The color in the mountains is coming along nicely (comin' good) though it's not as brilliant as it has been other years. We can't help comparing each year's color to past year's, it's a form of great entertainment.
I had a busy weekend and enjoyed it all very much. Friday I stopped at P&J's, where I was joined by "the boys": Joe, Bill and Fred. What a nice group! We had an excellent visit. Fred was eager to get on to his camp, where he spent the night. I was eager to get home to the dogs, who haven't had the best of care in recent days. Sometimes I walk them, sometimes I just don't. I did walk with them to camp yesterday, just a quick trip.
Saturday I went to the dump--Dump Man knows me well now and always gives me 2 dog biscuits for The Ladies. I stopped at Linda's on the way home and she suggested we have a Dock Day Royale. Which we did. Boy was it nice. The sun is low in the sky but very hot, and the water is COLD, very cold. We got hot enough to swim, though "swim" would be a generous description. Mostly we dipped. We read a bit and visited a lot. What a lovely time it was.
Saturday I showed off my new stove to Duncan, Sue, David & Maryanne. I had them come for wine & snacks in the evening and they were duly impressed with my cobalt blue enameled Jotul. It IS a pretty stove.
Yesterday morning was chilly but warmed up quickly. Temps at night have been in the low 40's but daytime temps have been in the 70's, with good sunshine. We had our autumnal brunch at Duncan's--Linda cooked delicious pancakes and there was a ton of other food. Great time, lots of good company and nice visiting.
After that I struggled with my choices: should I spend the day on the boat house dock, or should I return to Linda's? Boy that was a tough one. I opted for Linda's--she'll be leaving in a couple of weeks and I like being with her. The day was warmer than Sat. and the water was more bearable. We actually swam and floated around. Brrr. But very refreshing. I read some of the book group book, we visited a bit, and we spent a lot of time watching activities on the far shore through our binoculars. There wasn't much of interest happening, but we're easily entertained.
I had a restless night, was up for hours. I went to sleep but woke up and couldn't get back to sleep so I watched Stupid Television for a while before finally getting back to sleep around 3. The dogs are puzzled by this but enjoy their night travels in the wee hours. Tess did run off yesterday afternoon, ostensibly to join bog walkers. She wasn't gone long.
This will be a busy week. Weds. I spend the day in Albany for training. It's a 3-hour trip, and the training is scheduled from 9-4 so it will be a long and tiring day. I can't imagine spending that many hours being trained on the new interlibrary loan platform, but who knows.
Thursday I'm having dinner with the Ruders + Linda & Erd. Friday Bill is hosting an extravaganza at M'side, and Saturday is Bill's birthday turkey dinner at Linda's. Whew! Easy to get fatter with a schedule like that. I tried to go to a yoga class in Keene last night but it was canceled. I don't think I was really disappointed.
Work is fine, busy and entertaining. I am tired of driving to and from Plattsburgh, but I enjoy my job. That counts. A lot.
Monday, September 30, 2013
The view from Linda's dock, where I spent 2 fantastic afternoons
I had the most wonderful weekend. I spent 2 afternoons with my friend Linda, sitting on her new (and very fancy) dock. We read, visited, spied on the other side of the lake with our binoculars, and, yes, we swam. The water is freezing cold but the sun was very hot and it felt wonderful. It felt more wonderful when you got out, but it was really nice. This is what September in Hawkeye is supposed to be like.
Looking at the neighbors from Linda's dock
This is looking up the lake, toward the boat house (which you can just barely see). Near perfection.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Ahhhhhh.
I took a day off yesterday to clean and organize my house. It worked out well and I was pleased with my progress. I had a nice, relaxing morning, got up early & walked to the boat house to check on the lake (it was windy) and color (coming along but not yet peak). I cleaned my deck of a lot of debris, which was just wonderful. Took 2 bags of garbage to the dump + got rid of my old (35 yrs.) propane camp stove that no longer works. The deck looks much better now. I also emptied some of the skankier-looking flower pots. I couldn't bring myself to throw them all out, though, so still have some mediocre-looking pots on the railing & deck.
I walked the bog in the afternoon, my first walk to the end of the boardwalk in many weeks. I like going in the off-season--not only is it less crowded (like, you get to have the place to yourself) but the colors are always different. It's very pretty in there now, unless you're the type of person depressed by signs of autumn. I like autumn--isn't that why we live in places with 4 seasons? To watch the seasons change?
