First Snow

What remains of the shrinking pond has frozen over now, I'm sure to the dismay of the ducks, who've gone into hiding. It has been cold, down in the twenties, but not for all that long, so I'm sure it'll thaw out pretty quick if it warms up again.

Although we had a few very light flurries in the air this past Sunday night, this morning saw our first real dusting of snow, though it remained fairly light and never really accumulated much.

I'm sorry I've not been writing more. With just a little over a week until my forty-third (gasp!) birthday, I've recently discovered my warrantee may already have expired.

It turns out that last week's regimen of daytimes spent decking the halls at work and evenings packing boxes at home was perhaps a little over-doing the multi-tasking. Or at least that seems to be the case, having caused myself some back and rotator cuff pain that made last weekend's busy schedule a bit of a challenge.

I had a bit of massage therapy yesterday, in hopes of working out some of the kinks, and it may well have done so. However, in the meantime, I'm even more sore from the treatment.

While I recover, I thought you might enjoy looking at some of the festive displays that brought us to this moment!

Despite assorted rainstorms we've had lately, the pond here hasn't recovered much. The back, deeper two-thirds of the pond are still pretty wet, but this front end seems to dry a little more all the time.

The ducks who've returned for the winter must be a little disappointed, between low water levels and the lack of supplementary feed we used to supply that they seem to float-in-waiting for, just offshore.



It occurs to me that in just a week or two, my daily commute will no longer take me along Bridge Road where it passes through Boat Meadow Creek, so I thought I'd share a few more glimpses of this lovely part of Eastham.



Tide was creeping in as I captured these shots mid- afternoon (after a late night concert, I was none too early to arrive at work today.).

Nice Weather For Ducks

Rain today, which is something you won't hear me complaining about; we certainly need it. We've noticed recently that the pond seems to be shrinking almost daily this fall, despite the occasional rainfall. I don't expect today's precip will make all that much difference...but a whole weekend of down-pouring might. Ironically, the pond is beginning to look a little like the tiny bit of water it was when we first moved in here nearly three years ago.

The pond is almost at its lowest level since we moved in here three years ago. At that time, this whole area was a dry, grassy field. It looks like its headed that way again.

Below, boltonia blossoms.

Here's a patch of Virginia creeper and raspberries, showing off some bright autumn foliage.

Saturday

A walk out in the yard this morning revealed these five birds perched on the log across the pond. I'm afraid by the time I'd retrieved my binoculars for a closer look, they were gone, so I can't tell you who they are...but I suspect they are a few more on the southern migration route, stopping for a rest.

Here's a nice shot of the asters, which are distinguished from the boltonia by their purple cast, and more thread-like petals.

I didn't even spot this creature in the marigold until I was developing it after returning to the house. I thought it was a spider, at first, but now I'm not so sure. I'll be sure to update if I learn anything about its identity.


For those of you who are growing just a little tired of seeing only marigolds, cosmos and asters (oh, my!) lately, rest easy: there are coming attraction signs, like these buds of yellow (I think...) helianthus, plus assorted mums and the Montauk daisies...all of whom may have begun their show by weekend's conclusion.

Already, we have a temperature of 70 here today, but there's a sweet breeze keeping things comfortable. Some while global warming appears to be giving us more summer instead of fall, it certainly is lovely.

Any chance it will last long enough to get Christmas lights up?

; )

Pond Life

With Labor Day...and the Summer of 2007...slipping away, we grabbed on to a last bit of summertime fun this afternoon and rented a canoe for a few hours, so we could paddle around our own Krogman's Pond and do a little exploring.

Even the ever-intrepid Emily Grace joined us for the ride. She's fond of leaning over to lick the pond as we paddle, so her canoe skills are still a little shoddy. But when you consider the pond isn't more than two feet deep at its deepest, we were in little danger.

It sure was cool to get a nice close look at those waterlilies that we can only see as tiny white spots from on shore.

Amongst the lilies and pickerel rush, we found plenty of life. Most abundant are the great variety of frogs, but we also saw a few ducks and Owen spotted a pretty large turtle (who submerged as we got close).


Just when we thought we'd seen it all, Old Joe came in for a landing on a nearby fallen tree.

This seems to be the juvenile blue heron I photographed a week or so ago, and I was amazed at how close we were able to get to "him".

We were trying to be sort of discreet, so as not to disturb him, but Em was a bit excited and rocking the boat a little...and there was a prevailing breeze that had us drifting a little too closely...and Old Joe took to the air for the far end of the pond.



We paddled along after him, trying to keep our distance, but Old Joe was quite wary and after another moment or two of our presence (and a few more photos), he retreated to the safety of an onshore pine tree...which in itself was pretty impressive.

Sure was fun to get out on our little pond for a change, instead of just enjoying it from the edge of the water. A great way to wrap up the summer.

A Garden Day

Ah, today was one of those rarest of pleasant days, one spent almost entirely in and around the garden, away from the often-troublesome world of Man. I don't mean to sound like a particular Amazon of Note, but only to express that, as a species, we seem to needlessly complicate things sometimes, and to me there is no greater pleasure than spending my time in the company of Nature's way of things.

Things got off to a fun start, when I discovered a small garden snake basking in the sunshine. We were both pretty surprised that I decided to pick him up for a closer look, but we also both stayed pretty calm about it and--while I'm sorry I didn't have my camera at the time--this was a pretty cool start to my day.


This nuthatch and his mate greeted me enthusiastically, it seemed, as I came out to the back garden for a cup of coffee on the bench, contemplating the back garden by morning light and calculating the goals for the day. The temperature was nice...getting into the mid-sixties today, though a cool breeze kept the sun from ever feeling particularly hot. They say there's humidity coming our way later in the week.


