March 9

The storm of the past two days is now gone, and the skies shine clear, though the wind remains fierce.

Sitting in the sunroom watching the birds return to the feeders in earnest, the wind must be out of just the right direction, as the hurricane chime in the front keeps sounding.

It’s a fairly large triangular chime, that I fastened to the corner of the front barn. It’s weight is heavy enough so that only a fairly strong breeze out of the north will cause it to sound.

It is a deep and pleasing metallic chime, reminding me of the sound of the harbor channel markers that sit off Woods Hole in the Vineyard Sound. The intermittent “clang, clang” I am hearing just now is oddly out of place amidst the snowpack and winter scene. In my mind, I see seagulls hovering just above the boat, and warm water wind blowing spray from the tops of the crests, sounding the big red channel buoy as it pitches in the swells.