Will She or Won't She?

Freeze that is. Only the One who controls it all knows for sure. 

Thus decisions must be made. Many of the tender house plants have been brought indoors already. Most of the heirlooms, many of the prettier geraniums, especially Grandma Peggy's old doubles and the ones I've grown from seed over the years. The big jade has been sacrificed, beheaded, uprooted, all in and all done. I was sick of it tipping over its pot and taking up half the living room. I can get a new one going in case I feel like I need a plant with fifty pounds of greenery.

Maybe we skate by at 33 as we already have a couple of times. Hard to say, but there is a frost advisory for tonight, then a stretch of nicer weather to come. Guess I will be hauling plants in and covering the big tomato and the sprawling little purple ones, and whatever else can't come indoors.

I sure hope we don't lose the Heavenly Blue morning glories. No way to protect them and there were EIGHTEEN blossoms yesterday. 18! So pretty.

By way of our little almanac, I spotted the first two winter sparrow species yesterday. In the morning a White-throated Sparrow was hanging out with a bunch of Song Sparrows over behind the barn. Late in the afternoon, a White-crowned Sparrow bopped into the bushes with another little flock of same right in front of the house.

Seems as if Song Sparrows form nuclei, around which less common sparrows gather. All through late summer a single Field Sparrow hung around with the same little SOSP flock behind the barn. Before they left, the very loud chirping Indigo Buntings seemed to serve in same manner, particularly attracting migrating warblers to the good eating spots. 

It is quite a thing to be outdoors these days, what with the colors changing, fall flowers blooming, insects racing to be ready for the silence, and the magical flux of passing migratory birds. I love it. 

Somewhere out There

It has been hot over the past week or so....felt like the summer we never had. It made it hard to drag myself out on the hills, but I walked as much as I could every day.

Today we awoke to cooling temperatures and as the morning advanced a cool breeze sprang up and it became almost cold.

And just like that Fall arrived.

You can see it. The sky is so bright you can barely look up. Leaves are just beginning to change down here in the valley, but the Virginia Creeper and Staghorn Sumac are waving flags as red as Rudolph's nose.

You can hear it. Swish as leaves fly by. The flap, flap, flap, of the hay wagon canvas, whipping in the breeze. And overhead wild and wonderful beagle barking as the geese pass east and west and out of sight.

And you can smell it. Ice cold air, soft, warm ponies, drying leaves, a faint tinge of ripening apples, and under it all, the tiniest hint of wood smoke....that is autumn right there.

Happy Birthday, Amber

Thud

Leaves from the box elders fall with a rustle or even a rattle if the wind is blowing.

I can't wait for mulberry drop when all the leaves from all our trees rain down over just a few hours like a green and golden waterfall.

However the leaves from the cottonwood by the driveway clunk down, thud, thud, thud like a herd of ponies on the prowl. 

A Race

It's been a race between the blue morning glories and the first frost this fall. Everything has been so late all year. The flowers are no exception. 

Then a certain rooster, which seems to have finally disappeared somewhere, came up every single day and dug the seeds out where I plant them under the bird arbor. He cleared out most of the scarlet runner beans too, but I plant some in a barrel near the arbor so we got at least a few of those.

In desperation I planted a couple of seeds in a hanging basket on the front porch and guess what! One flower the day we went up north...missed that one, as it was melted by the time we got home.....and SIX yesterday.

Yay.

Planting in the basket worked great. I put some other sorts in there last year and they thrived too, but this year, just the pale blue traditional variety...I like them best. With dark blue lobelia in the basket too, it was nice all summer even before the morning glories.

Next year....four baskets!

Self Portrait

Lately Peggy has been using her magic wand to turn me into either a dragon or a frog.....guess which it is today......

Off to school...a little sleepy, but she loves it

The Things you See

Stained glass of the field

Sharing is caring....or more likely purely random

Looks as if everyone is using this tiny waterhole

Grapevine Beetle, fore and aft

Fluffing Hay

For Cathy

All About Town....or should I say All About Country

Traffic jam!

The Things You See

Went to the High Peaks yesterday, hoping to experience the changing of the colors. There were some nice trees, but not what you see some years.

