We all Remember

A few days after 9-11 I was on the floor, dragging things out from under Alan's bed to pack or toss.
I found this shirt in my hands. It is stored now in my top dresser drawer, with bringing the baby home from the hospital outfits and a bag left to me by a best friend who is gone.

What we were doing when our world was torn apart. My mother remembers Pearl Harbor and how she and her cousins overheard the adults downstairs expressing their horror.....

I remember being in class, 1963, mid-afternoon on a Friday late in November, when suddenly our teacher hurried out into the hall, and trotted away, simply leaving the class alone and unattended. We could see other teachers hustling down the hall toward the office, classes abandoned, lessons forgotten.

Something big was happening. Something bad. We sat in our seats, whispering, rustling papers, and looking around outside....what was going on?

 It was scary.

Then came an announcement over the loudspeaker. Our president had been assassinated. In those days we didn't have social media to foment flavor-of-the-week outrages...he was pretty much beloved. We were sent home early, but didn't feel that usual sense of magical freedom that an early dismissal usually provided. We were too stunned.

I remember even better sixteen years ago today. At exactly this moment in the morning one of the planes took off from Logan Airport. I had shifted the kids out to the school bus and was packing, an endless job for a family of five pack rats, who had had fifteen years in a huge house to accumulate stuff. 

The boss's mom had passed away on my birthday in July and we were slowly moving into her house...this house...here on the farm. The boss was milking and feeding alone that day.

I had the radio in the kitchen tuned to BUG country, listening to Frank Alford's morning show as was my habit. Something in his voice made me leave the front of the house where I was working to go back to the kitchen where the radio was, only to hear that the first plane had hit the World Trade Center. I trotted back to the living room to turn on the TV.

At first no one knew what was going on. It seemed as if it might be accidental. Then came the second plane.... I hurried to the farm, helped the boss finish milking, then we went and got the kids from school, and to the store to buy emergency supplies.

Today people take the latter for granted. Stores empty of bread, water, milk and TP whenever there is a threat, be it weather or otherwise. That day everyone thought we were nuts.

Later my boss at the paper told me that one of the planes made its fateful turn toward NYC right over the city where the paper is based. 

It was eerie in following days with no planes left in the sky.

We were missing the boss's mom, Grandma Peggy, something fierce, but we were almost glad she missed the horror of that day and those that followed.

And today, we will all remember again. What we were doing. What we thought and how we feared. How our country pulled together for a while, somewhat like it is doing now with all the disasters coast-to-coast.

 What were you doing when the world stopped turning?

Dog and Pony Show

I would be lost without dogs to care for and in fact they are my first task of the day. Mack out. Finn out. Fresh water if anyone needs it. Clean Finn's run if it needs it. Often do it all with my binoculars hanging around my neck...just in case, you know.

This morning I didn't bother with the bins, so of course the yard was full of warblers. Most of them moved along before I got back outside after my little chores, but I did see two Tennessee Warblers later in the morning...new ones for me and species number 100 for the annual farm count, a record! Lots of time left to chase warblers too and with the new binoculars Alan got me I can actually get pretty good looks at them.

Anyhow, since I am already out and about and I can hear them banging around wanting breakfast, feeding the ponies their first hay has been added to the doggy part of the morning show.

I like it....nothing like a barn early in the morning and I sure do like ponies.

Up in the Cedar River Flow

These peeps visited last weekend and despite the terrible weather,
a good time was had by all

First Day of School

Waiting for LIght

This is Becky's photo of the doll she crocheted for the fair,
which she gave to Peggy when it came home.

Oh, the sun is up and all...and for a change there is some sun....but it is too foggy to tell a House Sparrow from a rooster, except that the latter is crowing his head off. So I'm waiting.

The fog will burn off soon enough as the sun creeps over the trees to the east. Then it's out for a little hide-and-seek with warblers.

I thought of my dear friend from Ohio yesterday as a little Wilson's Warbler came cheerfully out of the brush to inspect me..... thoroughly. What a delightful little fellow, yellow as a buttercup with a small black cap on the very top of his head. He didn't leave until I tried to raise the camera.

Warblers are about the most elusive birds you could imagine, except for Wilson's, Yellow-rumped (sometimes) and Common Yellowthroats. Those three will come right out of the bushes and hang around looking at you while you look at them. It is so companionable. Every fall some Wilson's or other will pop out and check me over, for all the world like an emissary from my dear friend. So, Cathy, if you sent him...thank you....

