This was an experiment last winter. At around midnight from the middle of the State Street Bridge in Hamburg looking downstream at the high, arched bridge that carries Pennsylvania Route 61 over the river.

 

Not related to the current season, but this is a photo of the WK%S Railroad's 1930 Porter steam locomotive pulling a load of tourists through the crossing at Levans Road just south of Wannamakers. This is an isolated stretch of track on a line that once ran from Reading to Slatington. Trains made a lot of stops along this route to pick up milk from local dairy farms and to carry students to and from the high school in Slatington.

 

I went out looking for wildflowers and wildlife a few days ago, but it was a bit early in the season. One Canado Goose and some Cabbage Whites, that was about all. But I did take a few minutes to look at a portion of the old Schuylkill Canal at what is currently the north end of the walking trail from downtown Hamburg. In a few years the scattered pieces of the trail which mostly follows the old towpath of the canal will be linked up all the way from Philadelphia to Pottsville.

 

Hard to believe, but this photo of a bird in the snow was taken just three weeks ago.

 

Another sign of spring - preparing fields for planting. Fortunately for these nei9ghboring homes. this time the manure spreader is distributing used mushroom soil which does not have anything like the pungent aroma of cow manure fresh from the dairy barn.

Mushroom soil is a composted product derived largely from horse manure, much of which is supplied from racetracks as far away as Saratoga, New York. The composted soil is sterilized with steam before the mushroom spores are planted. After use, some of this material goes to nurseries and garden centers where it is sold to the public in small quantities for gardening, but the quantities are so great that much of it must be given away by the truckload to local farmers. One of my neighbors told me that he only used it in his garden one season because it was so potent it required more frequent weeding to keep down the undesired plants in his garden.

Berks County, where my home is, and Chester County, which adjoins it to the southeast, are the center of the eastern US mushroom production. We have one mushroom house here in Windsor Township. one in Tilden Township across the river and many others in the county, mostly near to Reading. Kennet Square is the center of mushroom production in Chester County. The mushroom industry is one of the leading employers of illegal immigrant workers in our area. This is partly a reaction to the increasing pressure from low cost Asian imported mushrooms over the last 30 years.

 

Spring's first flower - I took this at a neighbor's house last Thursday. There had been some new shoots on the forsythias and rhododendrons even the day before, but this is the first actual flower I have seen so far this year. I saw a butterfly out my window on Friday, although it was so late in the afternoon and the glimse of it so fleeting that I cannot be sure what species - I am guessing Spring Azure.