Home
About Us
Archive



Links:
MaineNatureStore
MND Family Blog
Sand Collection
MaineNaturePoetry
MyBitOfThePlanet
Sweden Adventure

Slideshows:
Beach Erosion
Owl Kill Site
2008 Slides
2007 Slides

Audio:
Frog Chorus
2008 Audio
2007 Audio

Video:
Pileated
Hairy Woodpecker
2008 Video
2007 Video
Jul
3rd
Fri
permalink
Florida Vacation: I am flying to Florida and won’t be putting updates on the blog until the end of next week. Let’s hope there is a bit of sunshine in Maine while I’m gone.
Jul
2nd
Thu
permalink
Weather: Our high temperature today was 59F. Now, at 9pm the sky has let loose with heavy rain and a thunderstorm! WOW…when will we see summertime weather? The frogs and ducks must be happy as clams!
Jul
1st
Wed
permalink

Rain Amount for June: We received 5.47 inches of rain in June!

Second Crop of Blackflies: Well, my garden isn’t growing, but the blackflies sure are! They’re back! Aughhhh…….itch…itch…itch…

Photography: Photography sure is going to be limited this summer with all the rain. I have to sneak out between rain events to photograph flowers. The forest and trails are soaking wet, and I don’t like to subject the camera to too much water. Ugh… Even kayaking will have to happen in short bursts without much photography, and I was hoping to photograph the pond through all its changes this summer…Hopefully next year will be different.

Jun
30th
Tue
permalink

Weather Update: More of the same…rain, rain, rain. I just looked a the10-day forecast, and it looks like this weather pattern might finally break on July 7th with a sunny day. That means that we will have seen the sun 9 out of 36 days! This is a record breaker for us both in the amount of rain and the lack of sunshine. And, our daytime temperature is still in the low 60s, with an occasional day in the low 70s. This is unreal for the last day of June! Oh…I just looked at May’s weather, and we’ve only seen the sun 17 days out of the last 61 days…Now, that is depressing.

Gardening Update: Last Friday, in a break from the rain, I replanted my cucumbers and beans, and a few of the squash. Since then, we’ve received over 2 inches of rain! Oy…I might have to replant again! Nothing is growing…the tomato plants are holding firm at about 16 inches tall. Hopefully, they will start growing again when we get the sunshine on July 7th. This weather is also wreaking havoc on our trees. My gorgeous crab-apple tree in the backyard is so sad looking after a record-breaking beautiful flowering session it had in the Spring. Its leaves are all wilted and brown-spotted. I cannot imagine the toll this wet weather is having on animal life as well. As far as insects are concerned, I only see the occasional butterfly, the occasional bumblebee, and a few honeybees and wasps out and about.

Jun
28th
Sun
permalink
Rainy Days and Sundays Really Get Me In a Mood To: 1) sew the blown out seams of some old sweat pants, 2) bottle sand, 3) file papers, 4) listen to some phenomenal Bluegrass music: The Tony Rice Unit: Unit of Measure - AWESOME guitar and fiddlin’…YeeHaw!, followed by Flatt and Scruggs…These boys sure can strum a banjo and fiddle- Whooeeee..”Shuckin’ The Corn”…be-still my dancin’ feet!, and last of all The Dillards: Back Porch Bluegrass…remember the old Andy Griffith Show? They were featured several times with Andy, playing guitar and singing “Dooley”…Fun Stuff…I think these guys are my all-time favorites!
Rainy Days and Sundays Really Get Me In a Mood To: 1) sew the blown out seams of some old sweat pants, 2) bottle sand, 3) file papers, 4) listen to some phenomenal Bluegrass music: The Tony Rice Unit: Unit of Measure - AWESOME guitar and fiddlin’…YeeHaw!, followed by Flatt and Scruggs…These boys sure can strum a banjo and fiddle- Whooeeee..”Shuckin’ The Corn”…be-still my dancin’ feet!, and last of all The Dillards: Back Porch Bluegrass…remember the old Andy Griffith Show? They were featured several times with Andy, playing guitar and singing “Dooley”…Fun Stuff…I think these guys are my all-time favorites!
permalink
Under the Sea-Wind: I am in the middle of an absolutely lovely book by Rachel Carson titled, “Under the Sea-Wind.” This was Ms. Carson’s first book, and was first published in 1941. It has three sections titled, “Edge of the Sea”, “The Gull’s Way”, and “River and Sea”. It tells of fish and birds who inhabit the edge of the sea, the open ocean, and the deep abyss. This book is wonderfully written and I am completely drawn into it’s every page. Here is a quote from the book:

To stand at the edge of the sea, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down on surf lines for untold millions of years, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be. These things were before ever man stood on the shore of the ocean and looked out upon it with wonder; they continue year in, year out, through the centuries and ages, while kingdoms rise and fall.

