It's looking like spring

...and even though with the holy day weekend, I'm still gonna tell ya about it, whether you're around to see it or not.

As you can see, this dummy managed to survive last weekend's return to winter and is still out and about.  Kinda puts ya in mind of Tom Coughlin, don't he?

Anyway, today was a great day for a walk, and we were out for about two hours.

 

Nothing was green yet but moss.  This didn't deter us, amazingly enough from getting buzzed by a very confused black butterfly who was hoping my hat might be a food source.

Mrs. Cardinal - and you thought celibacy was a hard rule...

Yep, we found somebody's paddle.

Second attempt at crossing the swamp was a "success"  (Yeah, we went through there.)  At one point I was almost spread-eagled, with my left foot sinking rapidly and Scrappy pulling to the foreward right.  Now, I was prepared for a little bit of wet foot, but that was a little too close to the one-shoe mambo for me.

Lot of blackbirds down that way.  And they weren't shy about telling us to get lost.

Then we decided to go down North Bank.  So pretty- in spots.

Of course, you knew what Scrappy would be doing.


Moments later in the woods (and with a now-dead battery in the camera) , we saw a fox- and he was a big one.  He made it over a rise before we got a second shot at him.


___________________________

Hey, we finally have our first Champion in hockey, and despite blowing three chances to win it, it was Cracovia Krakow that finally got the job done in the Polish league.  After having seen a 3 games to none lead evaporate into a tie between last Saturday and yesterday, Krakow entered the final period of game seven with a 3-2 lead, only to see Jastrzebie score on a "bizarre" goal 18 seconds in when the Krakow goalie thought he had the puck frozen but someone poked it in anyway.  But Michal Piotrowski set of a flurry when he scored at 17:42 to make it 4-2 Krakow.  Leszek Laszkiewicz, the team's leading scorer who'd already scored twice in the game, hit an empty net for his hat trick 15 seconds later, and Piotrowski got his second goal in a minute and a half just over a minute later for a 6-2 win. 

And then, very early this morning, the season runners-up Tohoku Free Blades (whose home city got a nearly 8 foot wave from the tsunami this time last year) knocked out the Oji Eagles for the Asia League championship with a 1-0 win.  The only goal came from Go Tanaka, who was the highest scoring Japanese player in the league (eighth overall behind assorted Canadians, Americans, and Koreans).  The winners come from Hachinohe, about 170 miles from the earthquake's epicenter as the crow flies, and have now took two titles in three years, and might have been three if the earthquake (and damage to their arena) hadn't cancelled their final against Anyang Halla last year.

In other leagues:
France- Rouen leads first seed Angers 2 to 1 going into game 4 today.  Rouen can wrap up another Ligue Magnus title with a win today.
UK- The first round of the mystifying EIHL playoffs kicks off in about an hour from my typing.  The 8 quarterfinal teams will play a 2-game best goals series this weekend, and if memory serves, there will be a round robin knock-out round of the 4 survivors next week.  Not sure how they decide who plays who; first place Nottingham drew the sixth place team, and second place Belfast got #7, while 5 plays 8 and 3 plays 4.
Italy- Asiago can squirm their way to another championship with a win today against Valpellice, which trails 3-1 in the finals.
KHL- Viktor Tikhanov scored halfway through the third to tie and 17:58 into OT to win, and SKA St. Pete stays alive with a 2-1 win over Dynamo that puts the series 3-2 in favor of Moscow.  The Russian Snow Leopards can eliminate the Meteor Guys with a win tomorrow.
Denmark- SonderJyskE and Fredrikshavn kick off the AL Bank League finals today.
Switzerland- Zug can join Fribourg in the NLA finals with a win today over SC Bern.
Norway- Valerenga and Stavenger- the Yankees and Red Sox of Norway- Kick off the finals Tuesday.