It's been a pretty busy time--a flurry of late-season activity. Dinners with Linda & Erdvilas, Duncan & Sue, Joe. All very nice and delicious. I'm not gaining weight, thankfully, and have lost 3 pounds. I'm really hoping to walk more regularly and lose weight. Hoping to lose some SERIOUS weight this winter.
I've kept a fire going in my stove pretty much every day, but haven't kept it going all night yet. I know how to set it to keep it burning low and steady but have yet to get it really hot. It is a determined stove, does not like to shut down. I've already emptied the ash pan (just for practice, while the stove was cold). It's a wonderful stove and I feel so lucky to have it. Does that mean I think I don't deserve it? Well, not, it's just that it was a luxury that I couldn't really afford but really wanted. So I have it, and I admire and appreciate it regularly.
Dogs are fine. They're busy eating drops from the apple trees along the driveway and looking for deer. I don't think they know what deer are, but they're sure there's SOMETHING out there in the woods. They bark and fuss when we see deer from the car but I'm not sure they connect THOSE deer with the deer we have around the house.
Oh I had such a nice day yesterday. I love this time of year. Weather is expected to continue to be sunny and warm. Saturday looks like a wonderful day. I need to start working on the boat house--emptying the fridge, tidying up. And I need to get to the fridge in main camp, which has flotsam from summer visitors in it. I already ate the marshmallows that were in the cabinet.
We're getting some good color but of course there's much discussion about just how good the color is this year. Is it as good as usual? Isn't it duller, not as bright? But wait, that's what we said last year and it ended up being beautiful. There definitely is not as much red as we usually have, probably due to some weather activity. Lots of yellows and oranges, though. We haven't reached the time when walking in the woods feels as if there are bright lights everywhere because of the yellow yellow yellow leaves. That will come, though.
I walked the bog in the afternoon, my first walk to the end of the boardwalk in many weeks. I like going in the off-season--not only is it less crowded (like, you get to have the place to yourself) but the colors are always different. It's very pretty in there now, unless you're the type of person depressed by signs of autumn. I like autumn--isn't that why we live in places with 4 seasons? To watch the seasons change?
It's been a pretty busy time--a flurry of late-season activity. Dinners with Linda & Erdvilas, Duncan & Sue, Joe. All very nice and delicious. I'm not gaining weight, thankfully, and have lost 3 pounds. I'm really hoping to walk more regularly and lose weight. Hoping to lose some SERIOUS weight this winter.
I've kept a fire going in my stove pretty much every day, but haven't kept it going all night yet. I know how to set it to keep it burning low and steady but have yet to get it really hot. It is a determined stove, does not like to shut down. I've already emptied the ash pan (just for practice, while the stove was cold). It's a wonderful stove and I feel so lucky to have it. Does that mean I think I don't deserve it? Well, not, it's just that it was a luxury that I couldn't really afford but really wanted. So I have it, and I admire and appreciate it regularly.
Dogs are fine. They're busy eating drops from the apple trees along the driveway and looking for deer. I don't think they know what deer are, but they're sure there's SOMETHING out there in the woods. They bark and fuss when we see deer from the car but I'm not sure they connect THOSE deer with the deer we have around the house.
Oh I had such a nice day yesterday. I love this time of year. Weather is expected to continue to be sunny and warm. Saturday looks like a wonderful day. I need to start working on the boat house--emptying the fridge, tidying up. And I need to get to the fridge in main camp, which has flotsam from summer visitors in it. I already ate the marshmallows that were in the cabinet.
We're getting some good color but of course there's much discussion about just how good the color is this year. Is it as good as usual? Isn't it duller, not as bright? But wait, that's what we said last year and it ended up being beautiful. There definitely is not as much red as we usually have, probably due to some weather activity. Lots of yellows and oranges, though. We haven't reached the time when walking in the woods feels as if there are bright lights everywhere because of the yellow yellow yellow leaves. That will come, though.
Tess dozes while Treasure keeps an eye on things (namely me)
My but they're shiny, aren't they? They're very pretty girls.
