Thursday - School's Out!!

I am celebrating by going biking again on the Adirondack Trail in Glens Falls and Lake George. I went yesterday too. Bike 11 miles. Pedaling to an aria by Bocelli, sung in Italian, makes the experience quite etheral and unreal. Yes Gene, I use all my gears too and still walk some. I stopped by Cooper's Cave for homemade ice cream udoing all the good of the calorie burning exercise. I do enjoy sitting in the warm sunshine eating ice cream while people watching. I am now on FaceBook if any of my readers wish to follow that link. I don't devote a lot of time to the computer anymore since the weather is grand, the garden grows (weeds)and the nature calls me outside but I will try to keep up. I have been negligent in posting to this space so I don't know how many of my readers are still active.

I changed my header photo to a shot I took on the way to Emily's horse show in Buskirk, NY. We have a great deal of beauty around us. Emily was disappointed early in that show since she only placed 5th in one class and nothing in the others. Old Dino decided to get playful and bucked right in front of the judge. Not a good way to get a ribbon. But he got down to work in the jumping classes and she won all blues. Once a jumper, always a jumper. They will go to the very prestigious show in East Dorset, Vt. this July and back to the GMHA Hunter Jumper show also in July.

Mowing here takes me about 3 hours. I stopped the other day for a break and as I was sitting on the deck with Sebastian. He woofed a couple of times. Then a passing motorist stopped his truck and walked into my yard gesturing towards the back. He said, "Do you see what is in your yard?" I fully expected a moose but it was a black bull with impressive horns and other parts. He was mooing softly like a kitten and strolling across my lawn. I called to him from the deck, something like, "Hi, bull, where you goin'" He answered with more soft mooing. The motorist went to try to find the farmer who owns the bull while Bash and I observed from the safety of the deck. The bull meandered on down the road and disappeared. He was gone about 30 mins or so. I was preparing to change the oil in my lawn tractor when he reappeared in my yard. A neighboring farmer appeared at the same time. We decided he would try to halter the critter and take him up the road to the farm nearby. We chased the bull speaking softly in "bullease" but Bull would have no part of it. I became the drover and traffic director since I live two busy roads. I have to hand it to Wayne Foote, the farmer, he has tremendous stamina and patience. Finally, after much time and wrestling through the tall grass and the ditches, the bull was snagged. Wayne tied the bull to the back of his old truck. He is truly a modern day cowboy. Certainly not liking roping the critter and tieing him to the saddle horn. Slowly up the road they went with the bull reluctantly following behind. Until the rope broke! Back to wrestling in the ditches and roadside weeds. As luck would have it, Wayne's son and friend came by. On went the four-way flashers and the bull was once again snagged. Now we had a convoy or was it a parade? Two trucks, two cowboys and a bull. Long story short, the bull was returned to his pasture safely. Sebastian is still looking for the bull in the yard.

Pete and I have to attend 4 graduation parties this Saturday. My grandson Will's graduation was two weeks ago. NYS is later than VT. We are both cooking for the first one which is brunch and is being held for Pete's granddaughter, Lydia here in town. He had a grandson, Conor, also graduating this weekend and that party is to be held in Glens Falls. The other two parties are here in town. Graduation ceremonies will be held Friday night in the gym. It will be terribly hot, it always is hot and crowded. I am not really looking forward to it but will surely enjoy the parties.

My trees are full of all the fledged young birds from the nests in the yard. Many different kinds of woodpeckers live here from the largest, the Piliated to the smallest, the Downey. I have many finches of different colors and Tufted Titmouse as well as nuthatches, doves, bluebirds, cardinals, chickadees, huge American Crows, catbirds, orioles and robins. My bird friends are many. There is also a mystery here. Down in back near the swamp is a circle of stamped down grasses. It is visited frequently by my mysterious friends at night. I have never seen them or heard them. In time, they will reveal themselves I'm certain.

Off to ride the trail.
Have a grand and glorious summer day.