A harpsichord, chickens, and a hummingbird

We attended another of the Cooperstown Music Festival concerts on Wednesday night. The Sebastians is a quartet with 2 violins, a cello and a harpsichord. (How does one travel with a harpsichord?) Christ Episcopal Church was the perfect setting for baroque and classical music.

We are spending some cash to get the big chicken coop fixed to prevent more midnight raids by the mink. Then we can move the 5 older hens that we have in the plastic Omlet coop to their new home, and we can replace them with the 6 new chicks from the dog crate in the garage. 

I always intended for the Omlet to be a grow-out pen, but I am thankful that we had a safe place for these adult girls when we were losing all the others.

I set up the trail camera to keep an eye on those girls. So far we have caught Zelda, Otis, deer, a skunk, and this harmless little hummingbird. He used to come with his girlfriend to the cuphea plants we buy for them every year in the backyard, but this year she showed up without him. Now I see why.

Clouds and sun(flowers)

 

When the only sun you can find is in the sunflowers…that’s good too. We needed the rain. 

When the weather is changing, like now, the mountain disappears in the background. The creek water is almost always a different temperature than the air, so we get a lot of fog back there. 

And the 2 fawns were back again for a quick bath from mom (or aunty). I am convinced, but maybe wrong, that she only had one fawn. Then a doe was killed on the road out front and a second larger one appeared.

In my perfect world, Aunty rescued the other fawn.

XI in the sky, summer music, and macroinvertebrates

There's a title I don't have to worry about repeating!

The skywriters are back mucking up the sky again just after all the smoke from Canada went away. Momma deer is unconcerned, and just finished cleaning off 2 little ones who refused to wait for their picture to be taken.

We went to the second concert in the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival—Caroga Arts Ensemble. Eddie Barbash on saxophone, Kasa Quartet on strings, plus a guitarist, drummer and bass player.

Your first question would probably be "why am I doing this?"

And then there was the training for macroinvertebrate monitoring. As if the water testing I am doing in the creek with Charlie and Pam wasn't enough, now we are learning how to capture and identify macroinvertebrates as a further test of the health of our stream(s). Let's just say it is quite the challenge to learn the difference between a net-spinning caddisfly and a midge larva when they are both about the size of a fruit fly. The easy ones were the crayfish and scuds...

Where there's smoke

Canadian wildfires are sending their smoke to us just like they did in June 2023, only this time it's supposed to be so much worse, with numbers at the very top of the scale. The large photo is from 10:45 this morning when we were still in the ugly dried-blood-colored hazard zone at 500!

Where is the hazy orange sky that you can see if you click on the link from 2023? Where is the hazy gray sky with no sun to be seen that we had yesterday when it was only at 280 on the scale?

I do prefer the blue sky, but I am staying mostly inside today to avoid any nasty stuff in the air. How can it be so bad and look so good? At least the numbers came back down to around 200 this afternoon.

We escaped the house last night and went to the first of the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival concerts—a woodwind quintet called WindSync. It was a great performance in spite of the fact that those poor musicians had to breathe in our smoky air all day.

Expressions

Cool

Silly and scared silly

It's kind of odd that 92° is considered extreme heat up here—that was average summer heat in New Jersey. Zelda found a cool spot in my bug-eaten hostas to take a nap.

We had the heat for 2 or 3 days, and then we had some wicked thunderstorms and heavy rain to wash it all away. It's still hot, but not awful.

Jessie has not been appreciating the stormy weather, and Old Man Cyrus does not understand why she doesn't want to play his silly games. (Storms? We had storms?) At least he is still silly at age 13.

And the final photo is Layla wishing you all a Happy 4th. She was not impressed with the big celebration in DC. Our little hometown fireworks are just enough fun, thank you very much.

Super silly

Clouds and elderberries

Magnificent clouds mean stormy weather that makes the nervous dog more nervous than ever. (Gabapentin is our friend.) But they do make for great photos! 

And behind that fence to the right in the top photo, is our baby forest of (mostly, or maybe all) native trees and shrubs (smaller photo). The white blooms will all soon be beautiful elderberries which are nearly impossible to make into anything useful. I might try elderflower and elderberry liqueur this year, and possibly a dye from the berries. Maybe...

Fast Friends

The Husband has been busy playing mandolin and guitar with several different companions.

