Reminders, Raiders, and Raptors!

We've had a couple of pretty nice days - especially today. It's been sunny with a nice wind out of the NW that kept things from getting too hot. I didn't accomplish much, but I was out for an hour or so, and that's about my limit - or the limit of my back. I'm happy to be back at my computer with a cold glass of grapefruit juice, munching pretzels as I write.

I need to pass on a message from Jamie Dimick, who looks after the buoys around the pond for the Joe's Pond Association. If you find a detergent bottle with a length of chain on it, it probably is a place-marker that  came from where a navigation float needs to be located during the summer. One or maybe two of those is missing and it is still too cold for Jamie to get into the water to find out whether the bottles sank and still have the chain attached or if the chain broke and they could be adrift and a hazard to boaters, especially if there is a length of chain still attached. Please keep an eye out and if you spot one, let him know, or contact me and I'll let him know.

I also want to let you know that a bear visited John and Liz Randall, (across from me on W. Shore Rd.) last week. Liz said it seemed to be just wandering through their yard - but they are looking for food this time of year and will go to great lengths to get to it. Bears have upset trash barrels or garbage cans and dragged the contents into the woods or strewed it about on lawns or in the road in the past, so remember to keep all your trash securely inside and don't put anything out on the roadside the night before pickup. If the bears don't get it, raccoons or skunks will, and it can be a big mess to pick up. Besides that, if the animal finds food, it will come back, and then will become a nuisance and may have to be killed. That is sad, when all it takes is for humans to keep food scraps and trash out of sight so the animals cannot smell it and be drawn to it.

The bear that visited Randalls may be the same one that attacked and nearly destroyed John's outdoor grill last year. There wasn't any food on the grill, but bears have remarkably abilities to smell food even miles away, so it could be the bear smelled the grease. With no actual food on the grill, it seems that  the bear pummeled the grill, bending parts and nearly destroyed it, perhaps hoping to open it up to get to where there might be food, or perhaps just raging in disappointment. John was able to repair the grill and get it working again, but he said it will not be left outside again.

My friend, Mary Whitcomb in Randolph, sent me some wonderful photos of a Merlin Falcon - a raptor not frequently seen here, but that she spotted sitting on her fence, eyeing the small birds that frequent her property. They prey on smaller birds, and Mary was relieved when it left. But what great photos she got. I wasn't even aware of such a bird. Audubon specialist, Mark LaBarr, confirmed its identification.

And today I receivedt this photo of Tangeni (my granddaughter) who is visiting NYC with her mom, Monika. They met a friend of Monika's there, who is visiting with her daughter about Tangeni's age, and together they are spending a few days seeing the sights of New York. They had lunch yesterday at the Statue of Liberty. They have been there before, but there is so much to do and see, each trip is a new adventure.

I have only visited the Statue of Liberty once, and that was 75 years ago, on our class trip. At that time, we were allowed to climb into the upper regions of the statue - I don't remember exactly how far, but I remember it was a long climb. That was about this time of the year, but we had really chilly, damp weather the whole time we were there. There were six of us (graduates) and our principal, Roland Wolcott, and his wife. So long ago! I've been to New York Citiy several times since, but never to spend much time there, as I was either passing through or was there for work purposes, not sight-seeing.

Thursday, middle son Bob and I hadr lunch at the Charlemont Restaurant in Morrisville. I hadn't been there in a long time, and it had been even longer since Bob was there. We knew the place well when he was with the TANK Band and they sometimes played there. We had a great time reminiscing about those times, and trying to find landmarks. The Clansman Lounge where the band also often played, seems to have been incorporated into some other business; but the bowling alley structure that was attached to the lounge is still there. We spotted the A&W stand that is now a Thai restaurant. There was a drive-in theater where, long before the TANK days, Shelly Walker and I would load up my station wagon with as many kids as could fit, and go to the Morrisville Drive-In several times each summer. That would have been in the early 1970s, probably. The band days came five or six years later, when the kids were teens. 

Bob and I had a very nice lunch and it was fun laughing over some of the antics that went on "back in the day." On Friday, Bob was going to get together with Gordy Gourlay, the drummer with TANK, at Gordy's home in southern New Hampshire. I bet Gordy got a kick out of hearing that we'd been to the Charlemont. 

Now it's time to put together something for supper. Tomorrow promises to be another beautiful day and I'm hoping to get a bit more outside work done. Enjoy a beautiful weather weekend!