roaming the yard

With the threat of distant thunder rumbling much of the day, we spent some time outside with our plants and chicks. Feeding the japanese beetles who are attacking the bean teepee to the chicks, more specifically. I was weeding the garden, and I just love this bee balm. Hummingbirds and butterflies come all the time. The hummingbirds are so loud I can usually hear them before I see them.

Izzy struts over near the pine tree to join the gang underneath. She was nibbling last nights corn cobs longer than the rest.

Clover workin the cob.

Luna, snacking on some corn or leftover cereal.

Fly in front, with most everyone else behind.

local boy

Look! Dante made it into the local paper. Evidently Epoch Arts submitted this picture to the Rivereast News Bulletin. For signed copies, send $100 and a self addressed stamped envelope...

creature feature

Hey! Look! I wonder if this is one of the ones from the egg sac we watched hatch...wish my camera did a better job of focusing on small things... Here it is on Dante's thumb. Still small, but a lot bigger than the last time we saw it. And far afield, since we put them in the compost bin and Dante found this one in the herb bed on the side of the house.



Luke and Dante have been exploring the world of spiders, and fortunately there's a really nice active web in our living room above the lamp. So they've been finding flies and such, and tossing them into the web to watch the spider work. Mmmm, liquid innards of a fly. Delish!

See their previous donation? Right in front of the one she's wrapping. And how we've got a pic of her working on her egg sac, but it's on Dante's camera which I can't see from my spot on the couch.

Dante found this toad, and kept dropping it in the deck. I don't know about you, but it sure looks disgruntled to me and was I'm sure delighted to be set free shortly after this photo was taken.

Preying on fish and crustaceans

We invited our neighbor Lynn and her son Keith out on Grandpa's boat for the day, and to the beach afterwards. Keith is a big fisherman, and caught the only "keeper" -- a 19 inch fluke.

Grr. Don't interrupt the fisherman when he's about his business.

At the dock, before we're off. Lynn has her youngest boy Chucky on her lap.

Poor fishie :o(

Everyone assumes a comfortable position in the cabin for the ride back to the marina. Made possible by Dramamine...

Nearly snoozing in a shard of sunlight.

As we ride through the marsh entrance to the marina, we spotted this great blue heron.

and this great egret.

Best place to be at the beach during low tide: the end of the jetty.

of frogs and crabs

The Famous Folding Frog of Middlesex County
folded by David Cubeta


Jump, froggy, jump!

Look, it's Maria! Our main commenter! Working her way through Deathly Hallows, of course.

Head Freeze!!!!

Dante and Luke (from across the street at the McKenna compound) hunt crab on the jetty.

Oooh, got one! Look at that teamwork -- Dante with the line, Luke with the net.

And Voila! Monsieur le Crab.

Dante caught this guy after he was out of mussels, using a reed to push him into the net.

Once most of the people have left the beach, the seagulls come to clean up all the dropped snacks. Dante snapped this picture.

Remember them?

We kept the girls in the coop for a while, and I left them in today since we were out and about, but once we got back from the rope swing, they had their freedom. Their first few minutes out are so funny -- they all go around leaping about in sheer joy at their ability to do so. Eleven chicks in a 4 x 8 space, well. Let's just say you can feel their jubilation.

And they dive bomb one another. Despite the fact that the have our entire yard to carouse in, they do a little running leap, flap their wings a few times, and land on someone else. Who squawks, and runs away. I'll have to take a video so you can fully appreciate it. Anyway, they love the line between the woods and our lawn, but their favorite spot seems to be the playscape.

The two at the bottom think I'm coming with treats and want to be first in line.

Look at those fuzzy butts, as the girls meander in an orderly fashion back to the coop before the racoon wakes up. Scratch (chicken equivalent of doritos) helps immensely with this process.

Izzy (on the left) is too busy to say hi, but Tinkerbelle wonders why I'm lurking by the olive tree with that black clicking thing in my hand.

I do believe we have a rooster! Say hello to ... well, I guess Peepers will still work. Maybe we'll change it to Lucky Guy, if the 10 others turn out to be girls... only the little silkie is "TBD", I think all the rest are girls.

Another shot of our young roo. Can't wait to hear him crow!

epic art, and a return to the rope swing

Dante has been going to art camp this week right here in East Hampton. He's learned some theater games, as well as how to identify stage right, up center, and other stage positions. He also dipped beeswax candles, painted a coat rack, did thumbprint art, made an ornament, made a cool magnet guy, made a drum... you get the idea. I should assemble them all for a pic. Oh well, until I do, we went for a performance today, so I snapped some pics:



After camp, we stopped home for a quick lunch, and then headed up to meet Tucker, Grace and their mom and grandparents at the rope swing on Salmon River.

Dante and Tucker (also at epoch arts) build some sort of connected fortifications.

Lucia and Tucker's sister grace bury things in the sand and poke them with sticks. Including my toes. Ouch!

After the first couple of balloons made me realize this was a bad thing to bring to a nice spot like this, the kids were only allowed to use the balloons in the water, since they didn't go flying off. So this naturally lead to 7-year-old scuba. At least the balloons were filled with a pump, and not exhaled air.

Seems like such a good idea, Lucia decides to give it a whirl.

potent potables

We went to the summer reading program at the Portland Library on Thursday, and Lauren was mixing up some crazy stuff at her potion table. First, the kids all got to add an ingredient for their potions -- yak's milk, ground bison horn, powdered plegrobs or something like that, and the elixr of life. you get the idea. They also got to pick if they wanted to make a love potion or mix up a drink that would make them strong. predictably, the boy chose strength and the girl love. so the kindly potions master behind the table scooped some pop rocks into some soda. I mean some fizzing seeds into the base elixr. We also made golden snitches with a styrofoam ball, glue, glitter and feathers, but neither one has managed to make it into the house.

Lauren mentioned that you could drink this foaming potion. Dante's not interested.

He's much more into this one, which turned into a tasty pudding-like stuff.

random recent images

Tuesday nights = Dante/Lulu Snuggle Nights

Timber flees from the big fluke Dante caught on the Sound last Saturday.

Fritillary -- great spangled maybe? don't have a good shot of the underside of it's wings, so it's hard to tell.

And this, the view out the playroom window. Can you see the hummingbird on the bee balm?

party on, dude

We had quite the party weekend -- Friday night the kids and I headed to the beach for a gourmet meal made by Maria in honor of her mother's 60th birthday.

Then across the street to celebrate a neighbor's 40th, and back for beer pong on the lawn til 3am. Ok, the kids missed the last two events, but still. On Saturday, Toni and Rick threw a big bash for David's graduation.

The Big Green Pizza Truck provided the meal -- and how cool is that? A coal-fired oven on the back of a truck! You can stop by the toppings bar and ask them to make whatever pizza you'd like, and it cooks in 3 minutes. Including mashed potato! After pizza and salad, they served cappuccino and gelato -- chocolate, lemon, mango, raspberry, coconut and more I can't remember.

Dave's friend Julian ended up being BFF for both kids. Lucky guy.

Sunday was Dante's birthday party -- he designed and decorated his cake -- vanilla, with a layer of fresh strawberries inside, and he drew a chicken on top, with chocolate-shaving feathers.

Our fisherman, all rigged out in his fancy tall boots.

Oooh, a pottery wheel.

Maria's gift for Lucia from Spain.

The dreaded Sand Monster!