Endless Knots

Olivia's Magic Garden

Swan song at Purgatory Cove

Maybe everyone is as smitten with where they live as I am...and as surprised as I at the nearby places they've never been.

Case in point yesterday when we altered our walking routine, which often leads to a trek to the woody-leafy conservation areas west of Boston (Concord, Lincoln, Weston, Wayland and the like) and simply went to "The Cove," another of Newton's many delights in the village of Auburndale, just a long walk from our house.

I've been to the Cove many times but my trusty trail guide always can be counted on to have discovered a path I've never seen. Thus, our approach through nearby Waltham past Purgatory Cove. Who knew? Not me. An isolated baylette along the Charles where we spotted a family of swans.

I thought we'd only be able to see them from a distance but, as we sat in silence on the bank, a chipmunk running back and forth in front of us, they came closer.

 

And closer

 

Still closer until their reflections were as clear as their silhouettes

And then the mother decided to show us her stuff ...and float away

Five points and a birthday for Taste

These things don't really belong together but alas the joy of blogging.

Although we live mere moments from Boston (eight miles by the odometer), we're also blessed with many woods nearby--Hamlin in Wayland, Paine in Weston, Lincoln Conservation Land near the DeCordova Museum, Elm Bank Reservation in South Natick, and, of course, Cold Spring Park right here in Newton, just to name a few whose paths we tred on a regular basis.

Should you ever come across something like this in any of those woods, know that someone near and dear to me, one celebrating a birthday today, marks the woods in which he runs when many paths converge. On Sunday, we found that this one for five paths had survived yet another winter at Paine.

Belle, at 14, still can make the trek, with a bit of huffing and puffing, so here she is too, surveying the snow, even as we were just in our shirtsleeves.

And now on to Taste, which celebrated its first birthday this past week. Packed, as you can see, when we were there on Saturday, no less because there was a trio playing - percussion, voice, and keyboard. Very nice - and the cappuccino was great too. Congrats to Taste!

Foto of phox

Remember the fox?

And that I reported seeing it a second time a couple of weeks ago?

I'd be hard pressed to prove it with this photo but I was just sitting here, watching the snow, and reading a nice email that had just come in to a friend, when suddenly I screamed at him, "There's the fox! I gotta go!" And this is what I ended up with. See him/her? (The phox, not the phriend):

Ducks (or loon?) in a row

Anyone know whether they are in fact loon?

UPDATED: Neither. Mergansers.

A university of fish

From a distance, it looked like a stingray but in Lake Winnipesaukee? On closer inspection, hundreds and hundreds of newborn fish swirling in the water just a few feet off shore. After a few minutes, a group hived off in one direction, another in a different direction until there were three or four pods swimming apart. After a few moments, the mother appeared and shepherded first this group, then that back together, until only one errant swarm had not joined the others. The two young men in the bottom photo then patiently and gently shooed them back to the larger group - and they all swam away. Have never seen anything like it. Thanks to my hubby for first observing then watching all this transpire over half an hour or so...before taking off on his sailboard.

 

A bear but not on the island

Bear in Alaska - Steve Teicher photo

Spirit trotting

Received this today from my friend, Aron DeBacco, who writes: Celtic Spirit (commonly referred to as Spirit) is a retired race horse we've been fostering for about a year.  Because of school, I didn't have time to spend with her until the last few months.  I have a good friend who is teaching me to teach Spirit to be "just a horse", to slow down, walk, trot, stop when asked.  She is intelligent, responsive, alert and willing.  Learning how to enter into a partnership with her that works for both of us is one of the profound pleasures of this delicious summer.  It is still unclear if we will end up being her "forever home", but at the very least we will help her build the skills to find the place she gets to stay and be loved.

Dog Belle Lipnack

Perhaps, like me, you were surprised to learn that dogs (cats too and, for all I know, gerbils, reptiles, and kangaroos) now can get health insurance. Granted it's not Tufts PPO or Blue Cross but if you have an old ailing dog, dang if it isn't worth it. So poor Ms. Belle, our 13-year-old Golden Retriever, is suffering from certain afflictions endemic to old age, namely arthritis. And she's got an underactive thyroid, which is helped by medication. The first round of NSAIDS to treat the arthritis helped a bit but they are tough on her old gut. So now we've moved to Tramadol, which must be procured from, yup, the local pharmacy.

When I went to pick up the prescription yesterday, they said I'd have to wait a bit.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"No, it's just that Belle isn't in the computer," said the pharmacist.

(Good thing, I thought. Belle literally IN the computer might be trouble.)

Well, now she is and her Rx bottle came marked "Dog Belle Lipnack."

Exactly like a fox

This post requires a picture but alas the camera was elsewhere at the proper moment. When the subject and the object come together, I shall definitely post. Meanwhile, back at the homestead, we were leaving our house last night, getting as far as the driveway, when a reddish, longish, thinnish, canine-ish being crossed in front of us, scurried to the shed in the sideyard, then began digging like a maniac. A fox! A really beautiful fox, who then disappeared around the back of the shed and stuck its pretty little head around the side, looked at us, then went back to digging, evaporating into the hole under the shed.

Sighting the fox is either a good omen or a terrible one, according to an exhaustive Internet search (not). But it sure is pretty. Wish me luck in snapping a picture. A neighbor reported seeing the same animal in our yard a few weeks ago and witnessed a stand-off between it/s/he and Sola, our beautiful granddog.