Kim's Game

Look at the items in the photo (right) for 10 seconds and then remember as many as you can.

Well, you can skip the game, but these are some of the items a dog marshal needs to take on the morning walk in the woods.  It's quite a long check list: doggy back-pack (for Pixie), electronic collar and zapper (for Puga), baggies (for all dogs), bug dope (for the humans, although we also have doggy bug-dope for longer walks), three leashes (two for emergencies), whistle, hat (to keep the bugs off my bald spot), dog treats, water (for all of us), etc. etc.

Our general plan is that we take Pixie out in the back-pack and then, at the turnaround point, get her out and let her walk back.  Like the proverbial horse to the barn, she much prefers walking back to walking out.  Her adoption plans have stalled.  What she needs is a nice, mostly-stay-at-home senior who can keep up the regimen of drops in her eye.  Ideally, that's once per hour, but in practice she sometimes has to go a few hours without (at night, for instance).  She is such a sweet, loyal, and loving dog!

Lately, we've been feeling quite pleased with Puga's electronic collar and her recall training.  She is definitely better behaved when she's wearing it, so it is rare that the dog marshal (that would be me) has to use it.  There have been some annoying needle-in-a-haystack searches along the trails for the antenna, which keeps falling off (it's faulty and needs to be replaced).  Thus far, we have managed to find it (once each).

But, this morning, we suffered a dog-training relapse during our morning perambulation of the woods.  Puga ran off through the woods to a house and either couldn't or, more likely, wouldn't (i.e. preferred not to) come back.  Some very nice people helped us retrieve her.  I think the conclusion is that the training has to be continuous.  It's not enough for her to wear the collar – we need to go through the training steps every few days.  Let's hope that will keep her on the straight and narrow.

These two photos of Puga show her new "do".  

When perambulary duty's to be done,
    to be done,
A dog marshal's lot is not an 'appy one,
    'n'appy one.

with all due apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan and definitely not to suggest that I'm not happy with my dog marshalling duties.


Incidentally, if you're not familiar with Kim's game (the title of this piece), you can look it up here.

Birding at Hammonasset

In celebration of the transfer of ownership of the former Griswold airfield to the town of Madison, CT, a bird walk was arranged on the property.  This is the project that Kim was instrumental in making happen last January.  Kim and I were fortunate to be among the select group, which was led by Patrick Comins of Audubon Connecticut.  Patrick is one of those people who can recognize many birds by song alone, a very important attribute when seeking warblers and other small birds that don't make a show of themselves.

The day dawned fine and warm (actually, a little too warm) and we ventured out without even any bug spray!  The airport property is mainly grass, then "rare coastal woods", then salt marsh at which point ownership becomes the state, and so on towards the Hammonasset River.  I assume that because what water there is is brackish, the mosquitoes can't survive in the area. 

The day was truly memorable.  We saw around 50 different species of birds, including for me four lifers: willow flycatcher, salt-marsh sparrow (formerly the sharp-tailed sparrow and one of the area's signature birds), marsh wren and little blue heron.  Well, there were some monk parakeets too but they're not really a natural part of the ecosystem.  We all suffered somewhat from "warbler neck" by the day's end.  It can be quite tricky, and tiring, looking upward into the trees for small birds flitting about behind the leaves!  But they are so colorful: truly magnificent.  I had better views of redstart, chestnut-sided warbler, northern parula, for instance, than I've ever had before.  Including a short breakfast break, we were out a total of about 5 hours!

I really would like to thank Sandy Breslin and the Audubon Connecticut people for making it happen.

Here's a map of where we were birding:







View Hammonasset Bird Walk in a larger map

And here's a list generated by eBird of the sightings that I recorded, with my comments:



Location: Hammonasset Beach State Park
Observation date: 5/21/10
Notes: This walk was led by Patrick Comins. Most of the identifications were his or at least confirmed by him. We visited the old airport at Madison as well as three different sites at Hammonasset Beach State Park. I may have misremembered one or two of the sightings, but generally it is all accurate.
Number of species: 49

American Black Duck X
Mallard X
Common Loon 1
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Egret 1
Snowy Egret 1
Little Blue Heron 1
Glossy Ibis 4 3 flying, 1 feeding.
Osprey X abundant
Northern Harrier 1
Killdeer X
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Willet (Eastern) X
Semipalmated Sandpiper X
Herring Gull (American) 1
Least Tern 1
Common Tern 1
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Monk Parakeet 4
Belted Kingfisher 1
Willow Flycatcher X several others heard
Blue Jay 1
crow sp. X american or fish?
Purple Martin X
Tree Swallow 1 Not 100% sure about this but that's what it looked like to me.
Barn Swallow X
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Marsh Wren X heard more than we saw.
American Robin X
thrush sp. X probably swainson's but not good enough view.
Gray Catbird X
Northern Mockingbird X abundant
Brown Thrasher 1
Northern Parula X
Yellow Warbler X
Chestnut-sided Warbler X
Magnolia Warbler X
Black-and-white Warbler 2 Or did we see blackpoll warbler? I forget.
American Redstart 2
Common Yellowthroat X
Canada Warbler X
Scarlet Tanager 1
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow X Saw about four. Heard many.
Song Sparrow X
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird X abundant
Common Grackle X abundant
Brown-headed Cowbird X
Orchard Oriole 1 possibly a female northern oriole.
House Sparrow X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)

