New England's Narrow Road

They’re Heeeeeere – The Black Flies Return

Black flies are the worst of all bugs. I’ve lived in Florida where the spiders are the size of your hand. Seriously, I have seen some enormous spiders in my life. I’ve dealt with cockroaches, palmetto bugs and banana spiders (pictured) and I don’t like any of them, but none of them kept me from being able to go outside.

About a week ago I was outside enjoying our stint of sunny, dry (too dry) weather and sure enough I thought I saw a black fly. They are tiny, but something about the way they fly past your head is unmistakable. Then a few days later as I was watering the tulips I got bitten and they were swarming me like mad. I had to go inside.

So from now until the beginning of June there will be no enjoying the outdoors up here in New Hampshire. I could try riding a bike and move faster than them (if only I wouldn’t have to walk up the hills – ya, right). I won’t be going for walks on the nice days or doing much yard work. I will still take my chances and go outside, but one of my arms already has 5 bites that are swollen and itchy. Ahhhh Spring.

Trying to ID Some Things In My New Yard (newenglandsnarrowroad.wordpress.com)

Buying Succulents at The House By The Side of The Road

The House by the Side of the Road is the name of a plant nursery in Wilton, New Hampshire. I only recently discovered it when my Realtor sent me a gift certificate from there after I closed on my house. It’s a family run place with loads of plants and I stopped there one day this winter looking for something to have growing in my house.

I needed to buy some kind of plants that Skittle the Cat wouldn’t eat. She is one of those cats who constantly wants attention and to get it one of the things she does is eat the plants. I figured if I bought non-leafy ones she might not be interested and I was looking for succulents in particular.

As you can imagine, buying plants in winter doesn’t give you much choice, but this place had a whole little section of interesting cactus and succulents. I don’t really know much about this type of plant, so I chose three that looked interesting.

The ones I chose needed re-potting, so I picked up a couple of new pots for them. The one in the blue pot here had a “baby” growing from the stem and it’s roots were just dangling in the air! So I gave it it’s own little pot (see it to the left in this picture).

I don’t have names for any of these, but one has soft, fuzzy “leaves” and another looks like a bunch of hungry mouths ready to chomp down on anything that comes by (second photo down). It reminds me of a venus fly trap type plant. I use isolated plant images to create Succulent Wedding Paper.

fuzzy leafed plant — This plant is soft and fuzzy.

On nice days I put them outside on the deck and they seem to love the sun. If you like having plants but don’t want to fuss with them, try a succulent. And don’t water them… seriously, they can go for weeks and even longer without water.

Memories of Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

grilled tomato and cheese sandwich — Grilled tomato and cheese sandwich

I seldom eat a sandwich any more but I had stopped by the neighborhood organic grocery store and picked up some whole grain bread made by The Bread Shed, and a nice tomato for my salad and decided that I needed to grill up a sandwich.

When I lived in Florida, grilled cheese sandwiches were an ‘after church’ ritual. Usually some friends of my kids would stop over and I’d make everyone sandwiches, and grilled cheese became the favorite. We’d stand around and eat and talk in my sunny, air-conditioned kitchen. We all have some memories of funny stories told in those days and one of the kids (grown now) still asks me to send him a sandwich. He insists I made the best grilled cheese sandwiches ever.

So, after my shopping trip, with that nice, thinly sliced bread and fresh, red tomato just sitting there on my counter I just had to grill me up some deliciousness.

And it was good.

The Chickadees are Building a Nest

Nest building by chickadees — Birdhouse and chickadee

I just noticed yesterday that a chickadee was peering into the birdhouse I’ve had hanging on the slanted post out back. I was so excited to see that maybe she was considering using it to raise a family, so I watched for a while and sure enough she went in. And another chickadee came along and he / she ? (who knows with chickadees) went inside too.

Then, today I ate my lunch outside on the deck and watched as they brought mouthfulls of grass into the birdhouse.

Chickadees are one of the most beloved birds. They are relatively unafraid of humans, and never squabble amongst themselves. They appear to be the best natured birds fluttering around the yard.

The birdhouse is one I’ve had for many years. When I lost my home, I took it (and others) with me and put them up at the various rentals I’ve had over the past six years, but no bird ever used it to build a nest.

Now that I have a home of my own, the house will be used! I think that is awesome. So I will enjoy watching the parents occupy the birdhouse, which sits just a few feet from my deck out back, and I’ll listen for the chirping of the babies one day!

I am not very good at photographing wildlife, but I’ll try to get some good shots as the babies appear.
You can see in the photo below how close they will be to my deck.