Another lovely weekend in the Connecticut countryside. Who knew it was Trails Day Weekend? We didnt but, we did the walk anyway. It was a pretty darn good one too. I'm guessing 2 miles by the time we ended it anyway. Decided to go back to Natchaug State Forest and try the trails over there. Nice day, local, easy and without a map well, you do what you can to stay safe and have fun. Thank goodness we stopped and turned around. Met up with a gentleman on the way back that said it was a 12 mile hike that went straight out..no loop back. Good for him! Jeesh. Could have been WAY far away from the car.

Really nicely marked and easy to traverse trail system. We'll have to do more of it. Went through a field of blueberries...few more weeks for those! The trail changed a bit throughout from the wet forest filled with ferns and mossy logs to the glacial boulder drop to the slight hills with pines and occassional stone wall. We saw a frog and a baby snake. Not bad. Another couple we passed by on the way back saw a turtle. We looked but, didnt find it. I really wish the State Forest had a decent map. Would make exploring it a lot more enjoyable. Those darn deer ticks though. Poor Mark had 4 of the buggers on him. I had none (for once). Still, was a good hike and I am certainly feeling it today.

Natchaug Trail

Natchaug State Forest, Eastford, CT

Ct Forest & Park Association Blue-Blazed Hiking Trails

The Blue-Blazed Hiking Trail System currently totals over 800 miles of hiking trails in 88 Connecticut towns.

Adding pictures to the gallery:

http://pandafan.tabulas.com/gallery/natchaug-trail-june-2009

Changing of the seasons on the homefront is pretty interesting. Those Christmas Trees have gotten bushy and now it's pretty dang hard to see the deer walking trhough parts of them. They do still visit though and that's nice. One of those deer has little nubbies!! Woohoo...it's a boy!! It will be great to see him grow into those. He's pretty young though so, I'm guessing it's not going to be a huge rack but, it will be a rack and thats great.

The hummingbirds still visit all day. They are such a joy. There are times when Zoey takes a nap on the chair by the window with her eyes half open when she hears them and she does a tail wag and little chitter. Funny stuff.

Everything is starting to bloom and/or fruit. What a plethora of things here to enjoy. There are blueberries (only a few though) and either Blackberries or Raspberries (or maybe even both) about to bust in the next few weeks. The wild strawberries along the drive are already fruit and I'm waiting a few days for them to be all red...yummy! The wild roses that surround the patio are crazy now and I have thousands of buds out there...nice white blooms started in the last couple of days. They smell lovely this afternoon. I have Impatiens planted in my little bucket hangers beside the stairs and even Mark thought they looked cute. I have Morning Glory and Moon Flowers in a basket and those should take off anytime now. I have some other Sweet Peas and misc WildFlowers out there growing too. I also started a big planter of SunFlowers and will be putting those out in front of the house in a few weeks. It's fabulous stuff. Simple. Joyful. Pretty. I like it anyway.

I also decided to change over to the Summer Flag a bit early. It's the Firefly one that glows in the dark. Perfect timing. There is nothing as amazing as sitting out on the patio at night right now. There are hundreds of firefly's/lightning bugs in the backyard. It makes it look like all the Christmas Trees have blinking lights. It's awesome the power of nature in it's purest form. I really am just stunned by it's beauty.

This morning was marked by a lovely sunrise and warm air out on the deck havig the first cup of coffee and enjoying the 730am quiet time with Mark before he takes off. We had a cute little visitor. Mr. Coyote. Not Mrs. that I saw before - this guy was smaller. He just appeared out of the trees. Stopped. Looked at us. I let out a bit of a gasp and grabbed Mark and he turned tail and ran. Fabulous. I have all kinds of coyotes here. Well, I guess Momma had to become Momma with some help. Just another reminder of the beauty of nature that I am lucky enough to be surrounded by.

Now..about the cloud of dust coming from the back field.......hummm. Going to have to put on my Scat and Tracks face and take a walk up at some point today and see what I can see. After making sure it's not happening again, of course.

Lets also give Mark a big hand for

1. Getting a great shot of the butterfly that escapes me each time and

2. Removing the rotting dead mice from the garage

Even with the rain and the cold that moved in it was a very pleasant long weekend. The sun did shine, the rain did fall but then went away, and a few days off is good for everyone. Maybe by the 4th of July this place will be in some sort of shape for visitors after the hard work this weekend!

