Blissful joy, a morning off

I didn't see this today....this was actually taken yesterday.

The Honey locust

....is sending its leaves flickering down like yellow confetti at a tree party

Falling revisited

Help me

I'm

F
A
L
L
I
N
G

Light

Kegan's pickerel

My handsome nephew Kegan (that's him with the ruler) caught this 28 inch pickerel up at Peck's Saturday. That is one amazing fish and he didn't even have a steel leader. Photo credit goes to cousin Scott's weekly missive and I am thinking to one of my favorite aunts.

The silver lining

The boy ran into a little tractor trouble today. He came down to get the tools he needed and asked for some company for a while. I was pretty much caught up so....

Behind the barn where the cows like to hang out in summer

Looking for the portable air tank

Hickory tree field, from the 30-acre lot

Pretty

A coyote runs through it

...

Pretty special

Silly turkeys

Found it

Through the gap into the old pasture lot

Click to see how the sun glitters on the corn leaves

A good man

er....I mean a good dog.

Mike

Summertime news

The day's occupations

Yesterday's too....

Wild Wednesday

Torrid Thursday...well, not really much more than just a touch torrid, but it alliterated nicely. Last night after a serious set of thunder storms, the sunset filtering through honey locust leaves was pretty and peaceful so I grabbed the camera. We lost power for a while, but it was back on before milking so we didn't have to fire up the generator. We bought that to be ready for the Y2K scare. Of course we didn't use it then, but since that time we would have been out of business without it half a dozen times. We once had no electricity for 16 days! The only damage this storm did to us that we have seen is to put a big box elder tree down on the cow lane fence. Of course one of the cows cut a teat climbing over it so she will be tough to milk for a while. A cow just won't go around if she can go through. Last week lightning took out one of the fence chargers despite lightning arresters on the fence. It is just an awful year for lightning.

One thing that amazes me is that even during the wildest storms birds fly back and forth past the living room windows like shuttles in a hurry. You would think they would huddle in a tree somewhere and wait it out, but they don't.

It is cooler today, a bit, though still soggy with humidity (see yesterday's comments for a definition of this arcane weather term). Up until yesterday it had been quite dry (and I am not complaining,) but the corn needed a drink pretty badly, so the rain was kinda/sorta welcome. I put the potted sago palms out for a drink and a bath, of which they were much in need. It is odd to see the puddles full though!

***I have been tagged by Mrs. Mecomber and will answer, as always on The View at Northview
****Oops, no, wait a minute...I did this one a while ago, only with six things.
Two more....let's see
7) I am phobic about ticks and call it tick terror. Keep them buggies away from me!
8) My father has been president of the local Audubon society, the mineral club, the carving club, plus collected archaeological relics at one time, and fossils, and always took us kids along when we were young, so we had a REAL interesting childhood....not to mention the antique store and the book store, which served as playgrounds to the young Montgomery clan.

Come on over and bring the kids

Here are some new kids on the block who came to visit yesterday while I was planting petunias. I was in the dabbling mallard pose under the honey locust, grubbing out fox tail grass and grubbing in fluffy-ruffled double pink petunias, when I heard urgent chink-chinking calls right above my head. A much harassed and nearly de-feathered mother downy woodpecker was feeding a pair of chicklings, (which were nearly as fluffy as the flowers,) suet and then sneaking away trying to get them to fend for themselves. She is already pretty tame and they don't know any better, so even with 3X zoom, I could get some fairly close shots. The big fluffy birds are the kids; the small scrawny one is the mama.

Mama is the little beleaguered bird on the bottom
Baby is the big one

Should I fly away from the fool shoving that little camera at me?
She looks sort of dangerous...

Na, this stuff is pretty good....
MAAAAAA...come over here and chip some more of this out for me, will ya?

Morning Glory

Well, really, it's a geranium, but you get the idea I think. There is nothing painful about early mornings this time of year.

It wasn't all bull

To get to the rodeo we had to drive west...way west. The trip was not without its rewards, however. Near one oddly dry field (causing us to wonder where the heck she came from and where she was headed) a large snapping turtle threatened all comers from the side of the highway. Her head, big as an armored softball, wobbled menacingly at the end of her leathery stalk of a neck as she contemplated speeding cars. She put me in mind of certain older ladies you see sometimes with similar necks and duplicate attitudes. I sure didn't want to mess with her. I wondered if she would survive the road crossing she was attempting. There was a staggering amount of traffic for a quiet Sunday morning. She was right up against the white line hoping to scare the cars into getting out of her way I guess. Since she was no where to be seen on the return trip, I suspect she made it. Of course the babies from the eggs she was out to lay might not be as lucky, but still...

Later we dropped down off the hills west of Fort Plain to see this amazing field of white. It was like a snowy blanket thrown over the hay field in front of the historic little church. I thought at first that it was planted buckwheat, which, when in bloom is pretty spectacular. However, it was millions of daisies all in flower at one. The picture simply does not convey the number and brilliance of the flowers. I should have used Liz's camera I guess.

Yesterday's best

Herkimer diamonds

Anyone who can....

Take good pictures of fish

Has my utmost admiration!

Brand new goslings

Liz took this out the car window when we driving over to the school today (she forgot to hand in a scholarship application and it was due today...since she bought me gold fish and a water lily and some hens and chicks for Mothers Day I am sure not complaining).
These babies just came off the nest, because the girls have been watching the parents setting. The silly things nest within yards of the road. Just a few yards from here Becky and I was an American bittern on Tuesday, a life bird for me....don't get too many of those any more.

**You may want to click to get a better view.

Before the Hell storm

On the way to a milk meeting last night

***HT ...this is the kind of land that is getting buried under houses.