flock

Out of Hibernation

For a while there, I wasn’t sure about this online journal thing. Maybe it’s a symptom of winter that makes you want to retreat into yourself. I just couldn’t summon the will. But a few days ago I looked back at this site and its previous blogger incarnation and missed the posts I didn’t make throughout the winter. Five posts since January, two of them from the same vantage point, isn’t much to look at. So, to those of you that still stop by now and then, thanks for your patience. I think I’ve shaken off the long winter spell and I’m ready to give this another go.

Today I spent the day with Ben Kilham, a bear behavior researcher from Lyme. I can’t begin to list all the things I learned, but here are two I can share. 1) Bears have their feet on backwards. No lie, the big toes are on the outside of their feet. The one in the picture is the right rear. 2) If you bury your nose deep into the warm coat of a female bear, it smells sweet like honey. (I’d recommend giving it a healthy dose of Telazol before you try to see if I’m right).

river III

Spring fills the Pompy.

New column

As you’ve noticed, I’m taking a short break from blogging. If you’d like to see what I’ve been up to lately, take a look at my new photo column for the Valley News, ZIP Codes.

river II

ice on trees at night

me and my shovel

It took me both of my days off, but I finally managed to shovel the snow off the roof and the driveway. I’ll call it shoveling since I used a shovel, but really I hacked and heaved. The wet snow and freezing rain over the last week really set me up for some heavy lifting.

The only way to get the snow off the garage, top left, and the house, top right, is to push it onto the entrance way, center. And from there it makes one big pile in front of the door. Now where does it go? Across the driveway, I guess, but the piles there are already shoulder height. You know what I’ll be doing with my next days off.

I’d like to meet the guy who designed this house and punch him in the nose. It would really hurt, too, because my shoveling muscles are pumped.

the future

© 2008 Valley News — May not be used or reprinted without permission

Let this be me in 50 years. Still getting it done, however slowly, but with a 400mm in one hand and a monopod in the other.

yawn

story time

© 2008 Valley News — May not be used or reprinted without permission

Mark Fasano, 9, left, Matt Fasano, 13, John Meszaros, 8, and Nick Fasano, 6, listen to a reading of “Daisy and the Doll” after stumbling upon a storytelling session while exploring the 1890 farm house at Billings Farm and Museum with their families Saturday in Woodstock.