Hearing Hornets

I was just settling in for an afternoon nap when there was a war of hornets filling the air.  It was not real hornets, of course, but the activity of my neighbor Martha Stewart.  I have written before about this woman who moved in next door.  I call her Martha Stewart because she had a gardening show on television, she owns a huge farm, she has lots of money.  She is a lovely lady and has the stature and face of Jane Fonda or Diane Rehm.  She has the presence of a woman who knows she owns the room but realizes kindness gets more done.  She also has enough power in this small county to get around most environmental regulations.  She is continually cutting trees so that her view of the water is unimpeded and the view from the road shows off her Southern-style mansion.

There are two types of people on the water.  Those that try to avoid damaging nature as much as possible and those that believe they can mold nature to mankind's desires.  She is the second.

If you look closely (click on the photo) you can see the man on the left of the photo hanging from safety ropes and the man on the far right is in the bucket.  They have stripped the trees of all their lower branches, which I understand is legal so that she can finally have a view from her million-dollar house.  We do get some great sunsets and now she can see them without having to go down to her dock like I do.  I just cannot help but think this is hard on the trees.  They lose a third of their food-making machines.

The chain saws buzz and buzz and buzz and give me a headache!  It is like a battle of the hornets.  I will get some interesting sun angles against those naked trees for photography on the lighter side as I look from my deck I am thinking.

Above is our house.  We can see the water from our deck, but it is through some natural bare areas that we had when we bought the house and we do keep them clear so that we can watch the boat during stormy weather and so that we have a clear path to our dock.  We pile rocks to keep the waves from destroying the natural grasses rather than drop a wall of rock along the shore as many do.  Do I sound a little snooty?  Sorry, but I am old and am set in my ways.

If trees fall into the river we are required by law to leave them there unless they present a navigation issue.  She does not own a boat and is also removing a fallen tree on the opposite side of her dock.  This means habitat loss for our fish and shellfish.  But it is so hard for people to see the big picture.

I think you deserve a sunset picture or two after all my ranting.  (The buzzing has stopped!!!)

Hope you have a healthy week without COVID, fires, storms or flooding.

Monthly?

I have been thinking about Blogging.  Thinking...thinking...thinking. I have been away for over a month and missed the lives of those I love to read about.  And I have had issues that I felt were interesting and important to blog about: family, climate, flu, old age.  But each time I wanted to start my writing something interrupted me making it so much easier to procrastinate for a few more days.

Also, after the fifth regimen of new medicine, I have failed to stop the cough that interrupts my life about 10 times a day and three times each night.  I have not reached true depression, but I am discouraged and short of temper.  Who knows,  all these new medicines may be causing mood swings.  I had a 6-7 week reprieve and thought it was all over and I was so happy...until.

My family visits have increased a little now that most are vaccinated.  The only one that we continue to protect is the 10-year-old who cannot get the vaccine yet.  I am so praying they find it safe for him by fall.  He had a light version of Covid last winter so he does have some resistance.

Lets us talk about food.  We are into blue crab season and that makes life a little more fun.  We are into fresh tomato season and that means that something fresh is always in a salad or soup.  We went with my son and his wife to pick blackberries and peaches last weekend.  (Peaches are my favorite fruit.)  East Coast peaches cannot compete with Colorado peaches but I still love both.  We could only stay a short while before the skies opened in torrential rain.  We got soaked.  My tennis shoes sloshed and my clothes stuck to my back and sides.  We ate lunch outside in a small restaurant.  The AC inside would have frozen us into a nasty cold.

Hubby and son picking blackberries.  The red-winged blackbirds sang to us with their trill whistle all afternoon.

Store refrigerator biscuits and sweetened blackberries with butter and cinnamon were our quick dessert that evening.

 And these were the peaches leftover after we ate our fill.  I washed, blanched, removed skins and after a quick dip in lemon water, they went into freezer bags for another day.

Well enough catch-up because I have to read some blogs and start dinner!  Thanks for stopping by.