Want to read more? Then check the book out of your local library or buy it online. It is so refreshing and pleasant.

Under the Sea-Wind: I am in the middle of an absolutely lovely book by Rachel Carson titled, “Under the Sea-Wind.” This was Ms. Carson’s first book, and was first published in 1941. It has three sections titled, “Edge of the Sea”, “The Gull’s Way”, and “River and Sea”. It tells of fish and birds who inhabit the edge of the sea, the open ocean, and the deep abyss. This book is wonderfully written and I am completely drawn into it’s every page. Here is a quote from the book:

To stand at the edge of the sea, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down on surf lines for untold millions of years, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be. These things were before ever man stood on the shore of the ocean and looked out upon it with wonder; they continue year in, year out, through the centuries and ages, while kingdoms rise and fall.

Want to read more? Then check the book out of your local library or buy it online. It is so refreshing and pleasant.

Jun
27th
Sat
permalink
Circumpolar Bluet: The bluets are our most abundant damselfly at the moment. I see them resting on the lily and iris leaves quite often.
Circumpolar Bluet: The bluets are our most abundant damselfly at the moment. I see them resting on the lily and iris leaves quite often.
permalink

Step One of Invasive Plant Eradication: This afternoon, I pulled up 2 tansy plants that I was using to control insects on my apple trees (I never did notice that they were doing any good). As I pulled up the plants, the strong odor from the crushed leaves enveloped me. Tansy is a natural insecticide. Well…it is a natural Lauriecide as well. I had a major allergic reaction to it and ended up with my tongue, throat, and nostrils burning for hours afterward, followed by major clogging of sinuses. I had to take an antihistamine to calm things down. It was a rough evening.

Important Note: Pull the invasive plants up before they flower and go to seed!

Invasive Plant Atlas of New England: I am currently using this web site as my guide for eradicating the invasive plants in my yard. I have found that I must pull up the following plants: Burning Bush, Celandine, Dame’s Rocket, False Indigo (boo hoo…I just bought it last year!), forget-me-not, and yellow loosestrife (aka garden loosestrife).  I have found that moneywort has been creeping up from a drainage area behind my north facing flower/shrub garden, and I must tackle that as well. I am also going to chop down any new black locust trees that try to grow up. Click on this link to go to the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England Web Site: http://nbii-nin.ciesin.columbia.edu/ipane/index.htm

Jun
26th
Fri
permalink
Native and Non-Invasive Plant Update: Susan Hayward just informed me of a great plant guide titled, Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide, which marks each plant with an (*) if it is  non-native. Awesome! I’m going to order one from Amazon today. I am also going to order: Last Child in the Woods (Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder) by Richard Louv, Reading the Forested Landscape (A Natural History of New England) by Tom Wessels, Bringing Nature Home (How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens) by Douglas W. Tallamy, and The Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich. Many thanks go out to Bill Livingston, Pat Maloney, and Mary Bird for supplying copies of these awesome books for us to look at during the Forest Themes Workshop days. Oh yes…two more books in my order will both be by William Cullina: Wildflowers (The New England Wild Flower Society), and Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines (A Guide to Using, Growing, and Propagating North American Woody Plants). Oh yeah, I am also ordering Stevie Wonder-The Definitive Collection…gotta have some good tunes to serenade all my plants with!
permalink
Native and Non-invasive Plants: I just attended an awesome three day Forest Themes based workshop, and I must admit that it opened my eyes to the importance of native plants to the landscape, including our yard. The person who has drilled home the importance of this the most is Susan Hayward (Bates college professor, and steward of Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary of Lewiston.) I now plan to uproot the invasive plants I have in our yard, and am looking to replace them with non-invasive shrubs and wildflowers. I am hoping to find a nursery that sells native and non-invasive plants to New England, and I’ve heard that Provenchers is one of those. (Oh boy…I looked at a list of invasives on the invasive.org website, and it seems likely that every plant I cherish is on the list…Augh…..) I dedicate the following 3 photos to Susan who is very patient with me especially as I have portrayed quite a bit of ignorance on the subject. You know, I have no excuse for my carelessness because I grew up in a household with parents who were dedicated to native, non-invasive plants of Florida. Better late, than never…