Tag Archives: nature

Interspecies communication takes patience.

July 25, 2024 Rivergirl 17 Comments

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten heard something in the woodchuck burrow .

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten investigated.

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On the other end of the woodchuck burrow?

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A woodchuck.

Lord Dudley Mountcatten switched sides and waited on that end.

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Which meant a woodchuck popped up on the first side.

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So His Lordship switched sides again and waited.

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And finally, after Lord Dudley’s servant was tired of standing in the heat and about to drag him back in the house….

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Interspecies communication.

Disclaimer – no woodchucks (or cats!) were harmed in the making of this blog.

😊

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A lakes region road trip.

July 23, 2024 Rivergirl 8 Comments

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When the thermometer is reading temperatures this high?

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You ditch yard work and take a road trip west.

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To the lakes region, over the Naples causeway.

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Through Bridgton…

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Past ski slopes that look a little strange in the summer.

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To a premier pub in Lovell, Maine.

Any similarities between my husband and the pub sign mascot are purely coincidental.

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Ebenezer’s is famous for its extensive beer menu and hand blown glass taps.

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It also has a buzzard on the bar.

It’s hard to top that.

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They’ve won multiple awards and though they’re small and off the beaten path… those in the know, know.

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Belgians.

A white for the husband, a geuze boon for moi.

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I love their vintage signs.

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And their coconut shrimp with sweet Thai chili sauce.

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Some signs are prophetic.

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Good beer, beautiful lakes.

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A perfect summer day.

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“But what do I do with it..?”

July 21, 2024 Rivergirl 20 Comments

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This is Lord Dudley Mountcatten surveying his domain.

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Here’s Lord Dudley Mountcatten noticing an interloper in his domain.

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten’s reaction was priceless.

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After some closer inspection?

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And a positive baby woodchuck identification…

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten was clueless.

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And looked back at me as if to say, “What am I supposed to do with that?”

🤣

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Lily for a day

July 18, 2024 Rivergirl 15 Comments

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Day lilies are popping.

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And they’re such a great burst of color…

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I wish they were at least week lilies.

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Here today.

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Gone tomorrow.

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Good thing there are a plethora of buds.

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😊

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Just chucks.

July 15, 2024 Rivergirl 12 Comments

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Nothing earth shattering, just a woodchuck family having a nosh.

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Carrots and broccoli are their favorites.

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And they make short work of it.

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Momma had five children…

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But we rarely see them all together anymore.

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What’s blooming?

July 13, 2024 Rivergirl 6 Comments

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Let’s take a walk around the garden, shall we….

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Candy cane dianthus.

Almost good enough to eat.

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A tri color pot of begonias on the kitchen porch.

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A red astilbe, clashing with the barn red barn.

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Pink astible out back.

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I love the blooms on these flowers. They’re delightfully weird.

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I can’t remember what kind of daisies these are, but they’re doing well and no one is eating them… so I really don’t care.

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Purple bee balm.

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A fabulous magenta shade.

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Something purple.

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Something red.

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And something wonderful the woodchucks nibbled down to a nub shortly after I took the picture.

😩

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A new chucker trend.

July 8, 2024 Rivergirl 4 Comments

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Bowls are for eating.

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But if you’re a woodchuck in our backyard….

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They’re also for sitting.

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And there’s a lot of that happening lately.

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🤣

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Miscellaneous missives.

July 6, 2024 Rivergirl 30 Comments

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Have I mentioned the baby woodchucks like the deer grain?

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They really like it.

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So much so .. they sit in the bowl and repel all foreign invaders.

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The pickle algorithm is right. I don’t believe that’s refreshing at all.

Blech!

🤢

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Are you as tired of seeing AI artwork passed off as real photography as I am?

There’s something about the quality of it that’s very telling.

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I like fruit art as much as the next girl, but come on. No one is that good.

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And come on…

That’s not even close to believable.

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Mark – this is for you.

Please order and report back.

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I dare you to beat our backyard sunrise.

❤️

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He’s a determined trimmer.

July 5, 2024 Rivergirl 16 Comments

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As I feared, the shrubbery at the front of our house received an extreme haircut.

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I know my husband needs room to replace the porch…

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But it doesn’t mean I wasn’t cringing when he fired up the trimmer.

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And when he was finished with those?

He moved along to the bushes in front of our office, which are equally as large but harder to reach.

How hard you ask?

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Hard enough that he had to come inside, open the windows and trim from there.

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Where there’s a will, my husband will find a way.

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Teasing torture.

July 4, 2024 Rivergirl 16 Comments

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Oh, those damn birdies.

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Every morning dozens of starlings gather on our bedroom roof, run back and forth, drink water out of the gutters and generally drive His Lordship crazy.

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If only those pesky humans would open the door.

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😉

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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.