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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-09-01 07:00 am

Enter September

Air temperature 52 F, wind near calm, fog at the airport but none over here. I think the National Guard has a fog generator over there for training purposes. Or maybe it's just radioactive miasma left over from the Strategic Air Command. Anyway, plans include poking gunk into cracks in the driveway in preparation for overall seal-coat. Whee. Also, afternoon baseball game.
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-31 12:56 pm

Sunday boring report

Roadkill limited to a couple of gray squirrels becoming one with the asphalt. Interesting aviation over at the base consisted of two monarch butterflies, seemed to be flapping east rather than southwest. Also had a couple of commercial planes, but no military traffic. Not even OPSEC craft, which I usually don't report.

Temperature warmed up to 60 F, not much wind, so got on the bike across town and back. Did not die.

15.73 miles, 1:29:53
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-31 07:16 am

Rumor-mongers everywhere

Air temperature 51 F, wind west about 3 mph, partly cloudy. Bike ride will have to wait on more molecular motion out there.
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-30 07:24 am

Ever changing tides

Air temperature 60 F, wind south 7 mph, cloudy. Wet from overnight rain, which may add a touch of green to the world. Labor Day weekend is the traditional end of tourist season in Maine, but changing demographics have rendered that obsolete. Walk scheduled.
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-29 12:35 pm

(no subject)

And now it's raining. We need more than we're likely to get, being in an official drought.
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-29 11:32 am

Friday roadkill report

One red fox dead in the middle of the travel lane, looked to be a yearling. Can't have been there long because it wasn't flat. Further on, fresh porcupine on the road through the bog, again in the travel lane. Posthumous revenge by quills? And may have seen a dead bat by the curb, but it isn't easy to distinguish between a crumpled bat and a crumpled bunch of leaves.

No geese at the cemetery pond, either time I passed it.

Not much new in the floral department. Japanese knotweed starting to bloom, another invasive weed. More asters, both small and midsized white. A few of the pale lavender. And still another variety of goldenrod.

Got out on the bike, up to the golf course and over to the bog and home. More wind than I would have liked, but no rain yet. Did not die.

15.38 miles, 1:28:21
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-29 06:51 am

Isolated life

Air temperature 60 F, wind southeast about 7 mph, cloudy. Showers supposed to show up around 1100, only rain on the weather radar still off in Vermont. Bike ride maybe? Trash out.
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-28 06:44 am

Ominous music?

Air temperature 50 F, wind near calm, sunny. Had Stephen King ground fog creeping across the park pre-dawn. Gone now, so it should be safe to go for a morning walk. Taxi duty for an appointment this afternoon.
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-27 06:38 pm

(no subject)

Rain shower plus low sun equals double rainbow.
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-27 11:32 am

Wednesday wildlife report

Some mid-sized raptor soaring over downtown when I was stopped at a traffic light, gray with semi-pointed wings. Probably not a peregrine because I never saw a wingbeat. Goshawk maybe, though those tend more toward forests. And it's getting into migration season.

Two wild turkeys in a field opposite the transportation museum, either hens or juveniles. Wasn't able to do a thorough scan for others.

Roadkill limited to a couple of flat squirrels. No loss there. No migratory metal birds out at the base.

Got out on the bike, temperature in the 60s F and not much wind. No detours this time. Did not die.

15.75 miles, 1:31:33
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-27 06:45 am

Mountains of Madness

Air temperature 54 F, wind west about 6 mph, sunny with dew gleaming across the grass. We have been careless with our daylight and have lost over 2 hours of it. Bike ride morning?
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-26 06:50 am

Walrus said to speak

Air temperature 61 F, wind west about 6 mph, fog at the airport. None visible here, but the radio towers have gone missing. We did get some rain yesterday, but only a down-payment on our drought. Foraging later, appointment afternoon.
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-25 07:00 am

Not deported yet

Air temperature 65 F, wind south gusting to 15 mph, cloudy. "Showers in the vicinity" but not showing on the weather radar. Maybe showers again this afternoon. Not betting on any accumulation. Lawn crackly dry.
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-24 11:28 am

Sunday goose report

Flotilla in the cemetery pond when I headed out, geese spread out among the markers when I came back. Best estimate I can do, maybe 3 dozen. I *think* there may have been a merganser in with the flock when it was on the pond. I *hope* that wasn't a loon, because the pond is too small for loon takeoff runs.

Roadkill porcupine by the roadside about 9.5 miles into the ride, recent enough that traffic hadn't cleared all the quills from the impact site. Tough luck tires . . .

A few of the maples are turning in the bog, which may show stress rather than season. Water level down because of our drought.

Got out on the bike, up to the golf course and over to the bog and home. Did not die.

15.35 miles, 1:28:18
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-24 07:06 am

Moderate drought dawn

Air temperature 62 F, wind south gusting over 20 mph, sunny. If the wind doesn't get worse, should have a bike ride. Watered the replacement salvia again, since the forecast only includes "scattered showers."
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-23 12:35 pm

Minor amusement

Morning walk, was on a section with a screen of pine trees between the street and a large parking lot. Red squirrel came down out of one of the trees and crossed the street away from me, but then started to pace me on the other side and eventually crossed back over in front of me to climb another tree and stop a few feet up. It then waited, watching me as I came on and passed. I think I was supposed to produce a peanut. Toll?
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-23 07:04 am

Running from the fear

Air temperature 57 F, wind south about 4 mph, sunny. Yesterday's entertainment included a tree crew next door that we hired on the spot to also take down twinned Norway maples in our neighbor's yard (with her permission) that hung over the corner of our house. Now we have a bunch of pissed-off squirrels -- one of the trunks had a "drey" in the upper branches.
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-22 01:17 pm

Friday nothing report

No new roadkill, no interesting metal birds, no new fall flowers. Both purple loosestrife and phragmites are setting seed in their war to the death for our wetlands and drainage ditches.

Ran into a detour out at the airport, down a side road that accesses the army guard helicopter base, thence to another road that skirted the perimeter wire. Hope that whoever monitors the CCTV system didn't ID me as Victor Charlie. Anyway, no blaring klaxons or claymores fired.

Got out on the bike, across town and back, did not die.

15.71 miles, 1:31:03
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jhetley ([personal profile] jhetley) wrote2025-08-22 06:51 am

High point of the week

Air temperature 52 F, wind north about 4 mph, sunny. Now that the sun has bothered to get out of bed, that is. Trash out, early because the truck came early last week. Wanna bet it won't show up until afternoon this week?

(With all the critters in our neighborhood, I don't want to leave the bin out overnight.)