Summer Around The Farm

Our recent heat wave stopped the grass from growing and, in many places, it turned brown and brittle. Walking over it shattered it and sounded crunchy. I was truly worried, though it was nice to not have to mow the lawn:

 But the little rock garden produced flowers abundantly. Yellow and orange Asiatic Lilies competed with the Blue Sea Holly:

 A black striped Garter Snake of rather impressive length (about 30") began living somewhere around my biggest lilac bush. I previously had a smaller, melanistic Garter Snake living near the barn and I reckon they are likely related. Looking at this photo now, I wonder if this is the same snake, just moved to a slightly new location:

 The two baby fantail pigeons are doing quite well:

 The baby pears are also doing quite well:

 They're getting big now and I am amazed at how many there are:

One morning before it got too hot, I took pruners and weed-whacker out into the pasture and began taking down the Burdock along the fence:

 I did not cut the White Sweet Clover, which I was happy to have growing:

 But I made a special effort to take down all the Bull Thistles I could find. They were not along the fence line but scattered around both fields:

 And the Canada Thistles. They were smaller and easier to miss, but just as prickly and invasive:

 Some places are filling up with Lady's-Thumb Smartweed. I didn't try to fight that. The animals don't eat it at first, but if they get hungry they will eat it:

 Near the house, at the base of the Rugosa Roses, the wild Bouncing Bet (in the Pink family) is blooming as it does every year. Now that's a "weed" I can truly appreciate!:

Chapter One - The Wild Center!

The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, New York is an Adirondack natural history museum which I'd long planned to visit - but never had. So one wintry Friday I drove down to pay a visit to The Wild Center:

The central building was large, modern and beautiful:

I paid for admission and began my tour. The first exhibit was a geological demonstration of the origins of the Adirondack region:

There was a traditional Adirondack lean-to, complete with socks drying on a clothesline. But what was in that aquarium?:

Inside that aquarium was an Eastern Garter Snake, a common Adirondack resident:

There were many large displays of local fish:

And local turtles. This was an Eastern Painted Turtle, but they also had Red-Eared Sliders, an introduced species which now makes itself a home in the Adirondacks. This turtle was close enough to touch and I was impressed by the clever sign which warned turtles that human touch might be dangerous. I thought that a far more effective way to handle the problem than a "Do Not Touch" sign:

A naturalist came out for an owl demonstration. She brought out Luna, a Screech Owl who had been so badly injured by a car that she would never again be able to live in the wild. The naturalist talked about all the local owls and, of course, Screech Owls. Luna was very calm and used to people, and she'd found a comfy, happy life at the Wild Center:

There were clusters of typical Adirondack scenes:

And more turtles in a pond which also had Wood Ducks:

Dragonflies:

And mushrooms, lots and lots of mushrooms. I encounter them frequently while hiking and have been fascinated by their colors and variety. You may recognize the one on the left as the subject of many photos in former blog posts. But there was still a lot more to see at the Wild Center and post Chapter Two tomorrow: