Another frog photo

I guess this is my Halloween frog picture, but I am going to be doing some serious frog hunting when I go out partying tonight, I hope I catch some good ones with my cell phone. Maybe I'll try kissing some and see if I can come up with a good prince as well. I was a frog once when I was a kid, my amazing mother helped me make a frog's head out of paper mache and I work a green leotard or something - Wasn't the best costume but at least it was home made. I'm not going as a frog this year, I should have thought of that earlier. I have a turquoise wig and the bustier and belt from a belly dancing outfit and a cheap pair of turquoise wings from the party store so I think I'm going as some sort of fairy. Not extremely original but next year I'll do better, I promise. Really the best way to prepare for holidays is to prepare for next year's holiday right after this year's holiday; for example, buy all your Xmass presents in January for added savings and so that you will have plenty of time and remember what people did or didn't like. The only flaw with this plan is that you have to remember where you put them in a year.

Hidden frog IV

Here is the frog hiding again, at the bottom of the new pool under the leaves. I wonder what they are thinking when they are trying to hide at the bottom of 2 inches of water, or if they really are trying to hide. I think that this weekend I am going to try filling up the new pool with water to see how badly it leaks. Also I have found that I can't judge the levels of the different sections of the pool by eye, the natural shapes play tricks on you. So the only way to see which side is higher than the other and where needs to be built up is to use a real level and a board or string, or to fill it up with water, since water always seeks its level.

3 sheets 2 the wind

Actually one is a pillow case so it probably doesn't count. This may be the last time I get to hang sheets out to dry this summer. It wasn't very warm out this weekend, but it was above 50 and there was quite a wind, which makes all the difference. I once had an apartment in Barcelona where I had to dry my clothes on the clothes line on the roof, but it was so windy there that the first things I'd hung up would be already dry by the time I finished hanging everything. Very efficient. I'm of the "sheets are nicer if they're line dried" school of laundry, also I'm cheap and trying to be a good environmentalist so I've been drying stuff on the line as much as possible this summer. I suppose I could rig something up inside for the winter and once the heat is really on stuff should dry pretty quickly. What does all this have to do with fish, you ask? Well, not much except that if I had turned around 180 degrees after taking this photo and taken another one, it would be a photo of the pond, and this photo shows how neglected my lawn is due to my pond obsession.

Frog and fish

This is a photo from this weekend, it shows how much the frog and the fish ignore each other. They don't pay any attention to each other at all, I guess because neither of them is interested in the other as food. A friend of mine pointed out that I should quarantine the froglettes (I believe they're called tadpoles?) when they are little so they don't get eaten by the fish. Good point, I will have to put the frog eggs in an empty pool as soon as I find them, assuming I am lucky enough to be blessed with frog eggs next spring. Of course, it should also be a pool below the pools containing the fish, because if not the tadpoles will just get swept into the lower pools and eaten by the fish anyway. That won't be a problem if I can finish the new pool becasue it will be higher than all of the others. Of course, the fish get swept down too ... life is so complicated.

Aerial photography

Actually from a window on the second floor, I don't know why I didn't think of doing this before, it gives a much better view of the new pool and the pond layout in general. You can see the oak leaves on the surface of the pond and in the lower right had corner the grill brush which for some reason I still haven't put away. Gotta do that before snow flies, maybe I'm still hoping there'll be another barbecue day before it's all over. I fished the oak leaves out but I haven't done any raking yet in my yard, I'm on the top of a hill and most of the leaves get blown away after they fall. Of course, other leave blow up the hill to take their place. Some years there really aren't any leaves to rake except in the areas where they get caught in up against the stone walls, and since I've neglected my garden so completely this summer there isn't much reason to worry about damaging the plants. I'm trying to decide whether to take the garden in hand next summer or ignore it for another year and see how bad it gets. Eventually the neighbors will start to complain.