Sunday Afternoon with George

George Li, "our own" piano virtuoso, has now performed four concerts with SPM, starting when he was 11 and, most recently this last weekend, at the grand old age of 14.  He was already a very accomplished performer the first time he played with us in November 2006 (the Beethoven 1st Piano Concerto).  In succeeding years, he followed with the Saint-Saëns 2nd Piano Concerto, then the Mendelssohn 1st Piano Concerto.  This year, he played the Schumann concerto, a wonderfully romantic work which tested the limits of George's emotional maturity.  He was definitely up to snuff.  And, he's such a pleasant young man.  All this adulation (he had played Carnegie Hall and appeared on Martha Stewart when he was still only 11) could easily have gone to his head.  But not a bit of it.  He really seems to enjoy playing.  He can't get enough of it. 

This time, he played two outstanding encores (he always checks with Mark, our music director, if it's OK to do an encore): the Chopin Nocturne in C# minor and the Liszt La Campanella.  Here are two links to recent performances on YouTube:

• La Campanella (although George was much better yesterday than this recording suggests);
• Nocturne in C# minor.

It's easy to find other examples of his playing on YouTube.  Just look for pianoloverok.

My pre-concert lectures went quite well.  I believe that I made the case that the Andante (2nd movement) of Schubert's 9th symphony is completely free from repetition.  I'm still plagued a little by equipment failures.  If I do this again, I really will have to ensure that everything is working correctly.  It's frustrating for me and the audience to have to wait while I try to get excerpts to play!

Will and Nilo came to the talk and concert and I was very happy to see them there.  There were many comments afterwards on how well the Schubert had gone (it's easy to concentrate only on the Schumann concerto).  If you'd like to read the program notes, they are here: http://www.rubecula.com/SPM/SPM/Program%20Notes/201005.pdf.  [You may need to install the (free) Adobe Acrobat Reader plugin].  Here is a link to the review in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette.

So, another year of SPM (the 27th) has finished.  I always feel a little sadness after the last concert.  But it'll be nice not to have to drive all the way to Hudson every Wednesday.

Schubert and the Constitution

During the week, Will and I visited the U.S.S. Constitution at the Navy Yard, the world's oldest warship that is both commissioned and afloat.  The H.M.S. Victory is somewhat older but is in dry dock.  It's pretty darned impressive that a ship that is now 213 years old and, despite its monicker "Old Ironsides", made of wood, is still seaworthy.

Since we last visited, there are a lot more security arrangements now (due to 9/11) so it's harder to get a good picture of the ship as a whole.  But here it is (right) in 1997 in Boston Harbor (courtesy of Wikipedia).  Did you know that the ship, one of six frigates ordered by George Washington himself, was about to be sunk by target practice in 1905 before it was rescued by a fund-raising campaign?  And, did you realize that the reason we in Boston have her is that she was built here?  The other five were built at different yards from New Hampshire to Virginia.

The picture at the top was taken (obviously) on the gun deck.  This is a 24-pounder, typically handled by a gun crew of 9-14 men.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to put anything in the frame for scale.  Because we were a small group (only about a dozen of us), we were able to view the ward room and the captain's quarters.  We had particularly wanted to see all this as a result of our particular interest in the Napoleonic era, and my interest in the Patrick O'Brian stories in particular.  The fictional Captain Aubrey, largely based on a real-life naval officer of the time, Lord Cochrane, finds himself in the H.M.S. Java on its fateful encounter with Old Ironsides.  In the story (The Fortune of War) he and Maturin are put under house arrest in Boston when the Constitution finishes its tour.  They are treated extremely well.

There's now a third historic ship at the old Navy Yard (in addition to Old Ironsides and the U.S.S. Cassin Young, a WWII destroyer): the Nantucket (LV-112), a light ship that served on the treacherous Nantucket Shoals after its predecessor was cut in two by the R.M.S. Olympic (sister ship to the Titanic) in 1934.

Meanwhile, I've been preparing a talk on another product of 1797, Franz Schubert.  We will be performing Schubert's Great C Major symphony and the Schumann Piano Concerto.  In the talk, I shall be dissecting the second movement of the symphony in quite some detail.  Our favorite young pianist, 14-year-old George Li, will be back for his fourth appearance with us!