This photo was Fast Friends playing at the Hop House on Father's Day afternoon. Luckily the recent stormy weather gave way to some sunshine and lots of people came out to listen.

His better paying gigs (same $$$, less time playing) tend to be at the 2 local nursing homes. Those old folks love the Boomer music and Old-Timey stuff that he plays with 2 different groups.

Stormy weather

The weather was absolutely perfect for the 5 days that my sister was here, except it did get cloudy when I was driving her to the airport. Since then we have had a lot of predicted rain, but not a lot of actual rain. Just a few windy thunderstorms—barely enough to water the garden, more than enough to scare the scaredy girl.

Jessie was just getting used to the strange lady in the house. She was just starting to think maybe visitors are okay even if they do show up in mom's car, sleep in dad's basement, come outside to her private yard.

But then the stranger went away and all hell broke loose! Thunder, lightning, wind, rain—how's a girl supposed to eat her dinner? She wouldn't even touch the fried chicken with gluten-free turkey and cranberry cookies that she likes so much. And that was with me sitting on the floor right next to her.

Her big brother Cyrus, who is really too old to climb the stairs, came up anyway to check on his little sister. He also happens to be mostly deaf, unaware of the storm, and maybe just coming up to see where that fried chicken is headed. Nice try, big guy!

Sis visit, and a vet or 2

Jo, Harry, Julie, me

My Portlandia sister came to visit for a few short days and we had a fabulous time (and perfect weather!). We met with one of her old friends from Pennsylvania, and one of my not so old friends, Dr Julie, who happens to be a veterinarian. 

We had a picnic lunch on Julie's veranda, and a meet and greet with Harry and Milo and all the other critters on her farm.

That evening, we went to Oneonta to meet Jo's friend Jamie for dinner. While we were commenting on the message on the truck parked in front of us, the owner and his very friendly dog walked up. It was a real pleasure to shake his hand. 

Dandies and birdies

The day and the dandelions are almost done

No Mow May in the back fence only. Husband insists on mowing his favorite spaces early in the year so that he can get to it before it gets this crazy tall. He's got a good point, but I like the dandelions and daffodils to go their course before we mow them all down. Even the grass is reseeding.

Obviously I don't live in New Jersey anymore. My neighbors would hate me and I most likely would get a warning from the Borough about my untended yard.

I just took down the BirdBuddy feeder/camera for the summer. There is plenty of food for the birds elsewhere, and I was mostly getting Grackles, House Finches, and House Sparrows. The camera even caught an injured Grackle who looked like he was missing an eye, but the swelling went down and his eye and head feathers returned.

There were a few returning strangers this year—White-Crowned Sparrows (who look like they're wearing a bike helmet), and a pair of Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks. Not caught on camera was an Indigo Bunting. I have only ever seen one other one, and that was a few years ago.

I have also been using the Sound ID on the Merlin app. More than once it captured 16 varieties in just minute or 2. Most of them I have never seen, but it's nice knowing they are out there. 

New kids, new car

June the Goat Lady’s  kids are much better at posing than ours, partly because they are all wearing adorable handmade coats, and mostly because they are all together and can’t run away. 

I will get a suitable pic of our 15(!) cuties soon. 

In the meantime, here’s a pic of our new red car on its first day, before all the mud and salt paint it inside and out. Carvana was very helpful in taking away my sad little Kia Soul. 

Cat, Corvettes, and other red cars

Martin is just here to show off his mandolin case pose. He was a bit exhausted after helping Charlie and me in our chemistry lab (the kitchen) doing our creek water testing. Martin very much enjoyed chewing on the sulfuric acid bottle cap. Thankfully he was not able to remove it.

My closest neighbor, Don, passed away in January. His house on the hill overlooking the lake was our favorite place to visit with the dogs.

Because Don's relatives live hours away, his buddy Mike and I have been going through his mountains of stuff. We both heard the stories (more than once) about this red Corvette being stolen (more than once) in the Bronx, and him getting it back.

How funny to know 2 folks up here with the same sad story with a happy ending. Another friend, Terry, also had a little red Corvette that was stolen in the city (in Brooklyn). Feel free to read his book about the ordeal, Corvette Odyssey.

My little red Kia (actually it's Mars Orange) is crying because it is going away. I had the same problem with it that had me crying last year. I had to drive an hour and a half to the Kia dealer in Syracuse (twice!) to get it fixed, because I refuse to ever go back to the jokers in Utica.