I went to the dump yesterday and there was a man who couldn't stop petting them or talking about how perfect they were. His chocolate Lab just died. He thought mine were the perfect size, were beautiful and sooooo sweet. They thought he was pretty grand, too, but not as grand as Dump Man, who always gives me biscuits for them. Oh they love a trip to the dump.
Tamaracks are lightening up...
The tamaracks in the bog turn a fantastic color at the end of the fall--they're about the last bit of color we get. They're starting to turn.
Ferns turning in the bog
They turn gold, then brown, then they sort of drop off. They're very pretty.
Looking for the perfect leaf
Not so many red leaves this year, and lots of leaves are falling before we've had peak color. Hold on until Columbus day, leaves!
How it looks at 58OHR these days
Oh it's getting pretty. Very pretty. A sunny, warm, clear day yesterday and I spent it at home.
Monday, September 23, 2013
023Treasure's treasure--a deer skull and spine. yum.
Treasure found this the other day and proudly brought it home for Tess to play with. YUCK.
017Bog walkers enjoying the color
It's really getting colorful. This is from the end of my driveway. Bog is busy.
014
It's an amazing year for wild apples. Part of my land is an old orchard so I have a few different kinds of apples. These are very sweet and the ones on the next tree over are very tart. These apples are huge. The deer and the dogs are enjoying the falls.
003Pretty gaudy, but beautiful on Sat. morning at 6:30 a.m.
Amazing color--even more amazing that the camera caught it so well. Timing is crucial, since colors change by the minute. Not a bad image to wake up to on a Saturday
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
And WOW
What a beautiful day today--bright, strong sunshine, clear and cool. Perfect autumn weather. Or at least it looks that way from my desk...
We had our first real frost yesterday morning--temp was 30 at 6:30 a.m. and there was scrapable frost on my windshield. My flowers didn't seem to mind, however, I don't think I lost anything. Darn, that just means I have to deal with the pots on my deck with live plants still in them. Dump them out, girlie, they're not going to get any prettier. They all look pretty skanky right now anyway.
Had a quiet weekend, which was nice but not productive. I did have a nice time Saturday morning with Duncan and Sue, traveling to Paul's bakery in Upper Jay for food & visit with Linda & Erd., then we stopped at the Wilmington festival and poked around there a while, then home. It was a bit cold but a very nice fall day. I went to the dump in the afternoon with Stephanie, who was eager for social contact. Uneventful dump run except that I got to dump my old microwave into the metal bin. Very dramatic effect, tossing it in and hearing a big crash. I like my new (cheap) microwave--it heats food as quickly as a microwave is supposed to. And makes popcorn with all the kernels popped.
Sunday was quiet, just a quick visit with P&J at noon then home to do...what? Not much. I got laundry done, did dishes, tidied a bit but still have much left to do. Joe came to get my great-grandmother's desk to fix. That's a huge deal to me--I hate it when I can't figure out how to fix things or get things done, so it was wonderful that he agreed to take care of it. It will be nice to have a desk with a drawer in it again. And now I promise to use it as a desk instead of a storage unit.
Ravi came to mow on Sunday, and we had a long visit. He's just out of college and has an interesting attitude about life, work, etc. He just visited relatives in Calif. and was really wooed by their lifestyle and income levels. Very impressed by their expensive cars, wants that life for himself. Well I guess we're all impressed by SOMETHING when we're 22, but my friend and I had a long conversation this morning about what young people's expectations are these days. Does life own them something? We just went to college and got jobs as a matter of course (although my only reason for going to college was to kill 2 years until I got married--that all changed when I decided NOT to get married at 19). We've had jobs since we were 16, and knew that, when we graduated from college with our shiny history degrees that we'd have to find something to do for a career. So we turned to libraries. That was sort of where those of us with liberal arts majors ended up. There were 250 people in my lib. science program, at a relatively small school. Lots of sociologists, historians, English majors, etc. All wondering what we would do and not knowing much about libraries. At least we didn't get our degrees because "we like books." That reason drives me crazy, especially now when libraries are so much less about books than ever.
So life goes on. Big unanswered questions. What is the meaning of life, anyway? Why is the sky blue? Actually Rush answered that one for me.
