Wonderful Debar Pond - Part 2

A friend and I were walking a trail along the shore of the Adirondacks' Debar Pond (see also Part 1, posted yesterday), and arrived at a small stream. The dogs thought it was great fun but we humans decided to turn back toward the easier walking and the buildings:


We all walked back to the lodge and peeked in the windows. It must surely have been a luxurious mansion in its day:

The group of people and their dogs were all gone by the time we arrived, so we ambled over to the water's edge and enjoyed the scenery and serenity. A cluster of pink Joe-Pye-Weed stood on the shore:

And then a Red Admiral butterfly began flitting from flower head to flower head and a bee joined it, making a lovely scene:

And this shoreline was much easier for the dogs to swim in. Seamus was able to walk easily out and not have any trouble with his back legs. Daphne and Clover went in, but stayed closer to shore:

I gave them all a call they waded back in to join us:

My friend and I enjoyed the dogs' company as we surveyed the scenery:

The dogs walked over to the old boathouse and then went back into the water. Seamus disappeared and we called loudly for him until we found him:

Seamus, of course, loves the water and couldn't stay out of it. Even Jack went swimming

We began walking again, passing by the old caretaker's residence:

And out onto the lawn, which is still kept mowed, beneath the towering White Pines:

We made a happy caravan as we proceeded onto the dirt lane which would return us to our parked car:

My happy dogs continued to sniff and search everywhere along the way. We stopped for lunch at a small general store where we could eat at a picnic table with the dogs. It had been a good day:

Mid-Summer Scenes Around The Farm

These photos are a collection of shots accumulated during several weeks in the summer. This first is my tenant making friends with the dogs (with the Mock Orange bush blooming behind him). He had a curious way of befriending the dogs and they took to him wildly - all of them, even Fergus, the perennial Nervous Nelly. They bark when they see him, but they are barks of joy:

At other times, the dogs lounged about in their fenced yard:

I planted a small vegetable garden, but the summer had at this point been so cool and so wet that I didn't know if anything would grow sufficiently to harvest. Well, at least nothing had rotted in the ground yet:

The bees were having a field day in the Rugosa Roses I'd planted:

In fact, they were having themselves an orgy of pollen collection. They seemed to be drunk as they rolled around amongst the stamens:


The Elderberries were in full bloom, growing inside an old silo base:

Perhaps this year I'll get to taste some Elderberries before the birds take them all:

And speaking of taste, my cherry tree produced a bumper crop. Here I am with a bowlful of freshly picked, halved and pitted cherries - which I used in my dinner:

Summer has been luscious, quiet and serene - at least when it wasn't raining nonstop:

I walked across the road for a photo of the house and barn. You can see the Elderberries in bloom to the left of the barn:

My Amish neighbor (who I haven't met) tacked up this hand painted sign on the telephone pole by my barn. It's hanging from two horseshoes, a creative flair. I don't know if he's gotten any business, but I saw an Amish man helping another neighbor with her horses, so perhaps he has:

When the old fashioned roses and Mock Orange flowers faded, the wild Milkweeds burst into bloom. So the air was nearly always perfumed with one type of flower or another: