ready to restart

i'm going to be a good blogger again soon- it'll be one of my resolutions.

i just discovered that my new computer takes pictures. not necessarily of a very high quality, but when you're lying on the couch with the new earl and the little dog plants herself on top of both of you, sometimes you have to settle for whatever camera you have within reach.

out of the blue

i was eating my day after the day after thanksgiving meal with aj, evie, and my parents when my mom asked my nephew, "so aj, is it ok if we come to your house for christmas?" and aj looked very concerned and said, "i really don't have any eyebrows." which is true.

earl 2.0

some of you might remember earl, the cat i accidentally acquired from michele and who was jake's one true love (sorry, nina). last year, at christmas time, i knew i would have to find earl a place to stay over the holidays and reluctantly brought him over to a woman's house, with a dark feeling i would not see him again. when earl and i arrived, she had out two bowls of (bottled) water for him- one at room temperature and one chilled so earl could choose which one he liked best. lined up on the counter were various bottles of hairball meds, ear cleaning meds, and fur- shinying meds, despite the fact that earl was not in need of any of these treatments. this woman scolded me more than once that earl needed to be around people and it wasn't fair for me to leave him at the nature center alone every night. i thought of the countless children who had paid attention to earl during programs, the evening meetings at oak knoll which were brightened by earl's attacking unsuspecting pens and pencils, and the hours he spent curled up across my keyboard, distracting me from my work. i think he had a pretty good time there. but i knew this woman would love earl and would take excellent care of him and provide him with all the love, bottled water, and unnecessary medication he could ever want. so there he stayed.

but now, almost one year later, i decided that both jake and i miss earl a lot. because i couldn't get earl back from his new home, i got a replacement cat who looks exactly like him. we're calling him earl 2.0 and so far, he is almost as good as the real thing. the shelter we adopted him from provided the following tips for acclimating a new cat to our home:
1. once kitty arrives at its new home, keep the cat in the carrier and place it in a quiet room. make frequent visits, praising and comforting kitty. in a few hours, go into the room, close the door, and open the carrier. what we did: set the carrier down on the floor of the kitchen, opened the door, sat back and watched. also, first we had gotten jake all riled up by asking him over and over again "jake, where's the kitty? where's the kitty, jake?" which is one of the few phrases he knows and when you ask him it, he literally runs maniacally around the room looking for the kitty. so here is this new cat, confronted by one hyper dog and jake, who is also totally keyed up, and earl 2.0 calmly rolls on his back, swats nina on the nose, gets up, and starts sniffing around the kitchen.

2. one typical reaction is for the cat to immediately start the search for home. kitty will slink along walls, meowing, looking for a way out of this strange place. what earl 2.0 did: strolled casually into the living room, took another little swat at nina, and plopped down on the couch for a nap.

3. allow your cat to explore at its own pace. many cats will hide for hours or days. what earl 2.0 is like: he has spent the past twenty-four hours either sleeping on the couch, playing with the dogs (picture the cat and nina both gnawing on opposite ends of a stick that someone had brought in from outside), chasing this one uncatchable moth, and basically making himself completely at home and endearing himself to his new owner (by which i mostly mean me, but if he could catch a mouse or two, i think matt will admit that he likes him too).

comparison photos of earl and earl 2.0 coming soon!

nina tries to steal the sunny spot

and jake gives her the what-for.

heard on npr today

rosa sat so martin could walk
martin walked so obama could run
obama is running so our children can fly

frosty

really, mancini? the butter knife?

bouquet

perfect day

matt and alexis got married last weekend. it was the best kind of day for a wedding- warm enough that you didn't have to figure out how to wear long johns under your dress, but not so warm that you got giant sweat rings under your arms.

i think the perfect thing to wash chili down is more chili

organic pest control

did you know that the typical adult ladybug will consume 40-75 aphids per day, or about 5,000 in its lifetime? multiply such an appetite by the number of ladybug carcasses you find on your windowsill each year and that's a lot of eating.

