This Weekend

Our boy and his lovely girlfriend came home...which in itself was delightful. Made me really happy. They went right out for a rainy Saturday, enjoying our woods and fields and just getting out on the land after too much time in big cities here and there. Then Sunday they took me up to Montezuma for a spin around the wildlife drive.

Great Egret Photo by Alan

Finally got Northern Shovelers, which have been eluding me all year, and as we turned the next to the last corner we were treated to a ballet of fifty or so Great Egrets capering among a motley crew of ducks and shorebirds.

Also by Alan

They were literally breathtaking and gasp-and-point inducing. I suppose it is trite to love these huge, clumsy, yet elegant and graceful at the same time, white-feathered birds, but I always get excited when I see one. Seeing that many all at once was wonderful.

Thanks for a great day, kids. I loved it.

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.