You Can't Make This Stuff Up

What the well dressed handyman is wearing these days.

Catherine shows off her new hat.

Our family has tended to have offbeat visitors show up at the door and throw our routine into chaos. From the deaf-mute battered wife when we lived in Texas to the pregnant woman on Christmas eve at our old house here in Vermont to the 10 year old autistic runaway who just walked into the house during my son's recent visit, we've been a magnet for disconcerting problems that seem to appear out of nowhere. And now this. A needy, apparently domesticated , lost pigeon. The pigeon showed up on the deck around 11 this morning and wouldn't leave with any amount of shooing. Catherine said seeing me chase the pigeon around the deck with the broom was quite comical. I call it heroic. We eventually came to the conclusion that if Bruno the bear eventually left, the pigeon would certainly tire of our rather boring lifestyle and fly off to more interesting climes. With that reasoning we decided to leave the bird alone, and we went down to work on the garden fence. Then the trouble really began. The pigeon flew down and insisted on landing on our heads. I could get it to stay on my shoulder as I finished up a last thing or two on the fence, but it really wanted to be on one of our heads. I'm happy to report that when I got up to the house I successfully shooed the pigeon off of my head long enough to get inside the house. It then roosted on the top of our umbrella for a short time and now appears to have left. We're thinking of renting Hitchcocks "The Birds" for this weekend.

The Sky is Falling!

The hail roils the pond.

Grapefruit size hail on the deck. (The photo distorts the dimensions.)

We're relatively immune to natural disaster here in Vermont. (Some people think the taxes here are a natural disaster, but that's another issue.) There are no earthquakes, volcanoes or hurricanes (at least not recently). We can get wind storms although what sometimes passes for heavy wind here is just a stiff breeze out in say Kansas. (For example, one of our local weatherman has a tendency to exclaim, "With winds up to 40 mph!") And there is some flooding along our local rivers, but most of our communities aren't build in the floodplain of one of the world's mightiest rivers. I hope the people who live along the Mississippi watershed don't take offense. You'll imagine our surprise then when yesterday it started to hail, threatening our crops, our homes, any cars parked outside and our plans to run out and get a creamee. You always hear about "golf ball sized hail" and "soccer ball sized hail", and although I did exaggerate for the photo caption, the hail was marble sized. Fortunately it didn't last long and didn't appear to take out my corn. If it had I'm afraid we might have starved this Winter. Of course the really discouraging thing is that it's July and we're already getting freezing precipitation. Gonna be a hard Winter.

Moonlight Over Vermont

Everyone (I hope) has seen a beautiful moon rise above the horizon on a crystal clear night. You just feel like you could reach out and touch it. We're fortunate because the moon rises just opposite our deck, and on clear nights like tonight, when there's not a cloud in the sky and the moon is almost full, the view can take your breath away. It's even better in the Winter when the air is almost painful in its crystal purity. Wait a minute; in the Winter the air is painful in its crystal purity because it's somewhere around -100 F. Or at least that's what it feels like when you see that impossible moon, go outside and take a deep breath. Vermont has quite the marriage / romantic getaway industry, so a moon like the one we have tonight is a real treat for all those couples who came up here to capture some of our "romantic magic". I'd like to say that my wife and I fell in love, lo these many years ago, gazing at a full moon while in Vermont, but that wouldn't be true. We were in France and I don't really have any particular recollection of the moon, full or otherwise. I guess I was just blinded by my wife's radiant beauty. (Geez, I ought to get some points for that one, don't you think?) Anyway, I digress. This photo isn't great, but I hope it gives you a little idea of how beautiful it is looking out over our yard this evening. And if, wherever you are, you're gazing at the moon too, here's an interesting factoid for you to mull over. It's the same moon as the one we've got up here in Vermont!

p.s. "Moonlight Over Vermont" is apparently the name of an old song (1940s?) about which I know nothing.

Snakes and Compost

Gary waiting for prey that is a little smaller than me.

Up here in Vermont we are hard-core recyclers (or try to be although we draw the line at reusing dental floss). That means composting all of your kitchen and yard scraps which Catherine and I dutifully do. Someday we're supposed to get the richest soil on earth from our compost pile, but so far all we've gotten are a bunch of really healthy weeds. But anyway, yesterday I headed out to the compost pile to dispose of some leftover bait worms. This was a good deal for the worms as they were originally destined to help us catch our trout. Apparently, however, the trout we bought and stocked this year are from that rare sub-species of rainbows known as "Really Finicky Rainbows". They nibbled at the worms just like they nibbled at the power bait and then went on about their business. Which led to the liberation of the leftover bait worms. Not only were the worms lucky to be released, I was releasing them onto the compost pile, which for worms is like being dropped off in heaven. Worms apparently like nothing better than working their way through compost and turning it into the world's richest soil. As I went to empty the worm container, I was surprised to see a garter snake coiled on top of the compost pile. We have three garter snakes that we know of. Two hang out by the house, and this one lives down in the garden. Oddly enough, when I went back to the compost pile several hours later, Gary the garden garter snake was still hanging out on top of the compost pile. That's when I snapped these pictures. Today he was there again which leads me to one of two conclusions. Either the compost pile is a really good hunting spot for garter snakes or Gary ate the 8 to 10 worms I dumped yesterday and hasn't felt much like moving ever since.

