 Tuesday 07/26/-5 The
sunny sun dappled Suncook River and I can hear summer!
When
do you first notice that summer is definitely upon us? Is it that
first stretch of days hitting 90 degrees? I think last year that
didn't happen until August. For me, it is the first time I hear the
buzzing of a katydid. That happened at 3:00 PM Monday. The long
trailing buzzing sound of a katydid more than anything else means
that we are truly into the summer season. Then, first thing this
morning, one flew on to my deck and landed on a screen. I dashed
into the house to get my camera to take a digital photo of it. But
of course I got side tracked ( tracking down my camera, changing the
battery, taking out the recycling material by the door, filling the
dog food container). And when I got back out side after such a short
deviation... it was gone. And so goes my vacation it seems.
I had
a wonderful week the last half of last week, my first week of
vacation, with my wife and I joining my daughter Amy, and her
husband Derek and grand daughter Katie for a trip to Pennsylvania.
We headed down last Wednesday and ended up in Lancaster for the
night. My son Adam joined us for dinner as he was up from DC. We
spent the balance of the week in Hershey.
What
beautiful farm country. It so reminded me of my youth in Aroostic
County Maine in the mid 1950's to early 1960's. Fields after
gorgeous fields of corn, soybean?? and alfalfa. Amish Country had us
looking at the early 1900's with horses cutting, raking and
gathering the alfalfa. Only of course it was the huge potato fields
in my youth. I was very surprised at the lack of car killed deer in
our almost 20 hours on the roads over the 5 days. I saw only one
dead deer. Plenty of raccoons and woodchucks, but not much else. At
the zoo of America in Hershey I was disappointed they didn't have a
fisher on display. After all, I helped ship 175 to the state for
reintroduction there in the mid to late 1990's. They are doing well
across the northern regions of the state.
This
week I am spending it mostly working around the house. Grass hoppers
are bouncing all over the place. Just in time to feed the baby
animals. Some critters, like juvenile foxes and coyotes, get much of
their nutrition this way. I also frequently glance at the Suncook
River. It certainly looks much tamer in the high noon sun. The
Hershey colored waters has been transformed into more summer-like
waters the last week or so. Today the waters were a perfect
reflection of the green growth abounding this summer. I haven't
taken a two-week summer vacation in a while. I think I like it.
Tuesday 07-19-05 Stuck in a sun/shower season.
The
last week or so it would seem we are living in the tropics. Each
days has been hot and humid days with daily afternoon showers or
thunder storms. Every time I think to check my rain gauge, there has
been another inch or nearly so. I can't remember a stretch of time
like this where my rain gauge needed checking daily during the
summer months. So every little brook it seems is just burbling along
this summer. In fact when I crossed Deer Brook last evening on my
way down the road to check on my mother it too was running full
tilt. Three summers ago it totally dried up. It has more typically
been down to a mere trickle by this time of year most of the last 26
years I have been watching it. Water, water is every where. And from
there looks of the hurricane season this year, we are bound to get a
lot more rain in the next couple of months. Probably sooner than
later one of the hurricanes is going to make a right turn down
around Florida and drench us for a couple of days.
I did
get out striper fishing for the day Sunday with fishing partners
Jean and Joe. We fished out of Portsmouth for the day. The fishing
reports in the paper said that the stripers had slacked off for the
week. So it took a little searching to find some fish. But we did
catch a few, although none were larger than the mid 20's. But we had
another great day on the water and as always the fish were a bonus.
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