, I couldn't believe it has been over three weeks. January is a hard month for me - the holidays are over and it is just a bit too early to start checking for signs of spring. This is the time when I start projects that keep the hands busy and the mind occupied.

I have been doing some volunteer work at my local library. It is basically drudge work, but satisfying. It consists of sorting, de-stapling and filing donated genealogical research files. In most cases, the material was the work of someone who is now deceased.

This volunteer work has inspired me to do some organizational work of my own. When I moved to this house, I stuffed many boxes of papers and notebooks into a walk-in closet (actually the size of a good-sized room). With Christmas decorations, a bookcase full of books and photograph albums and out of season clothes, this room is stuffed. Now I want to go through all the boxes and notebooks to see what should be saved and what can be discarded as I also have the data on the computer. My family research files are contained in several filing cabinets in the garage and they will remain there.

So, if I don't post as often here, it's because I am caught up in sorting, filing, discarding and waiting for spring.

Shoe Tree

While driving through the bottoms near Ellis Park on this cold, sunny New Year's Day, we spotted something that made us giggle. At the point where Waterworks Road meets Weinbach, there is a Shoe Tree.

I've seen the Mystery Tree on Edisto Island, South Carolina, but had never seen a Shoe Tree. Don't you wonder who threw the first shoes into the tree? Did they come prepared with an old pair of shoes? How did other people know about the tree? Ah, the stuff of legends. If you want an enlarged view of this tree, click on the photo.

You can see other Shoe Trees here