Home! Home! Finally Home!

Great Crested Flycatcher, Moose River, New York. June 1, 2020.

The only thing tougher than going home right now is leaving home.

Ten minutes earlier heading back into the world of whatever isn't home is, and I don't see this kid and friends. And they don't see me either. 

I hope they're smarter than I and hang a while. I'll be back soon if I can and look forward to possibilities. Almost fifteen years pass between friends like forever. But there we were, some of us. 

And I'm not kidding: ten minutes later and none of this happens.

And it did happen. 

I believe in miracles.

Cardy And The Card

THURMAN LEE MUNSON

CAPTAIN OF THE NEW YORK YANKEES

1976-1979

So says the headstone of a man gone forty years today.

My great aunt bought this card for me a few months before she, high up among the kindest and most decent people I've known, died in as awful and undeserved a way as I can imagine, a lingering torture that didn't seem like any god could've ordered it.

And so, as this cardboard leans against other paper products in a small room in the North Country of New York, I must offer this:

CARMEEN REYNOLDS BEHAGE
NO NICER PERSON EVER WALKED THE EARTH
1906-1982

Road Trip: Manchester Hits Old New Notes

As he faced the sun he cast no shadow. 

Green Poodle Lurks O'er The Thruway. July 31, 2019.

The Only Living Moth In New York

Moose River, New York, November 8, 2018.

Kids

Several Novembers ago a man trekked into the North Country of New York. He thought his job was to move and stack three cords of firewood. In a sense he was correct. In another sense he was wrong.

The true task was to meet six kittens.

I am that man. These are those kittens. This is part of our story.

It seems like it happened yesterday. I'm sure it always will.   -MJ

The Best Of All Possible Worlds

Magnetic birds uncovered, ready to ascend from their rest atop the radio to the face of GE. 

Moose River, New York, April 26, 2019.

Grosbeak and Friend

The first Cottage appearance of a rose-breasted grosbeak in several years,

and the first sighting of a chipmunk in several seconds.

Moose River, New York, May 18, 2019.

Lesson Learned (For Now)

White-throated sparrow, Moose River, New York, near the end of April 27, 2019, which moments earlier seemed to be among the gloomiest days ever. After this, much less so.