The hummingbirds have begun their journey north from Central America.  When I started checking  Journey North online about ten days ago, there were very few sightings along the gulf coast.  Last week the tailwinds were favorable for bringing birds across the gulf and an explosion of sightings were reported along the coast of Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.  Citizen observers posted their excitement upon seeing their first male ruby-throats arrive at the feeders.  I bought our first bag of white sugar today but my feeders won't come out of storage for another ten days...........maybe.  We covered the raised seed bed in the garden with black plastic because of the frost warnings for the next couple of nights.  We had an inch of snow last night and by Wednesday, the high will be only 34 degrees.  I covered the sweet pea bed with straw.  We're in for a cold 4-5 days but it shouldn't hurt the seeds now.  Cliff set the grow-light in the dining room.  The basil smiles with contentment.  I made three seed starter blocks with Italian flat-leaf parsley and have more seed packets waiting for seed blocks.  I'm really hoping this is the only snow for the rest of winter.  Spring is just days away.

The  waking hour here sounds like a nursing home with all the throat clearing, coughing, and wheezing.  I'm at the end of this acute infective traecheobronchitis and Cliff is over the worst of his but has another week before he'll feel human again.  It's been an expensive ride with out-of-pocket Rxs, three bottles (so far) of cough syrups, lozenges, juices, teas, lemons, and kleenex. Cliff cancelled his Daytona Bike Week plans due to this miserable virus.  The Hell's Angel will still make a bike trip around the first of April. 

We've been watching The Kindness Diaries with Leon Logothetis on Netflix.  Leon was a successful broker with a prestigious firm in London but gave up his job, the money, his home to follow his dream.  In his travels, he discovered that people are so open to helping those in need.  All one must do is open the heart.  News media reports so much worldly unrest that people seem blind to the kindness and love that is around us if we only open our eyes and hearts.