Day 13.203: Don't box me (in)

Our pickling cucumber plant decided it didn't like the box it was planted in and climbed right out.

It has started to produce some cucumbers (which we may or may not pickle), so all is good:

Day 13.202: Another wonderful selection...

...from the auto-generated Google Photos "Then & Now" files:

"E5N1 and questionable water" perhaps?

Day 13.201: Unidentified Flying...

...creature. 

Fresh from my lack-of-success with bird identification from a mixed-bag of photos yesterday, here is a pretty excellent photo of a very obliging dragonfly:

I still can't work out what kind it is.

Day 13.200: Birds seen at the beach...

...and what I think they might be.

During our walk on Saturday morning along the beach from Camp Ellis to Bayview, a few birds were quite accommodating - like this gull that boldly sat still while we walked around it. I don't normally attempt gull identification, but I'm pretty sure this is a herring gull:

As usual, I spent some time trying to catch terns in action with some success - like this one (there are two terns in this photo!):

and here are some more:

as for what kind of terns they are - I suspect at least two different kinds but I'm not sure beyond that.
Then there was this impressive line of distant ducks:

The best I did in terms of a close-up was this - still "duck" is about all I've got:

Then there were the group of high soaring birds that caught my eye even though I thought identification was unlikely:

I'm glad I tried because this photo makes me wonder if they could be frigatebirds - an unlikely but not impossible sighting so far north:

Day 13.199: Seen from the beach

I'm not ready with the bird photos from our beach walk on Saturday yet, so here is a boat instead:

Day 13.198: Exile #2's Sunday Column #306

Exile #2 writes...

We’ve been finding out a little bit about what might happen with school and college this fall. It seems school will have three possible models: one where the kids are in school for the full week (with precautions like masks), one where classes are divided in half, with each half in for 2 days out of 5 and one where all learning is online. The state will declare the level of risk and, therefore, which model needs to be used.

College looks to be going for single occupancy rooms, restricted public areas, and a mixture of in person and online tuition. I don’t envy those having to make these plans and decisions. It’s hard enough to know where we’ll be at the end of the week, let alone at the end of August. Putting down Exile #3's accommodation deposit certainly felt like a gamble.

In the meantime, maybe as a symbol of hope, we have a sunflower that has persisted and managed to flower even though it’s leaves have been thoroughly munched by Japanese beetles.

Day 13.197: Low tide at Camp Ellis

Low tide was around 9:30 this morning. Four of us managed to get ourselves down to Camp Ellis around then for a walk along the beach before it got too hot. Parts of it were pretty busy, but away from the access points it was fairly quiet.

I spent some time taking photographs of birds - some of which may be sufficient to attempt identifications - but that can wait for another day.

Day 13.196: Are you feeling Lucky?

It was quite a week, but here's a bit of us singing an old Radiohead song to start the weekend.

Day 13.195: Dance shown

I completed my obligations as dance show videographer today. It was a great show - and all things considered something of a miracle that it was able to happen at all!

Day 13.194: Summer hair

Some days, Exile #4's hair goes impressively curly.

Day 13.193: Tiny dragonfly on a stick

Probably an elfin skimmer (nannothemis bella) that visited our vegetable patch the other day:

Day 13.192: Color sorting - the next challenge

I've talked before about the joys of "I Love Hue" - the color sorting game I've been playing as a casual stress-reliever and time filler. It's satisfyingly quick to play a level or two and almost entirely lacking in adrenaline-inducing tension. Having completed all the levels some time ago, I was delighted to find there is a sequel - "I Love Hue Too" which adds a feature I always wished the original had - a count of the fewest possible moves - and therefore a "perfect" solution to aim for. 

As ever - be careful what you wish for.

Of course, I now feel that I have to achieve this perfection on every level. Some - such as this one - are extremely difficult to complete with no mistakes. It took me about a week I think - but in the end, I managed it:

Not - perhaps - my most significant achievement in life, but satisfying none the less.

