July 21, 2014

I have no idea where all these hummingbirds came from, but yesterday they found our feeders and drank them dry.  Jim refilled today and if they all hang around, we'll need to take a trip to the store for more sugar.

At the very beginning, you can see one sitting on the top of the feeder waiting its turn.  Love those little birds.

July 18, 2014

I said the next blog would be about wildflowers, but that's been put on the back burner.  I have a few more wildlife pictures to share.  

We finally saw a doe with two fawns.  We've been thinking that after such a harsh winter, most were lucky to have one baby.  This family was just down the road from us.

Whenever possible we stop moving or move very slowly when we see wildlife along the edge of the road.  It really worked out well this time.  We stopped and they all started coming towards us!  Thank you deer family.

July 12, 2014

Here are some critter pictures from the past week or so.  If you look closely at the first one you can see just what I saw as we were driving along.  See that dark spot up on the left side of the road?  At first I thought it could be a raccoon or a porcupine.   Jim slowed down, I started taking pictures.

Then the little guy moved and we could see there was another little black thing in the blueberry patch...you guessed it.  Two little bear cubs.  Mom was probably close by, but by the time we got up to that spot, they were long gone.  Here's the next picture that's been cropped.  It's hard to get good pictures of bears because they usually run as soon as they see you coming.  I'm sure you all know if you click on the picture, you'll get a bigger and better image.

Okay so moving right along, we're still seeing fawns with their moms and lots of other deer hanging out near the road.  

The little deer that calls our place home is still hanging around too.  We never know where we'll see him resting or just hanging out.  It's amazing how close Jim gets to him before he runs off. 

Several of our neighbors have (had) chickens and they don't like seeing foxes at all!  Apparently they patrol the road looking for chickens, frogs or whatever else crosses its path.  The first picture is one I took from the cabin.  The second one was from the road and it looks like she's thirsty and on her way to the bar!  LOL

 I'm pretty sure these are two different foxes.  I think the first one is a gray fox and the second is a red fox.

This is kinda sad to see.  Two adult geese with only one little one.  I bet that will be one spoiled rotten goose!  

Ha ha.

This bird is a woodcock or aka a timberdoodle.  We occasionally see them, but usually it's when we're walking down a trail and they flush right before you step on it, scaring the crap out of me.  This one was by the edge of the road and it sounded like she had some little ones hidden in the grass while she was out picking up stone.

This morning when we were out for a walk, I saw this garter snake and it wouldn't stop moving.  I tried 3 times and could not get a picture with the whole thing in it!

  

And last but not least, this turtle was tooling down the road, its back still wet from the little creek that was near by.  

That's all for now.  

Next blog will be all about the beautiful wildflowers in bloom around here.

July 10, 2014

So far this summer has been a great year to garden.  It started off slow with such a cold, wet spring.  But with fingers crossed we decided to plant things and hope for sun, rain and heat.  Much to our surprise, almost everything is doing really well.  All except for our radishes.  Something came by and ate all the tops off the first planting and we assumed it was the deer.  So Jim replanted, put a fence over them and sure enough, something came by and ate those off too.  We really don't know what did it and no one that we've talked to has ever had problems with anything eating their radishes.  So, scratch radishes from our fresh produce this year.

Jim expanded our garden so now we plant in two different areas.  One gets full sun light from sunrise to sunset.  That really helps!  We've had cucumbers and zucchini for over a week.  No comparison to the taste of what you buy in the store.  Mmmm mmm good!

The broccoli is coming along as are the tomatoes.

He planted 4 different varieties of slicing tomatoes plus a couple different cherry tomatoes. We also have eggplant, fennel, cauliflower, two kinds of cabbage, kohlrabi and about 6 different herbs.   

This is the garden with everything planted in our version of raised beds.  Let me tell you, in this cooler part of the state, black tractor tires heat the soil up quickly.  They really, really work for our use.

This is just a pretty flower picture from a road trip we took to Ashland.

That's all for now.  Next time I'll be sharing critter pictures.  

July 7, 2014

Pictures from Plymouth, Boston, Albany and Cooperstown

I'll try not to bore you with too many pictures, but no guarantee.

At Plymouth, Mass

Plymouth Rock, Mayflower II and the National Monument to the Forefathers, which was a very impressive statue.

I loved what I saw in Boston.  So much history there, wish we had more time to explore the city.

Old Ironsides, the USS Constitution

The Granary Burying Ground on the Freedom Trail.  Graves of Ben Franklin and Paul Revere.

 Any trip to Boston has to include a stop at Cheers...where everyone knows your name.

Of course this is just the building used in the opening of each show.

Our final stop in Boston was at Quincy Market.  Lots of food vendors and shopping kiosks.

Next stop was Rockefeller Plaza in Albany, NY the state capital.  

These two monuments have been added since I was here in 2012.  The kingfisher seemed so out of place, but he sat there like he was ready to snag a frog out of a pond.

July 3, 2014

Pictures from Provincetown and Martha's Vineyard.  

Provincetown was really a neat place.  Very relaxed and dog friendly.  It kind of reminded me of New Orleans in a festive kind of way.  Lots of cute shops, bike rentals and restaurants.

I liked the street artwork.

 Our whale watching boat

 Whale tale!

After an afternoon on the water, one develops a big thirst and appetite!

They both were excellent!

Next day we were off to Martha's Vineyard which was way cooler than I ever expected.

Nothing fancy, just a very tourist friendly island.

There's a whole neighborhood full of these charming gingerbread houses.  If you're interested in reading about the history click here.

I couldn't help but notice this huge osprey nest near the harbor.  I've seen many around here, but nothing like the size of this one.  I even saw the osprey!

The coolest thing I saw on the whole trip was in a public restroom.  Yup, we make lots of pit stops, but never have I seen anything like this.

It's called a Dyson Airblade Tap.  Water comes out the center to wash your hands and air comes out the two tubes on the side to dry your hands.  Genius!

That's all for now.

Next installment... Boston and Cooperstown, NY

July 2, 2014

As promised, here are some pictures from my trip to Cape Cod.  We were so lucky to have gorgeous weather almost everyday.  I never needed to wear a jacket and it was never too hot or sticky. Just perfect weather!

Our first touristy stop was at West Point.  Very interesting and very impressive!

 This is where the Cadets live.  No AC in this building.  Gotta toughen up those guys/gals.

Inside of Cadet Chapel.  Absolutely gorgeous.

Cadet Chapel

Beat Navy Tunnel.  West Point Teams are very competitive...and so are the Navy Teams.  A huge rivalry.

We stopped and toured the USS Nautilus.  It was the first nuclear submarine to go to the North Pole in the 50's.  I never like being in submarines, but this one was small and didn't take too long to go through, soI didn't get too claustrophobic.

Our next stop was in Newport, RI

After lunch we toured The Breakers.  It's the 70 room Cornelius Vanderbilt mansion that was used as a summer "cottage".   Beautiful!  No pictures were allowed inside, so this is from the outside.  This place is even more impressive than their other mansion The Biltmore in Asheville, NC 

And this is the view from one of the porches.  Nice huh?

First thing Monday morning we boarded the ferry and were off to the island of Nantucket.

 Lots of cobblestone streets and most of the buildings were sided with cedar shingles.  

 They all started to look alike.  Not much color on Nantucket.

There were lots of high end shops.

 I bought myself this beautiful purse.  I knew as soon as I saw it that I HAD to have it.  Loved those mushrooms.

That's all for now.  Next installment will include Provincetown and Martha's Vineyard.