Sunday Stroll: Searching for Charlotte

Since returning to the Lodge at mid-week, I've missed my outdoor "office mate." Charlotte the giant spider (at 2+ inches from toe to toe of her longest legs) has been absent from her amazing large web. Here's a photo taken 3 weeks ago.



For my Sunday stroll I decided to wander my way through the Lodge gardens, photographing flowers, to the backyard to see if Charlotte had moved house, buiding some other web nearby.

But before going outside, I admired the fuchsia, one of many sympathy plants given us when my father-in-law passed away in mid-June, now blooming again. Quite timely, for there's a second memorial service for him this afternoon, here in NH.



It's bright today but rained yesterday, as will be apparent from the pictures.

Geranium on the deck.



Cupani's Original, the fragrant 17th century annual sweetpea created by a monk.



Down the steps, tall garden phlox.



Turtle head plant.



Sedum.



My perennial sweetpea. I planted the regular mauve coloured one...



then this White Pearl...



...which cross-polinated to create this varicoloured pinkish version!



Rugosa.



Alba rugosa.



Like the sweetpeas, they created a pinkish offspring, which isn't flowering at the moment.

Rugosa hips.



In the grass, a mushroom.



Lots of them, in fact.



This one looks like something you'd see through a telescope, it has a planetary aspect.



The heather.



My honeysuckle is still budding and flowering.



At last I reach Charlotte's web. It's empty, in bad repair with holes, raindrops hanging from the fibers. No sign of my large, vivid friend. Any reader of E.B. White's classic story knows the eventual fate of spiders.

But I felt sure Charlotte had left behind a gift, so I started looking for it. And at the point where the web was attached to the side of the house, I saw this:



The egg sac.

Thank you Charlotte, for living your short but beautiful life within my gaze.

Rest in peace.



Thanks for visiting. To keep strolling, head in this direction!

The Longest Morning

This is just about the only day of the year when I turn on my television before 4 p.m. Eight years ago today, here at the Lodge all alone, with husband on business trip and parents in Scotland and brother far away and no form of human support or interaction except via computer, I kept all our tv's on, plus a radio in every room.

So this morning in the kitchen I switched on the little digital tv, to pick up a network morning program. On NBC, CBS, and ABC the hosts of morning chat were yukking it up right at 8:45. I was royally pissed. I raced downstairs to the satellite tv and tuned into MSNBC in time for the White House observance of the moment of silence, and Mayor Bloomberg's opening remarks at Ground Zero.

I'm now watching the annual re-broadcast of the events of the longest morning of my life. MSNBC is showing the Today Show of 9/11/01 in real time. Commercial free.

It's a grey morning. Sometimes it's the same crystal-perfect that it was 8 years ago, when I was lying in bed and heard on NPR that "a small commuter plane" might have struck a New York landmark.

I've blogged this day before. My emotions and memories are still as strong as ever...but there's no need to repeat myself. My 9-11 experience and reflections can be found here:

Remembrances

Dividing Line

It's not hyperbole to say that my life changed 8 years ago today. At the time I understand that America would be changed. The impact upon my personal life revealed itself in the weeks and months afterwards.

Who's Left?

Here on the Big Lake, it's just me and the year-round residents. And the workers.

Yesterday at several houses along our road and the adjoining one, I saw handymen and roofers and siding installers. The summer people departed on Monday. On Tuesday came the repair crews to work on their unhabitated houses or cottages, and fix up their docks.

I've hardly sighted a single boat all day. A little while ago a barge passed by, with equipment used for dock or other shore work.



My house is silent also, and very still--I left the dogs at the Lodge. Yesterday morning we zipped down there to meet Aqua Boy, the guy who maintains our water filtration system. He replaced some parts to repair a leak. When he finished I headed to town for my mandolin lesson, and came straight back to the cottage. I made a big circle...or more like an ellipse.

Even though technically we're not "summer people"--we use our place in 3 of the 4 seasons--we have a contacted the furnace guy to fix a problem, and want at least one more estimate for the part of the roof that needs replacing. Our winter preparations aren't yet as frantic as the squirrels and chipmunks hoarding the huge crop of acorns. But with the leaves already turning, the coming colder weather is on our minds. Somewhat.

On the Water

The Chap and I had a boat ride with friends. It was the perfect day for it. We went up our Bay, and cruised along the eastern lake shore to nearby bays, and zipped across the Broads, bouncing from wave to wave. The image stabilisation setting on my camera proved its merits!

Wind tunnel hair.



View from The Broads.



Coming out of a cove, northwest mountain views. I'd just missed getting a loon shot--he went underwater to avoid the publicity of being blogged!



At the top of our Bay, western side. To the left is a little island with a lovely white house, boathouse, and lighthouse.



After cruising down our Bay and past the Point, we worked our way back up to our dock. So many trees, you can barely tell there's a cottage perched on the hillside.



Here's our route in red.



We then gathered at our neighbours' cottage for drinks and snacks and chat. Felt like a family reunion.

The girls behaved beautifully while we were away, but they were overjoyed to see us--they got their supper a bit later than usual. After a meal and a treat and some cuddles they forgave us.

Sunday Stroll: A Backward Glance

Today I'm keenly conscious of the impending shift. Considering how cool and often wet our so-called summmer has been in New England, it's surprising how serenely I contemplate the nearness of autumn.

On our morning walk I never quite made it past the "chilly" stage, never really warmed up despite the dogs moving me along at a brisk pace.