Day 13.191: Exile #2's Sunday Column #305

Exile #2 writes...

It is extremely hot and humid here today (for that, read 90+ degrees, feeling more like 100 thanks to the humidity). The upstairs of our house is like a sauna, and this has the effect of driving the young Exiles to the relative cool of downstairs. So it was that we all found ourselves in one room this afternoon. Even more shocking, phones were set aside and we were all reading books. It may not happen often but it’s nice when it does.

I ventured out once in the heat to spray the zucchini with milk and water. Apparently this is supposed to help with the powdery mildew that the dankness of our garden encourages . I’m just hoping it doesn’t smell too bad by now. Fortunately, it hasn’t slowed the plants down too much yet. We enjoyed more zucchini for dinner and are looking forward to a nice lot of beans tomorrow. The tomatoes are still looking green but with this sunshine, I don’t think it will be too long.

Day 13.190: Lazy morning for some

With the weather expecting to take a turn to to "Wow that's hot!" this afternoon and especially tomorrow, Exile #2 and I made the most of the morning shade on the deck to sit and read.

While we were relaxing, there was a lot of activity from birds and bugs around us.  The runner beans have become a common spot for the hummingbirds and are now even desirable to cause squabbles between them. We watched at least two different females chase one another away several times.

Day 13.189: Talking of the storm...

I was in a phone meeting at work when a massive flash of lightning and simultaneous crash of thunder loud enough to shake the building caused several of us to nearly jump out of our skins. After the meeting it was still raining quite hard - as you can see:

Day 13.188: After the storm

After the impressive storms had passed the other day, a lot of birds visited our back yard. I didn't get pictures of many of them, but here is a bluebird and a phoebe who posed for a moment:

and then there was this strange-looking bird who - after a bit of preening - turned out to be another phoebe - probably a young one:

Day 13.187: Some birds are smaller than others

I managed to grab some photos of a hummingbird visiting our runner bean flowers today. Not as dramatic as the photos when they visit the window feeder, but they do give a better sense of the scale of these tiny birds.

Afterwards, it had a little rest before flying off:

It is most welcome to the nectar and the perch - especially if it pollinates some of the flowers along the way.

Day 13.186: Recital at the Drive-in

The signs outside Saco Drive In were for the next few days' showings of The Empire Strikes Back (apparently currently leading box-office charts thanks to a resurgence of drive-in showings). But tonight, it was  different kind of show as we gathered to watch my videos of Exile #3's dance school recital.

We parked up in social-distanced spots as the sun was setting:

and a couple of hours and twenty dance numbers later the show was coming to an end with Exile #3's senior solo:

It all looked pretty good on the big screen - and it's a relief to be the other side of it.

Day 13.185: Fireflies

We've been seeing fireflies in our back yard for a few days. Today Exile #2 suggested I tried to capture the experience. The bright flashes that look like the camera glitching are real and surprisingly close to the real experience:

Day 13.184: Exile #2's Sunday Column #304

Exile #2 writes...

It’s been too darn hot today! We stayed in for much of the time because venturing outside resulted in us instantly becoming a sweaty mess. I did go out long enough to tend to our zucchini (courgette) monsters, duct taping off some squash bug eggs. They’re very pretty, like bright drops of copper but I gather they are less pleasing after that.

The zucchini look like they are sizing up to feed us some more this week, so feel free to pass along your favorite recipes!

Exile #3’s dance teacher popped round in the afternoon, to pick up the DVDs that Exile #1 has made of the dance show. We declined the gift she had brought, which sounds rude I know but it was, you’ve guessed it, more zucchini!

Those of us who are sufficiently old rounded out the day by filling out our postal ballots for this week’s local elections. It was actually kind of nice to be able to talk it through together rather that scribbling secretively in a booth, and it was good practice for November, which is the one we are really waiting for, of course.