The thermometer trapped a few people into setting aside their winter coats for less heavy garments last week. A couple of places reported 60 degrees. It didn’t last long and out came the big winter garb by Sunday as the thermometer read close to ten degrees and the wind produced a real chill.

This teasing goes on and on but two weeks from today will be March second and we are just crawling toward spring.

I am host to every squirrel in town, I think. They come early and stay late, hoping to fill up on my birdseed. I put only the very fine mixture under the spruce tree for the juncos and a few others who don’t use the feeders. The squirrels take the few pieces of sunflower seeds and then try again to jump to the new big feeder Scott put up for me in early winter. I’m getting good at chasing them away.

The other morning, two days after the big new snow, all the squirrels had depleted the daily handout I provided, on the ground. I noticed one gray scavenger where I put seed, digging in the new snow. With his exceptional sense of smell and his clever ways he was unearthing the seeds which were under the new snow, and he was finding quite a few. He’d plunge his nose under the snow and dig with his front paws, till he found some sunflower seeds.

Every once in a while the squirrel would come up for air, shake now off his head, and then carefully clean off his whiskers with his front paws. That snow digging process was good for a half-hour of entertainment.

While it was still warm Saturday, Susan came and did some grocery shopping for me and then took me took me to get valentines. It was hard to find the proper ones I had wanted so long, but I did the best I could. That day (Valentine’s Day) hadn’t yet arrived and there were Easter eggs and other candy items already on the shelves.

The winter doldrums provided me with the motivation to find and select a beautiful magenta orchid. The day took me to Newtown to the garden shop. My friend Caroline Edwards had sent me a small white one from Florida, the week before. She also sent some “orchid food” and full instructions for taking care of them. The one she mailed was well swathed in bubble paper and other protective paper, in a large box. Amazingly, it survived the trip well and a bud has now opened into a lovely flower. One of the orchid’s greatest enticements is that the blooms last a long time. One Christmas cactus is in full bloom and that corner has become a cheerful spot in this cold weather.

Getting Valentine’s ready to mail last weekend reminded me of grammar school days in Danbury. The teacher would appoint several students to prepare a “Valentine Box” several days ahead of the 14th. Red and white paper, hearts, cupid’s arrows, and small paper lace doilies, were provided and the box was on the teacher’s desk, where members of the class could drop in their Valentines through a slot in the top.

Usually a boy and a girl were appointed to pass out the envelopes containing the messages and hopefully, the signatures, on the big day. Such excitement! There were always a couple signed “guess who” and many attempts to decide who “guess who” might be. I doubt whether there is any such classroom exchange, nowadays. It certainly would be more practical than a need to use a 34 cent stamp for 25 or more classmates.

The column last week ended with words by Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, in answer to a question by a reporter, about the origin of rhythm.

“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up again” are words of a sports figure.