Juning for Joy

 

Hey, I'm too darned old to jump....

Last night we visited Rankan Grove Rd. Ext. where there is a little beaver pool with adjacent swamp and a larger, although shallow, beaver pond. We stumbled upon the spot several years ago and it is one of the best places we know for warblers.

The evening was no exception, with the usual suspects, Chestnut-sided and Yellow Warblers singing cheerfully, as were a couple of Common Yellowthroats. There was a Northern Waterthrush hanging around and a Black-throated Green Warbler too. 

Best by far for me though was a Canada Warbler bouncing around the brush foraging and chirping contentedly. Made my day. However, in the dim light and with a slowish camera I never got a photo.

Maybe next time.

Had the first lettuce from the garden last night and it was right tasty. The woodchucks and Liz's darned rabbit think my stuff is tasty too. If I didn't grow most things in old watering troughs and half barrels there would be none left for us. What the rabbit doesn't eat he digs up.

As it was while I was inside this morning one of the villains ate the sunflowers and scarlet runner beans out of the tub by the door. I am not pleased.

However, even after a hot spell with the weed whacker and a mess of other chores I am downright pleased with the day. June is about as good as it gets and I am going to enjoy as much of it as I can...except the varmints of course. 

The Gentle Curve of Summer

After endless rain the dry is downright welcome. Things are simmering right along, summer style....goldfish in the garden pond, laundry on the line, day lilies coming in golden, corn lilies glowing in the ditches along the road.

Wild chicory proving that Chicken Little was right all along. Is there a bluer blue in any natural thing? I don't think so.

Bee balm riotous red in bloom, seducing Ruby-throated Hummingbirds one and all. 

Long days, quiet nights sparkling with fireflies, hay crisping in the fields, rustling under the rake, and thumping up into the mow. Ah, summer....

Idyllic indeed.

Try to ignore the plugged mow elevator, flat tedder tires, and other assorted ills and annoyances. 

It is not snowing. The wind when it blows is a welcome cooling agent, summer vegetables are readily available, and there is more green than any other color.

Summer is good. I am most thankful for it.

Summertime

The boy who made this splash was too quick for me

And so, it's Summer

Magnificent sunrise, all golden and peach. Fitz Bew ringing from the fence along the long lawn, where the Willow Flycatcher hides his nest, while the Cardinal tunes up his whistle, and a sleepy Yellow Warbler sweetens the morning, sweet, sweet, sweeter sweet.

The air IS sweet, as pure and clean and cool as if this little farm was perched atop a mountain way up in the Dacks. Dew drips from the eaves of the sitting porch, each crystal droplet lit on fire by the glow of the rising sun.

Time to tidy up the ravages of yesterday and get some writing done. If breakdowns of both tractor and barn cleaner yesterday are anything to go by, time to produce and process the Farm Side may be in short supply this week.

Get busy, get busy.

The screen door swings and slaps the wall, whine, bam, slam, as the young men head off to their jobs. Our boy is back in the 518 for a couple of weeks, as his other job in DC shut down for a bit.

It is an unfamiliar but delightful thing to have him here, even for a little while...we don't see him enough for sure.

And check out this addition to my garden rock collection. It is a NYC cobblestone, possibly from as early as the 1700s, 

It certainly is at least very early, as it was found 7 feet down, under a waterfront street in Manhattan. I am excited to have it, and to learn that it was placed small-side-up, rather than laying flat as you might expect.

Just imagine the stories this chunk of granite could tell... What famous people might have walked over it, how many horses and wagons and barrels of beer may have rumbled over it and its neighbors? No one could know but.....

Thanks, Mappy...

Good morning to all, and back to the word processor......

Post June Declaration

Fireflies ride their tilt-o-whirl

Round and round the yard they swirl

Ghost dog clatters in his kennel, tail all thump and claws all rattle.

He's not there; I know he's gone

But I hear him still when night comes down.

Lightning flash and fireworks crash

Gardens bloom across the sky

And crickets sing, "Hey, it's July.

June is gone, let's say goodbye"

Not a Cloudy Day

Morning

Evening

But a day of clouds

In the Good Old

Summertime peaks about now, with warm, humid days and sultry, torpid nights. The hay in the horse barn fills the air with the faint scent of cinnamon and tiny, new toads dot dot dot through wet morning grass on their way to bugs unlimited.

Here in the Northeast, hints of autumn abound. Robins are getting pretty scarce, although you hear one every now and then. Ours raised three broods on the porch and in the nearby cedars this year, but they are waning now, like the strawberries of June.

Just the other day a scattering of killdeers formed up into a fresh flock and vanished to the south, screaming all the way.

