I Won!

Well - I suppose there is really no winner or looser. Winning or loosing implies that there has been an ending. When you are dealing with bugs, no such thing exists. How about I survived?

The lilac is snipped, and the bugs are still hungry, for the most part. Once it started to rain again, the black flies came out in force, so I left the remaining dead buds for today, and they are now gone.

Here's a hint. When you are painting directly above your head, make sure your mouth is closed. Nuff said there.

There is a healthy wild grape vine growing up a trellis on the back of our garage. The vine just appeared there one year, so I put up the trellis for it to grow on and it's been quite happy ever since. Fortunately, we don't require it to provide actual grapes. That might be asking too much. But, there is always hope. It has blossomed profusely this year, and maybe something will come of it. I don't hold a lot of hope though. I don't know of any other vines in the immediate area and I suspect that two are required. The blossoms look like this:

When they falloff, they look like this

They cover everything underneath the vine with a green haze

It's kind of pretty, and it gives my little buddy a nice soft surface to run around on.

Oh yeah - the new buddy. It seems that I have one. He's been around watching me and scolding if I get too close.

This guy has been frantically stuffing his cheeks with whatever he is finding in the yard and depositing these treasures somewhere under the back porch

I'm hoping that he's not filling a big space with anything that will grow huge in the spring. I envision an orchard of apple trees belching up through the bricks next June.

This weekend, a local fiddler named Sarah Blair is performing at a local venue called the Lamb Abby ( more about Lamb Abby at: http://www.timesargus.com/article/20090306/FEATURES02/903060302/1011/FEATURES02

She will be accompanied by Mark Roberts and Flynn Cohen. I'm going. Sarah is a wonderful fiddler and this promises to be a great musical event. There is going to be an Irish session afterwards, so I'll bring the guitar. Just in case I want to join in, it'll be waiting in the car. I've played with Sarah before and it's a real treat.

Tomorrow, some of us bikers are going on a notch hop. We'll likely start in Bristol, VT and travel south, crisscrossing back over Middlebury, Brandon and Lincoln gaps. There is a fireman's BBQ in Lincoln which is free to us since we are in the BMW Motorcycles of Vermont club. It sounds like a great way to spend a Sunday, and maybe I will get some bug revenge on the way. If all goes well, I'll publish a few pics of the tour.