.dropcap { color: #838078; float: left; font-size: 82px; line-height: 60px; padding: 5px 8px 0 0; } .art-aside-tmp { height: auto !important; min-height: auto !important; } To be clear, Donna Posont loves Red-winged Blackbirds. She does a killer impression of their song—conk-la-REEEE!—and welcomes their heartening message that, chill be damned, spring is coming. But right now, she really just needs the squawking birds to shut up. The 35 or so people she has gathered around an outdoor wood stove can barely hear Rick Simek, the soft-spoken naturalist demonstrating how maple syrup is made. “Hey, you guys,” she yells at the hundreds of raucous Red-wings, “hold it down over there in the trees!” Hearing is important for this crowd: Most are blind, like Posont, or otherwise visually impaired. A sighted person might struggle to admire the brown earth, black trees, and steel-wool clouds of this cut-and-paste March day, but during Simek’s lesson...