Posts Tagged With: nature

The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes

Posted on July 16, 2016 by Quill Gordon

Deer Fly

Deer flies are persistent and their bites are painful. In some places they are important pests of both humans and livestock. Strong fliers, they can move several miles from their breeding grounds in search of a meal or just following their chosen target, waiting for a chance to strike. Males are typically mild-mannered, feeding on pollen and flower nectar; females, however, feed on blood, using two pairs of “blades” to lacerate skin, soaking up flowing blood with a sponge-like tongue.

Some species have iridescent eyes, which almost makes them pretty. After nailing me but good on the arm, this deer fly agreed to sit still and let me take a few close-ups of her eyes. Actually, gripped in the jaws of a pair of pliers, she agreed to nothing, having no choice in the matter.

Look into my eyes…

Continue reading →

Categories: nature, Vermont | Tags: deer fly, eyes, flashback friday, macro, nature, olympus tg-4, photography, quill gordon | 3 Comments

They Have Very Short Bucket Lists

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Quill Gordon

Having reached the ripe old age of 420 minutes, there’s not much left for these two to do. They don’t even have mouths. If you look closely, though, they do have little moustaches like Salvador Dali.

Click to Enlarge

I’m sure these two will be sharing their wealth of life experience and dispensing advice to this evening’s duns before heading off to procreate and die. Their get-ups are pretty elaborate for a one night stand that will last only a second but at least they’ll go out in style.

You can click this one, too.

Categories: nature | Tags: ephemera, fish in a barrel pond, macro, mayflies, nature, photography, quill gordon | 2 Comments

“Some are born anglers; others have anglers thrust upon them.”

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Quill Gordon

“Some are born anglers; others have anglers thrust upon them.” ~Quill Gordon

The summer season is upon us and millions of people are hatching plans for a little recreation, adventure, and a chance to be closer to nature. The View from Fish in a Barrel Pond is dedicated to those who work hard so they can play hard in the Great Outdoors but it is especially dedicated to those who take care of them when they get there.

Here’s to the guides and drivers and pilots and the people who keep the roofs on. Here’s to the guys and gals who keep the water flowing properly (both in and out). Here’s to those who handle the reservations and scheduling. Here’s to the folks who make the beds and wipe whiskers from the sinks. Here’s to the outfitters, medical staff and rescue teams, the dish washers and cooks and the guys who clean septic filters. Here’s to the people who bang the nails and turn the wrenches, stock paper towels and stack wood. Here’s to the people who try their darndest to make things as right as possible when things don’t quite go as planned, dust everyone off and move on. Here’s to those who pick up the trash, fold the towels and clean unmentionable messes.

To everyone who works hard so others can play hard (or at least pretend to), here’s to you. Continue reading →

Categories: +Uncategorized, Fly Fishing, Humor, nature | Tags: fish in a barrel pond, fishing, Fly Fishing, Humor, nature, outdoor recreation, outdoor recreation industry, outdoors, quill gordon, Rural Life, service workers | Leave a comment

Pink and Purple Pictures Because People Are Like Pistachios

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Quill Gordon

Some are quite average and run of the mill. Some are pleasant, others merely tolerable, while still others exude goodness and make you wish there were more like them. Overall, as a group, they’re not so bad, even easy to take, but every so often one finds a bad taste in one’s mouth.

A really bad taste. The kind of taste there’s not enough root beer in the world to cancel. Jarring and traumatic, it lingers long after the initial shock has worn off, inspiring great trepidation at the thought of chancing another experience like it and putting one off one’s feed in general.

People are like pistachios. Continue reading →

Categories: nature, Rural Life, Vermont | Tags: fish in a barrel pond, nature, outdoors, photography, pistachios, quill gordon, Rural Life, Vermont | 2 Comments

Spring Black-out

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Quill Gordon

For a while there in April it felt like we were on the verge of May. Then, March-like conditions swept in and we were on the verge of tears. It doesn’t seem fair, having one’s chain yanked like that, but that’s the way it is around here.

“… You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You’re one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you’re two months back in the middle of March…”

~From “Two Tramps at Mud Time” by Robert Frost

Of course, if you’re anything like me, you just sort of black out in mid-April and, before you know it, it really is the middle of May and swallows are chasing down mayflies among snowflakes. Continue reading →

Categories: nature, Rural Life, Vermont | Tags: Bobo's Mountain Sugar, fish in a barrel pond, nature, opening day, photography, quill gordon, Rural Life, spring | 2 Comments

Frog Water

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Quill Gordon

Phrenology is the study of bumps on a person’s skull to determine certain aspects of the individual’s personality and character.

Phenology is the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life.

The end of sugaring tends to come at about the same time amphibians thaw out and get active, so some sugar-makers call their final batches of syrup “frog water.” Appropriately, a small chorus of wood frogs was sounding off in the puddles as the fire was lit for an April Fools’ Day boil at Bobo’s last Friday afternoon.

April Showers

Continue reading →

Categories: Humor, Maple Syrup, nature, Rural Life, Vermont | Tags: Bobo's Mountain Sugar, fish in a barrel pond, Humor, maple syrup, nature, quill gordon, Rural Life, spring, Vermont | 4 Comments

Duck Ice

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Quill Gordon

Duck Ice (n): Ice that will hold a duck, but not much more.