Geese will soon straggle down to the river and cruise the corn fields for spilled kernels. The days grow shorter at an appalling pace, with each morning darker than the one before. The sun, which has been rising well to the north of the big spruce in the neighbors’ yard, is inching its way back south again. By the time it reaches the winter nadir it will rise, already tangled in the branches of the hillside trees, cold, and grim and plumb unwelcoming.

And so we cling to what is left of the season and hope for more of the good days. I will have a few more updates from the fair a little later today. Take care.

Tonic

A good porch is like a tonic. You can step out there full of worry and care, brimming over with problems and pains.
In a word...glum...

Then the sun peeks out from behind a bank of foggy clouds.

Company arrives.

Light mantles the land like a glowing golden blanket.....and along with the light and the birds and the beauty and joy, comes peace, stealing in on the song of a secret catbird singing in the grape vine, sliding home on a carpet of dew, creeping up to curl in your lap like a contented cat.......

Yeah, I love a good porch.

The Cure

For what ails you.....

Summer

First day of.

Small animals fed and aired. Check. Rooster crowing. Check. Sun shining bright and hot. Check. Birds singing...indigo bunting, common yellow throat, willow flycatcher, robins, mockingbird, check, check, check and check

Hay in the field waiting to be baled. More Sudex to plant if it stays dry.

Yep, looks like summer. Check.

Friday on the Farm

Crossing fingers here for another dry, sunny day. The boss has been baling up hay apace all week and has put in some really nice second cutting. He has another field just about dry and if rain holds off today he will probably get it. He needs to get us some late first cutting that they left up in the corner of the 60-acre lot too, so the pony will have groceries this winter. (Fat ponies and second cutting don't mix.)

Pale touch me not

He thought the whole fence thing was very funny by the way. And the kids and I have him playing our favorite little free farm game these days. That is popping touch me not seed pods. We love the way they explode like little bombs if you touch them when they are ripe. There are dozens of them by the gate...by the stove....etc. Every now and then you see him looking guilty and popping them when he goes down to close the gate.

Brassy sunrise, already hot

Can it be Ninety and Still Feel Like Fall?

Yes, it can.

Sunday Stills....Summer

The epitome of summer for me.....

For more Sunday Stills.....

Second Nesting

(Not unlike second breakfast, only with birds). In all my years here I have never seen anything like this one for birds. We keep remarking about it. Phoebes have chosen the house yard for their second nesting and they are right in front of the windows all day long. And I do mean right in front. You can see every detail of feather color, even the shading between charcoal neck and dingy grey breast feathers (they should really do their laundry.)

Now that I know the call of the indigo bunting I am awakened by them several times a week. The baby robins on the porch have shown phenomenal growth this week. From the bare ugly skull heads of last week to cheeky fat robin faces complete with the little white markings in less than three days. They still sound exactly like the bearings on the washing machine when it is spinning off balance and thus still drive me crazy thinking I have to fix it.
Earl will probably remember the killdeer baby we saw in the opening to the thirty-acre lot when we walked up there. All week long the guys regaled me with stores of how it would jump in front of the tractor when they passed and run before them all the way down to the ag bags. It slowed them down a lot but they got a kick out of it just the same. Anyhow yesterday it finally figured out how to get out of the road.

Saw the sparrow hawk streaking for the heifer barn like his tail was on fire. In hot pursuit behind him, the house mockingbird. You wouldn't think a fast little falcon would be intimidated by a clown like the mocker, but he was really moving.

Saw what I thought was a new warbler right at the window yesterday too. Warblers are not usually so obliging and are hard to identify. This one was just feet from my eyes, picking insects off the cow parsley. I looked her up in Peterson's first after getting out my lovely stack of field guides and there she was...a female yellow. We have had yellows all along the driveway all spring,,,,but just were seeing the males.

And then there is the gold finch picking larvae out of the wasp nests at the big windows (excuse the lack of clarity...I will wash them later) and grabbing spider silk, evidently for its nest. It is a bold little critter and let Alan get these pictures.

Four

AM that is.

Got up a while ago to see Liz off on her trip to Cornell. Cat and dog are cared for and water heating on the stove for kitchen clean up...hint to the boss...I am out of firewood. Warm showers are good. Cold ones are character builders, but not so pleasant.

Another hay field about cleaned up yesterday. Cows are back in the heifer lot and liking it there. And when someone drops off a shopping bag full of beans, you rejoice and freeze them.
So that is what I did.



In the afternoon I worked on this guy. Need to get him done so he can go to his new home wherever that may be. I will miss him I think.

The porch robins...taken through the screen door, sorry.