Frogger in the fall II

I was sick all weekend and didn't get anything done, I was hoping this would be the weekend I would finish the new pool but now I am giving up hope on that and making the call to buy the used 75 gallon fish tank. At least I was feeling well enough today to be out of bed, and it was a fabulous fall day, warm in the sun, so I spent most of it outside next to the pond reading Dr. Zhivago and wishing I could remember who were the Reds and who were the Whites. Since it was such a nice day the frogs were out, I saw two of them, I think that's all there is at the moment. This one was in the new pool, which surprised me because I thought that the mortar residue would be toxic, but I guess the residue dilutes over time and the rain water is filling the pool now, I assume the frog knows what's good for him. I took a lot of good frog photos today, they will probably have to last me for a while because even if the frogs are out during the day they are certainly asleep by the time I get home from work.

Florida snake

I was at a conference in Orlando last year and I went to the herpetology museum. Maybe it isn't exactly in Orlando, but it is an easy drive south from there. It is a fabulous relief if your not a big fan of Mickey and his gang. I am trying to find their website but maybe they're so old school they don't have one because I can't find it. I went there not expecting much and was surprised to find a SERIOUS snake collection, they make their money selling venom to research labs which is great because as we have already discovered the simple Massachusetts green frog holds secrets which could grant us almost eternal life (think about it!) and snake venom is one of natures coolest inventions and I am sure holds a lot of interesting secrets for us. I saw two snakes having sex, which was kind of scary. I also did a lot of water colors, snakes are GREAT models because they rarely move and they don't have really well defined geometries, so the perspective is very forgiving.

Fall garden

This is the current state of my garden. As you can see, the Dalias are still blooming but not for long, and the tomatoes are still giving me a few tomatoes. I planted the Dalias in empty cat litter containers, last year, which made them easy to store over the winter, but not very attractive. I don't think I will try to keep these bulbs over the winter this year, they are getting kind of tired and the bulbs are actually so cheap to buy it probably makes more sense to just buy new ones next spring. One less chore to do. Today it was warm, but it is supposed to be rainy all weekend and then cold again. I can't decide whether or not to bring in the fish. Even if I don't take all of the fish inside, I will have to transfer them temporarily out of the lower pool because it shares a wall with the new pool, and the mortar is very toxic so even if a little bit falls in the lower pool it could be a total disaster. I think I'd better buy that bigger tank. I was kinda depressed today, so I decided I needed another hamster dance, this one is dedicated to Mo, if you're reading!

Not much progress

This is the current state of the pond. You can check back to the picture I posted last Friday and you won't see much of a difference. I worked on it a couple of hours last Saturday, but I didn't work on it at all on Sunday, it was cold and I was lazy so I only got a couple of stones put on the wall. It has been very cold all week and I am beginning to think that I'm not going to be able to finish the new pool in time to get the fish situated over the winter. I have started to look at fish tanks on Craig's list, I had them all in a 10 gallon tank over the winter last year, but now that several of them are getting big and they've managed to reproduce themselves I don't think I can keep them all in such a small tank over this winter.

Family fun

Here is the turkey family out by the pond. There are two others who didn't make it to the picture, I suspect it was mom and goofy bringing up the rear, probably mom trying to make sure that goofy doesn't get eaten for Thanksgiving. They all came by and took turns drinking in the pond, a touching scene of family togetherness. It reminds me of my sister and the kids coming over for dinner on Sunday, I didn't get it done on time but it tasted good and the kids are actually old enough now to eat something other than macaroni and cheese. In fact my nephew regaled himself with the fat off of the roast, the lucky guy is growing so fast now that he can eat that sort of dinner with no worries. We also found out that he is taller than me now! Not such an amazing feat since I'm a real shrimp, but still an important milestone.

