Spellbinding Woods Walk with a Young Buck

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Walking through a semi-wooded area I came upon a buck that seemed wholly unbothered by my presence. So much so, that he stopped at various points to snuffle through the fallen leaves, reach for branches, and relieve himself. As I crossed the road, so did he, and when I paused to film, he wasn’t spooked. We came to a clearing where another person was approaching. All too soon the enchanted spell was broken and he picked up his gait. I didn’t hurry after him as I didn’t want to break his trust and just watched in wonderment as he loped away.

 

I wonder if he’s the same buck that I filmed in early spring and then again in summer? Here he is with new antler nublets, and later with velvety fuzzy antlers growing in.  I read no two deer antlers are alike, similar to human fingerprints. In the photo below, the buck’s first set of tines are similar to the buck’s tines in the film; the right tine is straighter than the left tine.

Composition by Reynaldo Hahn • “Danse pour une déesse, pour flûte et piano.” Recorded by Jean-Pierre Rampal and Francoise Bonnet form the Internet Archive of Royalty Free Music.

Gloucester Firefighters Rigging the Star to the Lobster Trap Tree!

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Many, many thanks to Gloucester’s awesome firefighters for each year braving the cold and wind to attach the Christmas star atop the Lobster Trap Tree.

Miss Celebrity Scissor-tailed Meets Miss Annie and Miss Ethel Piggies

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The elegant Scissor-tailed Flycatcher gracing our region is the second Scissor-tailed to land in Massachusetts in as many years, two winters in a row. They both made their stopovers at similar habitats, wide open fields with berry-rich shrubs and trees outlining the fields. Last year’s Scissor-tailed perched on the Bluebird boxes at Audubon’s Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary, foraging over the field for insects and dining on crabapple and bittersweet berries. This year’s beauty is making her home in a field that includes a pigpen!  She skirts the edges looking for berries and insects but spends most of her time perched in the pen with Ethel and Annie. In addition to the insects the Scissor-tailed forages for in the pen and farm fields, there are crabapple trees, bittersweet, Staghorn Sumac, and Pokeberry.

She has the gorgeous tail characteristic of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher however, the male’s tails are even longer. The long forked tails assist the expert aerialists in catching insects mid-air, a behavior called ‘hawking.’ Hawking is described as a feeding strategy where the bird sallies forth from a perch to snatch an insect mid-flight, then returns to the same, or to a different, perch.

If we lived in Texas or Oklahoma, these birds would be run of the mill, but here in Massachusetts she is a rare treat. As much as she is a joy to observe, Miss Scissor-tailed is sooo far north and east of her range, I truly hope she departs soon. She should be in Central America by this time of year!

Many have noticed when observing her, she tolerates very well the farm animals and small quiet groups of onlookers however, one recent Wednesday we observed a birding group of 16 tromping noisily through the snow-crusted field. The were boisterous and talking loudly amongst themselves. The Scissor-tailed suddenly became very still. She did not budge from her perch for a good 25 minutes while the group was there. The very moment they left the field, she resumed foraging. With temperatures in the teens, these migrating birds need every minute of the shortened days of sunlight to forage. Several of us turned to shush the group, but they ignored and even the group leader was holding a very audible discussion in close proximity to the bird, about the bird.

It would have been so much kinder to the little migrant if the very large group broke up into smaller groups. The leader sets the tone of the encounter. She could have offered the bird’s life history back at their vans and made an effort to keep the chatter down. There were many other interesting birds in the surrounding field to look at while they awaited their turn. The group didn’t get to see the beautiful Scissor-tail in action displaying her fascinating foraging habit because she was frightened and stayed very still. Tenderly and reverentially is the way to approach wildlife, especially one so vulnerable. People will surely see much more of the animal’s natural behavior if we at least try to make ourselves invisible.

Orange = breeding, yellow = migration, blue = wintering.

 

Great Horned Owl Rescue

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The Great Horned Owl that has been seen at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge the past several days was found alive but immobile in the Hellcat parking lot this morning. A kind photographer shared the information but that is all she knew. I was just glad to hear of the rescue because when we saw him from the road Sunday morning, he was tucked way back in a tangle of trees and appeared as though his left wing was drooping. I am hoping one of our readers may know more about the rescue. Please write if you do, thank you!