And, because I do not enjoy driving such a distance to get my car repaired, I am trading it in on a different not-so-little red car—a Toyota RAV4. It's still being built. I will miss the fun little Kia Soul, but it stopped being fun last year.

Painting, reading, and sorting

Mother Nature was doing some wall painting for me the other day. She just missed painting over TW's landscape painting of one of Mother's own scenes.

The reading nook has been rearranged 3 times since its creation. The chair is the only bit that stayed in place. It works great, but the table wasn't working well for holding my big mug of tea. You may or may not get an updated photo if I ever get it to be exactly how I want it.

Then there is Martin, my biggest helper, sorting through lots of STUFF that has been in boxes in the basement since we moved. The View-Master reels (https://www.ebay.com/itm/327028974789) in the Round Hill box, are most likely worth more than the Noritake plates in the Smirnoff box. At least they will be cheaper to ship if anyone buys them on eBay.

Emerging

The flowerpots and firepit are emerging from the snow. We have had about a foot for at least a month, but I am finally seeing some spring-like weather in Siri's forecast. 

Those whiners in New Jersey who have been begging for snow the last few years are now whining that it won't go away. I personally am quite happy with our snowy landscape, especially now that I am an old retired lady who doesn't have to work till midnight on Ugly Tuesdays.

And now that I have all that time on my hands, I am finally getting around to rearranging the furniture, something I used to do all the time before we moved up here.

It is hard to believe we have been in this house for 15 years—and I still have a basement full of "stuff" I need to sort through.

So what do I do? I buy more stuff. I just bought this nice little wicker chair and a new rug from friends Tom and Roberta. Now I'm all set to start my new book "Trajectory", by one of my favorite authors, Richard Russo.

Cold dogs and local music on sunny Sundays

Even on the frigid days, short-haired part-hound girl Jessie will still stay outside most of the day, and Cyrus will be true to his probably part-husky self and go out and roll in the snow.

Here I have actual photo evidence (not AI!) of some real musicians, the Fair Winds Trio, playing in beautiful downtown Schuyler Lake last Sunday afternoon. And, we had some real friend musicians playing in our sunny Schuyler Lake living room the Sunday before that. Jessie was interested enough to sit with us and even sway to the music a bit. Cyrus was bored.

One of these days…

Yes, it is still cold and there is not much chance of it improving any time soon. We still have about a foot of snow.

No, Ms Jess has not given up going outside and shivering for most of the day. At least she has consistently come inside every night for several months.

And, at least someone is still making good use of Woody’s favorite big red dog bed.

 

In the frigid air (Frigidaire?) and the snow

This is one of my favorite birds, from the BirdBuddy cam, at 7:30 this morning.

According to Siri, we got 24" of snow yesterday, and another 6" today.

I think those estimates might be a bit high, but either way we have plenty. I am SO happy that we are both old retired people who don't have to go anywhere.

I am also happy that the extreme cold (29° below average on Saturday) and heavy snow are working on the crazy girl. Jessie is just starting to get used to staying in the house all day after 2+ years here.

You go girl! Red-bellied woodie would be happy to take your place!

Happy Birthday Alice!!!

 

Art for My Sake

The news for the first week of this new year has been truly frightening. So I am focusing on my personal good news—I finished my big collage. This was a project I started in August, or even before that if you count the time I spent repainting the studio and reclaiming my drawing table from the basement. It was down there disassembled since we moved here in 2010.

I had a large (3' x 4') poster of apples in a bowl that was hanging on the back porch. It was so faded you could barely see that they were apples. I got this brilliant idea that I would create a collage image of Lester's Flat, and use the mounted poster as a base since the frame was still in great shape.

I started with magazine pictures and other scraps of paper, but I didn't even have enough to do the sky. Then I switched to using my photos and printed them out on good paper. Luckily it was a good time of year for taking extra photos as needed, and I needed a lot.

There were very few blog posts during this time because it was just so much fun. It was sort of like recreating the blog on paper. My kitten helper nearly destroyed it more than once, and there was some cursing involved, but I was addicted. I spent a few hours a day, every day, for a few months.

Now this masterpiece is hanging inside. It reminds me of Grandma Moses, but someone else pointed out that David Hockney did a photo collage series in a similar style. Either way, I admire them both, I am in good company.

I hope to continue creating, avoiding the real news, and making my own good news.