It is Mum's birthday on Friday

Happy Birthday Susie!












She may dress up like she did once for a party in Ireland!

Dick, Sue, Mark, Mollie & Florence

Dick, Sue, Mark, Mollie & Florence

Harold Markham

Here is an image of a young Harold Markham. This is Dick's uncle.

It won't be long...

...to the annual 'invasion'. My 1st experience of the 'invasion' was in 1999. Since 2001 we have towed mum and John's Award trailer to Brockport, NY for the 'Invasion'. 'Big Red' towed the trailer that year. We had 240 air-conditioning. 2 windows down at 40 miles an hour!

Here is Florence the day after last year's invasion.

Tree House

1st is a nuthatch, 2nd is a tufted titmouse 3rd is a gold finch and the 4th a squirrel on a tree. Other species we have seen on our birdfeeders are House Finch, Chipping Sparrows. Our suet feeder attracts Hairy Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers, nuthatches.
We have trees on the East and South side of our apartment and our second floor kitchen has windows on these sides too. At this time of year we feel as if we live in a tree house.
Father John married a couple at his church yesterday and last night, after the rehearsal he visited us. We sat chatting in the kitchen and John was amazed with the activity at the bird feeder. He said "in all my life I have never been this close to wild birds!"

Last summer I climbed out our dining room window onto the roof to take this photo during restoration of the stained glass windows.
John is Headmaster at The Adirondack School and the Rector for St. Stephen's Church.

Toto Roxy

Toto Roxy is dad's yacht. He sails with Lough Neagh Sailing Club in Northern Ireland.

They frequently finish first in the highly competitive racing.

Hey dad, see if you can get a more recent photo for the member's photo page on the website. The one posted is pixilated.

EAMLESS UTTERS

The Hostas.

Mum bought a box truck for her perennial business, Garden Masters. The previous owner sold seamless gutters however a few of the decals had fallen off, especially at the front. What was left was EAMLESS UTTERS.

Also, it had two stars left on the side you see in the photograph. The day the truck arrived, one of my husband's crew members commented "Is the circus in town?".

My brother thought the remaining decals could be rearranged into AIMLESS SLUTTERS.

It looks pretty cool now after its 'buffing and repainting'.

Our vegetable patch has a variety of tomatoes, mange tout, swiss chard, basil, hot peppers, herbs and beetroot (can be seen in the foreground).

We had our first crop of the mange tout last night. They were delicious!
When we thinned the beets we did not want to waste the thinnings so we took them home, washed them and added them to our lettuce salad.

Guppy Fry

This posting is for my sister-in-law Sue.

Double-click on image to see it in a larger format.

I got home last night around 8pm and there were 4 new additions to the small aquarium. Guppy fry (new borns). Guppies are live bearers. The combination of their fast swimming speed and the one second delay on my camera made photographing them a challenge. This little guy is actually swimming towards the camera. You cannot really see, but their eyes are quite large at this early age.

The recommendation is to separate the parents from the offspring because the parents tend to eat them. I have a small in-tank breeding tank for this but they were born before I could put the female in it. However, there are a lot of hiding places for the fry in the plants, in particular 'frill' plants. The logisitics in catching 7mm fry with a net equivalent in size to them as a basketball pitch did not make sense. There is my own equation: Stress them = immune system is compromised = they get sick = they die.