memorial day

I got the opportunity to go back out to the old bottle dump near Hathaway's Pond in Barnstable to do some bottle digging with Gordon Starr. We got some fun bottles, mostly from the 1940s/50s, I think. The woods were filled with lady slippers, and the pine trees had just released their pollen all over everything -- there's a slick of yellow pollen on every surface outdoors and indoors. I guess it's a good idea to take a few days off from housecleaning, because tomorrow it will just be covered with pollen again. Yeah. That sounds like a good excuse.

From here on out I'm going to try posting most of my photos on flickr so that all of you with slow internet can read the blog without getting hung up on slow-loading photos. I'll post a few here, and then give you a link to the rest. And there will always be a link in the menu on the right.

So here's what I did on Memorial Day:

More photos here

pass me a bottle

On a hike near Hathaway's Pond we came across a wonderful old bottle and metal dump, with literally hundreds of half-buried unbroken bottles probably dating from mid-20th century. My favorite is the bottle that broke with the perfect oval to display the moss growing inside.

We were also treated to the sight of a hawk in a tree just a few yards away from where we stood near Little Hathaway's Pond. Lots of wildlife out and about -- also saw a heron, and buffleheads, and countless other water birds enjoying the early spring temperatures.

Thanks to Red Bansfield of the Barnstable Land Trust for inviting me along on these walks, and of course to pal Gordon Starr for his amazing knowledge of the woods.