So here we are at the Ides of March, sick of the snow, yearning for spring, and eagerly looking out the windows of our fevered cabins looking for signs that nature is making the big turn toward a new seasons. Sue Bonacci couldn’t quite believe what she saw in her backyard.

In the later afternoon on Tuesday, she spotted two large coyotes walking together through the back of her yard. “Living in the country is all very well, but I didn’t like the way they just came through like they owned the place. They even looked in our direction, but didn’t seem concerned though the dog was barking like crazy.”

Sue wonders if anyone else has seen the two coyotes, “which really looked more like wolves to me,” in the Castle Hill area this week.

 On a happier note regarding native wildlife, the bald eagle pair nesting in the Connecticut River on Barton Island, which is owned by Northeast Utilities, have produced their first egg, and the blessed event was captured by the EagleCam, a camera hidden above the nest. Log onto the site http://www.nu.com/eagles and click on “first egg” in the text under Current Picture to see the parents standing nearby the egg, which seems strangely small. The second or third egg might be laid within a few days, and the female will incubate the eggs for 35 days before hatching occurs. Expect cigars to be dropping from the sky any time now.

Ham Brosious says he has only himself to blame for failing to list Carole and Ron Ando as participants in the Winterset Ski Club’s mid February trip to Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies when the photo was published recently in The Bee. Ham, who was the tour leader, said the Andos were among the 40 local skiers who made the trip. The Andos, along with the rest of the group, are still raving about the spectacular beauty of the mountains and the great skiing at the western Alberta resort. 

Ginny Chion wants to remind everyone to look for the blue cans that will be placed around town by students to collect donations for Coins for the Cure. The students in the Kids Care Clubs participate each year in the fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in memory of Greg Chion, who lost his battle with leukemia in October 2000 when he was a senior at Newtown High School.

Parks & Recreation Director Barbara Kasbarian and Recreation Supervisor RoseAnn Reggiano are none too pleased with the cover of the newly printed Newtown Parks & Recreation 2004 Spring/Summer Preview. They decided to go with a lower bidder this year — and their image of a boy swinging from a jungle gym amid springtime flowers and birds was depicted in a rather hard to see shade of light yellow and blue. It is highly unlikely that Parks & Recreation will go with the same designer next year.

At long last, a “parkable” surface has been put down on the driveway/parking area near the school system office entrance to Canaan House at Fairfield Hills. For the past three months, that area had been under excavation due to a major heating fuel spill. But now that most of the cleanup is over, the area has a new surface and parking is allowed. Paving will occur when the weather improves.

  With just over one month remaining until the April 15 federal tax deadline, John Coonan and Darlene McKirdy, volunteers at the VITA Tax Site at the Booth Library were delighted to have Newtown attorney Kevin Finnegan walk in the door their first Saturday, offering to help out with the tax assistance program. “We were so happy to have someone so qualified just roll up his sleeves and volunteer,” Darlene said. Other beneficiaries of Mr Finnegan’s generosity and expertise will be the Newtown residents who take advantage of the free tax advice service being offered by the three tax experts every Saturday morning at the library until the middle of April.

While serving as a fire policeman at a motor vehicle accident this week, Jim Shpunt, who operates Town Hall South for the town, showed me his spiffy new midnight blue Dodge Ram pickup truck. Boy, what a truck. Jim tells me that the radio is so fancy that it even spits out text messages about the song that’s being played and the station that you’re listening to. I remember when even getting an AM radio in a truck was considered pretty fancy, not to mention a heater.

I forgot to ask Jim whether he could program his radio to print out this column. That would be great. Until that happens, though, we’ll all just have to meet back here each week to…

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