It Was C-c-cold!

37 degrees F overnight (3 C). Didn't we just go to the beach Friday in 80 degree air and 60 degree water? Yes, we did. Didn't my husband just brush the chimney and vacuum out the soapstone woodstove for the summer? Yes, he did. So he didn't want to start a fire last night, but we could have used one!

This is a situation where we used to use the furnace. However, last fall we had the LP gas tank, the big one, pulled, and we've been heating solely with wood ever since. The idea is that we are going to get a much smaller tank to match our usage now that we're mostly burning wood.

We went all winter on wood heat -- it was toasty. In fact, that's probably the reason people keep buying me toasty sweaters and jackets and coats: because I come to their (non-wood heated) houses, I know it will be colder there, and so I bundle up.

I am still experimenting with my new camera (Fuji FinePix S700). This is a Deptford pink, Dianthus armeria. I meant to focus on the tiny flower, but I ended up focussing on the buds. I still thought it was pretty enough to share.

When I tried to get close to this butterfly, I kept spooking it off the leaf. Finally I gave up moving and just zoomed on it. I love how much detail I can get with this camera in a zoom shot.

From my field guide, I am going to guess this is a Northern Pearl Crescent, Phyciodes selenis, but if any real butterfly watchers want to correct me, they are welcome to.

After I saw the grass in this shot, I tried to get another, but it had flown out of sight.

The last thing I tried to take yesterday was of the turkey vultures circling over my house. It's not because there was anything dead (er, that I know of!). It's because we have great thermals.

I tried to get a close up of one of these big guys, but they kept slipping out of the frame.
So I had to be content with the shot of four of them circling, and a cut-off head shot of one. Once last year I saw about a dozen of them circling over our house, even lower than this. They were so low I could hear the wind whispering in their feathers -- in fact, that was how I noticed them, that and their big shadows slipping across the grass.