Big drama

I let a friend store some stuff in the attic of my ridiculously large house while she was moving and she came over today to pick some of it up while I was at work. Unfortunately, she must have left the door propped open when she was here and Squeakers got out. When I came home at around 8PM Squeaks wasn't at the back door to greet me and was nowhere to be found. Luckily, I didn't panic, since it was pretty obvious what had happened, I just opened up the back door and called her. She came in pretty quick, since she knows she's got it good here, but she brought a little gray mouse in with her, still alive! Since I don't enjoy watching small animals being tortured to death a chase ensued. I ended up trapping Squeakers in the upstairs bedroom, where she is still hiding under the bed, but the mouse went into the living room, I think, and I couldn't find it. I left the front door open for it to escape, but I think it probably went through a crack in the floor into the basement. Or rather I hope, I don't want to be woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of whack-a-mouse. You may be wondering what this has to do with the picture; the picture is of the alligator from the back yard, who has clearly eaten one of the frogs. So there's murder and mayhem in the air tonight, for sure.

Red Elf

This is one of our native newts. Another fascinating reptile, it is born in the water and then leaves to wander the earth as a little red newt when it's an adolescent. After it's summer of being a wild teenager it turns green and returns to the water. They really travel, we find them a lot on our mountain biking trips and often quite far from a pond or stream (although Southern NH isn't skimpy on the ponds and streams.) My mountain biking companion (also the outsider artist I have been posting) and I have often nearly subjected ourselves to horrid accidents in order to avoid running these little guys over. One summer there were so many of them in the road outside my house that I could barely get down the street to my friend's house since I felt obliged to move them all to the side of the road to avoid the traffic. There is a dam I know of in the woods on fish & game land, and at the base of that dam every spring in early May there is a regular salamander (grown-up newt) orgy for a couple of weeks. I will try to get a photo of it next spring if I am still writing the blog. My nephew asked me what I am going to write about over the winter and I honestly don't know ... I guess a lot of weather related topics.

The Fells

I went for a long walk in the Middelsex Fells, one of Boston's great treasures, with a friend of mine. It was a fabulous fall day, kind of cold but perfect for a long walk. It is the height of fall and the colors are stunning. We cam across this pool in the Fells, obviously constructed by someone but I don't know who or when. It is just a bunch of rocks stacked on top of each other, but it is in a natural stream so I guess it is enough to stop the water for long enough to form the pool, for a while. Water motion is facinating, really, the way it can be stopped so easily and yet creep through the smallest cracks. We also saw a young man on a mountain UNICYCLE going up the hiking paths! He was wearing a helmet and shin gards, but not wrist guards. Really it was quite remarkable. I don't think I could have done the path on a regular 2 wheel mountian bike. But whoever you are, if you are reading this, get yourself some wrist guards! Ouch! I was going to work more on the new pool today but it was cold out and after our walk I just needed a warm bath so I cemented a few stones and then gave up. I have to decide soon whether I'm going to take the fish inside.

Going for gold

Ok, not the best photo, but you can see from this that my dark fish (of upper pool fame earlier this year) is definitely turning gold. His snout is now gold and there is gold on his sides, maybe his under belly too but I can't see his under belly so the question is academic at best unless I traumatize the poor thing by fishing him out, hardly worth it. This pattern of color change is consistent with the "fish changing color" phenomenon that I mentioned in earlier posts. I wonder if he will go all gold before the season ends. I still have all of the fish in the lower pond, it seems to be loosing water rather quickly these days, although not getting below a certain level at about one foot in the deepest part. I think it must be because the seal between the natural rock and the stone wall is deteriorating, or maybe one of the fissures in the natural rock is leaking faster than before. I will have to get all of the fish out in order to investigate. I haven't seen the frogs this weekend even though I spent all day working on the new pool, perhaps they are already hibernating or just not coming out on cold days like today.

