Invincible Summer

IN THE DEPTH OF WINTER,
I FINALLY LEARNED THAT
WITHIN ME THERE LAY AN
INVINCIBLE SUMMER.

~Albert Camus

Of Note: Winter gets a bit long here in the northwoods of Wisconsin. Sometimes it seems that it will never end. But then it does, and I can't seem to remember what snow is like. Cycling through year after year the seasons emulate the cycles of breathing. First the breath in, and the higher interlude. Then the breath out, and the lower interlude. Four parts. Four seasons. The frog, which was featured on these pages last summer, is back. I found it looking at me from the pond the other day--its head floating with its arms and legs dangling down in the water. It's glad spring has arrived so it can begin its own cycle of tadpole creation.

Today's Weather Report: Rain finally. We need it badly. The new garden over the dog's grave is now complete, and all the new plants were starved for water. Picture plants smiling and that's what the garden looks like today with the rain coming down. The five cats are not too impressed with the wet conditions, however, and can be found in piles of cats here, and there around the house. They figure they will just sleep the day away.

News You Can Use Snippet: For some reason, we did not know until now where penguins went when not breeding. That sure surprised me. We can send a man to the moon and probes to Mars but didn't know the life cycle of penguins. Turns out, after the breeding season, penguins headed out to the open sea and spent six months foraging for food. During that time they each traveled over 8,500 miles! In the last leg home, they covered an incredible 1,500 miles in one month. In our previous guesses about the beasties, we didn't even have the kind of food right or where they went--until now. The penguins cooperated with scientists by wearing half-ounce monitoring devices during their sojourn to the southern Indian Ocean where they gorged on crustaceans. This information will be important to conservationists, who have noted a decrease in the birds over the last twenty years.