900 LOBSTER TRAP TREE BUOYS!!

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Cape Ann kids have painted an astounding 900 plus buoys for the 2025 most grand of all 25th Anniversary Lobster Trap Tree.

 

Director Traci and program manager Darcie are adding the finishing elements of ropes and hooks to attach the buoys to the tree, then lugging all 900 to Gloucester Maritime.

The Lobster Trap Tree lighting takes place after the Middle Street Walk on Saturday, December 13th, at 4:30pm, at Solomon Jacobs landing (adjacent to Maritime Gloucester).

Loving Tribute to Ann Margaret Ferrante

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Several thousand people were in attendance at Ann’s funeral mass this afternoon. Friends and colleagues, including Governor Maura Healy, State Senator Bruce Tarr, and Ann’s chief of staff Dru Tarr, spoke in loving memory, with Reverend Jim leading the mass.  Ann’s profoundly positive impact on the life of so many in our community will be felt for generations to come The service was live streamed by Streamography and you can watch here. The mass starts at about 21 minutes into the video.

Bruce Tarr ended his tribute to Ann with these transcendent words from Emily Dickinson –

Unable are the Loved to die
For Love is Immortality,
Nay, it is Deity—

Unable they that love—to die
For Love reforms Vitality
Into Divinity.

The photo of the Snow Moon setting behind Saint Ann’s steeple is for Ann. Despite her wonderfully full life, every now and then she would write to say how much she liked a photo I had shared, usually a harbor scene with a fishing boat or some beautiful Cape Ann building.  She loved this photo, and another Moon one with Our Lady of Good Voyage, and I will try to locate that one too.

On the back of Ann’s program was the poem “On Children,” written by Kahlil Gibran –

Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay Airing at Prince Edward Island!

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I am delighted to share that The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay is playing at the City Cinema of Charlottetown, PEI, on Thursday evening. This is a very special screening to me, brought to you by the Island Nature Trust; special because the INT is a fabulous organization striving to protect species at risk and to conserve their habitats. The Island Nature Trust is a model of great stewardship and I am honored that our film has been selected for screening.

Read more about the outstanding work being accomplished by the Island Nature Trust here.

Hurting hearts for the passing of Ann Margaret Ferrante

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We can’t possibly list all the extraordinary ways Ann Margaret impacted our community. I’m just trying to hold onto some. Ann’s integrity, her compassion, her deep spirituality, her incomparable and highly successful advocacy for the people of Cape Ann, her vision for the future of Cape Ann and her fierce love of Gloucester are just the first few that come to mind. Sending love and deepest condolences to Ann’s family and friends

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours <3

I am thankful for your friendship and for your support of our film projects, Beauty on the Wing and The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay. Both films are continuing to do well and were only made possible because of your generosity and kind support. A most heartfelt thank you!

I may have but don’t think I did, shared this clip of a late hatched Turkey poult. Watch how Mom patiently waits for her poult to take a tiny seed from her mouth. Turkeys are so outwardly cumbrous but have such tender tendencies towards their young.

Happy Thanksgiving!
xxKim

 

No Soliciting Boys!

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Happy Thanksgiving Eve <3

 

 

 

 

Gulf Fritillary Butterfly Depositing Eggs

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We were observing several female Gulf Fritillaries depositing eggs amongst (what i think is) the foliage of Corksystem Passionflower (Passiflora suberosa). To my surprised delight, one had been hovering over a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar!

Gulf Fritillaries are also called Passion Butterflies because they rely on species of Passionflower as their caterpillar host, or food, plant. During the summer months, you can purchase Purple Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) vines at Wolf Hill. Native Purple Passion flower is also called Maypop because the new growth pops up in May, and not necessarily in the same place where you planted the vine. Another popular thought as to the origins of the name is that when the edible fruits are stepped upon, they pop.