Today will include summer-y Labor Day Weekend-ish activities--boat ride with near neighbours, bratwurst on the grill. Even though the Chap and I are making the most of these three days of leisure (well, I am writing a lot, too) I'm inclined to glance over my shoulder back at some special moments of the season. Which in some sense comes to an abrupt end tomorrow, although the 21st is still some days off.

So I'm strolling through weeks past. None of these photos has previously been featured on a Sunday.

The first rose



Spawning fish off our dock, Walter and his missus



Independence Dogs



12 Days in Anaheim



My General Convention Family



Our Little Lake



A Favourite Gallica



Snowshoe Hare wearing Summer Brown



A Good Year for Raspberries



One of many Big Lake Sunsets



Enjoying Vieux Montreal



Road-Tripping with Sparkle the Lizard, to Quebec and Maine, in my New Car



Eagle-Spotting on the Kennebec River



Visitor from Afar on M.S. Mt. Washington Cruise on the Big Lake



Still a bit of time left for summer photos.

Thanks for stopping by today. To keep strolling, go here.

Local Traffic

Observed during cocktail hour.

Dogs are Funny (People, too!)

If the dogs hadn't roused me at 5:15 this morning for a very early feeding, I wouldn't have seen the full moon setting over the mountains to the west.



Lacking clarity of mind at that hour, I forgot to feed them their usual 1/2 dog biscuit after they finished their breakfast. I did remember to take them outside. Then we all came in and went back to sleep.

At 9:00 we went for our morning walk. It's a fine, bright morning, and the pleasantly cool. I wore a thin plaid flannel lobsterman's shirt which I've owned, by my reckoning, about 24 years. On my lower half I wore the grey cotton knit long pants of indeterminate purpose. Are they meant to be worn in public or private? For sleeping or lounging or exercising? I don't really know, so I do everything in them. On my head I had my large-brimmed straw hat that shades my face and protects me from the deer flies.

I know perfectly well--and don't much care--that to our neighbours, the summer people and year-round residents, I must look like a lakeside eccentric. A junior-grade Katherine Hepburn from On Golden Pond, who at any moment might start wittering on about "The loons! The loons!" (I admit I can mimic the loon cry...most recently heard very early yesterday morning while I was still abed.) But ours is a quiet and secluded road, our part is private, so it's only local traffic, and I wander about in strange garb that I wouldn't dare be seen in any place else. At least I don't go out in my bathrobe...however tempting it might be.

As soon as we returned from our stroll and I unleashed the dogs, they rushed over to the kitchen counter where the dog biscuit bag sits. Yes, precisely 4 and 1/2 hours after my heinous sin of ommission, they still remembered that they'd not got their morning treat. And they wanted me to know that. With many apologies, I did what they told me to do and handed out the bones.

Lately I've been adding up all their vocabulary words--human speech that they recognise and respond to--in a addition to the ever-popular bone. Here they are, in no particular order:

Ruth
Jewel
No!
Let's eat
Walk
Need to go outside?
Sit
Lie down
Off!
Ice cream
Go to bed
Come (Usually just a name call suffices.)

The one we need to work on is Stop barking! Jewel is our watch dog, a role she takes a bit too seriously. Ruth doesn't really bark. She squeals when she's happy, and yowls if she sees a Monster in the yard.

Here's Jewel, urging me to log off from Facebook. She has issues with my laptop. If it's on my lap, she can't be in my lap, which is her favourite place in the world.



And Ruth, looking sweet and soulful.



They don't care how funny I look when I take them walking. And they're so very attractive, they more than compensate for my decidedly odd appearance!

The Winnipesaukee swimmer completed his 42-mile (give or take) journey up and down the lake.

The Big Swim

I read about the Lake Winnipesaukee endurance swimmer this morning. I had no idea how long it would take him to swim the 21 miles from Centre Harbor to the tip of our Bay, but I was watching all afternoon. I took my laptop out to the porch so I could keep an eye on the lake.

Somehow he got past our dock without my noticing! Perhaps while I was having supper, or more likely when I walked the dogs.

A little while ago I noticed that the sunset was turning the sky fiery and went outside to take pictures.

And there he was, swimming up the Bay!



I watched for a long time. It was easy to follow his progress, because there are a couple of motor boats and two kayaks travelling with him, with running lights.



He's had a long day of swimming but he was fortunate in the glorious weather. It's a very pleasant, evening but he's got many hours of nighttime swimming ahead of him. Go, Maury!

Back to the Lake

Yesterday was full, as Tuesdays often are. Music lesson. Evening meeting at our church for the entire convocation. We watched this season's final episode of Rescue Me.

This morning the girls and I came to the lake cottage. I was thankful to see that ARRA ("stimulus money") is being used to pave the really bad stretch of Route 28. It was both hazardous for drivers and damaging to cars to have such significant cracking and surface breakage. Not to mention embarrassing to have green grass growing in the cracks of an important north-south state highway! It seems appropriate use of the funds to me because cars from practically every state in the nation can be spotted headed to the Big Lake!

The closed-up house was way colder than the outdoors, but opening a few doors and windows let in the warmer air. A nice walk with Ruth and Jewel warmed me up, too.

Seems like I was just here with my friend. The apple crisp I made when she was here is still in the fridge. I'll probably finish it up today.

There's only one craft on the lake right now, a small sailboat. it really is a lovely, lovely day!



The girls are happy to be back.



The hummingbirds are still here. I wonder for how much longer?