I don't exactly put together a plan for the day in the garden, per se. There's usually plenty I hope to accomplish, but my time out there often closely resembles one of those dotted-line maps of Billy's adventures around the neighborhood in the Family Circus cartoons. I sort of wander from one task to the next, sometimes abandoning one for another, or stopping to enjoy some newly discovered bit of nature. Surprisingly, I usually get a lot accomplished, but there's always a trail of tools in my wake.

Today, the goals included choosing sites for and planting (1)the recently acquired rose bushes, (2)a sixpack of dianthus, (3)a very special pot of chrysanthemums and (4) some gladiola bulbs.

By day's end, all this was done, and I also managed to do some serious weeding of grasses out of the three central beds. There's still plenty more to be done, but at least these three locations are taken care of. And while some of the earliest are fading, many of the hyacinths are still holding on and scenting the air as I do this close work around them.

I also had some transplanting in mind, and moved one large clump of grape hyacinths and tiny daffodils (now fading) to an assortment of different locations around the perimeter of one bed. I'd also thought to transplant some other things, but I managed to break one of our older shovels, which shunted me off to a different course of action. It's always nice to have something left to do another day, a reason to come back.


I also climbed a ladder at some point in the afternoon, to trim some lower branches from the white pines closest to the western edge of the garden sight. An assortment of dead branches came down easily and were added to the latest shelter pile.

And while I was way up in the middle of the air, I spied these blossoms in the upper reaches of the ancient cherry tree at the bottom of the garden. I like the mossy old branches of this tree and have therefore been hesitant to do much pruning. Also, this end of the garden has not yet been on my priority list, though I'm expanding in that direction.

However, I've had a glimpse of how lovely this tree might be, and in light of the current flush of blooms on other fruit trees around the perimeter I've worked on, I'm encouraged that some thoughtful pruning later in the season may have delightful consequences for this tree, too.

Meanwhile, the pond is quite full with the water of recent rains, with the old log in front of the house sitting just out of the water.

Lately, we've been spotting a pair of turtles basking there. Experience has taught us that getting any closer than this just causes them to splash away, and they looked much too content to disturb.

This robin sang a pretty little song as the sun began to fade in the west.

Like many other species, the robins also seem to be spending their time in pairs lately.

I was working on the glads by then, planting about a third of what I have (two kinds, gold and purple), to spread their eventual bloom over a long period during the summer, in various locations amongst other things. I'll continue planting throughout this month and we should have a nice long showing as a result.

There were bumblebees (and a few pretty moths and butterflies) in the garden today. I was wearing a bright orange t-shirt, and on more than one occasion had to wave some enthusiastic bumbler away with the admonishment that I was not a giant flower.


Here's a zippy dianthus that caught my eye. I always like this plant, and its cousins Sweet William and (I think there's also a relation here, at least through similar habit) the Creeping Phlox.

I've always been a fan of the way they spread around and fill in an area. This one's color is a bit vivid, I'll concur, but I'm imagining a whole drift of these things and how could I possible resist that?

Here you can also see (no flowers yet, of course...just potential!) a grand little clump of foxglove, as well as our primary stand of peonies, and a nice spread of shasta daisies, mixed in with some agastache and bee balm, and--like many other places--some columbine seedlings.


Damn, aren't these cherry blossoms something up close?

In other parts of the garden, the strawberry vines are full of these pretty white flowers.

By the driveway, another group of daffodils have opened, revealing yet another variety.

Another angle on that old log the turtles are so fond of, though by now, they had departed for wherever it is they park their shells at night. And good advice, that. By the evening, I was a bit sore, sunburned, scratched and bitten and so I retired sleepily to watch a little television, whilst picking ticks off me.

Ah, but what a day it was.

A Not So Sunny Sunday

Starting off today, I offer you this little glory of the snow plant, which I spied yesterday outside the restaurant, but failed to include in last night's post.

I'm not sure we had an actual freeze last night, but it was certainly chilly...a condition which continued throughout this overcast day. I still got a reasonable amount accomplished in various garden locales, but did so with more layers than I needed earlier in the week.



Here's a long shot of the garden at the back of the house. Let's see, from left to right, there's violets, trillium, primroses, money plant, assorted daffodils, a host of hostas, and a rose bush, with assorted ferns mixed in here and there.

Oh, yes...and a chipmunk waiting behind the trillium for me to go away!


In the back garden (which you can see is starting to look a bit tidier than the winter had left it), I got a good deal more weeding done, and started spreading around some of that new topsoil.


The cherry tree's blooming pretty nicely...and I think I heard the telltale sounds of baby chickadees from inside this old birdhouse.

There was certainly plenty of bird activity out there this morning, like this chipping sparrow who was rooting around in the unraked territory beneath the apple tree.


There were the usual chickadees and cardi
nals ...and I think I heard an oriole (it's been a few months, though, since I've heard them, so I'll reserve confirmation of their return until a visual sighting is possible.). A mob of crows were trying to deter some larger bird from raiding their nests. I saw them all more in silhouette than dead clearly, but I think a hawk was the culprit they pursued.


I also spent some attention on the front garden bed, from which I attempted yet another surgical removal of the rampant wisteria vines that crisscross the bed. I have little hope I got it all...but I was able to get a heck of a lot of the stuff out, which is a step in the right direction. Once that was done, I added some of that nice fresh topsoil.


From the road as I left for work comes this view of our very full pond. Nice little spot.


And I'll bring the weekend to a close with a reminder to you all: the days of Spring go by pretty quickly and before you know it, you're trying to figure out how to disguise old daffodil foliage behind daylilies...so don't forget to stop and enjoy the flowers!!