raccoon with a phd

what's this, you ask? this is what we came home from vacation to. it is a suet feeder that had a lovely no-melt cake of suet in it one week ago. while we were away, some clever raccoon (i think) managed not only to open the latch, but was clever enough to hook the door onto the hook so that he (or she) might better enjoy the suet at its leisure! can you see the wire that it hangs from? it's on the hook beside the one the feeder is now connected to. it's going to be a long winter...
a pigeon. so what, you might remark. well, this is the first pigeon i've seen in our whole town since moving here five years ago! and it's all alone! he's been strutting around the back yard like he owns the joint and he is BIG !! i usually have to drive to worcester to see pigeons...i just don't get it! where did he come from? why is he here? i want answers and he's not even cooing!!! are there any pigeon behavior analysts out there?

instant vacation

i call this instant vacation b/c we decided on the spur of the moment to go...and off we went!this is where we tried to kiss the children. can you tell it's nap time?
jenn, jack, and zak
kaedra, kelsie, and don
jack all ready for church
kelsie when her hair has been tamed.

i have been out of town this week. drove south to see the children and grands b/c who knows when we'd get another chance? ate way too much while there but it's so rude to say no to kahlua trifle when you're the guest! we drove to friends' house in tennessee and next day headed to atlanta area to see kaedra, don, and kelsie. jenn, zak, and jack drove up from valdosta so we got to see as much family as possible. (dylan is still in england.) the trip sure made me wish i lived back in the good ol' south! ah me! maybe someday!

the ladies who lunch

here is a happy day indeed. jo-anna and jessica were here for a family reunion but i got to play innkeeper for their visit. they blessed me by sharing lunch with me instead of running wild with the rest of their family. what sweet fellowship! there's nothing so nice as cheese and wine and crackers and fruit and yummy butternut squash-crab bisque when eaten among friends! and chocolate for dessert of course!

good-bye lardo days

i have been a complete slug since the end of may but those days are just about over. i just accepted a position as 4th grade teacher in a small classical school called imago located in maynard, ma. i'm pretty excited about it. my brain has begun functioning again after what feels like a 2 year hibernation. mmmm-mmmm good!

dogggone dog gone

well, it's been a pretty rough couple of weeks. things between molly and zeke were getting worse instead of better and when zeke tried to bite mark and later me (twice!) we had to be realistic and conclude that this might not be the dog for us. you guessed it. we returned zeke to the russell rescue refuge and will probably never have a second dog. the good news is that, since we were supposed to dog-sit digger but opted out b/c of the doggy stress around here, this freed us up to do so. we brought digger home the next day and it's been peaceful doggy heaven around here! this tells me it wasn't all molly's fault. above is a picture of mark, digger and molly. a pose which would've been impossible w/ zeke! poor zeke! he really was a nice dog--just stressed to the max!

our flowers this year

the rhodos and irises are gone now but they were lovely for a while. the lilacs were terrible! maybe i should feed them something...

puppy treadmill