In the last clip you can see the large white cells on the underwings of the Gulf Fritillary. The cells are actually iridescent and when the light is captured just right on the iridescent patches, it creates little flashes of light which confuses predatory birds.

 

While we were at a Gulf of Mexico small inter coastal pond for only about half an hour, in that very brief window, we saw Zebra Longwings, a Monarch, Gulf Fritillaries, and a new-to-my-eyes butterfly, a well camouflaged White Peacock. These butterflies are all considered tropical and subtropical species and aside from the Monarch, it would be very unlikely to see the Zebra Longwing, White Peacock, and Gulf Fritillary in the northeast.

White Peacock Butterfly

 

Good Morning!

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One of a pair of Snow Bunting spotted recently, on a sunnier morning. 

Boston International Kids Film Festival at the Mosesian Center November 21st through November 23rd!!

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Showing Short Films Made For Kids, By Kids, and About Kids

Welcome to a weekend of workshops and screenings of family-friendly films, both professionally and student-made, hailing from countries that span the globe!

Filmmakers Collaborative created the BIKFF in 2013 with a goal of showing kids that making a film can be a powerful way to tell a story, express your emotions, state a point of view and (more importantly) to have fun!

By screening amazing student-made films from around the world while at the same time offering these young filmmakers a look at professionally-made films created just for them, we are enabling the next generation of filmmakers to realize the power and potential of media.

The young filmmakers that participate in FC Academy, our after-school and summer filmmaking program, are given center stage at special blocks throughout the weekend, as we screen the short films that they have created in front of their family and friends.

Combine all that with hands-on workshops on filmmaking and stop-motion animation meetups and you are in for an event that families of Greater Boston will be enjoying for years to come!

Bats, Birds, Butterflies, and Baby ALLIGATORS!

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Recently we returned from the eastern shores of the Gulf of Mexico to attend the memorial service of my beloved, and the kindest and best, Aunt anyone could wish for. It was a lovely service and we loved seeing our cousins and family we don’t get together with often enough.  When we weren’t with family, Tom and I went off to explore local habitats and we were fortunate to see some spectacular wildlife in the shortest amount of time imaginable, including a great cloud of flying bats, Gulf Fritillary and White Peacock Butterflies, an Anhinga, Double-crested Cormorants, many different species of herons and shorebirds, Brown Pelicans, White Ibis, and our favorite, four baby American Alligators with their mom. A singular Monarch was fluttering around my Aunt’s garden during the outdoor service. Monarch Butterflies are thought to symbolize the spirits of deceased family members, returning to Earth to be remembered by their loved ones and I felt her presence so very much.

The American Alligator babies we saw were new hatchlings and much smaller than Charles, the juvenile Alligator recently rescued from the Charles River. The four were only about 10-12 inches in length and well-disguised in the reeds growing along the banks of the small pond.  Their mom was dozing nearby but also keeping  a watchful eye. I read that she stays with the young ones until they are at a minimum one year old and possibly up to three years old.  Alligator hatchlings feed mostly on a protein rich diet of insects, snails, worms, mosquito larvae, minnows, and tadpoles. Guided by their mom, the juveniles begin to eat larger prey as they grow. The hatchlings have many predators; Racoons, Great Blue Herons, and other Alligators for example, and there was a much larger Alligator lying in the reeds not too far from the mom and her babes.

On the two days that we observed the Alligator family it was warm and sunny and at mid-day They were in the exact same spot both days. I was hoping to see the hatchlings actively foraging but read that Alligators, including the babies, are both nocturnal and diurnal. They bask in the sun during the day to regulate their body temperature and for the most part, feed at night. The first two clips are of a much larger Alligator that was across the pond in the reeds. The mom is in the third and fourth clips.

Mom and hatchling comparison

 

The Halls of Gloucester High School Are Alive with The Sound of Music!!