While caretaking on an island on Lake Champlain, I heard stories about the caretaker on another island who strapped giant plywood duck feet to his shoes in order to walk on thin ice, just for fun. He was also known for “jumping chunks” to shore when his boat became mired in the pack ice each spring and he liked to drive back and forth on his ATV, stopping by with predictions of how much longer it would be “safe” to make a run to shore.

“You’ve got another six hours, easy,” he once told me, two days after I’d nearly scared myself to death making one last trip for supplies.

A Long Walk

Those, of course, are geese, not ducks, making their way across the last of the ice on Fish in a Barrel Pond. Their wide feet distribute their weight somewhat, but even they run into problems from time to time. Continue reading →

Categories: nature, Rural Life, Vermont | Tags: fish in a barrel pond, ice, ice out, nature, outdoors, quill gordon, Rural Life, spring, Vermont | Leave a comment

Sugarhouse Saturday Night

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Quill Gordon

Because the photo in the header of this post is severely cropped, the buffet table in Bobo’s sugarhouse can not be seen. The al fresco dining was featured two weeks ago in “Pickles, Cough Drops and a Bottle of Scotch” but they’ve been boiling like mad over there ever since and it should go without saying that the buffet table is stocked with an array of items that can be eaten by hand, on the fly. Pretty much everything available is made even more delicious by a drizzling (or dunking) of warm syrup but one wonders sometimes what else could be done with all that amber, sugary goodness.

New York City found out this week when Bobo’s Mountain Sugar was featured in the menu of the Maple Run, a dinner at the James Beard House, on West 12th Street. Not only do I expect to find Maple-Brined Pork Loin with Grits, Carrots, Almonds, and Maple–Mustard Jus followed by Waffle Baba with Maple–Bourbon Syrup, Vanilla–Bourbon Ice Cream, Brown Butter, and Maple Meringue served up on the old wire spool next year, I expect to see Hot Dogs Boiled in a Sap Pan and Virginia Peach Moonshine with Vermont Maple Cocktails on the menus of fine restaurants everywhere. Continue reading →

Categories: Maple Syrup, Vermont | Tags: Bobo's Mountain Sugar, James Beard House, maple syrup, nature, photography, quill gordon, Rural Life, spring, Vermont | 2 Comments

Maybe It’s a Vermont Thing

Posted on March 24, 2016 by Quill Gordon

Sometimes it seems more than coincidence that I decide to post a photo, only to find someone else has posted a photo just like it, and so I don’t. Who needs another picture of a cattail or some tree bark or ice?

Maybe it’s a Vermont thing, marking the passing of time according to such subtleties. More than a few photographers and writers seem to hit on the same things at the same time, independently of each other, and the influence of place becomes apparent.

As proof, here’s a short list of blogs I follow because they, too, see the beauty of bare branches, find wisdom in stone walls and know where the first coltsfoot will bloom:

John Hadden Photography – We have a similar eye but he is much more punctual about posting. Of course, you have to get up pretty early to beat his East Street Weather Blog.

Leaf and Twig – Observation and Imagination Meet Nature in Poetry.

Stony Soil Vermont – A way with words I wish I had. Only a Vermonter could see past the mud to “sunlight so intensely bright it lay like shining gold coins on the shallow dips of water that spread out all around our house, as though we were a ship on a rippling sea.”

quotidiously/the spaces between – Nice images of simple things, often overlooked.

Welcome to Pairodox – Exploring the science and beauty of rural life. Farming, photos and some pretty nifty prose.

Over the last week or so, flowing water and cold night air have created some interesting opportunities with the camera and I know I’m not the only one who noticed. I hope I’m the only one who fell on his ass getting the shots.

(Click to enlarge)

Categories: Rural Life, Vermont | Tags: fish in a barrel pond, ice, nature, photography, Rural Life, Vermont | 12 Comments

Here Comes Sugar Bob!

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Quill Gordon

Here Comes Sugar Bob!

And there goes Sugar Bob, heading home for a long boil.

Heading Home for a Long Boil

Sugar Bob makes maple syrup, gathering sap from stands he’s tapped all over the freakin’ place. You can hear his rig coming from a long way off, especially when he’s motoring through the mud with a load on. That sap is headed for a tank above the cabana, to be boiled down into syrup as only Sugar Bob can make it. I wouldn’t pour it on my pancakes, but Sugar Bob’s Finest Kind Smoked Maple Syrup is one of the greatest Secret Ingredients yet devised by Man.

Sugar makers don’t get to see each other much at times like this so Sugar Bob passed along his respects to the good folks at Bobo’s Mountain Sugar and I was happy to carry his message to the other side of the valley this afternoon. Continue reading →

Categories: Maple Syrup, nature, Rural Life, Vermont | Tags: Bobo's Mountain Sugar, maple syrup, mud season, nature, quill gordon, Rural Life, Sugar Bob, Sugar Bob's Finest Kind, Vermont | Leave a comment

Posts Tagged With: nature

The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes

They Have Very Short Bucket Lists

“Some are born anglers; others have anglers thrust upon them.”

Pink and Purple Pictures Because People Are Like Pistachios

Spring Black-out

Frog Water

Duck Ice

Sugarhouse Saturday Night

Maybe It’s a Vermont Thing

Here Comes Sugar Bob!

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