Reading upstairs one sunny afternoon this week, I became aware of a recurrent motion outside the window. Birds were jumping down off the roof—I could hear them up there, and sometimes see their tails while they waited their turn—and swooping down past the window. Then zooming off to perch a moment in the neighbors’ tree. Then coming back and doing it again.
It was a bunch of overwintering robins. They weren’t feeding or singing or puffing themselves up. Just having a grand old time playing jump and swoop. At one point, one of them even went around the side of the house and landed a couple of resonant pecks on the siding.
My husband was watching their antics from his chair downstairs, as entertained as I was. Neither of us had seen robins carrying on like this before. They were as goofy as wound-up teenagers and made wonderful patterns in the light. Perhaps the flock had gotten into some fermented berries.
On Lexington this week, I saw something else I haven’t seen before: a seated snowman. We had some packing snow a while back, but apparently not enough for the customary three-ball American snowman. So the kids who built this one made do with two. In some countries, a two-ball snowman is complete, but around here it’s a bit of a poser. The kids solved the problem with a couple sticks that were longer than the sticks they used for the arms, and made it into a snowman sitting down. They finished it with a smiling face, a pointy carrot nose, and a pinecone topknot.
When I first caught a glimpse of the round little creation, I mistook it for a snow hen. And since that day, the idea of making such a snow creature has stayed with me. The snow since then hasn’t been packing snow, though, so no hens at our house.
Yesterday, at Thurston Pond, I saw yet another new phenomenon. Someone had cleared a perimeter loop around the pond, and a solitary skater was gliding pensively along. So far, so normal. The pond is thoroughly frozen, and this is lovely, tranquil winter activity. The wild stuff was happening at the other end of the pond. Three adults were also skating the perimeter, and two of them were pushing strollers!
They were moving right along, too, and no, the strollers had not been fit with skis. These were regular street-model strollers. The party was backlit on the far side of the pond, so I couldn’t see the babies’ faces, but I imagined they were rapturous. As the dog and I turned up the easement away from the pond, one of the adults pushing a stroller was skating just as fast as she could go.*
After dinner at our local diner Wednesday night, my husband signaled the busy waitress as she hustled by that we’d like a box. He did this by holding one cupped hand palm up and closing the other cupped hand over it, palm down. The waitress grinned at this professorial type’s signing and responded by placing her hands together in front of her, palms together, and bowing over them as she hustled back on her return trip. This turned her response into a thank you.
When she had a free moment, she came back with a to-go box and laughter. “I have to tell you a story,” she said.
“In 1976, I came here with my sister and brother. We lived in Detroit and didn’t speak any English. We went to Eastern Market to shop for food.” Eastern Market is a vast, bustling farmers market, and the threesome did well with transactions that were straightforward enough not to require conversation. Then they got in line at a butcher’s.
“We waited to get some meat and then it was our turn. Remember, we didn’t speak English. The butcher, he asked us what kind of meat we wanted, and we didn’t know how to tell him. He asked us again. He was busy. We didn’t know what to do.
“So we said, ‘M-o-o, m-o-o!’”
At this point, our new friend collapsed into giggles over the fond memory, and we laughed right along with her.
“Did you get what you wanted?” we asked.
“We did,” she answered. Then she mooed some more.
It’s been a pleasant week of little surprises, vignettes of tipsy robins, children’s problem solving, skating parents zooming strollered offspring around the frozen pond, and intrepid siblings making their way in a new country long ago.
17 January 2025
*My sister Marilyn used to be a speed skater. Just think how fast her stroller could have gone.
I once saw a group of school kids make a sofa out of snow to solve the lack of seating on their playground.