Maple Skyline

Speak of the devil...

Not one hour after posting the tree picture below, we looked out to find a Pileated Woodpecker making a new hole in the very same tree! We looked it up and it was almost exactly a year ago that he (or one of his brothers) first visited us.

This picture was taken with a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second - his head is moving!

Tree

I love this old maple tree behind our house. It's gracefully reaching the end of it's long life. A pileated woodpecker has gone to town on it in a couple spots making small (actually some are quite large) homes for other smaller creatures. If we are very very lucky we'll get a family of flickers to nest in it.

Morning Barn...

Morning shot of one of my favorite barns with the moon about to call it a night...

Cardinal Zin...

Another spotting of a cardinal in the area... Hope to see more of them through the summer.

Snow Rider...

A cyclist taking on yesterday's snowstorm...

Spring water...

The Union Village covered bridge on a cool March morning...

Snow Fence, Interstate, and Sky...

Deva and Buddha...

She is a most amazing cat...

Happy Birthday Patrick...

My nephew Patrick would be 28 tomorrow were it not for the attack on the USS Cole in October 2000. I wonder what he would be up to on his birthday; I bet it would be fun and probably a bit of trouble! I miss you Pat.

Take Off...

Another shot that didn't get to the photo contest - I love this picture of the cargo plane lifting off the flower...

Spring? Baseball?

A shot from last Spring in South Royalton showing a small part of the beauty of Spring baseball in New England...

Cat in a Winter Window...

Summer Sunflowers...

In the last week, we've been busy trying to find pictures from the last year to submit to the local paper's photo contest. A number of our favorite pictures unfortunately didn't work well in the required 8x10 aspect ratio so I thought I'd get some of them up on the blog. These pictures were taken late in the summer and late in the day on in a beautiful field of sunflowers.

Winter Cardinal

We have caught quick glimpses of a cardinal or two lately. Today in the snowstorm I was able to get close enough for this shot. This appears to be a female but we think we've seen a male as well. Hope that they stick around this summer!

More Deer...

This beauty was munching on the remnants of last summer's brown eyed susans...

Busted!

I managed to get this shot through the window though she seemed to have a bead on me as well...

Morning Finches

There are hundreds of finches who visit us through the day, enjoying the black oil sunflower seed we put out every morning. They generally fly away in droves when we open the door to go out. These brave souls tolerated our presence enough for quick snap in the dull morning light.

Vermont Church...

I took this shot this past weekend of one of my favorite spots around here: the church in West Fairlee Center.

Winter Panorama...

Another beautiful morning here in Vermont...