Finally, a cheek-chapping wind blowing off the river, bright sunshine that doesn't warm anything up, and ice on the sidewalk where the guy ahead spilled his coffee. It's winter in NY!

The running paths by the river are lined with beach roses. They were blooming until a few days ago. Now all the blooms are hanging down, frozen, pink and white and where they hadn't opened yet, a deep cherry color. The river's been high, blue and sparkling, and the ducks are eating like crazy. Some of the mallards stayed -- either that, or they all flew south and some from farther north came down here and think this is south -- and the Brant geese have arrived, at least 65 of them according to Urban Naturalist, who actually counted them. And the buffleheads are here, too, from the arctic.

Me, I just got back from Ft. Myers, FL, where I had two speaking engagements. In between, I sat by the pool in the 85 degree sunshine; and I went to Sanibel Island for a nature tour. Saw roseate spoonbills, white pelicans -- who apparently live up north and migrate, who knew? -- brown pelicans, blue herons (great and lesser), tri-color herons, yellow-crowned night herons, egrets, ospreys, mottled ducks, mallards, and a couple of different kinds of gulls and three kinds of brown shorebirds, which I can't tell apart. No alligators, though.