Ahhh Springtime at the Pond. Not so peaceful really. The mating rituals seem to lead to a lot of grumpy behavior or maybe it’s the cold, rainy spring after the long winter.
Bring on the grumpiness!
The Canada Geese are especially temperamental.
They always seem to be rather grumpy anyway but this time of year the grumpiness goes up dramatically.
They don’t seem to get along whether on land or water.
Spring has been a long time coming this year. If it wasn’t snowing it was raining but finally on Monday, we had a brief respite.
As usual lately my days off are filled with errands. When did that happen? I needed to run to the grocery store, down to Walmat (which is the opposite side of town) and then in another direction to the pet store for filters for the pet fountain but I was determined to get some time with the camera. No cat picture today!
The sun was hiding behind a gray, overcast sky. Rain was predicted for the evening. My first stop was at Oliver Mills. It was crowded today. The herring have started running. You could stand by the fish ladder and see the little fish trying to make their way upstream. A few gulls braved the influx of humans but no Great Blue Herons. I watched from the car for a bit so when the gulls took flight, so did I.
I drove to Plymouth to check on a Osprey nest I found at the end of the season last year. When I got there I discovered that I couldn’t find my binoculars. The last time I had them (that I remember) was in Alaska. This nest is near a park and it was full today too so I didn’t linger there.
Getting to the Grist Mill Pond was a challenge. The main road was blocked for a funeral so I tackled the shore road down past the Mayflower.
That’s undergoing road work but passable. I skipped Brewster Gardens. Nothing appeared to be out and about, not even a duck or robin. But that wasn’t the case at the pond.
Here spring was in full swing with lots of courtship rituals going on…mallards, Canada geese, and Mr. Majestic, the mute swan.
After enjoying the antics here I made one more stop. I went searching for the “haul out” that I’d heard about for the seals. Usually I go to Chatham to view seals. Plymouth is closer but the seals aren’t necessarily any more accessible. I wasn’t sure I’d found them. Without binoculars I simple took pictures and crossed my fingers.
Once home I uploaded the images and sure enough…they were there. Next time I’m taking the BIG lens.
The visits to dustyroadsphotos.com seemed to fall off this week.
The winning photo only got a total of 23 combined points. Comments were definitely off as none were left at all! Now I know everyone has an opinion. Comments are fun. 🙂 And they count toward your favorite photo. Maybe my photos weren’t “up to snuff” this week or maybe my tags weren’t descriptive enough, or maybe everyone got spring fever and ran outside to take their own pictures. Whatever the case, I hope you’ll help pick the winner this week by giving us a visit.
The week 14 tallies are in. The Photo of the Week with the most hits, likes, shares and/or comments is It Fits with a total of 23 points.
Votes calculated from activity at www.dustyroadsphotos.com.
To Order Prints Click Here: http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p161572686/h368ec8ea#h368ec8ea
It’s been pretty quiet around here. The cats play and keep me entertained. The workload has picked up as we move into the spring busy season but the vacation planning seems to be complete and I haven’t started prowling the neighborhoods yet.
But I did have a very special lunch on Sunday. March 3o, 2013 was the day that my department at my old employer was dissolved. Go to Malden, MA or take a lay off they said. I took the lay off along with many others. The ones who stayed have the daily pleasure of commuting from south of Boston through the city to Malden in the north. Not a fun commute even on a good day.
The thing about this department is that we were all “long timers”. I was 6 weeks away from 10 years and one of my co-workers had 25 years in. We were a family and now we were being scattered to the winds. I didn’t mind leaving the company. We were overworked and underpaid while they told us how lucky we were to have a job and what a great place to work, the party line, but I knew I would miss my friends.
We agreed to meet after 1 year to see how everyone was doing and so we did. On Sunday we got together at a nice restaurant for brunch and a chance to catch up. Almost everyone made it. One person had moved away , we didn’t have contact information for another and 2 had conflicts but everyone else was there.
It really did feel like family. Everyone looked great. Everyone seems to be working, maybe not in their favorite job but at least they have landed on their feet. It was a really fun afternoon. There’s talk of doing it again next year. I hope we do. It was really special.
I live with a cat prodigy. It’s not easy. In the beginning it meant baby safe locks on all the cabinets unless I wanted to come home to find him sleeping on the dinner plates.
Then he learned to open the tri-fold closet doors. I couldn’t find a lock for those so a stool blocks the doors from opening now.
I come home to the TV flickering away when I know I turned it off before I went out and the ceiling fan…well, lets just say he even knows how to adjust the speed. I watched him with the remote just last night. After he got the fan up to medium he went back , nosed it around and with a very deliberate paw, pressed the button for the lights, switched his tail and walked away.
He’s been typing for years. It’s how he earned the title of “Editor -in- chief”.
Editor in Chief
Today he discovered a new trick. He took a selfie with my cell phone. I watched him do it!
Usually he hates my phone. He’s always trying to chew on it but this time he moved it around with his paw and managed to unlock the screen. Next thing I knew the flash went off. After that he lost interest.
I checked the camera function and there it was… his very own “selfie”.
He’s a scary cat… Sometimes I think he’s smarter than me. What will he figure out next?