Adirondacks

The Luna moths are in bloom

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They’ve been spotted hanging around, literally, by both Tim and me. He saw one on the side of a local retail store and took a photo with his phone without knowing what it was.

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I saw one ( well actually, he spotted it) yesterday at the marina. I looked it up and learned it was a Luna Moth, a silk spinning moth!

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The mind reels! Could I spin its silk? More importantly, how do you collect it. My questions were answered by a site written by a fellow spinner from Ravelry, Wormspit.

Alas, no free fiber for me. What a beautiful moth.

Winners and losers

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Not all my projects can be winners. I was eager to get back to the loom and make six placemats. I measured, wound and secured the warp without difficulty for a change. In all, I had about a mile of cotton; 280 ends, each about 6 yards long.

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Looks good so far, right? After this it became a disaster and I was in no position or mood to photograph it. I tried to follow instructions to dress the loom from back to front and ended up with a snarled, tangled mess and a backache to boot.
So on to the winners. Remember that batch of beer I made about two months ago?. It’s ready! And good enough to drink! A winner!

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We struck gold, black gold, Texas tea

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In more ways than one. We are sailing again, on Lake Champlain. As pretty as Maine without lobster traps. In fact the lake is often more than a hundred feet deep.

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We anchored in a lovely bay, all by ourselves, just a half hour from home.

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Our home port has the High Peaks as a backdrop. And our little dink looked so cute bobbing and waiting for us at the mooring.

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But now for the real news. Simple composting works. I began a pile last year when Hurricane Irene damaged our bridge and made garbage pickup impossible. It was simply a ring of chicken wire. Yesterday, I shoveled 3 plastic toboggan’s worth (poor woman’s wheel barrow) and distributed our recycled kitchen waste to enhance our sand. It had compressed, broken down and even had worms. The critters seem to really like coffee. The clean filters were littered in a path behind the pile.

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Birdwatching

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Shirley and the hummingbird

We all enjoy birdwatching at our house. There’s an abundance of activity right outside. Shirley watched this cute, unsuspecting hummingbird for a while and it’s hard to capture her attention these days, since she’s about 16 years old.

Evening Grosbeak

I saw a goldfinch on steroids the other day on my drive to work. Its coloring reminded me of a bird wearing a doctoral hood but I only had a brief glimpse of it on the roadside. They came to visit the feeder and posed for photos. They are not jacked goldfinches but Evening Grosbeaks. Sweet.

Low ceiling

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Low ceiling

We hiked Hurricane on Mother’s day. Our concern before beginning was the cloud cover would be too low to provide views. Close, but views were far reaching and beautiful.

Views to the Lake

We finally remembered to bring binoculars and could see clear to Lake Champlain and Vermont. It’s a fabulous spot to hike to and spend time on the rocks for lunch. We forgot lunch. Happily the black flies were still sleeping.

Hurricane fire tower

The fire tower is a little too rickety for my taste to ascend and it’s one of those instances when the view can’t get much better. The fire tower was a target of controversy recently when the DEC wanted to dismantle it. Public sentiment prevailed and the tower remains. It stands as a beacon on the mountain near our house.

Bad hair day

It was a bad hair day but I worked on some self portraits while the others clambered around. Sadly this may be the best of the lot. I’m sporting my new jacket, which was a birthday present. Light, light, light and waterproof AND breathable. Go figure.

Muddy boots

My ability to rock hop across streams is abysmal. I just can’t do it. I tense up and all is lost, even if the water is only 6 inches deep. I gave in and chose to wade through when needed. No pressure. After all, I was wearing wool socks and I could take off my wet boots when I got home.

Fiddleheads

Ferns were popping their heads through the dead leaves to signal the start of spring in the Adirondacks. We passed two other mothers on the hike. One in her thirties and the other in her eighties. You have to love the Adirondacks!

For the birds?

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We can tell it’s spring by the variety of birds that stop by at our feeders during their migration north. Every day has brought new species the past week or so. This flock of red breasted grosbeaks stayed for a few days. Red seems to be the color du jour. We’ve seen cardinals, purple finches, northern flickers, hairy woodpeckers, all with a splash of red in their coloring. I hope the turkeys keep a low profile until noon every day though. It’s our local hunting season, which for some reason ends at noon daily. I have seen one turkey around, we’ll see if it’s still here at the end of May.

We are new birding enthusiasts. Most of the time, my identifications are confirmed if the bird is thought to be common in our area. Not always though. This may be a white crowned sparrow, which is considered uncommon in my Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America. The coloring in the photo isn’t great but we never saw yellow above the eyes, which would differentiate it from the more common white throated sparrow.

We saw the food chain in action the other day. We had just returned home and saw a hawk swoop down and snatch a bird from the lawn and fly off. It was a good meal because the bird had been fattening itself at our feeder. Are we feeding them for them, for us, or their predators?

Hill walking

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Not hiking nor mountain climbing, just Just hill walking. We drove 15 minutes to the trailhead and headed out from there. It was perfect hiking weather, cool and the clouds had lifted.

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There was only one small mishap. Luckily I didn’t break my new iPhone (it’s a long story), a hip or my newly repaired ankle. I only injured my pride and got my pants muddy.
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There was a terrific 360° view from the top of the fire tower.
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I was able to identify at least a few of the wildflowers as we climbed around what seemed to be a lot of new blowdown.
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Grey day at Storm King

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We drove south today to look at a couple of boats for sale. It iS so disheartening. They look good online and at first glance. Closer inspection reveals problems — big problems! Like the bolts that help keep the mast (that tall thing for the sails) upright are screwed into a thin plate of rust with absolutely no strength. It’s hard to overlook a problem like that.

The day wasn’t a complete loss other than eight hours is driving. I started knitting a new pair of socks for myself and we visited Storm King Art Center. I visited here years ago and remember this amazing stone wall.

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I used to work downtown manhattan and the building was known as the Red Cube because of a sculpture by Noguchi. Right when I mentioned his name, we found a sculpture by him! Go figure. Tim tried lounging on it.

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We capped off the day by eating dinner at one of the student restaurants at the Culinary Institute of America. The food and service were outstanding. Next time we look at a disaster boat, dinner here can make it all seem fine.

A walk in the park

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Actually two walks, very different, but both were lovely. On Tuesday, we bushwhacked to Clements Pond and enjoyed beautiful views of the surrounding mountains, fields and trees along the way.

I think this is looking west. The only hiking obstacle was dry, slippery leaves on steep slopes.

This tree can be seen from the road, perched on a cliff.

Yesterday we walked through low forest and fields. We found early wildflowers, ferns and animal carcasses.

Spring at home. Trees in bloom and frost on the ground.

I flew to spring and returned to summer

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Crazy weather and travel makes it even more interesting. I met up with the women’s hiking group last week in the Adirondacks and we walked through rain, snow and hail. Typical spring weather. Then I flew south to visit my daughter in Washington, DC.

I was already too late for spring and cherry blossoms. Spring was in full bloom and since Washington is such a green city, with lots of grass, trees and flowers, it was a colorful time to visit.

I took my first longish run, for about an hour, and sort of limped the rest of the trip. This is looking back at one of the bridges I crossed. I’m all better now though. I think ice packs may become my friend.

We explored some local parks and ate oysters, sushi and salmon. Foods I don’t eat too often in the Adirondacks.
I returned home and the temperature skyrocketed to 88 degrees fahrenheit yesterday. Tonight, the temperature will drop a mere 60 degrees to a more seasonal 20 degrees. I need both my winter and summer clothes out at the same time.