Day 16.110: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #437

Exile #2 writes...

Yesterday, we noticed a new post on our town’s Facebook page announcing that they would be endorsing No Mow May. As a household, we observed it last year (not just to get out of mowing!) but felt increasingly awkward as the month went by, surrounded as we are by well-kept lawns. In the end, we mowed our front lawn a little early and left the rest to do it’s thing until the end of the month. This year, however, we are being positively encouraged to leave things be, which is great! We’ve already seen some bees about. Hopefully they’ll be pretty pleased about it too!

Some of the artwork being used to promote No Mow May

We were also excited by the arrival of a rack of pails at our local beach and the invitation to take one and join in the work of keeping the beach clean. Another great idea! We hope it catches on.

Day 16.109: American toad chorus

Exile #2 and I walked on the beach and through Ferry Beach State Park today for the first time in a while. I have a few sightings to share with you, but for today, here is more of a "hearing". As we walked through the Tupelo Swamp, we heard the most amazing sounds that turned out to be a chorus of American toads.

You'll need to turn your sound up a bit to hear!

Day 16.108: Friday night jazz

The school jazz band (including E5N1) were guests of The Alumni Band at a concert at school this evening. It was a great night.

Day 16.107: Sprung…

…up in the lawn. 

We love these little spring flowers that grow in the grass at the side of the house. I hope it’s a good year for them. 

Day 16.106: Wordless Wednesday #15

Day 16.105: Not quite a herd...

...but we did see two brown-headed cowbirds at the feeder on Saturday.

I'm pretty sure that a large group of cowbirds would have constituted a herd.

Day 16.104: Asperitas

As Exile #2 and I were coming home from church yesterday, she noticed how amazing the wave-like clouds looked.  She managed to get a photo:

I said it reminded me of one of those automatic music visualizers - something like this:

Image by GarryKillian on Freepik

It turns out to be a type of cloud called "asperitas", only fairly recently added to the official ranks of types of clouds - in 2017. 

Day 16.103: Exile #2's Sunday Column #436

Exile #2 writes...

It the end of school vacation. E5N1 is hastily finishing the things he was supposed to get done during the week, including practicing the French Horn, which he is doing right now (it’s mixing somewhat strangely with Aretha Franklin at the moment).

We did, however, get a few useful non school things done and he finally got to celebrate his birthday with a couple of old friends. They’ve all been very busy and it’s been hard for them to get together. We put that straight with a trip to see the Mario movie, followed by some pizza and video games. Here’s the (not too terrible) aftermath.

Day 16.102: No excuse for the other 16 years

Since we moved to the US, we've been aware that being blood donors is not an option for us here. Thanks to rules around the fact that we lived in the UK during the BSE years and related concerns about vCJD, the US was not interested in our blood.

Early this year the ban was lifted but we only discovered about it this week and and managed to successfully donate blood today.

In the process, we also found our previous UK donor records and discovered that we last gave blood at the same place on the same day. We had met but did not know each other well at the time so it is certainly a coincidence.

As for why we hadn't given blood during the following 16 years before we left the UK, I can't say.

Day 16.101: Something new

Tomorrow we’re going to attempt to do something we’ve wanted to do since we moved to the US but never before attempted. Any guesses?

Day 16.100: That nearly-weekend feeling

Sometimes you find something that looks like a hair-tie and use it to tie whatever hair you can find:

Photo credit Exile #3

…or maybe that’s just me. 

Day 16.099: Inbox zero?

Well, maybe not zero but not digit higher than a one.

Yeah - probably nothing important in those eleven thousand one hundred and eleven unread emails.

Day 16.098: It's not a donut

At Camp Ellis, we spotted this gull carrying something. We weren't sure what it was, but it didn't look like a donut.

Later, we saw this gull getting very excited about another gull that had something good but didn't seem like planned to share.

It turns out it was excited abour the first gull still trying to work out what to do with the not-donut it was carrying around.

Some of this only became clear when I reviewed the photos.

Day 16.097: Camp Ellis birds

Not the sea birds we were expecting down at the mouth of the Saco River, but here are a couple of fairly splendid looking crows:

And here is one getting some aggressive attention from the gulls:

A low-flying double-crested cormorant:

A pair of long-tailed ducks

And a very distant, but unmistakable common loon:

Day 16.096: Exile #2's Sunday Column #435

Exile #2 writes...

Exile #1 has been struggling with a sore shoulder this weekend but we still managed to try out a new expansion of a board game he has been helping to crowdfund. I’m sure his discomfort accounts for his placing last, although, honestly Exile #3 wiped the floor with all of us.

A game of Dragoon - this was our non-expansion playthrough yesterday

I also did a first tentative clear up around the patio. The speed of transformation always shocks me. Only three weeks ago there was still snow on the ground. Today, it almost felt like summer. I think one or two of the bulbs I planted in the fall may have survived the squirrels. Too late to have a daffodil for St David’s Day but maybe for St George’s… ;)

Day 16.095: Daffodils at Laurel Hill

Exile #2 and I went to Laurel Hill Cemetery today to see daffodils. It's always amusing how long after St. David's Day they make it into flower here.

We also spotted this phoebe.

The river estuary was a bit disappointing bird-wise, so we made another stop, but I'll need a bit more time to sort through those photos.

Day 16.094: Direct comparison

Here is as close to a direct comparison of my old telephoto lens and my new one. I've cropped them to approximately the same size. Sadly, I couldn't arrange for the same bird(s) to be present.

You might need to click for the full impact. I'm very happy with the upgrade.

Day 16.093: Marsh Observation Tower

Although we have visited Scarborough Marsh many times, last weekend was the first time we'd found our way to the observation tower that can be seen as you cross the marsh on Route 1.

It's a very short walk from the road to the tower

It's quite imposing as you approach (especially if you don't notice the missing rails at the top)

It's pretty clear that they don't want anyone going up there

However, with the gate bent as it is, it would be quite easy to just climb up the ladder

If you did, you'd contend with the large holes in addition to missing rails

We stayed at the intended level and enjoyed the views

And I gave my new lens a try with some fairly distant ducks