Blogging – Page 3 – New England's Narrow Road

Summer With The Siblings

My firefighter son always comes north (from Florida) to visit at least once a year. He arrived this week, which means that three of my kids and myself are sharing space in this small house. We are on top of each other inside, but the weather has been fairly good – if you call 80’s and humid good! – so we go outside a lot and sit around my new table (that only seats two – first come first serve) or the kids go to the beach and swim. I am not so much into doing that. Crowds of summer people and local kids are not my thing. I prefer the lake in any season but summer.

midori — A glass of Midori while I grill

It also means that I am spending large amounts of money on food and large amounts of time in the kitchen and at the grill. I always have a hard time remembering which kid likes what food. None of them are horribly picky, except the 12 year old, but I always have to ask, mostly about onions. One likes them cooked and one likes them raw. No tomatoes for either. One loves seafood, like his mom, and the other doesn’t. One loves mushrooms….and so forth. I eat just about everything, so I grill and bake around their likes.

My oldest son lives in Kentucky and we have been trying to convince him to come up too and he called the other night to tell me he is coming!! I am so excited. I haven’t seen him in over 3 years and it will be the first time in that long that all my kids have been together too. My oldest was 20 when my youngest was born so they have never all lived together. It’s very odd, but the way it turned out.

He is driving here in his Porsche and bringing an old guitar of his for my youngest son who seems to have inherited the musical talent that my other boys have. The kids are just as excited at the thoughts of spending time together. I’ve warned my landlady that it could get loud next door.

He is on his way… and they will be heading into Boston for the weekend to see the Red Sox play and just enjoy the city. Maybe they will share their photos for me to post.

I have been trying to find an air conditioner – just a small one for the front room where the sun beats in every afternoon – but there are none to be found. I hope the humidity stays reasonable, but it won’t matter really. I’ll have all my kids together, which is a rare thing for sure. I imagine they will all get on each other’s nerves and we’ll see if the oldest will actually stay the whole week or hop in his car and head back to the quiet life in Kentucky!

Purple Columbine Flowers

The Columbine plant is available in so many lovely colors. I have a red and yellow one and a few “blue” (which are more a dark purple) and light pink.

This Spring I saw some at the Agway that had feathery looking flowers and I almost bought one just because of the uniqueness, but didn’t.

They are easy to grow and the seeds are fun to collect – there will be loads of them! – to plant for next year.

dried seed pods — Tiny Seeds Are Inside These Pods

Find a small jar and collect the round, black seeds in late fall when they are completely dried out or just let them self sow in the garden. Be sure they don’t get pulled up as weeds next year. The leaves will be rounded.

Long, Long Summer Days

I have been dreading summer. I am the single parent of a 12-year old who needs activity – lots of activity. I work at home. I live in a small, rental house – about 1,000 square feet. He plays video games and watches tv in the living room which is right beside the kitchen where I have my computer set up at the kitchen table.

I listen to iCarly, Big Time Rush, Fairly Odd Parents and Spongebob all day – well, only when I’m not listening to him yell at his video games. He is a loud child who likes to scare the cat, make random strange noises, and thrives on noise.

Don’t get me wrong, he does go outside. We live near a lake and he goes swimming with a couple of friends who live up the road. But those friends have a big family and take trips all summer. We live on a dirt road and bike riding is tough and I don’t want him riding alone.

I don’t have relatives or friends close by to go visit, and I need to get my work done anyway. We don’t have our own home and since it’s a duplex, I am always worried about him making lots of noise outside with his friends, so inviting friends here is not helpful.
Every day we struggle with what to do. I get up early and begin working around 4:30am and he sleeps until 9am or so, but after lunch the day really drags.

I never planned for my kids to not have siblings, but the plans I’ve made have never come close to coming to be. At my age all my friends have grown children, money for vacations and traveling, and look forward to summer. My older son will be visiting for a couple of weeks and that will give us something to do. I’ll be cooking and the kids will be hanging out, but if my son is occupied it will be a big help.

Meanwhile, I will be getting very little done work-wise and my blogging takes twice as long since I can’t think straight! Is it really only the beginning of July?

The Importance of Birds

flock of finches in winter — Count the Finches!

A few years ago I took part in “Project Feeder Watch” and spent a little time counting and recording the bird sightings in my backyard. Once a week I went online and posted the results of my counts where I was able to see who had seen what in my neck of the woods. Even though my sightings might have seemed boring and ordinary, FeederWatch personnel assured us that all counts were important. It was a fun, learning experience and I was able to help with the scientific study at the same time.

In order to count the birds of a species I had to know what it was I was counting and it gave me an opportunity to learn about the birds living around New Hampshire and the ones that would only show up in winter (when we counted). I grew up in Massachusetts where my parents and grandparents always fed the birds and I recognized some of the same ones I’d grown up seeing in my backyard.

I even got interested in what to feed them to keep them coming back or to attract some interesting birds. I learned to make my own suet, and find the best feeders to use. I also found out the hard way that I had to stop feeding them in Spring when the bears would come and tear up my feeders!

Then I moved, and moved and moved…so I gave up my birdwatching, but when and if I get the chance again I would love to contribute once more.

It’s probably why I still get updates from the Cornell Lab of Orinthology, the people who runs the bird counts, and today received an update on what is being done down on the gulf coast.

It’s reassuring to know that some places are being diligently protected, such as Breton Island (slide show), home to thousands of birds who make their home near the water in Louisiana. But as the writer pointed out, the birds don’t recognize the danger. When there are clean islands nearby, they choose to stay and forage in the oil soaked waters. He also says that to try and save the ones that are in danger would be more disastrous than to leave them alone.

Watching all birds is serious business for these scientist who use the data to record falling numbers or population explosions. What happens with birds does affect the world around us.

A reader left a comment here on my site that she is afraid that many unscrupulous places will try to take our money to help and do nothing, but I believe, because of their long history of helping birds, that this is one place that will put it to good use.

By the way, if you live near the Gulf they need watchers to report on what is going on with the birds there.

Check out their site at Cornell Labs where you can read more about the Gulf oil and it’s effects and donate to their efforts if you are so inclined. And if you want to be part of the seasonal counting in your area, click the link at the beginning of this post.