Meanwhile, it is impossible not to worry...a lot...over dear friends and close family who are in harms way with the terrible storms and fires. I feel kind of guilty planning a walk out on the land while people I love are racing for safety or battening down for the big wind, or gasping for air out west. Indeed even here in Eastern NY we are all sneezing and wheezing, I believe from the smoke from those Hell fires out west. 

Peggy's first day of pre-school today at Mom's Morning Out in Fonda is today. Becky and Alan both attended there and had a wonderful experience and lots of fun. We are all wondering if they still have the big wooden barn Ralph and I built and Liz donated....we built her another one, of course. That one is in the living room right now, full of horses and such....

I Hope

Yellow-rumped Warbler from Cape May...photo by Alan

You aren't getting tired of birds. I'm sure not!

I was just getting ready to take some laundry upstairs to hang it up when I glanced outside.

The yard was full of warblers. I have been seeing a few, but these were everywhere. Quickly saw the first two Wilson's of the year and a Magnolia, and then all these other ones that wouldn't hold still while I tried to ID them. A fat green one. A brown one with a cap...probably a Palm, but darting in and out among the dead vines on the barn too fast for me to follow. Probably another Blue-winged, but too far away to be sure. And lots that were just blurs behind leaves, too far, too fast, too dark out.....

It was like Cape May, only with more than one kind of warbler. I sure like this. Now if only I knew what the fat green one was....

American Redstart from earlier this year

For Ellie

My friend Ellie in Florida has asked me to ask you to include her state in your prayers. No problem with that. I love Florida. We have tons of  blog friends there and lots of dear family as well. Here's hoping Irma goes back out to sea or sends her waters where they are most needed... to put out the horrific fires.

Sanderling

From Ellie, "I am waiting to see if Irma gives us a direct hit or turns to the east. It is a cat 5 now and should be here by the week end. If it gets into the gulf it can turn all ways from Texas to Florida. Please add Florida to your prayer list. So many farmers here that stand to lose every thing if we get hit by a cat 5. I am on the highest elevation if the area so probably no flooding. If I flood the whole town will be under water by then. Prays please and asks your blogging friends for prayers for Florida."

Photos from our most recent trip to a state that I love

Not a Ford

I asked him to stand next to this Cottonwood for size reference....

Falcon that is, but rather TWO Peregrine Falcons at the Amsterdam Gateway Overlook Bridge. They were seen Saturday on a bird walk that I missed and we went down to see if we could find them this morning.

The light was questionable, the air heavy and full of a sense of the storms this afternoon may bring. The boss is good to me though, and joined me in a walk all the way from the Port Jackson boat launch to the east end of the park.

It was fun and we saw some birds here and there, but nothing special. Still a good morning walking out for birds is a good morning and that is all there is to it. By the band shell thingamabob the boss sat down on a convenient bench. Once I got done running around looking at Song Sparrows I joined him.

We talked and rested from our walk. Suddenly an unfamiliar cry came from just across the river. Two duck-sized birds were racing by, under the bridge and away. Two Peregrines! Just the birds we had come to see. One was carrying a small prey creature, looked kind of fish-like although it was probably a bird. It was grey anyhow.

Don't know why they are visiting Amsterdam, but wouldn't it be great if they nest nearby next year? I saw a pair earlier this summer in NYC, and have even counted them over the farm a couple of times, but it was really neat to find them like that.

I Stepped Out

Into this eerie green and yellow light, hoping to somehow capture it on camera. (Fail) I am supposed to be working on the Farm Side, but some weeks it is a struggle even when I know what I want to say....this is one of those. (Fail again.)

As I opened the back porch door a Ruby-throated Hummingbird paused in mid-flight to inspect me....and stayed....and stayed.....almost within the door opening.

We contemplated each other, her bright fringe of white edges on her tail feathers glowing against the greeny-black of the mulberry trees. How apt to name these tiny birds after jewels. Even without the gleaming red gorget of the males, this little bird fairly burst with colors like diamonds and emeralds and bright obsidian. When she finally flew it was obviously reluctantly. She kept buzzing back at me.

I took down the feeder last week, as the nectar seemed to be spoiling too quickly, and with the plethora of flowers, the birds weren't visiting much anyhow.

She doesn't seem to hold any hard feelings though. Or maybe she just wanted me to go away so she could visit the bright red geranium hanging there by the back door......who knows....

