Play dates

Lucy tries to escape her play date with new. bouncy, extravagant grandpuppy Dori.
July 28, 2021
Happy Tuesday!

_/\_/\_

Sunday Selfies: Week #414 Nell with Her Dog

Nell, of course, could not be bothered with a selfie today. It's time for naps. 

_/\_/\_

Primrose Moths

These are the best photos of primrose moths (Schinia florida) that I took, with John, between 2010 and 2019. He discovered them one day while mowing and brought one into the house for me. We carefully photographed it and returned it home. It was so small and it took a lot of practice to be able to know how to handle them for the best photos. But we did and we found how beautiful they are with their bright green googly eyes. There is music but the volume is very low. You may prefer to watch it without the audio. 

_/\_/\_

Skywatch Friday: Storms in Vermont and Connecticut

Oh, there were so many photos flying across the Internet today from two of my children and me. Two sets of photos of the heat-breaking storms are from Vermont. One set is from Connecticut. 

From my house in northern Vermont, Lucy watches the sky warily, but manages a small walk until she returned to me. When the leaves began to blow around in the air, she said it was time to go inside.

From Connecticut, a daughter sent photos and one video of before, during and after her storm: 

And again from Vermont, 10 miles north of me, another daughter sent these photos, the sequence of which she never specified. They had one inch hail, held by her husband, that I never saw. My mountain blocks a lot of the storms they get. 

Thank you for visiting.

 

_/\_/\_

Wordless Wednesday: A Successful Day for a Flower Crab Spider

_/\_/\_

Wordless Wednesday: O Hai!

_/\_/\_

Oliver on a Rock

I have several huge glacial erratics on my property and was standing at the bottom of one photographing lichen on this day. I felt stuff landing on my head, so I looked up (and I was scared to see what animal could do that) to see Oliver three feet above my head on top of the erratic, knocking stuff onto me. Cats love to do that, right? Somehow I managed to get this shot even though my settings were for macros. This is one of my fondest memories of this cat; he was always ready for a hike out back. From April 11, 2012. 

_/\_/\_

New Grandpuppy Dori on Wordless Wednesday

7 months old

_/\_/\_

Hymenoptera, Diptera, and Hemiptera

Click the photo to view larger image.

Three orders of insects in one shot is my Photo Sunday submission for Macro. This is one of my favorite photos from last season (2021). 

Clockwise from top left:

A bee, Ligated Furrow Bee (Halictus ligatus); a flower fly, Black-horned Smoothtail (Epistrophe grossulariae); and a true bug, Tarnished Plant Bug ( Lygus lineolaris).

July 27, 2021

Barton, Vermont

_/\_/\_

Wordless Wednesday: An Apple Curculio Weevil

Apple Curculio weevil (Anthonomus quadrigibbus)

_/\_/\_

Christmas Eve in Barton

St. Paul's Church on Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas!

(I thought it has been long enough since my last post in March!)

Beavers on the Move

What you would have seen when walking in from the road.

Last October the beaver from the bog had some sort of population explosion. The kids had to move out and make their own house. They chose to move across the road to our side. There is a huge culvert that drains water from a low lying grove of tamarack and apple trees. It is less than a quarter mile from the house. John noticed in October that the area was flooded. Deeply flooded. So he went to check it out. That's when he found the new beaver dam across the culvert. The new pond was about four feet deep and filling quickly. We would have a huge problem if there was a heavy rain or if the future finished dam broke. It could wash out our driveway, the culvert and the road..

John manually clears out the dam from the culvert.
He is standing on top of the new dam.
Note those 6 foot tall fence posts marking the culvert.

The new beaver pond.

John spent a lot of time and effort in clearing the dam from the culvert. He did it one Sunday morning and for a few weeks after that, once a week, because the beaver kept repairing the damage. The beaver seemed to give up at that point and did not rebuild.

But after nearly six weeks of quiet, they rebuilt the dam. This time, they built it deep inside the culvert, under the road, where neither John nor his tractor could reach it. John then called the town road agent, Clem, who had installed our culvert. Clem sent the town road crew that very day. They used the town's huge backhoe and hauled out the new, heavily fortified dam. Then they installed a heavy road grate to prevent the beaver from ever entering the culvert again.

The new heavy grate blocking the culvert. Note those same fence posts from above.

Below are some photographs of the damage in the same area. We returned on a hike in December to see what was going on. The damage was quite extensive. The area was trashed (in a nice, beaver sort of way):

This is what that new beaver pond looks like now. It is drained.

The remains of a lodge that was being built behind the dam.

Many trees were only partially cut or were being considered for cutting. This tree will die.

The beaver may have been discouraged. They may even have despaired. But they were never threatened. After the town blocked the culvert, they continued to cut down trees on both sides of the road and built a new lodge where it should have been built: in the beaver bog. This is the fourth lodge across the road now. It has new canals and trails, and new log slides going into the water. I'm glad the trees, such as they were, are gone, because now the view of the bog is clearer.

The new lodge. Where it should be.

The funniest tale of these beaver has not yet been told. In January, I went for my monthly hair appointment and heard the strangest story from my hairdresser, who frequently drives by on her way into town. She was driving by one day about noon and saw by the side of the road a big beaver. He was waiting for her to drive by, looking both ways before he crossed. And what did he have in his mouth? A reflective road side marker that marks the culvert so that the town road crew does not damage it with the plows. The beaver had cut it down and was taking it home to decorate his lodge!

_/\_/\_

Wordless Wednesday: Caught in Flight

_/\_/\_

Wet

I remember September 20, 2011 because of the weather. I came home from school feeling that classes hadn't gone as they should. I had to get outside but it was raining. I could tell that no birds were about and the rain would make all the bugs disappear. The cats felt they had to get out, too. The rain stopped so we went. Desperate, I began taking photographs and found these to shoot. And I found my bug.

I have put my favorite Wet photograph on my Photo a Day blog . . . . here.

_/\_/\_

Hiking the ROW Part 3

Buddy and Oscar will follow John to the end of the earth.

An unidentified fungus.

Porcupine quills at the bottom of the cliffs.
John thinks the porkie may have fallen off of the cliff (and survived)
because of the number of quills that were there.

The very bottom of the cliffs.

Oscar poses for the camera.

Scarlet Waxy Cap Mushroom (Hygrophorous coccineus)

Another unidentified fungus.

Up the tree!

Insulators

The transformer is nearly eye level because the slope of the
mountainside is so steep under the cliffs.

Well, that's all there is about this great hike. To view the other photos:
Introduction: Strangers on the mountain
Hiking the ROW: Part 1
Hiking the ROW: Part 2
Hiking the ROW: Part 3

_/\_/\_