"I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. Demille."

I've posted pictures of both Tilly and Tommy the turtles before, but I couldn't resist posting this closeup of Tilly that I snapped this morning. As is typical, she was out sunbathing when I went out for my late morning walk. Being a turtle, she can't run off, startled, when I walk up on her. So she good-naturedly posed for this photo which captures (cover your ears Tilly) her pretty primitive nature. One of my grandsons, who is enthralled with dinosaurs, was also enthralled with our two snappers and wanted me to pick up Tommy one day when we happened on him in the yard. Not wanting to pester the animals more than is necessary and being very fond of my fingers, I demurred. Biologists will tell you that all of us share many genes with amphibians and reptiles, proof of our common ancestry. If you look closely at Tilly in this photo you can see the resemblance. She's doing exactly what I do after any large holiday meal. The similarities are uncanny!

The Great White Trout Beckons

Thar she blows!

Success! (Kind of.)

Despite earlier setbacks, my son and his wife persist in pursuing the elusive mammoth white trout that (we fabulate) lives in our pond. They managed to get one of the great white's school mates. The big one however is still out there, and we still haven't caught enough fish for dinner.

Fragile Beauty

Dragonfly

Damselfly

Damselfly

Dragonfly

And no, when I say "fragile beauty" I'm not talking about myself. Even though many consider me to be quite a beauty, I'm not that fragile. What I'm talking about is the fleeting beauty of the Summer season with it's tremendous burst of life. Every plant and animal is intensely focused on accomplishing their reproductive business before Winter returns everything to the deep freeze. It is obviously this reproductive business that gives us the flowers and fruits of Summer, but it also gives us the wispy, fluttering, buzzing beauty of the insects. I exclude all deer flies, black flies and biting midges from the ranks of the beautiful even though I'm sure that in their respective communities they have their equivalent of beauty queens. As a tribute to the fragile insect beauty of Summer, I offer the photos of dragonflies and damselflies above. My daughter-in-law tells me that what distinguishes the two is the way they hold their wings when not flying. The damselfly apparently folds its wings back along its body whereas the dragonfly holds them straight out. Dragonflies and damselflies begin life as eggs in a body of water, hatch to become nymphs and eventually emerge as the zig-zagging insects we are familiar with. Once they emerge, they have only a few weeks to "hook up" before they die. It's the sort of situation that gives great urgency to your dating activities. Reminds me a little bit of our single-minded focus in high school.

Trout Master Baits up a Hook

"Gee, is this thing snagged or what?"

"Let me just maneuver this thing out of the way..."

"...and lean in. Hey! Is that a trout I feel in there?!?"

As some of you may remember, last year we stocked the pond with 25 trout 6 to 8 inches long. They were easy to catch, almost fighting to be the first on the hook if it was baited with Power Bait, a mysterious industrial product that is irresistible to fish and pregnant women. Heck, we thought, let's load the pond up with 10 to 12 inch trout and have fresh trout for dinner anytime we want. All we have to do is use a little Power Bait right? So for tonight we had planned our dinner around the fish we planned on catching this morning during a prolonged fishing session. Something, alas, went awry with our plan. Apparently the 10 to 12 inch trout couldn't care less about Power Bait. To them it's more like weak bait or revolting bait. We did catch several 4-6 inch shiners that are native to the pond. (I'm not sure that 'shiner' is the correct identification, but I'm not a fish expert as our fishing expedition established beyond a shadow of a doubt.) In any case, we ate no fish tonight and the closest we got to any trout was when my son caught his hook on a branch in the water and had to wade in to free it. The sequence of photos pretty much captures the day's frustration.

Summertime

The ladies plant some new perrenials.

Pests during all four season.

A fledgling bird we startled down by the shed.

The male evening grosbeak who has been feeding his fledglings at the feeder.

Benny's daily closeup.

I just thought I'd post a random selection of photos we've taken over the last few days and which capture the feeling of Summer here. The weather has been great for a week, not too hot, neither too sunny or too cloudy and not too humid. Many of the birds are showing up at the feeders with their fledglings, and the beaver gives us a daily show. The grandkids are having a great time, and I believe maple creemees are on the menu for Thursday or Friday. Wish you were here.