Martha's dog Katie loves to swim. This is first thing in the morning on Sunday. The lake is so still, except for Katie's ripples.


The hard part is getting her to let go of the toy she swims out to get. Keep away is one of her favorite games.



The loons were so loud Saturday night. I love hearing their calls as I fall asleep. Here's one almost across the lake. This camera is so good!



Around the homefront, we pulled out the dying crabapple tree that the bear knocked over last fall and replaced it with a weeping cherry tree. Underneath is my light-up Buddha that glows at night. It's tacky but I love seeing it lit up at night. I have some more solar yard things on order and I can't wait until they come.


Mrs. Hummingbird is enjoying the feeder. I took this with the "bird" setting on my camera. I'm standing pretty far away so I'm happy with the result.


Here are Mr. and Mrs. Chickadee. The one on the roof has a goody in his mouth. I don't think they are feeding chicks yet, because I can't hear them peeping, but I could be wrong and they're just quiet.


Another butterfly I'm going to have to identify. These orange ones are hard to differentiate.


I just looked it up and it's an American Lady, or an American Painted Lady. I saw another yellower butterfly outside today but by the time I got there, it was gone. Maybe next time.

I'm just playing around with my new camera. It has a panorama setting, where it takes three pictures and then knits them together to make a large image.


These are images of the lake - a pretty setting to take panoramas of.

It looks like mother robin has decided to stay with that nest, as she was dutifully perched there this morning. She stayed even though I was in the doorway taking her picture and letting the dogs out.


Finally I was able to get a shot of a hummingbird on the feeder. Every time I'd get the camera, he'd disappear.



This is what I think is a red admiral in my backyard. It's hard to identify, but that was the closest I could find.

Here are some bird pictures. Above is a goldfinch couple on the bead cottage feeder. Below is a robin's nest that is being built on the downspout of our gutter. It's right near the door to the backyard, so every time I go to let the dogs out - which is pretty often - she flies away. I wonder if she'll stay there or decide to build elsewhere.


Here's mother robin with some nest stuff in her beak.


So my beads sold on ebay the other day. It was quite fun to wake up and see that my beads had gone over $200. When I went to bed I had no bids, so had no hope for them selling. What a nice surprise. I'm very grateful to the two bidders and I hope the winning bidder really loves them.

I just wish my father were here so I could tell him how high my beads went. He'd ask "how many beads?" Then he'd ask "how long did it take you to make them?" Then he'd say that I have to remember to write down all my expenses and include things like propane and heat in addition to my time. He was always trying to figure out if I was getting a good price for my beads as well as telling me how to run my business. Then he'd say "that's pretty good," which meant that he thought I had done pretty well. He liked it when my beads went high.

I wonder if this bird is one of the ones living in the bird cottage. He was only at the window for one second, because Bobby saw him and jumped up on the chair, scaring the bird away. My camera has a "bird" setting, which I just found the other day, so this is the first picture I've taken using it.

On Saturday night we went to the Brookline Community Church's Wild Game Supper. It was fun and I felt very adventurous trying all sorts of wild meat. The offerings included pheasant, wild boar, goose, turkey, duck, salmon, and of course, venison.

While I'm not a huge fan of hunting, I feel that if you eat what you kill, then I'm more comfortable with it. What bugs me are the people who go to places where game is fenced in and hunt for "trophies". There is no sport in that and it's just not honorable. That is a misuse of resources, in my mind. Heads and hides of endangered species belong on the living animals, not in someone's trophy room.

Fortunately most of the hunters around here are the kind who actually eat what they kill. The meat for the WGS was all donated by local hunters. The food was good and it fed many hungry people and offered a fun evening of community for the locals.

After almost three years of not selling beads online, I've put a set on ebay. I used to love to sell beads, but since the incident of my beads being stolen at a show (by a famous beadmaker to boot) and then my Dad dying, the fun kind of went out of it for me. Couple that with the economic slowdown and the wind was out of my sail.

This spring I have finally felt like selling online again. I am enthused about making beads and I've been in the studio pretty much every day now. I made myself this exact set of beads and made a necklace out of them. I got many compliments on it, so I decided to make an additional set to sell.

Today I silver-cored some large holed beads for Pandora or Troll bracelets. I think tomorrow I'm going to open up the silver clay and play with that.

I was gifted some art the other day. I love the colors and the composition.


The contrast between the colors of the flowers is fabulous. And I love the pale green heart.


The bold crayon strokes are a sign of a true master.



Even Bobby knows good art when he sees it.