Breaking New Ground - Zone 5

Wordless Wednesday

Annie — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:08:49 +0000

In love with a bridge…

Annie — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:10:15 +0000

When a bridge is being repaired or replaced in Virginia, it’s been my experience that locals are unhappy, not over the loss or worry about the bridge, but over the blasted inconvenience. Not so for the 89-year old Memorial Bridge that spanned the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth NH and Kittery Maine. Built between 1920 and 1923, the bridge was dedicated to Americans who served our country during WWI. It supported traffic on foot, bike or vehicle without a toll. Folks around here were very attached to this bridge that served them faithfully for so many years and when it was closed to vehicle traffic in July of 2011 and pedestrians and cyclists in January of this year, it was emotional.

Portsmouth Memorial Bridge via Wikipedia

In October, locals staged a farewell party in a park at the foot of the bridge. Music, food, facepainting, games and more attracted a large crowd of young and old, including the mayor and governor, to say goodbye to a trusted old friend. On January 8, there was a walk, the final walk across the Memorial Bridge. Then the bridge closed.

Last week, crowds gathered on both shores to watch the 2-million pound center lift span disconnected, lifted and lowered onto a barge and floated out to sea, bound for a scrap yard somewhere. Artists, camera buffs, television stations marked the occasion by jockeying for position for the best shot. The rest of the old bridge will be removed in the coming months with the replacement bridge to be completed by July of 2013.

My daughter was among those who witnessed the first stage of removal and sent the two photos below:

Section being lowered onto a barge

Tugboat

Meanwhile, when the dust and rust had settled, The Portsmouth Herald’s online publication, Seacoast Online, had a little fun with a photo of the gap in the bridge. They ran a great contest for the best “something” to fill the space with a $50 prize going to the winner.

Here are a few of the entries that are sure to break the somber mood locally and bring a smile:

via www.seacoastonline.com

Tagged: kittery maine, memorial bridge, portsmouth herald, seacoast online

Great Backyard Bird Count

Annie — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:57:53 +0000

For over a month, I’ve fed the birds in our new habitat. And they have had the best of food, my special blend that I’ve developed over the years. It took almost a week of feeding before the first little brown bird discovered the feeder. Since then I’ve attracted the most common birds found at feeders. I’m missing a few familiar friends… like the cardinals. But I’m beginning to attract varieties of woodpeckers. I hear them more than I see them but they will dash in for a seed or two early in the morning.

I was excited to rise at dawn today for the Great Backyard Bird Count. Coffee in one hand, binoculars in the other, I settled into my comfortable chair where data form and paper waited. What I saw at the feeder caused me to slosh a bit of coffee from the mug.

Grackles. Common Grackles. Iridescent in the early morning light. Hundreds of them, in the birches, in the pines, in the air, in shrubs, swinging on the grackle-proof feeder, spilling seed on the ground where they came and went with abandon.

They don’t know this crazy lady yet so they swooped and soared and dined in utter bliss. It was hopeless. My 15-minute Backyard Bird Count was easy today. I will report 200 Common Grackles. Hope rises eternal. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Tagged: backyard bird count, common birds, great backyard bird count

Wordless Wednesday

Annie — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:17:54 +0000

Pass the Maple Syrup…

Annie — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:52:53 +0000

There are a lot of things we can live without but, along with air and water, pure maple syrup just happens to be on the ‘can’t live without’ list. A maple syrup breakfast is always the first Welcome Home meal when offspring arrive for a visit and they know to let that warm liquid spill off the pancakes to mingle and compliment the savory foods… eggs, bacon or sausage. Ummmm….

But that’s not all. They might taste the cherished syrup again in baked beans, caramelized carrots, puddings, winter squash or a pork recipe, just to name a few. We do love it…. so much in fact, that our New England daughter and husband, who were married in Gloucester last June, chose Maine maple syrup for their wedding favors.And now we live smack in the middle of maple syrup country in New Hampshire where supplies are plentiful. The New Hampshire industry produces nearly 90,000 gallons of the amber liquid. In addition, there’s a plethora of New Englanders who produce it just for their own tables.

The season usually begins in southern New Hampshire in late February and runs through mid-April, depending on weather conditions. Ideal conditions of night time temperatures in the low 20s and daytime temperatures warm to highs of 30s to low 40s cause the sap in frozen trees to flow through the tapped holes during the day.

Wikimedia image

This year the weather has the maple syrup producers worried. The winter has been milder than usual and needed snowfall is light. The sap is flowing early. Producers in southern New Hampshire are tapping their trees now amidst some fear that the production time may be cut short by an early spring. It may mean less maple syrup which will mean higher prices for consumers at the market. On the other hand, if the weather holds, it could be the longest season ever. Only Mother Nature knows for sure.

Icy!

Before we know the answers, we plan to visit one or two of the Sugar Houses that are close by in Strafford County and learn more about this ancient tradition that began long before the Europeans’ arrival. And to be safe, we just may purchase a reserve in case of a shortage because how could we exist with an inadequate supply?