Hiking Heaven

What a difference a few degrees of temperature make to a hike!  This morning Kim and I went up Mt. Wachusett, one of our favorite and most frequent hikes (930' climb, 3.6 miles round trip).  When we started out, the temperature was 41 (5 for my international readers) and had only warmed up to 46 (8) by the end of the hike.  By contrast, last week's hike was undertaken in the 80s (28/29).  Today, it meant that, not only was it supremely comfortable for hiking, but the combination of cold and wind meant there were no mosquitoes!  We all had a wonderful day, especially Pixie (Madison) who rode most of the way up on Kim's back in her new Outward Hound backpack (see photo) -- that's real Hiking Heaven!  But Pixie walked all the way down, so she definitely can hike when she wants to.  

Meanwhile, all of us enjoyed the day, even the cool stopover at the summit.  Here's Cindy during our lunch break (see photo).

But, generally speaking, this is the time of year when I pine for England's green and pleasant land.  There are no mosquitoes there.  Well, very few, assuming Global Warming and immigration haven't changed things.  Plenty of midges (tiny little biting insects which can swarm all over you) but I really prefer them to mosquitoes.  Well, I'll admit that midges in Scotland can be really bad.

But what makes it so bad here for me?  I have a couple of hypotheses.  First, not growing up here, I didn't build up the appropriate antibodies (or whatever).  Second, I think that the mosquitoes can distinguish between local and exotic blood.  I give them a taste of exotic blood and so I become a mosquito magnet.  It's possible that they think that my blood will be a better meal for their offspring because it lacks some factor (maybe those antibodies).  These hypotheses have not been tested.  But when Kim and I have been in France, she becomes the mosquito magnet, not me.

Of course, our lifestyle of living in Carlisle, where our local newspaper is called The Mosquito, having dogs (that don't go out on their own) and going hiking isn't the best for someone like me.

Life isn't all bad, however.  Our wonderful lilacs are in full bloom (see photo).  We're still enjoying having Pixie (Madison) here, although we have become canine nurses, giving her pills, drops, ointments, etc (even on our hiking trip).  She's doing pretty well with it all.  Doesn't complain too much!  And it looks like we might be getting another foster dog soon!

And last Thursday we went out for dinner followed by the Boston Pops (their 125th anniversary).  Those musicians are so good!  They had three great segments in the first half honoring the three recent conductors (spanning the last 80 years): Fiedler, Williams and Lockhart.  These were followed by a Beatles sing-along.  The second half was given over to Idina Menzel (of Wicked fame, as well as other Broadway and Hollywood hits).  That was Kim's favorite half for sure.  I would have liked it more (she can sing!) if she had done more songs that I knew.  Whadyagonnado?  But all in all it was a terrific evening.

Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink

If it's not one thing, it's another.  Over the weekend, Boston's water supply was disrupted due to a catastrophic failure of a pipe.  65 million gallons (about 800,000 baths-full) leaked out and they had to divert untreated water from the Chestnut Hill reservoir into the system to maintain pressure.  So, Boston and its neighboring MWRA communities have to boil their water.

We're not affected here, of course.  Everyone in Carlisle has their own well and water treatment system.

But it's going to be interesting to hear all the accusations and recriminations going on in the next few weeks.  As with the Big Dig project (a tunnel ceiling tile fell on a car killing the passenger), there are going to be questions.  Was the design at fault?  The construction?  The materials?  It's interesting to note that the failure occurred in equipment only seven years old.  The old pipes which have been there for about 100 years are doing fine, although they are in the process of being upgraded for use as a back-up system.

Meanwhile, the "bugs" have arrived.  We went for a really nice hike at the weekend to Royalston Falls (North central Massachusetts).  We were so energetic, we decided to walk to New Hampshire.  Actually, it was only about half a mile to the line.  But, despite DEET, I got many bites from black flies, which seem to be bigger than ever this year.  But, no mosquitoes.  Until yesterday, that is.  Now, the squadrons have reformed and they are out to kill.  Me especially.

If we can ignore the bugs, the lovely azaleas down by the Greenough pond are out at the moment and they have a pleasant, delicate scent. I believe they belong to the species rhododendron canescens.  Common names for this include Honeysuckle Azalea, Hoary (or Woolly) Azalea, Wild Honeysuckle, Sweet Mountain Azalea.  They're not really native to this area (the southeast is their stronghold) but they are similar to R. roseum with which they're known to hybridize and which is native.  Or they could have been planted.

For those of us on the hike, we did 3.3 miles in total and about 400' of climb.  Here are the map and profile:

View M & M hikes in a larger map