Saturday, August 25, 2007

My Pondside Friends -- A Report from Buster

Hey, I'm so awfully sorry for being away so long! I miss all you guys!

I've been spending some "quality-time" with my mom up at the Pond, and do I have stories! It's been a great summer, and I've developed some pretty cool cross-species friendships with the critters that inhabit the Northern Deciduous Forest of the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire.



"The Pond" isn't awfully big: it sits atop a small mountain, and it's not much more than a quarter-mile long, but it's spring-fed, crystal-clear, and it's home to all my good buddies!



In August, the water temperature's about 85-88 degrees fahrenheit, but the air averages around 70, so in the morning, there's this eery mist. It's then that you can hear the haunting call of my good friend, Mr. Loon!



Mr. Loon, of course, isn't really good at flying (his wings are too far back) or at walking (his feet are too far back!), but boy, can he FISH! He'll dive down to the bottom (about 65 feet), using his wings as paddles, and emerge with a trout on the other side of the pond. He let me and my dad get right up next to him in the boat! Guess he's getting used to us. This is the second summer he's taken up residence here! Gavia Immer...hmmmm....dad muttered something about the Latin meaning "Diver."



Mr. Turtle isn't quite as fast underwater, but he's curious! He sits on the shore in front of the cottage, waiting for one of us to go swimming with him.



Ah--My good friend, Alvin! Thank God the girls aren't here--they'd eat him whole! But Alvin and I share the back porch of the cottage sometimes. He's kinda cute. Maybe with a little ketchup...



Now, Mr. Bullfrog keeps me awake at night. I'm waiting for Mom to provide a good recipe for Frogs' Legs, but until then, I tolerate him.



Mr. Bass lives under the dock. Sometimes Dad will catch him by accident with his flyrod and gently put him back in the water. He doesn't seem to mind, because he keeps getting caught. Impersonating a trout, perhaps...



Baby Frog and her siblings live in the grass all around the cottage. Dad has to be careful when cutting the grass, 'cuz they're awfully hard to see.




Mr. Catbird is one of my BEST friends! He and his lovely mate live in the bushes and help us pick the blueberries. They LOVE blueberries. But they also help to keep the evil terrier-eating bugs away. Sometimes I see Mr. Catbird bring a fresh dragonfly to Mrs. Catbird--it's really touching. They're members of the mockingbird family, and they fear humans and terriers about as much as they fear a fresh damselfly. Catbirds are breathtakingly friendly and curious.



Mr. Hummingbird is a bit of a little bully. He tries to chase the other "boy-hummers" away from the feeder, and it looks like the Battle of Britain! Spitfires vs. Messerschmidts, aerobatics, Immelman Turns, Hammerhead-stalls, it's really a pretty nutty show. These little guys are as aggressive and territorial as any rhinoceros. There's only ONE thing that will cause them to retreat...



Ms. Hummingbird! I watched three of these little ladies "take out" an aggressive male in a protracted air battle. It wasn't pretty!



Hummers actually migrate southward from Canada to the Gulf-Coast, then fly across the open ocean to Yucatan. At least the Ruby-throated ones do! What do they eat? Jewel-Weed! Dad tells me that when these little succulent flowers appear all along their North-South range along the East Coast of the U.S., they're ready to fly South. Impatiens Capensis provides the sugar-high they need along the way to propel those little wings. It's also a great poison-ivy treatment, and was used for that purpose by native Americans for thousands of years.

But you know what I most look forward to when I get home?



Seffie and Bailey. They'll give me a piece of their minds for spending so much time away, but I sure miss them!



I've got lots more photos and stories to share, so stay tuned!

Buster

Friday, August 17, 2007

Report from the Home Front: Buster's Still on Vacation, but Persephone & Bailey Rule the House!


Okay--He's coming back in a couple days! We kinda miss him, but he'll be a first-class pain-in-the-you-know-what when he gets back! His Nibs is lounging beside his Mommy, waiting for the return of the loon, who departed the Pond on Wednesday. Bailey and I (Persephone, the Dark Goddess) are in charge of things in the meantime. It's a full-time job just supervising the humans around this place!



Here's Mr. Loon. I'll bet he wasn't very impressed with Buster.





Bozo keeps sending us photos, just so we can see how much fun he's having! Maybe he'll fall overboard. But he assures everyone that he's learned to swim like a Labrador. Yuck.



The Human Mom has promised to post a lot of pix and a video of Buster playing Titanic when they get back.


We'll just have to see...BUSTER? SWIM?


So this is Persephone, the Guardian of Buster's Ego, signing off for now.

Upcoming posts should include "Buster's Pondside Friends," "The Loon Chronicles," "Bozo Conquers the Briney Deep," and "Buster Should Pay More Attention to Persephone!"

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Little Toot's most WONDERFUL adventure...or...Ms. BLUE goes to the lake without the "twins".

back at the lake with my wabbit....snoozing and relaxing.


Ahhhhhhh.......quiet...no buster and sephie to take all the attention....just me me me me and my humomm and my hudad and my hugramma! Heavy sigh.....
the blueberries are out...and what do the blueberries bring????
the ducks and the birds....and ME! Ms. Blue!

I LOVE BLUEBERRIES!








Here's a picture of the resident LOON!
He's awesome ...sorry you can't see him to well in this
picture...that's as close as my dad could get...my humomm swims
to him and gets close enough to see his red eyes!



ok... so I don't get the BUSTER and Ms. Sephie... but I do get my "cousin" ...the
French poodle...she's cute though.. and.. my humomm said, "You are VERY patient!"...what does this "patient" word mean??



she BARKS AT ME!













can you see the little bitty bird???
These are the humming birds...
many many hummmmmming birds
huMMMing at me...whilst I watch.









I also got a new toy.... a WATER WUBBAAAAAAA... WATER WABBAAAAAA'S are o.k...
here's a video of me and WUBBA...



I'm not sure whether the WUBBA is my favorite...or
my ORANGE water disc....Check this out

WATER WATER EVERYWHERE...SPLASHING keep watching ------------->


varoooooom----> I've got the fast motors on for this one.....there goes the ORANGE disc...and I am on it....check out my radar if you can... my humomm says it's my tail! it goes around in circles!

O.K. now for another "cute" picture,
here's my gramma...
with my little noisy cousin....
she's lucky she's cute.

WHEW! so those are some of the highlights of the latest trip to the pond...we did keep rather busy. I was very happy when all the company left and the man in the moon popped into the sky... it's verrrrry quiet up in the woods at night!


g'night friends....ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz