Moths & Coffee

We've been mothing for about 3 years now, trapping and identifying moths with our home made moth trap.  But this year, we started the season earlier than ever, and have trapped nearly every night that the weather would allow it (not too cold, windy, or rainy).  We have been getting an incredible number of fascinating moths, and we thought it was time to share this nerdy habit with others.  Hey... most of our friends already know we're crazy, so that's not going to be news.  On that thought, we planned a "moths & coffee" gathering on a Sunday morning and invited some friends to have breakfast treats and see what we caught in our moth trap the previous night.

We totally lucked out with one of the best moth nights yet, and also with the fact that I had 3 extra moth traps from work that I needed to test out before sending out with some volunteers in the field.  AND, the previous night we had collected a luna moth and a polyphemous moth (both huge saturniid silk moths) and we kept them one more day to show everyone.  So there were some great moths to show the 10 or so kids who gathered around on the deck to open the first moth trap.  I talked for a bit about moth biology and kids and adults were able to ask their questions about what the heck these furry night butterflies are up to, anyway.  I think most were surprised at how diverse and beautiful moths are- from beautiful yellow and green moths, to striking patterns, and sizes ranging from a bit of your pinky nail to bigger than your hand!  The luna and polyphemous moths definitely captured the kids' attentions (they were amazed that these moths don't even have mouths to eat, and live for only a week or so with their singular purpose being to find a mate and lay eggs) and when each of them vibrated their wings to warm up and took off up into the canopy they shouted farewells to them.  In the second moth trap, we also caught a promethea moth (another huge silk moth) and three large sphinx moths- one of which we'd never caught before.  So this would have been a banner day for us without all the people there to watch, but it was doubly fun to share.  I'm sure now I'll be known as the crazy moth-lady (as opposed to previous titles such as "crazy dragonfly-lady" or "crazy bird-lady") but hey, there could be worse things...

Haley has 2 rosy maple moths on her dress (right about at belly button) and Ellis one in her hand

Lots of Excitement

It feels like things have been happening lately.  We've been busy with work and school and things, that's normal, but things have been so crazy lately that we can barely keep it all straight.  Part of it is probably just the beginning of summer, with daylight at a maximum we are spending every hour outside go-go-go-go and dropping into bed exhausted when it finally gets dark.  Add to that our (old) house is finally under contract, so we've been dealing with those negotiations, and then last week our truck died.  It's not worth the price to fix it, but thankfully, we were able to drive up to VT to pick up my Dad's old truck to use instead.  At least for the time being, we can stave off buying a new one.  And we got a short visit in VT with Grandma Sally, which featured angling for panfish in the world's easiest fishing pond.  The fish bite bare hooks.  True story.

Finishing up school and after-school activities, the kids have one foot in the school year and one already bounding into summer.  Haley and I took off early one afternoon to attend a workshop on some research about how warblers are using patch cuts in a nearby town.  The researchers set up their mistnets to catch breeding forest birds, and we were able to see some beautiful warblers up close.  Haley was thrilled when she got to hold a black-throated blue warbler all by herself.  She also chatted non-stop with everyone in the workshop, enchanting them with her knowledge about everything from frogs to My Little Pony.  Later that week, we all trekked to King Arthur Flour for a family class on making home made stromboli.  And then, the  highly anticipated Daddy-Daughter Dance - Haley has been waiting for months to dress up in fancy clothes and go to the dance with Andy.  She did look very beautiful in her pink gown, and according to Andy the dance was a lot of fun, though it involved more twirling and running around like crazy than actual dancing for Haley.  She came home EXHAUSTED with lots of great prizes and a belly full of cookies and cupcakes to boot.

So yeah, I guess we're to blame for most of the craziness.  Summer is definitely here.  Up next?  Our annual summer trip to Long Island, featuring my grandma's 90th bday party, and Jeanne & Joe's wedding!

Aiden's last LAX game

Serious Exercise, Serious Fun

We have been staying local on weekends lately, partly because of lacrosse, but also because we know our summer weekends will often be far-flung across the northeast with visits to Long Island, Parishville, and Maine.  There is plenty to do here, though, and we have been keeping very active.  On Memorial Day we (Aiden, Andy and I) ran the Black Fly Blitz 5K in Wilmot- Aiden had his best time ever at 33 minutes, and came in 2nd in his age category.  He still sprints out of the gate for the first mile or so, and then is exhausted for the last one, so we're working on an actual J-O-G, which doesn't seem to come naturally!  Haley hung out with her bestie Ellis and had a great time running around the green in Wilmot collecting caterpillars and climbing trees.  This weekend we've got a trail run in Newbury- 6 miles for Andy and 1 mile for Aiden and Haley- glad that the bean gets to try a race again after her success with the turkey day chicken run.

Last weekend we decided to go for a day hike, somewhere not too far but a significant climb we hadn't tried before.  We chose Mt. Cardigan, and it turned out to be a perfect challenge, and hopefully good practice for tackling the "easy" whites later this summer.  Haley declared she was tired after about ten steps, but to her credit, she keeps slogging away and is easily encouraged with little fistfulls of gummy bears.  When we reached the bald summit cone, all her energy came back and she whipped off her shoes and stomped in all the high elevation puddles, running barefoot across the granite from one to the next.  Aiden did great the whole way, he is ready for a bigger challenge for sure.  We brought our trusty thermos of mountain tea, a tradition borrowed from Aunt Becky's family-- the kids absolutely love and look forward to a steaming cup of ultra-sweet tea while they take in awesome views from any summit.  Even Kimball got to come, though she doesn't care for mountain tea.

Boston Harbor Islands National Park

When I actually sit down to think about it, I haven't been to that many national parks.  Everglades, Glacier, Yellowstone, Acadia... but I think that's about it.  Andy's been to the Grand Canyon.  And the kids... probably just the Everglades.  We've got a lot of work to do in that department, but we made a small dent this weekend visiting Spectacle Island in the Boston Harbor Islands National Park.  I've wanted to go there since researching it a bit online last year- there are 8 or so islands that you can reach by different ferry boats from downtown Boston, and each one is unique.  Some have old forts, some have beaches, some are just rocky islets with grassy tops.  This early in the season, you can only visit 2 of the islands, so we chose Spectacle Island for the day.

The ferry ride was a short 20 minutes, just long enough to snap some photos of the receding Boston skyline  and slap some sunscreen on the kids.  Then, we disembarked onto a small island with wide beaches and endless grass undulating in the wind.  So strange to be in downtown Boston one minute, and then out on this undeveloped island the next.  Our first activity was to walk the beaches.  Some were sandy and others rocky, but all were absolutely covered with beautiful sea glass pieces and pottery nicely rounded in the surf.  Spectacle Island was a quarantine area for ships and people with suspected disease at one time, and then in the middle of the 20th century it was a landfill site. During Boston's "big dig" in the 1990s, this island is where much of the dirt from the "dig" ended up.  You would never guess the islands history now from it's beautiful grassy slopes and hiking paths, but the abundance of sea glass and pottery gives a clue, I suppose.  Aiden came up with a contest idea, to see who could find the best pieces... rarest color, most unusual shape, best patterning or words... so we collected for over an hour and then sorted our loot.  Since Spectacle Island is a national park, they prefer you don't take anything home with you (even "cultural artifacts" like sea glass) so we knew we'd just be taking photos and leaving it all there.  We came up with some impressive pieces though, with lovely patterning and shades of purple, green and blue.  All in all it was a fun way to spend the first part of our day.

Then, on to walk the island.  There is a loop trail that rings the island, with several spiraling offshoots that reach the two highest points.  We walked round and round and round, urging Haley along as she wasn't feeling particularly "hikey" that day, and eventually reached the highest point on the north drumlin.  The views of Boston Harbor are outstanding from there, and the huge mowed grassy lawns are a crazy luxury for picnicking and lounging about on a beautiful summery day.  We found some shade under a tree on one lawn and laid out our lunch of cold sesame noodles, hummus & carrots, and cherries.  Everyone was tired enough to nap for awhile before heading back down to the beaches for some more exploring.

By 2:30 pm, we were ready to head back to civilization.  After exploring the playground at Christopher Columbus Park and getting an early seafood dinner, we drove home to New London, sunburned and tired from an adventurous day.  We're already planning a next time- to visit Georges and Peddocks Islands and see how they compare to our beautiful day at Spectacle.