Dogs are fine. They're very playful these days, lots of roughhousing in the living room. They're full of joy and I like it when they chase each other around and play big mean fighting dog. I started walking the bog the other day but got bored and turned around. Even Tess seemed bored so it was a bust. I have been walking to camp on the weekends but that's not really much of a walk. I went to the doctor this week--my numbers are all good (except for the one on the scale) so he and I had little to say to each other. Which is fine. See you in 3 months.
Work is good. Busy. I've been doing a lot of the interlibrary loan work, which is always interesting. What are people reading these days? Well, inmates like to know how to make $1 million in real estate by investing $25, how to fight off zombies, how to cast spells and place curses, how to make fancy tattoos, and one of them has come up with a game app that the CEO of Yahoo! absolutely MUST know about. He needs to get in touch with her directly. Her contact information is on the Internet so I don't mind sending it along.
We had our first real frost yesterday morning--temp was 30 at 6:30 a.m. and there was scrapable frost on my windshield. My flowers didn't seem to mind, however, I don't think I lost anything. Darn, that just means I have to deal with the pots on my deck with live plants still in them. Dump them out, girlie, they're not going to get any prettier. They all look pretty skanky right now anyway.
Had a quiet weekend, which was nice but not productive. I did have a nice time Saturday morning with Duncan and Sue, traveling to Paul's bakery in Upper Jay for food & visit with Linda & Erd., then we stopped at the Wilmington festival and poked around there a while, then home. It was a bit cold but a very nice fall day. I went to the dump in the afternoon with Stephanie, who was eager for social contact. Uneventful dump run except that I got to dump my old microwave into the metal bin. Very dramatic effect, tossing it in and hearing a big crash. I like my new (cheap) microwave--it heats food as quickly as a microwave is supposed to. And makes popcorn with all the kernels popped.
Sunday was quiet, just a quick visit with P&J at noon then home to do...what? Not much. I got laundry done, did dishes, tidied a bit but still have much left to do. Joe came to get my great-grandmother's desk to fix. That's a huge deal to me--I hate it when I can't figure out how to fix things or get things done, so it was wonderful that he agreed to take care of it. It will be nice to have a desk with a drawer in it again. And now I promise to use it as a desk instead of a storage unit.
Ravi came to mow on Sunday, and we had a long visit. He's just out of college and has an interesting attitude about life, work, etc. He just visited relatives in Calif. and was really wooed by their lifestyle and income levels. Very impressed by their expensive cars, wants that life for himself. Well I guess we're all impressed by SOMETHING when we're 22, but my friend and I had a long conversation this morning about what young people's expectations are these days. Does life own them something? We just went to college and got jobs as a matter of course (although my only reason for going to college was to kill 2 years until I got married--that all changed when I decided NOT to get married at 19). We've had jobs since we were 16, and knew that, when we graduated from college with our shiny history degrees that we'd have to find something to do for a career. So we turned to libraries. That was sort of where those of us with liberal arts majors ended up. There were 250 people in my lib. science program, at a relatively small school. Lots of sociologists, historians, English majors, etc. All wondering what we would do and not knowing much about libraries. At least we didn't get our degrees because "we like books." That reason drives me crazy, especially now when libraries are so much less about books than ever.
So life goes on. Big unanswered questions. What is the meaning of life, anyway? Why is the sky blue? Actually Rush answered that one for me.
Dogs are fine. They're very playful these days, lots of roughhousing in the living room. They're full of joy and I like it when they chase each other around and play big mean fighting dog. I started walking the bog the other day but got bored and turned around. Even Tess seemed bored so it was a bust. I have been walking to camp on the weekends but that's not really much of a walk. I went to the doctor this week--my numbers are all good (except for the one on the scale) so he and I had little to say to each other. Which is fine. See you in 3 months.
Work is good. Busy. I've been doing a lot of the interlibrary loan work, which is always interesting. What are people reading these days? Well, inmates like to know how to make $1 million in real estate by investing $25, how to fight off zombies, how to cast spells and place curses, how to make fancy tattoos, and one of them has come up with a game app that the CEO of Yahoo! absolutely MUST know about. He needs to get in touch with her directly. Her contact information is on the Internet so I don't mind sending it along.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
006Late season swim for Tess
I can't believe she lets me take her picture these days. The new camera makes a noise when you turn it on and she usually hides when she hears it. I guess this was just the magic of the moment. She had a nice swim.
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