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Gloucester High School Drama Club Presents the Timeless Classic

THE SOUND OF MUSIC

Music and Lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse

on November 20, November 21 and November 22

At Gloucester High School

The Gloucester High School Drama Club proudly presents one of the most famous musicals of all time: The Sound of Music  Youth Edition on Thursday, November 20 at 7:00pm;  Friday, November 21 at 7:00pm;  and Saturday, November 22 at 2:00pm and 7:00pm at Gloucester High School on 32 Leslie O’Johnson Rd, Gloucester, MA.  Advance tickets are discounted. Tickets at the door are $15 for adults and $10 for Students and Senior Citizens. Tickets purchased in advance are discounted. To purchase tickets go to http://gloucesterhighdrama.ludus.com  Show Sponsorships, Program ad space  and Messages to the Cast in the Program are available for purchase. Contact Heidi Dallin, GHS Director and interim Drama Teacher at hdallin@gloucesterschools.com

Directed by GHS and Harvard University magna cum laude graduate professional actress Heidi Dallin with Music Direction by Cape Ann Symphony’s Wendy Betts, the production features GHS students  playing some of the most beloved characters in theatre history. The Sound of Music was the final collaboration between Rodgers & Hammerstein and features many cherished songs, including “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” and the title number, The Sound of Music.  The book of the musical was written by the Pulitzer Prize winning writing duo of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. A Broadway legend, Crouse spent his summers living in the Annisquam neighborhood of Gloucester. The Sound of Music won the hearts of audiences worldwide, earning five Tony Awards and five Oscars. 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the 1965 film adaptation of The Sound of Music. The film won 4 Academy Awards including  Best Picture, Best Director,  Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Scoring of Music

Set in 1938 Austria, before the Nazi occupation, this inspirational story based on the memoir of Maria Augusta von Trapp, follows Maria Reiner, an ebullient postulate who serves as governess to the seven children of the imperious Captain von Trapp, bringing music and joy to the household. Director Dallin who appeared in the show as Sister Sophia while a GHS freshman is eager to revisit the show,” Sound of Music is a classic!   I am so excited to share it with a new generation of theatre artists at GHS. It is especially thrilling to perform the show here in Gloucester knowing the special relationship The Crouse family has with Cape Ann. Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Sound of Music Russel Crouse and his family spent summers in Annisquam. His daughter Lindsay Ann Crouse rode Rolf’s bicycle from the Broadway production of Sound of Music through the streets  of Annisquam! It seems fitting to pay tribute to this beautiful  and uplifting story during this anniversary year.”

GHS Seniors Niava Friday and Sean Buckley playing Maria Reiner and Captain von Trapp lead the cast of GHS  actors. Director Heidi Dallin is joined by Cape Ann Symphony’s Wendy Betts as Music Director.  The Student Production Staff includes Choreography: Anaya Briguglio; Scenic Design : Amos Telep; Costume Design: Annette Lane;  Prop Design:Nathan Gorman-Melo and Kathyrn Wall; Stage Manager: Kassidy Klopotoski.

The Gloucester High  School  production of The Sound of Music Youth Edition will be presented at Gloucester High School on 32 Leslie O’Johnson Road, in Gloucester, MA on on Thursday, November 20 at 7:00pm;  Friday, November 21 at 7:00pm;  and Saturday, November 22 at 2:00pm and 7:00pm.  Tickets can be purchased by using the qr code below or by visiting https://gloucesterhighdrama.ludus.com/200502487

Thanksgiving Feast Online Ordering from Cedar Rock Gardens!

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Produce Ordering!
Our website is open for ordering farm fresh produce. Orders must be in by Friday at 7PM 

Please pick up your produce on Monday 11/24 between 2PM and 6:30PM in the big red barn at Cedar Rock Gardens.

Order Here

We will be on a little break until mid December after Thanksgiving. Produce pick ups will most likely move to every other week in December, January and February as we give the greenhouses time to grow back in between harvests.

Thank you all for your ongoing support this fall season! We are so very thankful for you and our community as a whole. I have said it many times and i will hopefully say it many more – growing food and plants for you all to take home and share and plant and consume brings me more joy than I could possibly explain. What goes into a successful farming business is not only hard labor, thoughtful planning and good weather – its the people all around it and in it too.

 I want to really truly thank you all for making Cedar Rock Gardens a place that will continue to grown for many seasons to come.

