being here

my town.

the marquee at the American Theater:

sometimes when you have big events and so much going on it's hard to return to the day to day just because you want it so much and yet you still have things to do: mowing the lawn, laundry, cleaning enough so i can bear living in it... dealing with the wildlife is always an issue, at my house or at Home. 

where i am for a few days taking care of the elder dog Gwen and her younger and quite silly friend Tess. summertime is always busy in the north country, things to do, plants to grow, ideas to nurture, hikes to walk. i had the very great pleasure of meeting with a Master Naturalist on Saturday, who had sent out an SOS regarding populations of a lily he's helping research. while my observation located three plants, not the exact but a related species, but it did contribute to his data and he'll monitor them. I got to ask a ton of questions, and see how the science brain pays attention in a similar way to the artist brain. 

twilit birds are hard to capture

with my old red canon:

a great blue heron on the pond

i now often feel like the plants and animals and indeed the rocks and streams are fellow beings, not features of the landscape. at Home my partner found a woodcock nesting close to the house, so close that you could see the hen doing her job. he had seen three eggs before he realized what was happening and stopped going too close. it's been a while since then and the other twilight, after i'd started brushing my teeth, and as i was wandering around with toothbrush and mouthful of bubbles as i often do, i looked and i saw a little bird that was round and chubby and odd. it was a juvenile woodcock. mouthful, i tried to tell him, without alarming the bird through the big window. then there were three, all acting like goofballs, one cocky as all get out. they were making kid-style woodcock calls, too. 

i couldn't get a photo, it was too dark.

two goldfinches (or other closely related finch)

i tried to doctor the color a little, but it was too overcast.

 one of the four i've seen this year

snapping turtle mama, with attached rider.

 down the road several miles a neighbor has four clydesdales

 this one's my favorite

 we've also watched a pair of Baltimore orioles gathering

the tents from tent caterpillars, pulling them off the tent-shape like a spinner preparing to spin silk from a hankie. 

the new fawns are growing well and unfortunately one was road killed. 

this season there are many road kills, but that's what happens when humans

speed around in motors.

just the news from the north country.