The box. The dang box. The 7 1/2 hour building of a box. Okay, we took a few breaks but still...when you're piecing together a box from various scraps of wood with limited tools or a carpenter well, the dang box may take a awhile. It's also a heck of a lot more than I bargained for. I wanted a box to put the wood in. For the fire pit. The wood now has a HELL of a home. All with big thanks to Mike for his wood and design of wood to make the box and as well to Mark for his building it with only help from me. I now have a wood box that anyone would be proud to live in. It looks simply fabulous.

Not many people having big gatherings this year but, lucky enough to have Reen and Mike to have a small cookout on my day off, Sunday, so that I could at least feel like I was having some Memorial Day gathering type fun. It was great. Nice to take the drive down and see them, and really nice to spend one on one time with them too. Mike's yard is looking lovely and I am adding some pics of us there. He's got crazy wildlife too. I saved some baby mice. Their eyes weren't open so, I doubt they'll make it but, Mom was busy trying. Got a shot of the eel he's got down in the brook. Crazy eels..iwww.

Mark and I did another little hike. It's right here in Eastford and it's the Boston Turnpike Trail. The map they provide is bad. We found it though, did it out to the 244 intersection and then did what I think was half of the loop back. The markings went away on the trees and up to that point they had been fading. It's not used very often so, not an easy one to keep track of but, an easy easy hike anyway. Luckily the State Forest Rd was right there so, we walked back up that to the car.

http://www.eastfordconservation.org/trails/trailsindex.html#turnpike

".........Welcome to Eastford's Boston Turnpike Trail! Here you will be standing on the ONLY remaining unaltered portion of an early road system that first connected our cities and town during colonial times. It was first established under King Charles II of Britain and followed trails laid out in much earlier times by Native Americans.

The Boston Post Road was not a single road, but actually a system of roads that connected the important cities of the colonies: Boston, Hartford, Providence, New Haven, New York, Philadelphia, Williamsburg and Charleston. The portion in Eastford was part of the Middle Route that ran east from Hartford to Putnam, then on to Dedham, MA and finally to Boston. The trip to Boston to New York via this route was about 225 miles - considerably shorter than the southern Boston Post Road that ran along the coast...."

Found out more about the snakes. They are Northern Black Racers. They are egg layers. Eggs are laid in June/july and hatch about August/September. Fabulous. Did I mention I saw 4 at once out there and one had travelled over to my side of the house? At least they're non venomous. Still thinking of putting up a snake crossing sign for everyone. Gotta give props to the guy who shared the info...knows his snakes and has some great wildlife photos:

http://www.ocoeesprings.com/wildlife_home.htm

www.snakesandfrogs.com

Mark also worked his butt off on the patio stones. The weeds just keep coming up. I need to get some gravel or something. It's coming along though. With the nice box for wood, the stones cleaned out, some hangers up waiting for flowers and some great wood in the wood box for the fire pit...it'll be nice once it gets better weather out. It got way too cold and rainy to sit out there. Plus there was the whole momma coyote giving out a holler about 20-30 feet from it. The next day I heard the pups...at least now I know where to NOT go in the near future. I shall not mess with a momma anything. I hope the pups come out and play though...it'll be nice to see them.

All in all it was good weekend with great food on the grill every night, some firepit time, some frends/family time and a couple of days off for me. Still no fish but, I've resigned myself to the fact that I will have to buy it or smash it in the head. Okay, so maybe I just need to try some live bait. Someday.

Pics in the gallery:

http://pandafan.tabulas.com/gallery/memorial-day-boston-turnpike/

So spring has sprung and with it all of the wonderful things that come with it here in lovely New England...days and days of rain and doom and gloom with the occassional passing thunder shower. There are days where you are turning up the heat and days when you're stripping down to your shorts. It's crazy. But, it's good!

I have yet to catch a trout. It pisses me off to no end. I have lost more lures, basically gone up onto the bridge and put every lure I can think of in front of their faces and nothing. I dont feel bad though, they arent biting for anyone at this point. I will have to get shiners soonish and go with that is all. until then I am constantly restringing my line and hoping for a few minutes of peaceful quiet relaxation out in the woods with a nice stream running by and a soft breeze at my back. No ticks would be helpful in a glorious day too.

No deer seen for over a week. Where the heck did they go? I can't just be missing them. They must be hiding out or on vacation or something. Kinda makes me wonder. They'll be back though, I am sure.

I have seen plenty of other wildlife though. The turkeys are gobbling their little heads off in the woods and an occassional hen with waddle on through the yard. No babies yet but, it's almost that time, I'm sure of it. Can't wait to get shots of those so ugly they're cute things.

