Cabbages and kings » Local notes

Sunday brunch

edoarde — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:30:42 +0000

Tern operating from the fishing pier at Colt State Park, Bristol, RI

Games osprey play

edoarde — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 14:31:57 +0000

Games osprey play

Not going to try to play the naturalist here, just reporting: Mom made two passes and attempted to land where Dad was roosting, Dad wasn’t having any of it. Junior watched. The full sequence is at http://flic.kr/p/a6zLq5 and following.

May morning

edoarde — Sat, 14 May 2011 12:37:50 +0000

Expectations were pretty low this morning: A gray dawn with low clouds. I walked down the farm road trying to avoid scaring off the wildlife from their usual places but it didn’t make any difference, there was no one out but me. Turning to take the obligatory morning shot (there are hundreds in my portfolio) of the small stone buildings at the edge of the Mill Gut, a deer startled me. It wasn’t too happy with the muck at the shore – it jumped around getting its legs unstuck – but it stayed long enough for me to catch this shot.

This and a good dozen other sights and sounds made it a worthy morning – as usual.

Osprey at work

edoarde — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 13:38:13 +0000

Suddenly, an osprey appeared in the woods behind the salt marsh. After a couple of passes it became clear that nesting material was being gathered. We’ve been watching the nests, but this was my first sighting of the year.

Good eats

edoarde — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 15:49:30 +0000

Thought I’d spotted a pretty good-sized bird in the treetops (I was on the lookout for a hawk), but it turned out to be this little guy who seemed very pleased with himself, stuffing his face with tree blossoms. He was sixty feet off the ground in the skinny branches – and a 12 mile per hour wind – but apparently so engrossed with the good eating that he wasn’t concerned.

Winter fog

edoarde — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:57:13 +0000

On the second day of the New Year, it dawned foggy. My wife questioned the sanity of going out to take pictures in the fog, which is a challenge of sorts. I’ve had the picture above on my computer desktop for a while and – while not vibrant and cheery – it is soothing. And soothing is a good thing for an administrator in the days before spring semester begins.

The picture below wouldn’t have happened if geese weren’t such noisy birds. You could hear them approach, but until they got this near they weren’t visible and even then I wasn’t sure I’d gotten them.

Not a fisherperson…

edoarde — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:06:30 +0000

…but a real fan of sunrise. Upper end of Bristol (RI) harbor, July 30, 2010.

First Tuesday in May

edoarde — Tue, 04 May 2010 12:14:43 +0000

Two geese calling incessantly approaching from the shadows across the Mill Gut, falling silent and flying ten feet overhead and ten feet to the east, then resuming their calling as they skimmed the surface of the bay lit by the glow from the sky. A beautiful set of changing sunrise colors, a bright half moon straight up in the sky.

All kinds of songbirds, the ground under the cherry trees – which would have been in full bloom this past weekend if it hadn’t been for Thursday and Friday’s wind and rain that blew down the petals – strewn with a thick layer of pink petals. The grove of lilacs blooming behind the cherry trees is giving off a cinnamon-like smell that persists for perhaps a hundred yards.

Turning past the head of Bristol harbor, it was quiet enough to hear the whooshing sound of the beat of a heron’s wings coming up behind me, then flying on south towards Bristol Marine Services. Temperature in the upper 50′s, very hard to beat.

The final stages of lilac blooming on the stem I’ve been tracking are below: April 18th, April 25th, and May 2nd.

Snow, Mardi Gras, and sap

edoarde — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:38:04 +0000

I was out walking about three hours before my New Orleans running buddies reported for the Rex Run – beautiful woods in the dark with the snow making things visible. Sounded like a couple of tons of geese on the Mill Gut, squawking in the night. Snow falling in various quantities, from fitful flakes to great wet clusters; when I turned into the wind my glasses completely clogged up.

Thinking of the gang having King Cake and champagne, then the parades. A quick weather check from here suggests that it would be a great day for a record attempt at the Rex Run given the chilly temps (at 34 degrees only four degrees above the Bristol temperature) – hope it warms up enough later.

Slow start to sugaring at Coggeshall Farm

They tapped the trees at Coggeshall Farm about 10 days later this year than last year, but the sap froze overnight. The farm is doing its annual sugaring demonstration. Picture was taken on Valentine’s Day.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Stoned

edoarde — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:51:13 +0000

A beautiful morning. Walking down the farm road with a moon two-days-past-full up in the western sky, throwing strong black shadows of the newly-denuded trees. The two bulls sleeping in the field on the left, largish black mounds on the silver grass.

Just as I swung my eyes to my right there was the flash of a shooting star, not the narrow pencil-line type but a broad white wash there, then gone. Further down the road, the northward-pointing spotlight on the stone barn wasn’t on, so my walk continued in the moonlight.

Headed north, the moon on my left, the increasing glow on the eastern horizon to my right, a balance began to emerge, of moon and sun opposed and coexisting. One of Those Moments. It seemed to be the appropriate time for the Ritual of the Stones.

Ritual of the Stones

Find two flat stones, large but still small enough to be gripped in your hand with the palm held facing downwards. With your arms naturally at your side, face your objective, in this case the small brilliant diamond of the morning star, orienting your shoulders perpendicular to a line drawn between you and the objective.

Raise your arms, holding the stones palms downward, pointing straight to your left and right. Slowly bring the arms towards the front so that the hands meet, palms towards one another, fingers pointing towards the objective. Sight on your objective through the notch made by your thumbs.

Breathe deeply twice, exhaling fully. Repeat – not aloud – a short incantation appropriate to the time of day.

Return your arms so they point straight to your left and right, palms downward. Pause for a count of two, then simultaneously drop the stones. It is desirable to have the stones strike the ground at the same time. With your arms at your sides, pause to reconsider your objective.

Done correctly, the Ritual of the Stones will start the day.

I walked back up the road past the farm. The bulls were up on all fours, their coats beginning to show red with the increasing predawn light from the sky. The day had begun. The sun would appear.

Note: The Ritual of the Stones is repeated daily around the world. My friend Larry would recognize it from the first time we observed in on the tenth hole of the Audubon Park golf course in New Orleans. Groundskeepers on golf courses would also recognize it as the manual placement of tee location markers. The Strong-Schlueter Institute for Ephemeral Archeology has also recorded an instance of the Ritual of the Stones evidenced by footprints in the dew on the 5th hole; ritual writ on water, mirabile dictu!

A photo taken last Saturday: The morning was less dismal and foreboding than it looks.