Boalsburg Memorial Day Run

Almost a mile into the race. It's HOT!

Same place but coming back after 3 miles and 2 brutal hills. I am not happy that there is no shade.

Totally crazed at the finish line but happy I came in a minute and 7 seconds under my goal. See results here!!

Our Own Nyan Cat

See the original Nyan Cat here!

Backyard Bunny

One Last Peek

The nest is tilted, their fate uncertain but they are growing ever closer to fledging.

Come the Rapture

The rapture came and went on Saturday and I have to say that I didn't much notice. I was having too much fun in NYC with my family. We weren't sure until the last moment that Arron was performing for certain since he had injured his foot the day before. It turned out well and his performance as Lead Gypsy was stellar.

Amy was able to join us for the whole afternoon. We had a great time joking around 6pm about post rapture looting. Jim was excited to take away the lenticular print of Dean & Jerry at Harry's Burritos. It was about then that the skies got dark and... it started to rain. The bummer of a cabby would drive us all down to Lincoln Center so Amy and I hooofed it as the skies really let loose. I loved making a silly forever memory of our chilling trek for those few blocks.

I guess it was just at that moment the fellow who had footed the bill for all of the billboards and signs advertising the coming of the rapture, Robert Fitzpatrick, was farther downtown in Times Square. When the rapture didn't come, surrounded by jeering tourists in a drizzling rain, was heard to say, "I can't tell you what I feel right now," he said. "Obviously, I haven't understood it correctly because we're still here."

It was a day on which I didn't know what to expect from one moment to the next but can share that everything turned out heavenly.

Things are Growing!

Finger Lakes

A weekend trip to Cayuga and Seneca Lakes. We stopped a few places, found a letterbox from 2001 and took a lot of nice photos.

Cute coffee house near Corning, NY.

A water fountain near Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca, NY.

Buttermilk Falls.

The eastern side of Seneca Lake wine trail. The ever popular Hazlitt Winery!

View of Seneca Lake from a cemetery. There was a letterbox in the area.

Seneca Drums gin and tonic at Seneca Lodge!

Inside cabin #88 at Seneca Lodge.

Jim starting to walk up Watkins Glen Gorge after our supper at Seneca Lodge.

Posing in Watkins Glen Gorge. The next morning we also walked the Finger Lakes Trail for a couple of miles up Excelsior Glen Gorge.

Montour Falls, a letterbox was nearby.

New Hatch!

Blogger has been down for a few days but I took this photo of the robin chicks today!

Bird Visitors

While waiting to get photos of some White Crowned Sparrows this Catbird landed near me. I shot this "blind" from my chest because I could barely move.

It went down to the seeds for a while and chased any smaller birds away while it ate.

Upon the Catbird's depature the smaller birds filtered back in.

At one point there were 3 White Crowneds but I only got a photo of 2 at once.

These lovely birds never stay very long so I love the few weeks they are around. I notice the White Throated Sparrows seem to have moved on already and these won't be far behind.

A Chickadee joined in and a Titmouse was nearby too.

Mother's Day

This note on my jewelry box means the world to me. I wake up looking at it every day.

Beaver Stadium Run 2011

One to Grow On

This year is coming across as a year to build on. I think I have finally accepted my rejection from the ING NYC Marathon and look at it as a stepping stone to eventual guaranteed acceptance. If I am rejected for the next two years of lottery applications, I will have automatic acceptance into the 2014 NYC Marathon.

Maypole is up, Beltain celebrated and we decided to add in a row of asparagus to the garden this year. To plant the dozen crowns required Jim to dig a trench about 6 - 8" deep and about 12' long. I got some Triple Super Phosphate to sprinkle in the bottom of the trench and added in the lightly soaked crowns about a foot apart from each other. I covered them with an inch of soil and now I wait.

I wait for them to sprout up a bit and cover them withe the rest of the 6" of soil. I wait for them to fully grow and when they are withered and brown this Autumn I will cut them back. I wait for next year and harvest next to none of them, only the largest and cut them back again in the fall.

I am thinking that the asparagus of 2014 will end up bearing a good crop so it will fuel me up for the ING NYC Marathon later that year. Thank goodness not everything takes 3 years to come to fruition. I look forward to watching these over the next few weeks!

Rose & Indigo

Yesterday in Roaring Springs pond I saw a HUGE indigo hued trout. I sound worried in the video because I was once foolish enough to let a trout latch itself onto the middle finger of my right hand and it wouldn't let go. I was hand feeding trout fingerlings that day. I have had a trout fear ever since.

This morning at the closest feeder to the house were 2 Rose-breasted Grossbeaks.