Spring Harvest Maple Farm in Barrington New Hampshire provides maple syrup to some of our favorite breakfast restaurants

Tagged: maple syrup, New Hampshire

For Bird Lovers Everywhere…

Annie — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:30:19 +0000

If this doesn’t get you ready for spring, nothing will…..

Robins: 4 Eggs, 4 Weeks from Fred Margulies on Vimeo.

Wordless Wednesday

Annie — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:59:58 +0000

It’s a Grey Fox… not a Red

Annie — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:46:15 +0000

I’m not venturing out to garden, weed, or prune in our new frozen tundra this winter. The only outdoor activity I’m fully engaged in so far is feeding the songbirds. We have no trees near this house so instead of hanging feeders from limbs as I did in Virginia, I discovered a great Advanced Pole System at Wild Birds Unlimited to bring the birds closer.

The pole with attached auger is simply twisted into the ground about 24″ and additional poles are snapped onto this pole. The top of the pole is where you can get fancy or stay simple. This is what you could do:

I chose to stay simple with one squirrel baffle tube feeder until I saw how many birds would be tempted to dine with us. The small chickadee was the first to discover the feeder, followed by the tufted titmouse, hairy woodpecker, goldfinches, nuthatches, and the ground feeders, the juncos and other sparrows.

I’ve had the system for one week and the food is disappearing fast. Now I’m waiting for those birds I rarely or never see in the south, like the redpolls, the grosbeaks, the crossbills. I’m gearing up the the Great Backyard Bird Count of 2012 on February 17-20. I’ll count the birds around the feeder and the birds I see in the distance or simply flying over. With an extensive salt marsh vista, hawks are numerous, busy scouting for food over the grasses, gulls soar from the nearby rivers, and noisy Canada geese fill the skies.

With the noise at the feeder today, we attracted a new visitor. What I thought was a Red Fox is really a Grey Fox. I’m sure his acute hearing alerted this visitor to see what all the ruckus was in his neighborhood. He stood very still on a sunny hillside where the snow has melted and just observed the bird activity at the feeder. After a moment, he turned tail and quietly disappeared over the hill into the white pines. There were no dining opportunities at our feeder on open ground.

Grey Fox

However…. should the fox be interested, there is a meal or two available if he is patient and quick. You see, not only the birds have found the feeder. We have one or two uninvited guest who are eating more than their fair share of my costly bird food. And, boy, are they FAT.

Tagged: birding, birds, great backyard bird count, hairy woodpecker

Wordless Wednesday

Annie — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:24:48 +0000

Wednesday’s View from the Window…

A Walk in a New Hampshire Woods…

Annie — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:42:59 +0000

Lately temperatures have been unseasonably warm and snow has been slowly turning to mush. This weekend, it seemed mild enough for family and dogs to have a little stretch of the legs. Instead of a powdery snow covered trail, we found a mess of slippery slush with muddy puddles along the path. I watched ahead as the dogs romped and slid through the wet snow and humans trod carefully watching where they planted their boots.

human and canine prints

I was curious to see what was growing in this zone 5b pine forest. Would I see many alien species? Well, no, not really. At first I stepped over a familiar fern looking very much like it was out of the moist woods of Virginia. This could be one of the wood ferns although I’m not sure. I need a field guide for ferns!

Then, here, there and everywhere, covering rocks and fallen trees I saw the soft Cypress-Leaved Plait Moss (Hypnum cupressiforme), abundant to the woodlands of Virginia.

Cypress-Leaved Plait Moss

Where the snow had melted away, we spotted the tiny woodland creeper, Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens L.), the acid loving groundcover we find in Virginia.

Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens L.)

Even the waterway at the end of the trail had a familiar look. The Oyster River could double for one of the rivers in Gloucester County, Virginia.

The Oyster River

The landscape that was so like Virginia had things we would never see in Tidewater… like moss and lichen-covered boulders rising out of the earth looking much like giant alien eggs!

And the beautiful bark of the white birch tree (Betula papyrifera), the state tree of New Hampshire shone like lights under the pine canopy.

And, of course, there were the white pines, one of my favorite trees in Virginia. But in New Hampshire they don’t look at all like the white pines I loved in Virginia. Here, the Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), thrives in this cool and humid climate of the Northeast. Growing straight and unbelievably tall, these trees were perfect as masts for sailing ship in colonial days. They were so perfect that in 1772, King George III passed a law that any white pines over 12″ in diameter were to be used as masts for the British naval ships… eventually leading to the Pine Tree Riot, the colonist retaliation against the king’s chosen representatives. It was a little like the Boston Tea Party being the outcome of the tea tax.

Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus)

I’ve got much to learn about gardening in zone 5 but I’ve got the rest of the winter to decide how to design my New England garden!

Tagged: betula papyrifera, gloucester county virginia, oyster river, Pinus strobus, white birch tree, zone 5b