nice shot

one of matt's most marketable party skills (second only to his ability to get nina totenberg to make out with him on command) is his ability to pry open bottle caps using ordinary household objects (but not the household object ordinarily used for opening bottle caps, i.e. a bottle opener). by removing the top using a key, second bottle, or (best of all) a pill jar, he causes the bottle to make a champagne-like popping sound while the top goes flying across the room. occasionally, this amazing skill leads to unintended casualties, most recently, a fresh-from-the-oven, made-from-scratch pumpkin pie, which ended up with a pumpkin ale beer cap wedged in its gooey center.


it did not affect the taste of the pie, which was delicious.

the frisbee toss

preaching to the choir

guess who might be almost five or something?

we celebrated jake's birthday yesterday, too, even though we don't know exactly when it is or how old he is. you might be wondering, "how exactly do you celebrate a dog's birthday?" two minutes of extra belly rub time, windows wide open on the drive home, and peanut butter bones for dessert. a perfect day for a dog.

guess who's two?

look how our little baby girl has grown- or rather, look how her ears have shrunk.

another weekend, another wedding

christian and olga got married in maine this past rainy saturday. starting with a friday night bowling party and continuing through a short but lovely ceremony followed by 100 pounds of lobster, a sing-a-long toast by the groom's three brothers, and 14 home-baked (by the bride) blueberry pies, it was one of the greatest weddings ever. if only the rain hadn't forced the cancellation of the bouncy castle rental.

watching the win

irish 2000

sometimes i peruse the websites of my favorite bands to see if they have upcoming concerts in the area, the dates of which i then incorporate into my precariously full social calendar. i think the only thing that could top my surprise at that one time when i found that red molly was playing in walpole, massachusetts was to find that great big sea was playing a show in altamont, new york (ancestral home of yours truly). in fact, i was pretty sure it was a typo, because if i've heard about that rolling stones concert once, i've heard about it twenty times.

but it was true- great big sea played the altamont fairgrounds on saturday night, as part of irish fest 2000, a festival that was likely named 8 years ago and, in the interest of not changing their website, has kept the same name ever since.

i didn't bring my video recording machine, but i imagine this youtube clip does a much better job than i could have anyway, as my video would have been bouncing up and down as i danced (and by "danced" i mean jumped up and down) and would have including a lot of me yelling the lyrics as loud as i could, which you probably would have disliked as much as the woman standing in front me of did.

note the size of the crowd- there weren't quite that many people at the altamont show.

demonstrating a remarkable amount of patience

say what you will about nina being obnoxious and i will certainly agree with you.

but don't say that she is not exceptionally good with little kids, because if you did, you would be wrong. it is clear that one party is enjoying this snuggle session much more than the other party is but both parties endured the event with grace and showmanship.



"sweet lord jesus, won't someone get me out of this chair?"

the best part about this year's sanctuary director's meeting

every year, all the sanctuary directors get together for a two day extravaganza of meeting, networking, and waiting for it to be over so we can go home (see past sanctuary director meeting posts here and here).

but there's always something that seems to make the trip worthwhile and this year, i think the journey to cape cod earned me my best chance yet of making it onto cute overload. as long as people see the cute in this image more than they see the "freak of nature" aspect of the situation.


apparently, the right head controls the right side of the turtle's body and the left head controls the left side. so if one head wants to go for a stroll and the other head is feeling sleepy, the turtle walks in circles. the folks at wellfleet aren't really sure what to do with the baby turtle. they collect eggs and hatchlings and raise them in the lab over the winter to better the odds that the young turtles will survive. but this guy doesn't have much of a chance if they do release it in the spring, unless it is really true that two heads are better than one.

julie, i call this one, "oh my god i am going."

nina, my dear, you have something caught in your teeth

"oh my god, how embarrassing. what, is it like a piece of spinach or something?"


"seriously, is there really something there? get it out!"


