Home ground.

Paying attention to home. It's something everybody should do. Cycles become apparent,neighborhood critters become known, and you find your sense of place.

To the south of my home is a grove of trees,mostly white birch, with some white spruce,balsam fir, northern white cedar, red maple,a couple white pine,some aspen and one red pine. On the west side is a white pine and 2 white birch. In a cone from that white pine traveling northeast, you will find some white pine seedlings spaced throughout the field. The field ,in fact all the fields were mown prior to my arrival. I want to see what, and how they grow. I also have a couple of apple trees in the field.

Now in the grove, (locally called the Buffalo,) I have a bird feeder and the past 2 winters. red squirrels would travel along the roads from woods to the Buffalo and visit the feeder. Some went as far as to move into a couple of the birches ,but just for the winter. This year I haven't seen a squirrel, so knowing that reds have a cycle, we must be at the bottom of their population. I have also noticed an increase in red fox and coyote tracks around here.

It's been snowing here the past 3 days or so. I lost track, it doesn't seem to matter, but right now, this very instant, the sun is coming out. Gotta go!

Frank Wihbey

I don't know how long ago its been, but I was looking for information on Maine's nature, and this one website came up. I clicked on it and started following it. Maine Nature News. Ever since then I was hooked. And then one day I started sending in reports.

Maybe a year on off and on reporting I got an email from Frank, saying hi, how are you doing and do you have anything to report? I thought quickly and wrote back ,"yes I do". Always enthusiastic about anything I sent, no matter how trivial I thought. And always grateful for any photo. And not too long ago, he announced he was looking to retire and was looking for someone to take over. Robin Follette,from over in eastern Maine jumped in and boldly marched on.

Robin emailed me and some other reporters on Friday and said that Frank died. Shocked and saddened I tried to learn more. It seems he was in California and went out for a hike before he was scheduled to come home to Maine. The trail was bad, he had a fall and died.

From this move I have gained a really good friend in Robin. I try to get her something to publish, but it's been hard these last few months. We are both deeply saddened over Frank's death.

Frank , I never had the honor of meeting you, but I enjoyed working with you and I wished we did have the chance to get together, I'm sure we would have had a good time.

You'll be missed.

Frank Wihbey's obituary. Please read it and take a few moments to honor this man. Over on the right side of my blog, you will see a link to Maine Nature News. Go visit.

Western Mountain snow

I took a break from life and had a visit with a friend up here. To say I feel better is an understatement. A day trip out to Richardson Lake was on the docket, it's one of my favorite places to be. It's big,wild and beautiful.

And before we went to Richardson, we headed out to a local trail on a very cold morning.

Sorry, it's my secret.

Once in a Blue Moon

December 30, 2009

So this is Christmas...

Hope you all have a great one.

The Winter Solstice

Winter begins tomorrow, December 21 at 12:47 pm (EST). Go out and celebrate.

Tracking along.

It's been a while since my last post. I have not forgotten, nor have I been wrapped up in the holidays. My mother has Parkinson's and so I have been here primary caretaker,helper and support. It's hard. Watching someone you dearly love not able to do her normal daily routine and just changing. Incredibly hard. I don't get the time to run off,don't get the time to spend with friends, and don't have a life.

It's done out of love. I desperately need time off, away, to recharge. Posts will be down, she's had a hard week, there had been a trip to the hospital, medicine has been missed and trying to get back on schdedule has been difficult.