State of the pool

This is the current state of the new pond. Naturally I did zero work on it last weekend, since I was up in Maine enjoying the fabulous Indian Summer weather, but now I really have to get serious if I want to get this thing fish ready for the fall. All basement cleaning is officially going on hold until the new pond is done, and I will be devoting as much time as I can stand to its construction. Which does beg the question, how do I get myself into these things? Community art shows? Charity dinners and fund raising events? Elaborate landscaping plans? I should really just give it all up and work on my art and sleep and work. But I in truth my pond is my work of art, not to mention I now have SEVENTEEN (approximately) fish to take care of, such a responsibility! I just hope that the next owner doesn't just trash it.

My handsom neighbor

I don't know his name yet, but he keeps coming around and trying to get into the house and making Squeakers VERY jealous. He was drinking at the pond when I took this photo, but I had to give you a view of his handsome face. His meow makes me think he's got a strong dose of Siamese in his gene pool. He's very friendly and would move right in if I let him - But I'm not fooled, I know he does that with all the neighbors. He belongs to the new couple who just moved in down the street, and I am sure that we will notice a marked drop in the chipmunk population now that he's in town. He's another fan of drinking out of the pond!

Silk the snake

My sister and family found this garter snake in NH. My niece (hands pictured, for the second time!) named her (it) "Silk." At first Silk tried to get away from her, but then became quite affectionate and spent the entire day with my niece, curled around her fingers and snuggled up in her sock or down her sleeve. My sister told her not to take it too personally, that the snake probably just liked her because she was warm. My niece wanted to take it home but in the end they let Silk go back into the woods. Similar to my experiences with Squeakers, who largely loves me for my internal combustion engine. Of course Squeakers also has an internal combustion engine, so I'm getting something out of it as well. As my best friend at work says, cats are just snakes with fur. But she just doesn't like the snake eyes which I don't mind. I say cats are snakes with fur and legs and internal combustion engines and also they purr, which is bizarrely comforting, considering that they might just be planning to have you for dinner.

Alligators!

There's been an alligator invasion in the pond! Oh no! Keep Squeakers inside and warn the frogs to stay out of the upper pool! What shall we do! It must have hitched a ride in my luggage during my recent business trip to Miami. Well, I suppose it won't survive the winter, I don't think alligators are as good at freezing and thawing themselves again as our native frogs. Actually the appearance of the evil alligator was NOT the most upsetting new presence at the pond, as far as Squeakers the cat was concerned. But more about that later.

Frogger in the fall

Frogger is psyched about being on vacation in Maine for the weekend. I hear that the prices of lobster have hit an all time low - along with everything else. Is that the leaves I hear falling, or just the sound of an economy crashing around our ears? Looks like the market is going back up today. Up down up down, at least gas is a bit cheaper although I am still struck by the horrendeous state of our public transportation system which makes driving alone to Bar Harbor from Boston the most reasonable and cost effective option. And unfortunately, it seems that prices of lobster have gotten SO low that it is no longer cost effective to take the boats out, probably good for the lobster population. Frogger doesn't care about the crumbling economy or low lobster prices because Frogger doesn't have a 401K anyway or any means of financial support or any strong desire to eat lobsters. Althouth they are bugs, so maybe he would like them. This is another outsider art masterpiece by my friend who is also the one who invited me to Maine, thank you thank you.

I lied

I know I said no more pictures of Squeakers, but what can I say I lied and went back on my word. And so soon! Still I think this qualifies as a general good pond overview shot so I can be forgiven and as you can see she is actually actively interacting with the pond. For some reason Squeakers is just thrilled at being able to drink from the pond, even though she has TWO water bowls in the house. Maybe it is the superior aeration or the lingering taste of fish and bugs (and decomposing worms) or maybe it's just the thrill of reconnecting with her primal roots.

Freaky frog

I have been using Picnik to edit my photos - Mostly just cropping and rotating them so that they fit better. I figure I should give them a plug because they have made my life much easier and all for free. I started playing around with it a bit more and I realized that there are several types of filters you can apply to your photos. It's not photo shop, but it's a start. I choose to turn the frog (out?) into a study in my favorite color combination, green and pink. Ok, it's not great art, but it's just the begining ...

