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Welcoming the city-withered... |
Size: 102 Entries
Created: May 30th, 2007 at 10:09pm
Modified: May 12th, 2017 at 3:33pm
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| Today I tooled from coast to coast, I could say. I started in Manomet, on Plymouth Harbor, where the water is cold, and the creatures in it are fewer, and hardy. After a half hour drive, I stood in the shallows of Swifts Beach, on Wareham Harbor, on Buzzard's Bay. In that water, I found lots of hermit crabs, a couple of little unidentified guys, one dirty spider crab, lots of minnows, lots of snails, one small conch, and a stranger to me who most closely resembled a garden snake in markings and movement. We'll turn a blind eye to the fact that he was in the wrong element. I found quahog shells, and probably would have found quahogs but the tide wasn't right. What a finer thing is this life! |
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Well, it's basically the same scene here as this time last year. Got some goodies goin' in the garden, hoping to establish a bigger plot, but so far it's tough sloggin', turning it over. Need to get that done soon, though, if I follow through with my collard patch plans. Saw a hummingbird last week, seems a touch early and cool for them, but he was enjoying a gorgeous rhododendron. Dragonflies are hittin' the scene; spiders, of course. I tried an in situ compost pile in one of my little rock gardens, and it seems to have worked out fabulously; every turn of the shovel exposes another dozen fat, happy earthworms. The sage is blooming, handsome purple flowers slightly reminiscent of snapdragons. We have two different shades of iris, big purple guys, and cream colored ones so heavy they tip over and lay on the ground.
As usual, I can't wait for the first tomato! I've seen lots of redtailed hawks, several cranes, a muskrat in Myles Standish a month or so ago...Several months ago I spotted a pair of pheasants alongside the highway, and more recently I've seen three different sets of Canadian geese and goslings-so cute! My best friend's grandmother's cat had kittens, too, and I got to see those little cuties. 
So there's the critter update! Check out my pix at http://www.flickr.com/photos/thatcraftycapecodcat/3579868167/in/set-721576048899... . |
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| I always thought cranes and egrets, etc., were more solitary critters, but yesterday we saw at least 3 and possibly 5 flying in a flock over the highway near Massasoit State Park. Yay! |
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| Morning bursts with birdsong and sunshine over the back yard. A woodpecker thrums beat merrily while the dogs jingle and bustle into the pen. The cat meows stridently over the smell of coffee. |
March 24, 2009 at 11:41pm
March 24, 2009 at 11:41pm
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Title says it all here, kids. Today, while tooling my interminable, merry way around Cape Cod, two red tailed hawks flew across my path, and a very large grey crane. I haven't ascertained what the crane-bird was yet, but he was mighty large-his wing span had to be at least five feet.
It was snowing while the sun shone on Cape Cod today.
A couple of days ago, I spotted a muskrat running alongside the road. Check him out at http://flickr.com/photos/thatcraftycapecodcat/3371246533 |
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| Saw two pretty, fat pheasants along the side of the highway today; talked to an owl last week, heard him again earlier this week, heard coyotes howling in the forest one night. Lots of hawks on the highways; lots of roadkill, too. ;-( |
February 28, 2009 at 11:28pm
February 28, 2009 at 11:28pm
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| Recently I've begun smoking primarily outside again (I say primarily, because as I type a cigarette burns in front of me...but hey, it's cold out there!). This is a good thing in many respects, most prominently my observation of the wild ones out the back door. I've often thought the one thing I will hate most about quitting smoking is those stolen moments of peace outside, listening to the rustlings in the night. Tonight, I saw a sleek little raccoon, cheerfully bumbling his way through my garden. To confirm my identification of the shadow, I turned the outside light on, and he turned his quizzical mask towards me with a faint look of consternation before ambling away. Cute fellows, the raccoons, and while I was sure we had them, I hadn't seen one til tonight. Spirit the feral cat has resurfaced from the forest; he's been showing up regularly for several days at his kibble bowl. I look forward to spotting the foxes, and probably the coyotes, soon. Altho...I often wonder if the dog pen (comprised of two large chainlink pens wrapped around the side of the house in crazy extravagance...) is any deterrence to the wild ones... They all come to visit the midden, anyway; I see Mr. Fox's prints in the snow. |
February 11, 2009 at 7:02pm
February 11, 2009 at 7:02pm
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| The dog and I headed out into the forest for a ramble today, searching for shed deer antlers. The communal path is clearly demarcated in the snow, littered with prints new and old from the beasties that have passed the same way. The old snow is speckled with crumbs of trees that have sifted down from thousands of breaths of wind, sighs and shrieks alike. There are many deadfalls. The sides of the path are littered with holes dug through the snow, acorn shells near by testifying to the burrower's reward. |
January 26, 2009 at 4:29pm
January 26, 2009 at 4:29pm
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Finally, winter lives up to its frosty promise, and we've had snowfall after snowfall..There is an inescapable peace to snowfall; those moments of unadulterated silence when the world seems cloaked in cotton. One snow stuck to the trees, picking each branch out in a tracing of white, and, instead of melting rapidly the next day, remained for several days. One evening, as a pale peach sunset stained the sky, I drove by a snowcovered rural cemetery that was shrouded in a gentle mist rising from the ground. The distance was obscured by the snowfog, so that vast fields disappeared into a gossamer wall. Highways take on a new charm, and snow combined with bright, crisp blue skies makes me exclaim 'Isn't it gorgeous?'.
Winter of '09 is proving a delight, despite the slick bits of road that make my trusty dinosaur (one of those elite few SUVs that is sans 4x4) switch her posterior friskily, despite the numbing cold that turns the blood in my veins and the heating oil thick and viscous, so that both are chilled to a standstill in the morning.. |
December 11, 2008 at 12:13pm
December 11, 2008 at 12:13pm
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| I saw those two bright planets by the moon, did you? And I noticed them before I realized that it was a phenomenon not to be experienced for another long old while...perhaps not til after Humanity's fettered eyes are shut for eternity. |
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