I put hummingbird feeders up last month and to my absolute joy and constant amazement..they're here! All day long they come visit. I am astounded by them, really. I never knew they just perched in a tree - or on a table in this case as well. I also didnt know they chirped their little heads off. Very Very cute little things. And standing out on the deck having them dive bomb me has taken a bit of getting used to but, I'm doing it. Otherwise the poor wee things might get a backhand.I would never want to do that. I guess that makes the bees more thankful as well.

The Bobcat finally had a nice long visit at the edge of the trees in front of the deck. I've got pictures!! He's strikingly beautiful and a wee bit scary too. Once he saw me in the doorway he left but, he didn't run like the wind or anything so, that's interesting. The fact that he was just hanging out 20' from the deck is pretty darn interesting too. I saw him run across the back field last week and with my previous sighting I'm guessing I'm in his hood. Her hood. Whatever it is..we be sharing the same place. Now we both know we're here and have taken a good look at each other so, we'll just go with that.

Mr fatty the groundhog/woodchuck had his picture taken today as well. I finally got a decent shot of him. All i've gotten before is his big behind. I can't imagine how big this guy gets if this is how big he is now. Everybody is all kinds of healthy around here. Must be the country air. Or something.

I also finally saw the giant Great Heron. Didn't have my camera. I know where he lives and where he fishes so I'm sure I will come upon him again. He's a dang big bird. Lovely stuff.

I've still got all the other birds as well. Had a big woodpecker here yesterday too. I never knew they could get like a foot long. That's a bird I wouldnt mess with. Ever. Glad I had the zoom but, didnt get the best clear shot of him so, hopefully I'll see him again.

The snakes are sunning themselves on the neighbors patio. She caught them doing the wild thing too. I'm guessing that pretty soon we'll have all kinds of them around. I'm glad they like her patio and not mine, really. I like snakes but, I like hanging out on my patio without them.

The most recent hike was through a small part of the Yale Forest. Basically my backyard extension. It's pretty nice. All of those unending Connecticut stone walls and old cart trails. Mark tried to catch a frog and ended up only getting all muddy. It was the most I've laughed in a while. With tears it was so funny. We also came back from that with two or three ticks a piece on us. We had covered ourselved with DEET and wore light colored clothes, long pants, etc but, didnt stop the buggers. I think it was when we ventured off the road into some old stone foundations but, it could have been just as easily when we went up through the back yard. Who knows. At least we found them before they dug in..thank goodness.

So, I'm going to add pictures to the galleries...enjoy!

YALE FOREST

http://pandafan.tabulas.com/gallery/yale-forest/

Nature in the Hood

http://pandafan.tabulas.com/gallery/nature-in-the-hood/

I am adding a gallery of just the nature/animal shots so it can be a bit more organized - wish me luck with that. I will add to it as time goes on and have a few files now to add to it as well but, here it is for now anyway:

http://pandafan.tabulas.com/gallery/nature-in-the-hood/

I am going through digital files like CRAZY. It's all good. I'm loving every single second of it and hope it continues. Of course, I hope I get good shots as well so..there ya go.

It is now officially trout season. And I am humbled by the trout. They are large, they are stubborn and I'm just not doing as well as I can or should be. I finally had one on my line this morning but, he was a lip catch and got away. I need bigger hooks. I'm feeling all fisherperson and actually thinking about making a lure of my own...how crazy is that? I am determined though. Or crazy. Your call.

The weather is starting to shape up and although today is in the 50's all I see in the coming forecast is 80's. No Spring this year. I shall not complain. I love the heat. Remind me of this when I dont have a/c cuz I have stupid windows. The weather however is bringing to mind ALL KINDS of good stuff to come. I cant wait to do the shopping walks or hideaway finds, the hikes, the camping, more firepit activity, fish on the barbie...etc etc. It's going to be good. I hope at least.

Now, about the internet connection during these storms....argh. I knew this would happen but DANG it really sucks. TV has gone out a bit but, not as bad. It's all about living out in the middle of nowhere. pthbth to that. Still, I'll take it anyway.

