A Good Friday

I was awoken to the sound of birds.  Not my two Lovebirds chirping for breakfast.  No, these were outside and very close and not familiar to me.  What a thrill to see a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers!  (You know that I am "for the birds" in the Northwoods when I am happy for a new sighting!)  They are not rare around here but I have not actually seen any in my 2 1/2 years in residence.  They are crow-sized, mainly black with a few white markings, and act like woodpeckers drumming on dead trees.  The exciting part is that they have a bright red mohawk of feathers on the top of their heads.  Wow!  I see where they have been when I am hiking in different parts of the county - they hollow out a tree, leaving a huge pile of wood shavings at the base.  It is distinctive.  Well, now I've seen Pileated Woodpeckers for myself!

It was also a Good Friday at church today at noon.  There was a reading of the Passion of Christ by several people.  I was the voices for Peter and Pilate.  Obviously, I was the last one to sign up.  Nonetheless, the church was full and we were glad we went. 

Spring is in the Air!

The sun was shining brightly in a cloudless sky as I walked on my daily constitutional. Spring is definitely in the air...a small woolly worm was crossing the road...the pussy willows are showing its buds.  I can forget that the ice on the lake is still thick enough to drive on.  And the snow in the woods is still knee-high.  What is the saying?  Hope springs eternal.  I came home and looked at my seed catalogs.

The Happy Couple

Our church held a "Faithfully Yours" marriage encounter all day yesterday.  There were lots of good sessions.  The one I really looked forward to was renewing our vows.  This was the first time to renew them since the original time May 22, 1976. 

The bride wore white (turtleneck).  The groom wore a formal flannel shirt.  Folks, this is March in the Northwoods.

The photographer got artsy.                     We do have a silhouette photo like this after our wedding.

Lady 'Canes

The Hayward High School girls, that's right, girls hockey team won the championship game over Onalaska (near LaCrosse).  That makes them number 1.  All the schools (all grades) took a couple of days off to go to Madison to watch the final game.  An anonymous donor picked up the tab for the bus so the students only had to pay their way into the game.  The nickname of the schools is the Hurricanes (don't ask) but most of the time, especially in the newspaper headlines, they are referred to as 'Canes.  This is very exciting for a little town like Hayward.