Driving the River Road these days is like boating on the Damariscotta River itself, full of waves and jolts and splashes. The trees and telephone poles are all day-glo orange BUMP signs. Many of the bumps are double-ended, with a deep concavity between them. Best of all is the "Thank You, Ma'am" at the very top of the south end of Dodge Hill, near Barbara Scully's oyster kiosk. Gets me every time.

I weep to see all the lovely events I could have promoted, like BRLT's Mud Season March at the Colby Preserve, which was Saturday. Or the Doodling Workshop the same day, led by Lindy Gifford and my River Road neighbor Brady Nickerson. Ah well, the fish that got away.

Looking toward April, here are some happenings which shan't escape: That SVCA Bat Conservation program, which was canceled due to snow and ice, has been rescheduled for Wednesday, April 2, 6:30-8 p.m., at the Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association Office, 624 Sheepscot Road, Newcastle.

Annie Kassler of Bat Conservation International will talk about the natural history of bats and how the public can help these nocturnal creatures, especially with the threat of white-nose syndrome affecting so many bats across New England. SVCA will also have bat box kits available for a $10 suggested donation and you can put them together if time allows. Please preregister and send in your donation if you wish to be guaranteed a bat box. Otherwise, it will be first come, first serve until they are gone. Call 207-586-5616 for details.

The long-awaited book release party for Lea Waite's latest historical juvenile, "Uncertain Glory," will be Sunday, April 6, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Le Garage in Wiscasset. Refreshments and a cash bar. Lea will speak briefly about the book, and the facts it is based on, about the first two weeks of the Civil War as experienced in Wiscasset. This event is free and open to the public.

I spent a hectic morning last week dancing attendance on the lambing of Susie Stephenson's alpha ewe, a brown Icelandic named Sylvia. Not really helping, just trying to get pictures. We saw the lamb's face appear, tongue, nose and feet, then disappear, which caused dismay, then reappear. I left, so as not to get in the way of any desperate measures. Susie later reported that she held Sylvia while her spouse Tom Blackford pulled on the lamb, until it finally came out. One of the biggest female lambs on record in the Stephenson flock!

I suggested they name her Solveig, thinking of Grieg's Peer Gynt music. She is now trotting around in a little brown sweater, cut from the sleeve of something worn-out, a color-coding technique to keep track of whose babies are whose. When last Susie and I talked, there were four ewes still expecting, but I suppose they've given birth by now.

You would think, with all these "little lambs a-divy," that the year would turn to springtime, but noooo, sub-freezing temperatures, even harsher winds, sloshes of ice-cold water and an arguable 3 inches of snow covering up any starts by crocuses or snowdrops, at 234 River Road, 207-633-2978 and jocam@tidewater.net.