I am becoming more and more animal aware. It's odd but, at least now when I look out into the field and see something moving my first thought isnt...'Who the hell is up in the back yard?'...it's more...'ohhh Whats that?'. Funny how your thoughts change that way. Funnier too that while washing dishes I see a cat and immediately know it's a bobcat and not the neighbors tomcat. Got a picture but, it's blurry. I have been educated on many animals and calls and times of day and small little things to see and BOY do I see them. I even see the trout in the brook. The funniest one I think though was what I thought was a frog bellowing out in the field, we took a walk up to go see what kind, and it flies up and away. Okay, it's a bat. No, its not a bat. Duh. It's an American Woodcock (crazy looking bird). I find out that it's mating season (like 4 months of this) and thats what they do. Okie Dokie..now I know. The bat do the divebombing though so, thats something to always be on the lookout for. There's something scratching away in the gutters at night...I'm guessing bat or mice or something....not quite sure. The neighbor hears it too so, it's not just my imagination. I'm also getting to know the 6 deer that are all about here all day. The biggest one has a scar running down by her upper thigh. One of the older girls has a shot wound in her neck and the baby is simply adorable. I know they're gonna be food in less than a year but, I still cant help getting to know them.

Not much of an update but, something anyway to those 4 or 5 constant readers. Bless your hearts.

Interesting week for odd things happening.

At night the frogs all come out. Everywhere. There is NO way to drive down any of the roads without squishing them. They seem to hurdle themselves into your car too..very strange indeed. So, I'm refusing to go out after dark until they get over that. Whatever it is. Is love in the air for them? Why do they cross the road if they are everywhere then why dont they just stay with the girls and boys that must be like 6" from them? I just dont get it. It leads to just many more questions and absolutely no answers. It's very very odd. Freaks me out too. I'm laughing though by the end of the ride because you just really cant help it. I dont know what specific amphibians they are...orange reddish color with white line around the mouth and exposed ears. Yes, I had to pick up the one in the driveway and set it safely in the field. Dont know if it helped but, gosh I hope so.

There is something living in the gutter above my back door. It only makes noise at night (fabulous). It's got to be small because I did go out with a flashlight to make sure it wasnt a raccoon or owl having a feast on something up there. What the heck could it be? I have no idea...I just hope it doesnt decide to dive bomb me at some point....that could be UGLY for us both. I must say though that when it's dark in the middle of nowhere and you hear faint scratching coming from above your head when you are outside....you can move pretty darn quickly. Someone should have gotten that on video...they'd make a fortune.

The washing machine and dryer are now working. What a fiasco. Did you know gravity plays a big part in a washer? I had no idea. How spoiled am I? How spoiled Was I I will make that. Now, to figure out why the neighbor looses all water pressure when I do laundry? OMG...when will it end? And about that well water.... Can I just tell you how much I despise the smell of it at the moment? It's like old wet dog that hasn't dried in a week and rolled around in poo or something. Am I really getting clean? Gross. It's sulfer. Great. Hope it goes away again soon.

Ticks. Lovely and charming ticks. Deer ticks. Here is what I have learned from the health care professionals. You worry about Lyme Disease if it's in you for over 24-48 hours and/or is engorged. When you pull it out, most likely you will not remove the corkscrew head. You are morelikely at a risk of serious infection from trying to remove the head than just letting it come out by itself. I am totally freaked out...1 week and it's still there. UGH. I dont feel all that bad...like I'm an idiot or something though (although lack of immersing myself in DEET isnt smart). The neighbor took the same walk and said they came back covered in ticks as well. Maybe that's why the guy down the street was laughing..he knows, I know he does. See if I invite him to the BBQ.

The deer stare you down. Really. The biggest girl just stares at you. I thought it was just me but, the neighbor said she was a tad freaked out by her one night as well. It's really really creepy to have a deer stare you down at sunset and like 100 yds from your door. Just figuring out that it's more than just the curious look or odd attraction or something is creepy enough. Thanks though...I'm happy you're bumbling through my yard with your big giant body and damaging hooves. Cant wait till you get friendly. Jeesh.

There are an abundance of hawks and other predator birds flying at all times of the day. TYpically they are here and there and singular in nature. I'm guessing this is in direct correlation to the amount of road kill (see frogs above) available. All I can figure.

Okay. The adventures of the weekend.

One trip was up into Mass to look at a camping area for one of the summer weekends but, the roads were still closed and it was WAY too cold to go looking. Have it in the memory banks to go look when the parks are all open...seems nice from where we got to anyway. Took the scenic route home and that was lovely as well. Also found that Sturbridge has a plaza with Applebees, Stop & Shop, Marshall's, Old Navy, Verizon...etc etc....its like 20 miles from here so, guess I can shop in Mass much easier...??? Odd.

Took a little ride around the counrtyside with Maureen today and took a small stroll around a park in Pomfret.

Mashamoquet Brook State Park

" The region was once the domain of the Mohegan Chief Uncas. The name Mashamoquet is Indian for "stream of good fishing" and originally was applied to the entire area.