was that real manure?

if you haven't seen "back to the future" any time in the past ten years- and that should pretty much include all of us- watch this clip from that classic movie.



and then watch this video of the guy who played biff.

it's baby turtle season!

and the hits just keep on coming

my plan now is to find the vandals that are plaguing oak knoll and to throw their bikes or scooters or whatever their means of transportation into some sort of acid bath and then to rub dog poop into their faces. and then to call the police. and then to make the kids and/or their parents pay for the repairs to the nature center and to my car.

new dog that isn't mine

josh, our friend and neighbor and oft called-upon dogsitter, just got his own puppy. his name was patrick but is now bug and he is nothing but a puffy handful of adorable trouble. he loves to play with jake and nina, even though he brings out the bullying side in ms. totenberg and she spends a lot of time attempting to pin him to the ground by his neck. i keep telling her to just wait until he's bigger- maybe four times her size. and then, well, i bet she'll still be bullying him.

performance art by evie

i believe she calls this one "little girl abandoned."

waterslides on the outside

the fortieth = waterpark anniversary

for mom and dad's 40th wedding anniversary, mom treated us to a night at the great escape's indoor water park in lake george, new york.

aj, dad, and julie scope out the scene before testing the waters.

aj was so excited to be standing in two inches of water.


it was impossible to get any pictures of evie because she was too busy rushing from slide to slide. that kid is completely fearless.

reward for your patience

the first hive of bees has been thriving in the weeks of beautiful weather we've had since matt installed them. here are some photos from the day he put the russian bees into their hive.

the bees arrive in a small screen box. matt then carefully extracts the queen cage, which contains the queen bee and a few helpers. the cage is sealed with a sugar candy plug. the bees eventually eat through the plug, freeing the queen. in a way, it's romantic. if i had to eat through a giant twizzler plug to free matt from a cage, i'd do it.

after placing the queen in her cage in the hive, matt then removes the large can containing sugar syrup that has provided food for the bees during their four days of containment in the screen box. this can is also the only thing preventing the 16,000+ bees from vacating their screen box- which they probably really want to do after being trapped in there for four days. and bees don't poop in their hive, which we suspect means they also don't poop in their screen box. needless to say, when they get out, they really have to go.


bee poop on my puffy coat.





what with the cold temperatures and the long confinement, the bees are not really ready to attack when they first leave the hive. this provides for some opportunity for up close observation. they are kind of cute and fuzzy.

honeybee post coming soon

i have to be honest with you all- i'm not much of a fan of "poetry." i mean, it's not a universal dislike. i love me some "stopping by the woods on a snowy evening" and even appreciate the symbolism in "something there is that doesn't love a wall." and beyond robert frost, i also value the works dr. suess and shel silverstein. they write so good, i'd wear their poems on a t-shirt.

but i recently realized that there is one other poet who has at least two works that i enjoy and it makes me wonder what else he has created. i was struck by these four lines from an e.e. cummings poem that jim quoted on his blog:

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea

And that reminded me of another e.e. cummings poem that i once enjoyed, copied here in its entirety:

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did

Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain

a preview of tomorrow's postings

blue spotted salamander reads over her lines

after tromping through vernal pools with scouts all day, that night i dressed up as a blue spotted salamander to help out at stony brook wildlife sanctuary's "big night" celebration. for the past two years, they have somehow roped me into costuming myself as some sort of amphibian and performing a short skit eight or nine times. this year, my skit involved eating gummy worms (two per performance) and i'll be happy if i never have to eat one again.

eggs

at one of the the vernal pools we visited, we found both wood frog eggs (top photo) and spotted salamander eggs (bottom photo).

catching up to do

last weekend, i led a class on vernal pools for a group of boy scouts. on our way to search for wood frogs and salamanders, we were temporarily waylaid by the non-vernal pool loveliness of lake talaquega.

obsession residue

although bees are now matt's number one favorite hobby, the leftovers from the christmas cactus phase still decorate our house. some of them are late bloomers- maybe because we keep it so cold inside?

on our way to the airport

getting ready to go

our attempt to view the sunrise turned out like this

the last full day- a trip to the island of culebra

because puerto rico was not enough of a tropical island for us (well, for me), we decided to travel to an even more tropical island off the coast of puerto rico. the ferry ride was a bit, errr, nauseating but the beach on the island was lovely. we enjoyed a full day of sitting, swimming, and snorkeling. i took the first picture, matt took the second one- rare "footage" indeed.

what i meant was.. kayaking on day 3

someone psuedo-related to me pointed out that i used the same coconut picture twice. i need to finish blogging this puerto rico trip so i can get back to sharing pictures of the cold, gray world of massachusetts. only one more day to go- and i promise to finish with the vacation photos tomorrow.

can you believe i'm not done recapping day 3 yet?

after a relaxing hour or so on the beach, a light rain shower chased us back to the car, where we enjoyed a delicious lunch of lay's potato chips, peanut m&m's, and lollies. then, we rented a two-person kayak and headed out into the lakes in the nature preserve.

the iguanas clustered in the trees, waiting to drop on our heads.

another hit from day 3: fiddler crab washes away