The Things you See

The river in a good mood

Beauty and the Beast

Adirondack Mountain Gorilla

Man rescuing a turtle

Butterfly Kaleidoscope 

 A wee unicorn who is starting official pre-school tomorrow

Old eagle eyes turtle rescuer spotted the porcupine on a distant tree at our Rankin Grove Rd. birding spot....could not believe it that he could pick it out so far away...I think I'll keep him.

Of Apples, Trees, and Show Halters

The boss and LV 

Major Moves, a pony I used to show

Liz at 6 taking Sonora, her first show calf, off the trailer at the fair

Liz 'n Lemmie...sure wish we'd kept that cow

This year....Liz and Scooby. Not a Holstein, but whadda ya gonna do?

And....the new "apple" .....not far from the tree of generations is she?

The Things you See

Go away, you bother me

I don't think she sees me

Buttonbush

The Sheriff

No bandit, but it sure is smokey

Sara Lib Rd. Pond where we bird

Lyker's Pond

More Buttonbush

Ren

Princess Aurora???

Sumbunny ate my Watermelon

Or at least I thought so. There was one out there yesterday when we headed up to the Dacks to buy chainsaw chains. There's a place up there that sells them for very reasonable prices....and Mappy, they say they can match any chain you bring in, as they make them up right there. Ralph remembered to ask...

It was so cute!

When we returned after a quick excursion over Batchellerville Bridge and down that side of the mighty Sacandaga, it was gone. No matter how I looked I couldn't find it anywhere. I blamed the bunnies.

Snuggling her favorite chicken. Photo by her mom

Then, late in the afternoon I spotted it again.

Turns out it is so small...about the size of a shooter marble...that I missed it under a leaf.

I am so excited to have a watermelon growing right in the backyard!

Thank you Linda.

I had all kinds of good help picking beans yesterday

Interlude with Sunshine

Feeling enough better to do some porch birding with grandma

Ruby-throated Hummingbird isn't scared of her

Checking out big bird

Osprey Flyover

Comments Revisited

If you are a Blogger blogger, you no doubt noticed that after a recent update that you no longer receive email notifications of comments on your blog. If like me you want to answer all your comments to keep the conversation moving this was a big pain in the neck.

Yesterday a friend I "met" through blogging, who is much more conversant with computer technology than I, sent me  a walk through that will get those notifications turned back on.

I followed the directions and it works fine, so thanks Ruth for the great information! Now if I fail to reply to your comments you can give me heck if you want to....I no longer have an excuse. You could even do it in the comments section....

Hey, Grandma, Watch This

In the Cheap Seats

Admission to the Sitting Porch is a great bargain.

Free, and the show never ends.

Miss Peggy takes advantage now and then when she is bored or her folks are busy doing dangerous stuff.

I have fun with that. I had a bowl of glass thingies used in vases or aquariums. I just like them because they're pretty. She liked to play with them, so everyone was happy.

The other day I bought two more bags at the dollar store and put them in the bowl for her to find. She did and some serious play ensued.

I think she likes them.

A Tale Retold

Back in the day, when the 20 and 30-somethings who live here or visit often were small, easily bored people, who needed portable entertainment, a tradition was started.

Stories. I have always loved stories, loved to read them, loved to make them up and tell them to myself in my head, and had them swirling around in my mind my whole life.

Thus a set of stories was made up around a central character, whose initials were JM. I won't say his real name as he was named after a real person, who happened to have a pretty cool name. JM went everywhere we did, keeping small people in the back seat contented for miles and hours.

Checking out the birds between chapters

He fell into a host of adventures, rescuing his dad from a tractor accident and running the farm while he recuperated, living wild for a while in a canyon, having dogs that found lost kids, finding a wild dog and taming it. 

He was a real cool guy and we liked hiim. However, as his fans grew into bigger and better stories, he languished. Just couldn't compete with Harry Potter.

For years there were no new adventures. No new stories.

Yesterday afternoon a big hay customer came. Liz and the boss had to go load out hay. A certain small person had to stay in the house. She brought her little pink chair out on the new porch, put it next to mine, and we visited for a bit. 

Then she said, "Let's tell stories. You tell one and then I'll tell one......"

Ha, she had no idea what she was in for. Out of the closet came our old buddy JM. He needed to regress a bit in age and detail, as the new audience is a bit younger than his earlier fans, but he was a big hit.

In fact my little pal kept saying, "I don't want to tell one right now. You tell another one."

So I did. JM was a hero and caught Bad Guy Brown several times...dunno who kept letting him out of jail though.....A whole new cast of other characters was born as well. 

There was a big brindle cow with long horns, who was named Belle because she wore a bell on her collar. Belle tossed a wolf that was trying to bite her calf 57 feet in the air. He came down and went splat. Next she tossed him 58 feet with the same result when he tried again. Then she threw him 67 feet, ditto. She finally pitched him up into a tree and ran home with her baby.

A dog named Reba had puppies under the barn. JM and his brother Jerrod each got to keep one.

There were horses and ponies, Cherry Blossom, Buck, and the terrible bucking horse, Devil Dog. JM rode Devil Dog to the 8-second bell to win enough money to pay the taxes and save the ranch.

Later we came inside and did a little illustrating using the Paint program.

Man, did we have fun!

Peekaboo

I see you.......