.
Day lilies.
.
.
Day lilies are what’s blooming at Casa River.
.
.
Almost everyone in Maine has this orange variety, for some reason they’re prolific, hardy and can withstand our crazy weather better than the others.
.
.
It’s a shame they don’t last longer…
.
.
They’re a wonderful blast of color.
.
.
These two are my favorites.
.
.
Deep, dark…
.
.
And gloriously rich shades.
.
.
Someone needs to invent the technology and WordPress needs to adopt it.
.
.
Because our apple trees are in full bloom and the scent is beyond heavenly.
.
.
I wish the pictures did them more justice.
.
.
The white and pink blossoms really pop in person.
.
.
And from the looks of the quantity, it’s going to be an autumn filled with pie.
.
.
And cobbler, and torte, and crisp, and cake, and muffins…
.
.
Well, you get the idea.
.
.
.
Yeah, yeah… still the husband. Soul mate, best friend, whatever.
.
.
But today I’m talking about critters.
.
.
Whimsical…
.
.
Magical….
.
.
Absolutely adorable….
.
.
Little critters.
.
.
Yes, even the pesky red squirrel.
.
.
And the mice that make their winter nests in our garage.
.
.
The fact that these creatures are ephemeral and disappear with the first gust of wind just makes it bittersweet.
.
.
.
I don’t know why I get such a kick out of seeing these little fellows in the garden….
.
.
But I always do.
.
.
Hummingbird moths!
.
.
They don’t look anything like a hummingbird, or a moth for that matter.
.
.
But they’re cute as the proverbial bug in a rug.
Without the rug, of course.
And yes, I mean that literally.
Continue at your own risk.
Remember, you were warned.
And I’m not talking about a little poo. No.
To be precise….
It’s a dozen piles of crap.
On top of our stone wall.
What?
Why?
All along the top of the wall….
Crap.
It looks like skunk to me, although why the little devil feels the need to climb up there and poop every night is beyond me.
Have I mentioned how much I love the baby woodchucks?
If not, get used to it… because I’ve been spending a lot of time making friends with them.
I’ve found sliced apples are a great ice breaker.
And if I’m enjoying a little Crown Royal apple while making woodchuck friends… all the better.
It took a while for them to get used to me and they were pretty hesitant to come out with me so close.
But the lure of apples proved too much.
Admit it.
That’s pretty damned cute.
Do you see him?
There, on the end of the stone wall.
It’s a little baby chucker.
And I am totally in love with these guys.
They’ve started to use the wall as their own personal jungle gym….
And scamper around like little Tasmanian devils.
It’s entertaining as hell.
At the top of Diana’s Baths we found a cairn garden.
Cairns…
Everywhere you looked.
Small cairns, big cairns.
Precariously balanced cairns…
Even one slightly Zen cairn…
Although technically not, as it’s singular.
But I liked it all the same.
Cairn:
A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones. The word cairn comes from the Scottish Gaelic: càrn[ˈkʰaːrˠn̪ˠ] (plural càirn[ˈkʰaːrˠɲ]).[1]
Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes, from prehistoric times to the present.
In modern times, cairns are often erected as landmarks, a use they have had since ancient times. However, since prehistory, they have also been built and used as burial monuments; for defense and hunting; for ceremonial purposes, sometimes relating to astronomy; to locate buried items, such as caches of food or objects; and to mark trails, among other purposes.
Of course you know as soon as the husband saw all these constructs…
He was going to have to build one of his own.
And it was going to have to be made with boulders.
Oh… the effort and planning that went into this.
Meticulously searching the shore for the perfect shaped rocks.
The rearranging… the balancing.
Men.
Don’t let them tell you size doesn’t matter.
His cairn.
His very large cairn.
He particularly liked the way the bottom stone looked from this angle.
For his sake, I’m hoping the first high wind doesn’t knock it over.
FYI…. there are no cairn memes that don’t involve cute little dogs.
And when I searched Giphy for “stone cairn” ?
Epic fail.
I like….
These!
Have you tried them yet?
Well, what are you waiting for?
Go!
I like….
Taking a break on our deck after mowing the lawn a few weeks ago, and having a friend show up.
I thought for sure he’d run when he saw me. But he took a good look, deemed me no immediate threat and happily settled in for a nap.
Until the husband opened the door and scared him off.
I like….
Reading that a lobsterman in Falmouth caught a rare 1 in 100 million cotton candy blue lobster….
Took a picture… and donated him to an aquarium where he never has to worry about being captured or eaten again.
I like…
Amazing sunrises in our backyard.
I like….
Driving home along country roads this time of year and seeing the trees bursting with color.
Autumn in New England is hard to beat.
Life is good!
As we were pulling out of our driveway the other day I spotted something odd in front of our deer ravaged Yew bushes….
Naturally I made the husband stop while I ran back inside for my camera.
It was an odd looking bird I hadn’t seen before…
And when I looked it up online, I understood why.
It was a Chukar.
Introduced from Eurasia, the sandy-brown Chukar is a game bird that lives in high desert plains of western North America, as well as in Hawaii and New Zealand. Its namesake call echoes across dry rocky slopes. It runs and scampers up steep terrain with the agility and speed of a mountain goat, prompting hunters to nickname it the “devil bird” for the brutal chase it gives. Dark bars on the sides and a band across the head and neck adorn this red-billed game bird.
A devil bird?
Well that’s disturbing…
If you look at the map of it’s range in the U.S…..
You’ll see it’s a long way from Maine.
Which got me curious enough to do a little research.
Oh, stop being so dramatic….. you might learn something.
It’s nothing you need or want to know, but still.
Depending on where you live, you may have the fortune of encountering a medium-sized game bird called Chukar. You’ll recognize this bird from their inclusion in many North American field guides, though they are not a native species. Chukars, pronounced “chuh-kahr“, are an introduced species, originating from mountains of middle Eurasia, now common around the western United States’ Great Basin north into western Canada. With this history, and a lack of showing any establishing populations in Maine, Chukars should be treated like other escaped domestic fowl.
Of course. Happy to…
The American Birding Association put forth Criteria for Determining Establishment of Exotics which Maine’s Chukars don’t meet. These birds are raised and released by commercial hunting operations with no success establishing wild populations. Northern Bobwhites are another game species widely released in Maine. While these small quails have successfully bred in the wild multiple times, none of the populations appear to be growing or even stable enough to warrant becoming established.
So basically they’ve taken these poor birds, who have no hope of surviving here, and released them into the wild so they can hunt and kill them. Of course the ones they don’t shoot will probably die of cold or starvation.
Makes me wish I had scooped the sweet little guy up and brought him in the house as a pet.
Humans are cruel.
River's world..... 