Nobel frog

Here is out looking very nobel. I don't know what he has to be so noble about but he's got the look perfected. I haven't seen much of the frogs in the past weeks or so, although I do see them occasionally - Really only in n' out now that I think about it, Frogger seems to be completely awol. On the other hand, I work during the day and they are cold blooded so maybe I am just never outside when they are. Or maybe Frogger has already headed for the mud, or decided that this pond is too shallow and crowded for wintering over.

Art walk

I agreed to participate in the local art walk, which is why I am posting so late today. I just got back from hanging a bunch of paintings in the local pizza shop. I signed on in a moment of irrational exuberance, forgetting that I really haven't done any finished pieces in a long time, and then when I got to the pizza shop I realized I couldn't hang any of my best water colors because they are in frames and there were no hooks and if they fell they might take out a patron or two. In the end I took a bunch of my sketches and got some pre-cut matts and put the sketches in the matts and taped them to the pizza shop window. It turned out not bad. Another difficulty was that most of my sketches are from life drawing class and I don't know if my suburban town is ready for a bunch of naked ladies on Main street - and we get some really cute models in the life drawing class, none of those art school fat people.

Squeakers again

I felt that I just had to post a picture which shows Squeakers in a less demonic light, and now I will stop posting pictures of my cat, I promise, at least for a little while. You can just barely make out part of the pond behind the chair. I spend many happy hours in that chair during the long summer evenings, contemplating my pond. In other news, my sister (the mysterious "Enna") has pointed out in her comments on yesterday's post that perhaps I have mistaken an A. Cesaria for an A. Muscaria. She may be correct there, I reviewed my photos but I couldn't make a definitive identification and the web wasn't too helpful on this question, at least not without some time digging around. Actually most of the websites I found were in Italian or Catalan and therefore European and, as I have mentioned, the Eurpoean varieties are slightly different. In fact, there is a version of the A. Verosa in Canada with a green top which is often mistaken by Italian immigrants for an edible variety with very bad results. Moral of the story: All mushroom knowledge, like politics, is local. I did find this interesting report on a five legged toad, boy am I jealous of that guy!

Squeakers at the pond

She looks very evil and Japanese (uncorrelated concepts of course) in this picture, also I must say that, while my pond is a big greenish due to the algae growing on the sides, it's not THAT green. On the other hand, my plants aren't that purple in general, either, so I suppose it is all a mater of the artists interpretation of the scene, and in that she of course has full latitude. The pond was getting a bit low, I filled it up when I got home from work. Squeakers is annoyed at me these days because it is dark out most of the time by the time I get home from work and I won't let her out or leave the door open a crack for her. Today it was actually colder in the house than out when I got home, and I just filled my oil tank - Not as expensive as I thought it might be, which is not to say that it wasn't expensive. I decided to fill up the tanks (actually I have two, totaling 575 gallons) because the oil guy says that heating oil prices are roughly positively correlated with the stock market, and we all know where that has been heading in the past few days!

Soma

The divine mushroom of the gods, aka Amanita Muscaria, aka the fly agaric. The woods were also full of these this summer. Although closely related to the Aminita Virosa, aka the angle of death (see September 25th's post) and commonly considered to be poisones, the Muscaria will not actually kill you. Although don't go taking my word on it and giving it a try. Instead it will give you a wicked bad stomach ache, probably causeing you to vomit all over your back friends porch (you know who you are) and causing mild halucinations. It was used as a drug of choice by Siberian tribes way back when, and they were clever enough to discover that, if you drink the urine of someone who has eaten the mushroom, you get the effect of the drug without the upset stomach and so they would get their slaves to eat the mushroom for them and then ... you get the idea. Since I am not interested in serious stomach aches or piss drinking I have never attempted this pracitse, besides my mother drilled it into my head at a very young age to stay away from any Amanita except for the delicious Cesaria. The Muscaria is also the classic mushroom on which you will find a fairy or elf perched in your typical children's illustration, I believe that the European variety must have a much redder cap than the one pictured, producing the classic toadstool with the red cap and white flecks. The New Hampshire variety is more yellow-orange in my experience. This means that you do have to exercise some caution when hunting for the yellow-orange-red Cesaria so as not to get yourself a Muscaria with the spots all washed off - notice that the one in the picture has only a few spots left, due to the heavy rain we experienced this summer. I hope I will see a Cesaria some time and be able to complete my little lesson on the facinating family of the Amanitas. Not really fair that the woods have been full of only the poisones ones and not the delicious ones.

