Winterberries

Someone who lived here once planted winterberry bushes next to the stream. Overtime they had become overgrown. Two years ago we decided to give each one a good trimming. The first winter we were so sorry we did, because the few berries we'd seen in previous winters didn't come back. We began to wonder if somehow we'd managed to cut out the winterberry and leave some other woody shrub in its place. It wouldn't have been hard to do that, the plants were overrun with little sucker branches that seemed to suck the very energy from each stem. For all we knew another plant had set up residence and was slowly and surely replacing the old winterberry.

We had no choice but to wait for this fall to see if the trimming had worked. As November wore on we gave up hope on the scraggly bushes which were growing in way too much shade for any decent plant. We couldn't remember if there had been many flowers, and we'd forgotten to take pictures of the plants when they did bloom... if they even did.

Then one sunny day we noticed a small splash of red. There were days of cold and rain and then the plants were covered with little red berries for the winter birds to eat.

Bad Day at Black Pond

The weather has made a fool of me.

Usually we clean out the pond late in the summer and then again in the fall after the leaves have fallen. But usually once the leaves have fallen the weather is chilly cold so if we don't get to the leaves right away the consequences are minor.

The problem with leaves in a pond is that the decomposition process uses up the oxygen, suffocating the fish. In cold weather, the decomposition process is slow and the fish are slipping quickly into a winter state in which they use a bit less oxygen. The combination means that we can take our time getting to the pond, a few days or a week if we need it. But the temperature this year went warm right after almost all the leaves had fallen. Before we knew it the days were in the high 60's and touching 70, maybe higher where the pond is, now that the sunrays could shine through the leafless branches and be absorbed in the black plastic of the pond.

Our pride in our breeding goldfish, the beautiful multicolored babies and the glamorous black moors ended in sorrow in the warm November sun.

All but two died, and the fate of those two is uncertain on this sad day.

We found them gasping, and the large gold and black male floating on his side in a most unfishlike way. We pulled the big guy out and laid him, still, on the log fence. For a minute I considered taking his picture. He was still beautiful, brightly colored and nearly 5 inches long, but it seemed indecent to invade his death in such a way when our misjudgment had killed him.

His name was Spot, and he was a character. He loved to eat and had grown from little more than a 1 inch minnow to his gargantuan size in just 2 years. He reveled in his size, using it to bully the other fish, chasing the little fry and midsize minnows that he spawned this summer, seeming to human eyes, to be filled with pleasure at his life in the little black pond.

We buried him in the swamp, a place befitting a fish. We didn't cry, he is a goldfish after all, but we miss him even though our eyes are dry, and we feel terribly guilty for forgetting basic biology... living things must breathe.

Quickly we emptied the pond of decaying matter. We had no idea there was so much. It seemed as if the fish must have had no space to move below about 8 inches of water. No wonder the poor things gasped. One by one we found the fry and the midsize fish we had so enjoyed this summer. Maybe, one or two still lives, hidden behind a pebble or crouching under an errant decaying leaf, but we can't find them, only the two big guys, Bogart and Callie, are in sight.

We worked all day, pulling out remains of orange leaves, bailing and rinsing and aerating with a spray hose until the water was clear and the bottom was visible. Callie was flashing in the sun, always a showoff, in his clown scales, he flashed bright orange and white between the bubbles. But Bogart was subdued. Pitch black against the black pond, he was hard to see and not moving any more than he had too.

We left the pond as the cold rain began to fall when the first cold winds of winter overtook the warm pseudo summer day. Tomorrow we will clean it up, now it looks like trauma room after the patient has left. Water pits the sand, rotten black leaves litter the rocks near one edge. The pond was not quite finished but now it looks abused and forlorn and the two remaining fish just look exposed in the newly clean water, seen under the dark gray sky.

Discussion is useless. Perhaps Callie and Bogart will make it til spring, perhaps they won't even hold out till the pond freezes, there is never anyway to know.

A "Predator" Hunts in the Front Yard

This is a clear case of 'eyes bigger than stomach'!

Turkey Day

Around Here

Around here you get an illusion of deep forest, sometimes there is a sense that you live far far away from anything urban or suburban.

It's amazing how well deer are camouflaged in the woods. There is a herd of deer in this picture of my front yard. It was September and they were foraging right at the top of the walking path. I could see them with my eyes, but they are basically invisible in this picture. They weren't afraid of me, one even looked right at me as I took this picture, but I can barely find him. There are at least four deer in this picture. If you look carefully you'll see them.

I'm always impressed with the changeable nature of the trees. The picture of the deer (if you can find them in it!) was taken at the beginning of September 2004. The this year the woods looked this green at Halloween.

Leave it to the cat to find a spot of sun on a spring day. Actually this is just about all the sun there is in the late afternoon.




An afternoon in May. The sun is just making its way over the tree tops and light begins to come back across the floodplain, and into the garden. This is why almost nothing grows here.

The trees have been falling. The sandy soil just won' support their size and the forest is thinning out all on its own. No one is cutting trees in the forest except for the wind and the woodpeckers. Of course we've cut quite a few in the front yard... or our cat would have not spot of sun to bask in.

It's a trade off, the trees are very beautiful but some spots of sun are so nice to see!

A Pretty But Plain Dragonfly

This dragonfly is one of the less spectacular of the varieties that live around here, but he did pose nicely for a photograph.

The mosquitos can be vicious with all this water around. The county does a pretty good job of keeping them down, but even so some summers it is almost impossible to sit out at night.

This year was very dry until the late summer storms so the bug problem was not so bad. There's always a tradeoff, the fall color is not as good as last year.

"Visitors" to the stream

We don't get much human company around here, so the wildlife feels secure in just dropping in on us. Spring and fall are particularly busy times. We never are quite sure of just what will show up. Of course there are ducks that pass through and try to find a secure nesting spot, but sometimes the visitors are exotic. Just a few days ago a Cooper's Hawk was checking out possibilities for dinner in the front yard, unfortunately he didn't stay long enough to get his picture taken.

Of course we always have deer and squirrels. Our cats do a good job of taking care of moles, voles and those nasty little mice and chipmunks. Occasionally they take on more than they can handle. A visiting turtle looked like a possible lunch to them, but they seemed a bit unsure of exactly how to tackle such a beast.

We had a fox for the longest time, but this year he didn't come back. There are ALWAYS buzzards, once in a while they come right up to the front yard, but mostly they hunt squirrels at the top of the canopy.

Wild turkeys drop by from time to time. They are just beautiful, but we discourage them because there have been cases of leptospirosis this year, if it weren't for that I'd feed them. When we first moved here there were peacocks, but I don't know what happened to them. I miss coming home and seeing them on the rooftop.

Fall has arrived

Fall is beautiful here but it is also a mess. The nor'easter blew down some small trees and more than the usual windload of branches, causing a delay in planting the fall perennials and bulbs. Seems like I no sooner get the wood and leaves off the garden beds when even more leaves come tumbling down!

Anyway I did get one small bed partially planted and one long tulip bed all done. That leaves 3 to go, not to mention the dog walk up the hillside. I guess we'll forget the stream paths until spring unless the winter is mild.

The goldfish have thrived this year and reproduced, I guess we'll need to add on to the pond soon or they'll be too crowded. This picture was taken in April, 2005. The goldfish are twice that size now. I hope to be able to get some decent pictures of them before the winter.