Btw, I see as many hummers up in the fields and in my favorite warbler spot as I do down here near the house...maybe more...they are intrepid little creatures for sure. I'm going to miss them....

Little Brown Birds

Two little brown birds. Two different species

This one is an Indigo Bunting

And the one on the left is a House Sparrpw

They're everywhere, they're everywhere!

Carolina Wren,
This year's hatch I believe,
based on the little bit of yellow at the base of the bill, and its behavior,
 all begging baby flutter and very tame.

Song Sparrow, also a youngster. We seem to have pretty much all the
Song Sparrows in the world, gathered here at the farm,
and almost every one of them has a different feather pattern.
They drive me nuts.

Cold Enough

Common Yellowthroat, a favorite warbler, so confiding and friendly

To charm the feathers off the crickets. If you don't believe me, go out and check your yard. I'll bet not one single cricket has any feathers left. They are quiet too, stilled by the chill, or perhaps just embarrassed to be featherless and all.

First ripe tomato yesterday, with BLTs for the supper the result of that. Second crop of lettuce is ready as well, in a window box on the sitting porch, so that worked out pretty nicely.

Enough string beans to fill a shopping bag to overflowing have been frozen. Hopefully the frost will hold off so I can get a few more. Pulled out all the squash yesterday though. Squash mosaic virus doesn't affect the edibility of the fruit, but, my word they are ugly. It's a disease that is hard to avoid. It comes in on infected seed and lingers long in the soil Oh, well, I didn't really want to freeze squash anyhow.

Cold enough that I am washing and airing blankets for winter....

You should see the Black Walnut tree our friend gave me as a seedling that is planted down below the driveway. Just hanging with enough nuts to fill a hundred squirrels.

Every Box Elder tree is hung with enough samaras to bury a small car. The Winesap apple is burdened down with fruit, small, but in wild quantities. This may be its last year as it is splitting badly. Hey, Mappy, do you want to make cider again this fall? Any time after first frost those apples will be getting juicy.

One of my self-appointed daily tasks is to kick all the fallen fruit down the hill to the lower driveway where the chickens will find it and gobble it up. The hard, green and pink orbs are a menace to old fogies walking down the hill on the walkway under the tree, so I get rid of them. 

The kids did good at the fair with birds and crafts. Liz won both grand and reserve grand champion with the Call Ducks. I do love those silly birds and miss them now that they are over at the show. They are all noisy, Mallardy, splashy in their pool, and bathtub-toy-cute all at the same time. I get a giggle every time I walk past their coop and they announce my presence to the world.

Becky got blues with both the crochet projects she entered, a mermaid and a little Teddy horse, both cute and well done. She has come a long way for a woman who taught herself using YouTube videos. 

Cape May Observatory's migration radar photo. Wow!

Good birds of the week: Common Nighthawk right outside the living room window. Pair of Red-Shouldered Hawks soaring almost beyond reach of the naked eye over the old horse pasture. With binoculars I would see the white crescents in their wing tips that told me what they were. Magnolia Warbler on the feeder arbor eating spiders I think. Gave me a great view as it picked over an old deer skull hanging there. Another first for the farm.

I Wonder What the Weather Was

Sixty-six years ago today...

I wasn't there you see. Didn't make my first appearance until the following July.

 I've seen the wedding pictures many times though, mom, all slim and pretty, with her dark brown hair curling around her ears. Dad, tall, and blonde, and handsome. No doubt his bright blue eyes were gleaming.

Saying "I do" and meaning it, sixty-six years worth and still counting. Raising three kids who all turned out to be reasonably productive citizens and stayed out of jail and off the dole and all that stuff. A mechancal engineer/musician, a farmer/writer, and a professional driller and builder of important structures/farmer. Grandkids galore, all shapes and sizes, with the great grands coming along nicely now too. They still "do", dedicated to each other, together in all things, loving as they always have, standing the tests of time.

They were never stay-at-home folks....from starting an antique store, a book store that continues to this day, hunting, fishing, camping, Audubon, carving club, mineral collecting everywhere you could imagine, creating fine jewelry, wonderful paintings, stunning carvings, traveling the world in search of those Montgomery roots, and all those Scottish games, they were always busy and good at what they did. I feel pretty pale in comparison I'll tell you.

Congratulations mom and dad....You sure done good. Love you both with all my heart!

Reasons for not Posting