However.......and it's a big however for me.....we took the Sabattis Bog Rd.....not for the first time, although other times have been in the dead of winter and below zero...and we not only found the bog, but also found Grey Jays. Yippee!!!

Have seen them before, away out west in the Rockies, but to find them right here in our own Adirondacks was downright thrilling. To be fair, thanks to rare bird alerts and eBird, I knew they are often seen there, along with a number of other far north birds that venture down into NY...however, knowing they were there and actually seeing them and getting photographs is a very different matter.

There were a lot of chickadees around too and some warblers. However, the only warbler I "got" was a Yellow-rumped, and the chicks did not come out far enough for me to ascertain whether they were Black-capped or Boreal.

Still...what a day! Good company too.....and we did see moose here and there. 

I can Barely See.....

Near us in the parking garage

Oh, but it was worth every minute of it. Becky took us to see the High Kings last night at the Egg, and it was one of the best concerts I have ever attended. We have tried, literally for years, to get tickets to see them, but they always played where we couldn't go, or while we were at camp, or they were sold out. 

This was our anniversary present from her.

It was great!

Imagine if you will a theater stuffed with people, all ages and levels of fancy dress, singing along with Goodnight Irene. Hooting, clapping, foot stomping, singing along with lots of other songs too....

An a Capella song that brought cold chills with every note. I need to figure out the title of that and see if it's on one of their albums.

The rowdy Irish music had the whole crowd clapping for hours. I mentioned to Becky that I felt like I was in one of the pubs in Nora Roberts books....The only hard part was listening to that kind of music sitting still....

Some of my favorite songs were played, Whiskey in the Jar, Leaving of Liverpool, Marie's Wedding, which was the first song of theirs I ever heard..... New songs. Songs they wrote, tribute songs, including Gordon Lightfoot's Early Morning Rain. A couple of good, lively sets.

These are wildly talented young men and they worked the crowd like the pros they are. My arms are tired from clapping along with the songs and knees are kinda weak from all that foot tapping. I have a number of their songs on the main playlist on my phone and listen to them while I work all the time. However, hearing and seeing them live was an incredible experience...they are one of those rare groups that are even better live.

I could go on and on, but I am sure you would rather I don't.

So thanks, Beck for taking us and Ralph for driving. (He is not a music man, but he had a great time too.)

We got monumentally lost getting out of Albany, thanks to the b**ch-in-the-box, who has no idea where she is going, and they did not play Boolavogue, which is my favorite song if I had to pick just one, but what a night. Go see them if you get a chance

In Case you Wondered

Why I love these little birds....I give you...the Common Yellowthroat. Many of them are just this tame and will come out to look at you while you look at them. I can often click my tongue and they will answer and come visit me. 

How Now, Brain-enhancing Cow

Now and then I get a little mulish

Sometimes I whine about the research that goes into churning out 1000 words a week for the Farm Side. I've been at it since March of 1998 and there are weeks when those words are hard to find. (Funny how it's almost always easy to find something to blog about.)

However, other weeks I encounter a pile of fascinating articles that surprise and delight me, even after all those years.

Here are some from this week's round of treasure hunting.

Surprising ways milk makes us smarter....read this one even if you don't have time for the others. After the death by antibiotics of every good thing that once lived in my innards I have no problem believing the stuff lower down in the article.

Study finds cognitive function improved by drinking milk

More on the same

Cows are not eating your food

Kids doing the right thing without being asked.

Edge of My Seat

I have long followed veteran Bering Sea captain, Jack Molan, on Facebook, mostly because I quickly became enamored of his stunning Bald Eagle photos....you know if there's a bird in it, I'm on board.

However, his stories of a life of adventure are fascinating as well and I have always read whatever he shared.

I was fortunate enough a couple of weeks ago to get the opportunity to read his recently released book, You Can't Make this Stuff Up.

I have to tell you, I could barely sit still to read it, so very dramatic are the descriptions of life in the Bering Sea as a captain of a fishing vessel. I admit to having read it in a sitting and to stopping often to tell the girls, who were sitting at the table with me, all about the tales.

When it ended I wanted more. That seems to be a theme in online reviews as well. These are great stories, well told, and so darned dramatic I truly had cold chills. The gentleman's philosophies bear thought as well.....if you get a chance, don't miss it.

There really needs to be another book soon. Or maybe more.