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In The Mountains

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Colby Lake was the setting for our trip, but we were so busy that we never got the chance to kayak. Our little trip in the mountains was not without bumps in the road, but the easy going nature of the group meant we all had a laughter filled four days. First was Susan's cold which meant she missed the first two days of the trip. The rain Wednesday was the other hiccup, but we managed beautifully. Anyone who knows me knows I love all things rock related, so I had to crawl into this hollowed out one in the town park. We met around noon in Saranac Lake and walked about town, had a bite to eat and explored the shops. I ended up getting some polished stones at a store going out of business. My thought is to use them as garden accents, but who knows? They were pretty and the price was right. We had a late lunch/early dinner at the River Trail BeerWorks and the Cowboy pizza was perfection and huge. I ate off of it for 3 days. We got settled into our very rustic rental and proceeded to pla...
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September!

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  Bean flowers are quite pretty! I'm about to head off on a late summer getaway up in the mountains. We will have bikes and kayaks and lots of evening activities to fill the four days. It will be a fun time even if it rains a bit on Weds. as predicted. I've taken a few bike rides, worked on putting certain garden plants to bed, while picking absolute boatloads of green beans. My freezer is stocked with them and I'm kind of tired of eating them, no matter how fresh and tender they are. My second crop of beans are about ready to pick - what was I thinking? I haven't been taking too many pictures, but I'll let these tell the tale of my week. A bike ride with friends ended with lunch at the quaint Window Box cafe.  They bake their breads on premises and the sconewich I had was scrumptious. Amyjean outdid herself with her butterfly cake for our book club lunch. Flight Behavior by Kingsolver was the subject of our discussion.  All of my monarchs have emerged and flown, ...
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Waning Daylight

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  My small book club is reading Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior which features Monarch butterflies in the plot. I've been taking so many photos of my little charges that I thought I'd make notecards and bookmarks as little gifts for the group. I really liked this one and have been playing around with my camera settings to get a good image. I’m really starting to notice the shortening of daylight hours. The nights are cooling rather quickly once the sun sets and I have to start considering sunset when I head off on a late afternoon bike ride. I hate to see the end of summer, but there is beauty in all the seasons so I’m not too disappointed. I got a nice bike ride in Tuesday afternoon and we managed to avoid the rain. It only rained for 5 minutes an hour before we went. Janice picked me up and we did a quick 18 miles over in Albany. I gave her two jars of pesto that I made this morning. My basil plants are so big that I'll have to make more tomorrow. I also dug up ...
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Reframing

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  This little morning ritual is worth all the milkweed picking and poop cleaning I had to do to raise 14  butterflies. Releasing a butterfly is a great way to start my day. Seven more to go! For the past couple of months I've been on the lookout for more shelving in my kitchen closet/pantry to bring some order to my collection of kitchen supplies and food staples. Then I had an epiphany. The last time my sisters were here, we discovered a few cans of outdated and leaking tomatoes which were promptly discarded. It made me think, maybe I don't need more shelving, but better organizing and attention to what I do have.   I'm going to tackle a minimizing/organizing of that closet. It's funny how just reframing a problem can completely change the scenario. After that is completed, I'll revisit the idea of shelving to determine if that is what is needed or not. So far, I have two bags to donate to my local thrift shop, and quite a bit added to my trash can.  Later - It...
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Monarch Mode

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I’m obsessed by my garden lately. Is it a healthy or unhealthy focus though? I suppose as long as I continue socializing and enjoying the rest of the community it remains on the healthy side.   Look what I made! Or rather caused to happen.  It’s a little Monarch chrysalis tree! Some caterpillars chose the twigs, the rest I carefully relocated to the twigs from the sides of the jars they chose to attach to. None of these caterpillars/butterflies were harmed in this process and within a week or two they will emerge and fly off. Thank goodness only 3 more to go and I will be done safeguarding tiny caterpillars. The rest will have to deal with the dangers in my garden - mostly predatory ants. They are just remarkable with their gold accents. My last three charges - I named them Pequena, Mediana, and Grande. I haven't been walking any appreciable distance in the past few weeks, so I chose a 6 mile route Thursday.  My lower back was hurting by mile five, so I just got home...
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