Coffee with the turkeys

The family of turkeys came by this morning while I was drinking coffee in the back yard with my friend. They were totally not afraid to be around us, they all came for a drink at the pond and took their time. I'm not sure why this photo is so fuzzy after I uploaded it to the website, it looked fine on my viewer, maybe I'll try to upload it again later. I am having connectivity issues as usual, thanks comcast! The turkeys were hanging around the neighborhood all afternoon, mostly in the steep wooded vacant lot next to my house. I heard one of them calling in the late afternoon. I wonder if they come by the pond for a drink every day, I would if I were a turkey.

The heat is on

The heat came on today and Squeakers headed straight for the radiators. I saw her there and I knew what was up so I went and closed all of the windows. No more leaving the door to the back yard open all of the time anymore. I have to buy more oil now for the winter, I noticed today that the gas prices are going down and I presume that means the oil prices are as well. I turned down the furnace so that it won't come on until it gets really cold outside. I hate spending the money to heat a big empty house, I'm practically never home and Squeakers can fend for herself. Of course I waste my money outrageously on other things as my friends will tell you, but irrational behavior is the human condition.

Turkey family

Here is the turkey family heading off for my neighbor's backyard. Don't they grow up fast! I wonder how long they stay together as a family and I wonder where they are going to spend the winter. Writing this blog is really highlighting for me how ignorant I am of many basic flora and fauna facts that directly relate to my own back yard. I think the closest one to the camera is mom, she was giving me the harry eyeball and making sure that I wasn't too close.

Blogger in the Morning Glories

Here is another wonderful example of outsider art done by my dear friend. These are the morning glories of my dreams, not of my life. Also I don't recognize that nice blue dress but I like it! The real morning glories are looking like they are going to decide that the nights are too cold and die any day now, I have to take the plants in off the front porch or they will die too. I saw the family of turkeys today, all grown up! I couldn't get a good photo of them but maybe over the weekend I can. I haven't seen them in a long time, I wonder where they have been hiding. Last year the roosted in the trees across the street from me and came down with a load flop in the mornings, really it was surprising they could get up into the trees in the first place. I haven't seen them in the trees this year, but I then I have either been getting up and leaving ridiculously early in the morning or making up for lost sleep staying in bed late on the weekends.

All together now

Happy Eid! There was another day of heavy rain recently, and now all of the fish have moved down to the lower pool! This is a photo of all of them, you can see the dark fish in the middle of all of the other fishes. I think that I counted that I have 19 fish now, although I'm not sure with the baby fish because sometimes I think there are 3 dark ones and some times I can only find one. Maybe they hide. Also my baby calico fish has lost it's dark spot, so now it's an orange and white fish. I think I will leave them all in the lower pool for the time being. I haven't seen many frogs recently, I only saw one today. Maybe it is getting too cold for them. I really have to finish up the pool because I don't want to buy a tank big enough to keep all of these fish in over the winter. The biggest one is about two inches long now, most are about an inch and a half. I don't think I will be able to work on my pond next weekend because I have a lot of stuff to do and I am feeling kind of sick now, and I am going away on the weekend after that. I guess the final weekends of October are going to be devoted to pond building, I hope it doesn't rain!