"stop laughing at me. i don't think this is funny."

scary as hell

look at this thing that was crawling up the outside of matt's car. sure sure, i know it's a bad picture.
it was the scariest thing i have ever seen ever in my life besides the view from the crosstrees of the sloop clearwater (really really scary because it was so high). and it was crawling right towards me! i was so scared that i couldn't properly aim the camera so instead had to resort to trying to find a picture of it online, which i did by typing in "scary as hell wasp thing". here's a better shot. (note: imagine it to be roughly the size of a large boom box stereo and pretend also that it was quietly yet ominously playing "we will rock you" as it inched ever closer to your jugular).

mini reunion

my friend bren got married this past weekend. his wedding photographer let me use his fancy flash for a few minutes, but then told me i was draining the batteries and took it back.

this guy is now married.

hey mr. d.j. put a record on

i want to dance with my baby.

our version of the daily coyote

like many other americans, i started reading the daily coyote blog and thought to myself, "i got to get me one of them things," which i think is one of the messages that the author is absolutely trying to NOT convey. my opinion on the matter of coyotes as pets was changed slightly when one of them tried to eat nina totenberg on an afternoon walk, but in general, i find coyotes to be fascinatingly resourceful creatures. we watched this one return to the apple tree behind our house for a snack many times last weekend.

ok, i still want to keep it as a pet.

flower child

future shot-putter practices by throwing sticks

aj knows it takes a lot of concentration and dedication to get the job done right.


but a good throw makes it all worthwhile.

life out back

it has been a busy few days on the farm in terms of wildlife sightings. on wednesday morning, while out walking the dogs, i spotted two fisher cats on the street. jake immediately turned into a menacing attack dog, barking and snarling (which is so different from his normal reaction when we encounter people, dogs, cats, and many inanimate objects on our walks, which is a lot of tail wagging, body wiggling, ear scratching (sort of a nervous-delight tic he has developed) and that frightful but benign dog smile) and embarrassing me in front of the fishers.

the next outstanding animal was seen by john, who does the haying at the farm. yesterday morning he spotted a bald eagle circling one of the hay fields. i bet that thing could carry off little nina totenberg without much effort.

and the final animal- well, i hesitate to mention it because it is a state-listed species. maybe we should be keeping it a secret. or maybe i should think of ways to use it as a "secret"- a secret weapon, that is. if i could just train it to respond to the sound of my voice or maybe hypnotize it by playing some delightful yet eerie flute music... ok, i will say this: it was discovered (again by john the hayman) living no more than 20 feet from matt's bee hives in a pile of bricks that he has pilfered from many times and it hisses and also makes another kind of noise that might or might not be described as a rattle. think about it.

i'll also tell you the following (gleaned the from the massachusetts natural heritage endangered species website):

This species has two well-developed and enlarged venom-conducting fangs, located at the front of the mouth and secured to the upper jawbone. The fangs are movable and fold against the roof of the mouth when not in use. A fleshy sheath covers each fang when the mouth is closed. The fangs are not permanent; they are shed periodically. Each fang socket has several replacement fangs in various stages of development, located in the gum behind the functional fang. Before a fang is shed, a new one is already positioned. Each fang is connected internally to a venom gland. Through muscular action, venom is forced from the gland through a venom duct to the hollow fang and then into prey.

nina totenberg- you better check yourself.

foxboro state forest

one of our favorite places close to home to take the dogs is foxboro state forest. there are nice trails where we secretly might (or might not!) take the dogs off leash and a pretty little lake that no one else seems to know about because we are always the only ones there and if people knew about it, they would be there too. nina could spend hours there stalking frogs and jake could spend hours standing around and worrying.

sad news today

i've mentioned before how much i have enjoyed reading leroy sievers' daily posts on his "my cancer" blog. along with thousands of others, i've been able to track the progression of his disease and i've been touched by his wisdom, his appreciation of the simple things, his dry wit, and his graceful acceptance of his cancer. i knew, as did all the readers of his blog, that he was getting sicker, but i was still shocked to learn that he passed away yesterday. it seems so sudden. and i now feel like i've lost an old friend.

rainbow over the hay wagon

i don't know how things have been going for the rest of you, but we've had a rainy few weeks here in massachusetts. we managed to get half of the biggest hay field cut during a brief dry spell, but you can see the tall yellow grass that is uncut and now rather useless in the back of this picture. even when the sun has been shining, it has still been raining here.

no, my dear, i believe this is my camera

don't worry, she's not mine.

what's new at zephyr farm?

for one thing, there are copious cherry tomatoes of many varieties.


and the kale looks pretty good, even though the height of summer is not really the season for kale.


and the farmer's nieces gave the farm's watermelon two thumbs up, although it was a little heavy on the seeds.