A Blog for 2025

May 24, 2026 Happy Birthday, Grace Dawn. I have so many friends who share this birthday. Every time I think about it I think of someone else and on top of it, it is Bob Dylan's 85th. I wish  I could have blinked myself to Georgia to see and hear Gracie today, or even to Montpelier to see Giz.  Really, someday I'm going to hold a party that recognizes the different lives all born on the same day, look at how different and rich each one is.  That is certainly the truth for May 24th.   I decided that a huge dragon slept in my yard last night.  This piece of yard looked just like a place where a deer would have curled up, but it was big enough to be a dinosaur, so I decided on a dragon. This is my 7th year of observing the rookery and only the 2nd time when a Statie stopped to make sure I was ok.  It was raining and cold and I was on the phone with  Annie, but we were rather polite to each  other and he didn't think I was that crazy.  There ...

  May 23, 2026 Around 600 graduates of whom I knew 7 and I did not get one in focus photo. This one of Nash is the clearest.  I didn't even get a partial one of EJ.   That was too hard of a day and a bizarre experience from the beginning.  There were a few moments to cherish and  when you realize the hard work, the dedication, the resilience, the stamina that it took for all of those people to reach that goal of acquiring a degree, it is overwhelming.  And when you add the crowd, the cold the rain and the inability to hear, well, overwhelming is putting it mildly. Diane and I are pretty efficient getting places together even when we are both in pain.   I was not dressed warm enough.  By the time we got under the BBQ tent at 6:45 I was freezing and damp  The whole event was so long and just kept going.  Like in the middle of handing out degrees they would stop and recognize something on the side for 3 minutes.  In some case...

May 22, 2026 Happy Birthday Jason MacDougall McBoing McBean aka McBean aka Jace Happy Birthday, Man. Hope it was a sweet day. Love you madly. Isn't this the greatest game of follow the leader you ever saw?   I cannot begin to explain how difficult it was for me to move today, but in spite of that I met Dave Henry for lunch in Shelburne, sat outside in beautiful weather and had a great visit.  Good friends in good weather can fix anything.  Thank you, Dave. On my drive I saw a racoon, a rabbit and several song birds.  I saw no big birds.  It felt a little early in the day for the racoon, but maybe not.  I saw him crossing the road between two large farms, both of which must be great food sources for him.   Down the road the herd were traveling through the beaver pond..  There actually was a place where it looked like the fence was down, but they didn't seem to see that.  I didn't point it out to them, either.   I left my cane so...

May 21, 2026 I've been waiting for the clouds to part all day.  The temperature stayed around 62 and it was cloudy.  I just looked out and the sky is blue and rose colored.  My new windows have a glaze on them that filters my lens.  I go to shoot the sky out the window and it is just a pale white.  It's lovely though.  You'll have to take my word for it. I think I gave back into hurting too much again today.  I had x-rays on my hip and had a difficult time standing for them.  I spent a lot of time sitting in my car.  I seem to be most comfortable in that seat and I don't seem as though getting in and out of the car is easy.  Moving around is harder.  I napped, but then I don't want to get up.   The sky is gorgeous at the moment GORGEOUS> I went up to the rookery where it was 63 degrees and overcast and still.  There was little going on.  Sherry and I were blabbing away when a heron arrived.  By the time I...

May 20, 2026 I went up to watch the sunset tonight.  Pretty beautiful, messaging with Di, I look up, and there are 3 heron in the trees in front of me like the old days.  Jan had said to me today she felt we were in a mirror image of 2020, this may have been more proof. For the past several days getting out of bed has been extremely difficult; i hit the snooze button 4 times this morning.  I think our air is being poisoned and those of us who are more sensitive to the toxins are gonna go first.  However, I did make it out and to the Y.  Thank God.   The weather was bizarre today, it went as high as 86, but by 2 it was headed back down.  When I went to the rookery much later my car read 84 in my driveway and 76 at the rookery.  My phone said 79.  There were no ducks or geese in the pond, but I saw hawks and heron which I haven't seen in so long.  There were mosquitos and the green is truly green. By the time I got to a place to watch the ...

May 19, 2026 The temperature fluctuated and broke high records.  It hit 97, broke a record and within 10 minutes was back down to 75.  It was back up to 85 an hour ago.  I saw high winds, no lightening, no rainbow, and not a lot of rain, but a big temperature difference in 10 minutes.    Day started early with another blood draw.  I've really become accustom to it at this point.  I went to the Coop early and did the puzzles before 10 a.m.  It's much easier to be there that time of day, its quiet and less chaotic. By 11:30 I'd gone for a massage.  It was extra special today, my body soaked it up, wanted it so badly and just responded completely.   I drove home and slept an hour.  I just felt so much better. But I also felt as though my brain took a vacation without me.I was not able to organize myself. Took a ride  up and over the hill.  When I got in the car the thermostat read 104.  I don't think it was that hig...

May 18, 2026 My blog has done a small nose dive this week.  I never know if it's when I stop being very talkative, when my cover photo isn't very interesting to people, or its something that has nothing to do with me at all.  The weather has been so beautiful, but for some reason taking photos didn't seem to be in the cards today.  I went over to the canal.  It was over 90 there.  My thermometer kept going between 86 and 94 all afternoon.  No clouds, blue water and very few birds.  I guess it was too hot. I went over in the first place because some folks had posted photos of goslings.  But they were not out in the open when I got there.  There were no eagles, either.  So I came home and worked on a few photo projects.  I have a really good calendar that I did in January that I've never had printed.  I should make it into an 18 month calendar and print it now.  And I finished a present for Nash.     photo by ...