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.

I am physically incapable of not feeding the birds. I need to feed. I'm unhappy if I don't have little friends flitting about my backyard enjoying the seed I put out for them. Knowing that I have a bear problem, I decided to try a small window feeder. My thought is that if it's too close to the house and too small to bother with, the bear will not attempt to get it. This is my hope anyway.

So we went to the bird food store and bought a small window feeder for the living room window :


And the sliding glass door on the bead cottage:


Violets in the lawn. Some people think of them as pests, but I think they're pretty.


My lily of the valley is starting to bloom:


And we have confirmed chickadees in the bird cottage. They've been bringing in moss for the last couple of days.


They nest on a bed of moss, which will build up the bottom 3-4 inches of the house, then they line it with soft stuff. I put out some soft roving (wool) that I think will do nicely. I hope they like it.

Yesterday, I took this picture of what I think is a female brown-headed cowbird stalking the nesting chickadees. Cowbirds are like cuckoos and lay their eggs in other birds' nests. I hope it doesn't happen, but if it does there's nothing we can do about it. It's nature. I do hate nature.

Another tree bit the dust. It is a casualty from the first tree which fell, taking off half of the "Y" of this tree. In the strong winds yesterday, the other half of the "Y" fell.

Since we are no longer feeding birds, we bought a wren house and put it up. I hope some bird finds it to be a perfect home.


I think, but I'm not positive, that some chickadees found the house on the bead cottage. I saw a couple fly in and out this morning. I'm going to keep my eye on it and see if they actually are nesting in there.

Our friend the bear came back around Easter. I've lightened the photo, so he's visible. Today we had three deer come visit us. Bobby was quite upset when he spied them. He is now sitting vigil on the porch watching the woods in case they come back. I was able to get these photos. They're not great because I took them through the window.




Our Protector:

I spoke to my mother-in-law the other day and she told me that it had been a while since I updated my blog, so here are some random things from the past couple of weeks.

First, it is officially spring, and it for once actually feels like spring. Last week the temperatures were in the 70's. This week they're more back to normal, but after last year's "winter directly to summer" and not until July, this spring feels pretty good. Buds are coming out on the little tree the bear knocked over last fall, so at least it survived.


A few weeks ago we had a horrible, very scary wind storm. About a week later, we noticed that a huge tree in the woods was knocked over that night. This is a picture of the stump; our neighbor kindly cut up the tree and hauled it away. The root ball, when it was standing, was as tall as I am.


The other morning we drove extra early to breakfast and on the way, I almost hit a deer. It was very scary. There were three of them. The first ran in front of my car, and I thought "wow that was close". Then the second, which I never even saw until it was in front of my car, ran in front and almost into me. It had to jump to the side to avoid me. The last one ran behind me. Robert was several cars behind me, so he never even saw what happened. I should have rode with him.

Here are some pictures of Bobby doing his famous head tilt:





He really is a cutie.

On a sad note, Dr. Engelhardt lost his battle with brain cancer. He was Java's vet's husband and a veterinarian as well who saw our animals from time to time. We are so saddened by this and how unfair it is that he should have to leave his two little boys to grow up without a Daddy. Our hearts go out to Dr. Hart and their boys.

Things like this make you feel so helpless: to stop the cancer; to comfort the grieving. And it makes the problems you think of as large in your life seem small.

The good news is that I finished both socks, and wore them on Sunday. The bad news is that is the last time I'll wear them, because I accidentally felted them in the washing machine today. Here's a picture of how small they are now. My hand barely fits over them.



I guess it's a live and learn situation, but it bugs me because the yarn was expensive and I was so stupid and forgot to put them in the handwash cycle, plus I didn't think that you could felt wool in a front-loading machine. WRONG!

Java is still feeling better. Her pain patch was removed yesterday and there's no difference in her today, which is good. She even jumped on the chair this afternoon, which she is not allowed to do. She had a good acupuncture session yesterday and things for her are moving along. (That was a veiled reference to yesterday's post.)

The good news is that Java is feeling much better after being on the prednisone for a few days. I brought her for a re-check yesterday and the vet thought she was standing much better. I do too. Plus we haven't heard the pain noise she makes since she started the medicine. I'm taking her today for some acupuncture. I'm also bringing a little plant of flowers for the vet who does the acupuncture as a "thank you" from me and a "sorry" from Java for trying to bite her sometimes.

The bad news is that Java hasn't pooped since Sunday. It's funny how animal owners become obsessed with their animals' poop. It's a way of monitoring their health since they can't talk, I guess. Hopefully there will be some movement soon. I'm not sure if I'll update here or not. Probably not.

Another really upsetting thing is that I learned that Java's vet's husband, who is also a vet, is suffering from brain cancer. From what I understand it's just a matter of time for him, and I'm so sad. He has seen my animals on occasion and he is so nice. Plus they've got two little boys under three. I am just devastated for that family. I can only hope for a miracle.

Java is having a flare-up of her back problems. It's making me crazy and eating me alive to see her in such pain. She's on a bunch of medication, but I don't know how much relief they're giving her. When she's really bad, she can hardly stand on her back leg; she folds it up under her and sits and looks at me pitifully as if she's saying "why do I hurt so much?"

The good news is that there's medicine we can give her but we have to wait until the old medicine is completely out of her system. So there's a lag time where she's got no anti-inflammatory to ease her pain. Tomorrow morning is the earliest we should give her the steroid. If she's as bad as she was today, she's getting it.

The extra good news is that she was on this medicine twice before and it helped both times, so I have high hopes that it'll work this time.

Sock update - I'm over halfway finished with the second one. I should be able to wear them tomorrow!

Yesterday we got a little snow. I would guess about 6 inches. The world is sugar-coated. I love it when this happens, it's so pretty. Too bad it's so cold!





And we've redone the cellar, to make Robert an office. Here's his office and the new banquette and ottoman.



Today is the third anniversary of my Dad's death and the 2-month anniversary of my Father-in-Law's. I can't help thinking of them today and wishing they were still here.

I made a sock!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I made a sock! I started last week, paused for a few days until I could get some help and then finished today. Now I just have to make its mate. It fits perfectly and is very comfortable. I'm thrilled that I finished it.

Here is a video of Java being bossy. Bob is making a ham sandwich and Java wants some: