Musings

We spent quite some time watching the clouds zip over this like-a-shrubby-moorland hillside, framed here by a Krumholtzed tree next to the overlook.

Then I noticed that JCB was standing in the parking area but near the driving lanes, very gently corralling something with his feet. What a lovely little critter! The rescue was tricky, but accomplished, or at least I hope so, and that s/he lives long and prospers (however that plays out in the salamander world).

Internet info suggests that this was a specimen of Plethodon teyahalee, and indicates that an individual will produce “slimy, glue-like secretions when it feels threatened.” Yup, this one did; took a bunch of scrubbing to get it off finger tips that came in contact with his lithe body when the leaves I was cradling her/him with slipped.

Posted at 8:48 PM | Comments Off on Watching time happen

I watched a goose-spat that got closer and closer to me. The guy-geese squabbled over the lady-goose, there in the back right. Now, why the left guy-goose was encroaching is a mystery to me, as he had his own lady-goose (not shown).

I also watched the GBH* fish for a bit, but s/he didn’t linger, I think because of the HDC.

* GBH = great blue heron; HDC = high dog count

Posted at 11:29 PM | Comments Off on Stories told

I looked at the weather this morning and thought about how antsy I was, so I headed out under the almost-cloudless skies (instead of waiting until the possibly rainy afternoon) and looped the lake at H4WP.

The landscaping crew has been through, and all the decorative grasses are cut to nubbins. I was surprised this pair of Canada geese and a mallard were hanging out. Doubt if the great blue heron (aka the denizen) will hang here for a while.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »

Good to know the eagle is still watchful along the beach. That’s him/her just left of center, in what’s left of his/her favorite treetop. (Trees sometimes have a rough time on this property.)

The freeze has just struck, and so some of the apples have centers that got frozen. Worse weather is coming within the next day. We have plenty of firewood, groceries, and vodka/gin.

Posted at 9:39 PM | 2 Comments »

With our luggage, we made one last tour of the end of the pier so I could check for fishes. The “black ones” that school high in the water were there, along with the larger silvery ones that hang deeper, and a few of the skinny small ones (not in photo) that may actually be anchovies.

And now I know why. As we stood there, a local fisher-dude came by with his rod and a bucket, and put them down at the south end, closer to the rocks. Then he snagged a paper sack that he had in the bucket…and starting throwing bread into the water. Well, that’s how you get the fishes’ attention!

With regret, we headed up to the station and began our train journey, which took us mile after kilometer down the coast, which we should have expected and didn’t (I think since we arrived in 5Terre via Florence, and thus via an inland route). So, at least through the trees/palms, we saw the sea all the way down until we turned inland toward Rome near its airport.

As it happened, we passed through the station we wanted to disembark at, but our express train didn’t stop (and we didn’t expect it to). So, we had to find the regional train (effectively a local for our purposes) to double back. The connection was tight and we couldn’t find an open ticket booth near our track, so we took a deep breath and did the Italian (not merely Roman, surely) thing, and just boarded.

Without being interviewed by an official en route, we disembarked at the third station, in a splash of low-angle sunlight, and walked the few blocks to our new home. I wonder how many people who got off at the same station also did not have tickets. (We have heard stories of the expensive perils of not having a ticket, or a validated ticket…and we feel VERY FORTUNATE!)

We hooked up with our new host’s nephew, who has excellent English, thankfully, and got the run-down on this and that (how the key needs to be joggled to enter the outside door, how the windows open/close, and the one that took a while: how to get on the internet). We now have a balcony that looks into a tree! More luck!

Posted at 2:20 PM | Comments Off on We are lucky

I hear voices down by the lake, and I know from experience they might be in a boat passing by (most likely), or they might have decided to use OUR beach*.

I fumble for my sunglasses and head down. No voices anymore. Probably they were from a passing boat or a fishing adventure far out on the lake, and the breeze carried the voices in.

Still, who can pass up a visit to the beach?

I look around, step out on the dock. The water is lightly lapping. I hear a squawky bird noise. Out there on what’s left of the dead birch on the point (several branches from last year are no longer framed against the sky), I see that voice.

Our shoreline hunter-visitor, the bald eagle!!

Like me, a tad annoyed by an interloper. S/he took flight over the lake, and looped around me, continuing along the shoreline, now silent.

* Have I told this story? I can’t remember. Once, a long time ago, my grandmother’s friend’s sister was on the beach, OUR beach, and some folks pulled up in a motorboat, and asked, is this a public beach? Assured no, they left. When the story was retold, Hope’s sister (can’t remember her name…why??), said, “do we look public???” (She moved to Pinehurst NC in her retirement/widowhood, and volunteered during the big golf tournament there; she was quite the character….)

Posted at 2:31 PM | 2 Comments »

When I was “cleaning up” in “the garden” this morning, the section over by the rhubarb (still don’t have the right nutrition, light), a hummingbird came by. For as small as they are, those fast-beating wings make a LOT of noise.

[Irony: the bird was nosing into the milkweed blossoms. One of the “weeds” I was removing, was…milkweed.]

Later, I took the Guru out to show him my progress, and this flutter-by toured with us, even rested on my knee for a bit.

Posted at 5:02 PM | Comments Off on Visitors, winged

About 9:30am a pair of fawns, largish but still spotted, bounced out of the long grass to gambol about near the house on the mowed grass. Moments later, Mom appeared, moving more deliberately and cautiously. She followed approximately the same route, drifting west, and not stopping for more than a listen or a nibble. Her flanks were sleek and reddish-tawny.

Posted at 5:21 PM | 1 Comment »

I’m pretty sure this bumblebee died, and the flowers are dying around her/him. (No red. No tooth. No claw.)

I feel guilty sometimes that I don’t wash garbage. We’re supposed to put our recycling in the bin without foodbits, and sometimes I just can’t force myself to waste water and my time washing garbage—or more accurately, washing garbage from garbage. Elsewhere in this same garbage-ecosystem, foodbits are not removed, so, why am I instructed to do so?????

Posted at 11:49 AM | 1 Comment »

JCB caught this aerialist today (with the big-cam), but I swear I saw the same (maybe) critter in the same place (without a doubt), several days ago.

Actually, I think just one eye is visible at this angle. Still, no contacts to “tint” them so magnificently.

Posted at 8:41 PM | Comments Off on Look at them eyes