WELCOME NEWS: We are so in the dead of winter in mid-February,
and yet … hope?

Mary Maxine Weis of Emporium phoned Monday to tell us her snow
drops are blooming. Of course, way down “south” in Emporium it’s
practical tropical compared to Bradford and, as if to confirm that,
Mrs. Weis reports that the flowers didn’t have any snow to grow
through as they emerged.

Mrs. Weis reports, too, that her son lives in Troy and had seen
big flocks of northbound geese.

Meanwhile, we heard from Earl Kilmer in “southern” McKean County
late last week who had just seen his first robin of the season.

Earl, who lives in what he calls Toby Springs (between Lantz
Corners and Mount Jewett), is a longtime employee at Kinzua Bridge
and tells us he recently saw a bald eagle on Lindholm Road. We know
they’ve been spotted in the open waters of Allegheny Reservoir but
would be pretty far afield in the bridge area – so we’re
impressed.

But that wasn’t our first robin report: Duey Geitner of Ridgway
wrote Thursday: “It looks like the warm weather we had these last
few days has confused Mother Nature a little because we had a robin
in our yard this morning. It looked pretty healthy and nice and
plump after finding its way back up north. I hope the geese are
also planning their return soon.”

Meanwhile from Anchorage, Alaska, we hear from Larry Fay: “After
reading all the mid-winter ‘signs of spring’ in the recent RTS
columns, I thought I’d add mine. While clearing an elderly friend’s
driveway last week, I noticed pussy willows on one of his southern
facing trees. It was 4 below zero at the time, and needless to say,
I was shocked. I even went back to peruse the phenomenon, because
we had just experienced a month long cold spell of -22 to -30
degree weather.”

“At the end of the cold spell, we had three days of rain and
temperatures as high as 50. Evidently this is what caused the tree
to ‘bloom.’ Lest anyone think that Alaska is becoming a banana
belt, my brother Bo has seen his thermometer dip to -68 this winter
in Eagle, Alaska, and I’m getting ready to shovel another six
inches of snow that brings Anchorage’s total snowfall so far this
winter to 70 inches.”