how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

What place could be more fitting for a woodchuck than in our stack of wood? Remember meeting Chuck last year? I guess Chuck was really Chuckette.This baby woodchuck found a safe place away from the dogs—thank goodness. But if it weren’t for the dogs I would never have known it was even around.

Yesterday Hailey was acting crazy, going from window to window panting and in a state of extreme agitation. She jumped up on the love seat that doubles as a dog bed here in the office and whined and stared out the window. I had a feeling I knew what it was because we went through the same routine last week. Sure enough when I looked out the window I saw a baby woodchuck ambling around the back yard near our firewood stack. Forget about it, I told her, no way am I letting you outside!

You see, last week the same thing happened, only in the front of the house. Hailey and Bella kept going to the window and looking down into the hedges at the front windows. I kept looking out the window and saw nothing. Finally they convinced me that something was there that was very interesting, so out the front door I went. I started down the steps and this little head popped out of the marigolds.

So cute! I did not let the dogs out because I knew they would chase it down like they do with the squirrels and chipmunks. I waited a while but finally had to let the dogs out. I went out first and found it still walking around in the back yard. I scared it under the deck and figured it was safe. I fed the dogs and let them outside. After about ten minutes my brain registered that they had been out longer than usual without wanting to come inside and I went outside to see what they were up to. Well ... I’m afraid that adorable baby woodchuck met its demise that day. I cried buckets of tears and felt so badly for it. But, really, what can you do? They are dogs after all and prey drive runs in their veins. I have no idea exactly who was involved in the woodchuck’s demise and I don’t want to know.

So ... I don’t know whether to be thrilled that there is another baby chuck or worried that it may meet the same fate as the other one. When it grows up and is eating all my flowers, ask me again!

I think it has the cutest ears!

Two thunderstorms with heavy rain rolled over us while we tried to sleep this morning. Why oh why does it wait until 3:00 a.m. to turn on the noisy water works? Just as I drifted back to sleep (or at least it seemed like it), the second one went over. It poured. It rumbled. It lit up the sky. It was still raining lightly when I got up. Then I went to look at the radar on the computer and saw a line of storms coming rapidly our way that were red and orange. Not good. I made sure Rick was up and taking his shower so he wouldn’t get stuck in the shower with lightning all around. I shut off the computer and waited. It was as dark as night. It did all of the above things again only with more thunder and lightning than the other two.

The first two storms put down 3/4 of an inch of rain. The third storm by itself put down 1/2 inch of rain in about 20 minutes. That’s a lot of rain folks! We’re going to have to let water out of the pool so the skimmers will work! I am getting used to thunderstorms in the morning hours, something you would never see in Colorado. It’s still raining out there with the occasional clap of thunder and flash of lightning, but it’s still really really dark. I can’t even see out the front windows because the screens are so wet. A very strange start to the day. Thank goodness I mowed the grass yesterday!

Here’s the map after it went over us.

Outside temperature: 79
Pool temperature: 70-ish
First swim of the year! At first we were just going to go in the pool just to see if we could entice Bella back in. I am still kicking myself for not pushing the right button to record when Bella jumped in and swam to Rick on Saturday. Darn it anyway! We were not successful in getting her back in with us. We bobbed around a while on our new cushy lounges while the sun went in and out of clouds. It couldn’t seem to make up its mind. I got out and Rick decided he was going to try to really get wet and swim. He was standing at what I call the “brink of no return” (where the shallow end of our pool starts dropping off gradually from 3 feet to 9 feet). He was stuck there. Trust me, it’s hard to make that decision to dunk yourself in that cold water! So, I asked him if it would help if I got in too. I walked in to meet him and my right foot went a little too far—right off the brink of no return. kerplunk. I was in the icy water. Oh well, might as well swim since I’m in! Rick was annoyed with me because he wanted to be the one who got wet first this year. Trust me, I didn’t plan it. He said the expression on my face was priceless. We swam five laps or so and that was enough. Actually it felt kind of refreshing once you got used to it.

The water so far this year is crystal clear. Last year we struggled so with algae. I hope we don’t have that problem this year. It was a real pain. We have these little bugs this time of year that we are always finding floating in the pool. They look just like a fly Rick used in Colorado for fly fishing: a wooly bugger. I was never sure about the spelling. Maybe it’s a wooly booger. They are always dry, never wet. Anyway, this is what they look like:

I have tons of foxglove that is on the verge of blooming. They must reseed themselves pretty readily because I used to only have two or three and now I have at least ten different plants coming up everywhere. I like them though so I let them go. The bees like them too.

I don’t know what this is. Something in the pea family, but exactly what I don’t know. It’s a pretty tall plant; about 3.5 feet.

The day lilies are getting ready to make their debut poolside soon. I love it when they’re blooming. So cheery and bright.

It wasn’t all sitting idle by the pool this weekend. We also trimmed the forsythia hedge into some semblance of order and the burning bushes in front of our windows have now been taken down a notch. If we let it go we would not be able to see out the windows. After living in Colorado for so long and coaxing things to grow, New Jersey sometimes feels like a jungle. I am always pulling baby trees up and the ferns are taking over the day lilies!

We had a nighttime visitor on Saturday. We had just gone to bed when Hailey and Alex started barking like crazy from the office downstairs. Rick went to investigate (Bella and I stayed in bed) and turned on the front outside light. He saw a big black shape over in the area where we feed the birds. Ho-hum, just a bear. Back to bed. He did think, however, to check to make sure we had closed the sliding doors in the sun room—we had not. Good thing he checked. But the next day while we were eating our breakfast of strawberries and fresh melon down by the pool I glanced up to see the door to the basement standing wide open. Uh oh. (It’s our habit to leave the door open when we are outside with the dogs in summer. They get hot and go in to the basement to keep cool and out of the sun.) Bravely I went in to check it out. No bear. whew. But how stupid to leave the door open all night! I’m sure the bear would enjoy cozying up in there without our knowledge! I think we need to do a full door check before going to bed from now on.

Bella says:
hey mom, you and dad can go in that big water bowl as much as you want but I think i’ll stay on the sides and look cute. don’t the new flowers make a lovely backdrop for my head?

Color, color, color!

I hereby declare firefly season open as of tonight. They may have been here a few days ago, I don’t know for certain. But as of tonight —  they have arrived. Whether or not it was due to the fact that I mowed the grass today or not, they seemed to be drawn to it tonight. Rick saw the first one. We were sitting out by the pool having a late night glass of wine, tiki torches lit. We went down into the yard to get a closer look.

As dusk descended around me I sat in the newly mown grass, knees drawn up to my chest, my arms wrapped tightly around them. Fireflies flickered on and off all around me. I sat there in perfect silence just watching. Mesmerized by their flashing lights. Winking so close to my body I could reach out and catch them. But I didn’t. I just sat and watched. A peaceful kind of joy dropped like a protective cloak about me as if nothing in this world could touch me outside of its custody. I was immune from everything happening in the world just then. Just me and the fireflies. They certainly didn’t care, why should I?

I find fireflies magical beings. I am so glad they have arrived for their brief stay here in my New Jersey back yard.