I once sat beside a pond for more than an hour waiting for some people to arrive. They never came, but I did get to see the pond in a lot more detail than I ever thought I would. Carolyn, over at Roundtop Ruminations, has started a new temporary blog chronicling her ability to sit still in nature. She calls it her Sit Spot Journal. You, too, can join the Sit Spot Challenge, and I think most of the readers of this humble blog would appreciate the goals. I'm not sure why they chose the middle of winter to establish their challenge, but they're the ones in charge, not me. Lest ye forget, Peg at Orchards Forever (where Peg's thoughts drop like blossoms) is hosting the next edition of the Festival of the Trees. It's not too late to submit a link. Her deadline is February 27. She's looking for posts that deal directly or indirectly with fruit trees or orchards, but she says anything even loosely connected to that theme will be considered. Send your submissions to amberapple (at) gmail (dot) com. Future hosts are lining up, but there are still plenty of opportunities for you to play host as well. When you think the right time for you is approaching, send me or Dave (bontasaurus (at) yahoo (dot) com) an email. We'll help you as much as you'd like. For only the second time this whole winter I filled the bird feeders in backyard suburbia. We have not had the flocks of sparrows and groups of cardinals we have had in the past. Even the dozens of mourning doves that used to hang out in the cypress are missing. The temps have been see-sawing around the old home, and the few birds that survived the big December ice storm must be confused by now. Some mornings I hear cardinals singing, but most mornings are quiet. Once the weather gets itself sorted out, I expect we'll see things back to normal at the feeders. If the fates have smiled upon me then I am probably out at Roundrock as you read this. I'll be fooling with the game cameras, fencings more trees, and maybe even doing a little timber stand management by cutting some crowded trees. Or I may be sitting in one of the comfy chairs and contemplating the universe. Update: Curses, foiled again! A snow fell in Kansas City late Saturday night, and the weather reports suggested that the snowfall was stronger down Roundrock-way, so we have skipped the trip. I don't think we would have had any trouble driving down there, until we got to the part where we leave the paved road and drive the two miles over the sometimes-challenging gravel and dirt road. Even then, getting in might not have been a problem. Getting out? Different story. If the temps really do get above freezing as expected today (well above), that challenging road might become impassable. I'm already looking at the long-range forecasts for next weekend. A year ago I was writing about the lovely Tawny Tussocks. Long may she wave. Two years ago I was writing about stump water. What's Pablo reading now? I'm just finishing a novel called The Assault by Harry Mulisch, considered the Netherlands greatest living author, just in time for tomorrow night's group discussion of it. The novel begins in the last days of the Nazi occupation there and deals with the life-long consequences of the murder of a collaborator. I'll pick up The Historian where I had left it after this, but I'm pretty sure another novel obligation will intrude before I get that one finished. Missouri calendar:

• Flying squirrels begin breeding.
• Skins breed through late March.

Today in Missouri history:

• The Missouri legislature passed a bill on this date in 1859 authorizing a border-guarding military operation to control cross-state ruffian depredations with Kansas. It didn’t help.
• In 1870 the State College of Agriculture and the School of Mines are created by the General Assembly as branches of the University of Missouri.

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