All the very best,
Elise

Golden-crowned Kinglet – tiny bird with the outsized name!

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A mini flock of mini birds – every few years or so I am fortunate enough to catch the Golden-crowned Kinglets traveling through our neighborhood. In perpetual motion when foraging, they are challenging to film and even more so to photograph. You would think the Kinglets would be interested in the magnificent buffet of ripe crabapples but no, they were devouring the insects and web encased egg sacs found mostly on the undersides of leaves.

One of these days I may be lucky enough to see a Golden-crowned Kinglet with his crown puffed out like this-

Photo courtesy American Bird Conservancy

Best Director at the London Vision Film Festival!

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Dear Friends,

I hope you are doing well. What a lovely weekend weather wise for we in southern New England although we’re getting ready for the big cold snap coming. Right after Dia de Muertos, we plant paperwhites and amaryllis bulbs to force indoors. We switch up the colors of the soft furnishings in the music living room from warm weather blues and greens to white, rose, red, and greens. It’s a cozy (and gradual) way to get in the holiday spirit.

I am so very delighted to write that we received the Best Director Feature Film award at the London Vision Film Festival. It’s a wonderful honor and my first ‘Best Director’ award. I thank all of you everyday. Both Beauty on the Wing and The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay would not have been made possible without your generosity and I am so very grateful for your interest and kind support.

If you have a chance, there’s a very fun new film about the vibrant music scene in Boston during the 70s and 80s, Life on the Other Planet. Beautifully produced and directed by Vincent Straggas, we went to the premiere at the Regent Theatre in Arlington several weeks ago and it is again playing at the Regent on Thursday, November 19th. Along with a great many Boston musicians, my husband Tom Hauck and Fred Pineau from The Atlantics are featured, as well as local Gloucester musicians Willie Alexander and Jon Butcher. There is talk of Life on the Other Planet coming to The Cut!

The Rat

Here’s a link to a short video and photos of the amazing Pectoral Sandpiper that stopped over for a day on its arduous migration to southern South America. I mentioned the pair last time I wrote and wanted to make the video before too much time had passed. I wonder what the predicted whoosh of arctic weather will bring to our shores next!

Sending you kind thoughts and much gratitude,

xxKim

 

 

The Pectoral Sandpiper – Master of Migration and Don’t Fall Asleep Watching this Short Video!

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A new-to-my-eyes shorebird to love was seen at a local cove. A pair of Pectoral Sandpipers stayed for a day  to refuel on the rich feast of invertebrates found in the wrack of seaweed deposited along the shoreline and as you can see, to get some shut-eye.  I had spotted a Yellowlegs and was heading to the shoreline to investigate when I nearly tripped over one of the Pectoral Sandpipers. It was so well camouflaged in the drying seaweed. Only a few feet away was its traveling companion, also equally as difficult to see. They appeared at first glance to be something akin to a shorter legged Yellowlegs but I noticed right away the clean line between its crisply stippled upper chest feathers and bright white lower breast plumage. I knew it was unique to the shorebirds we usually see and had to be something special.

The Sandpipers hungrily burrowed their long bills in the soft sand, coming up with mouthful after mouthful of opaque white invertebrates. This seaweed and sand habitat is extraordinarily rich with small insects. As the seaweed piles up on the beach, the sand washes over and buries it. You may notice when walking the sand underneath your feet feels squishy. That’s because of the seaweed beneath, which also becomes a veritable hot house for insects.

The pair were sooo tired. They frequently dozed off in the midst of foraging and didn’t seem at all deterred by my presence. Perhaps I was the first human they had ever encountered and didn’t know to be frightened. Pectoral Sandpipers have one of the longest migrations known. They may journey from the far southern end of South America, to the high Arctic tundra to nest, quite possibly a nearly 20,000 mile journey. Not only that, but  once the polygynous male arrives at the breeding grounds, he will criss cross the Arctic looking for females. From satellite transmitters, biologists know that they may stop and mate at as many as 24 different locations. Pectoral Sandpipers are masters of migration and it was no wonder they were so exhausted.

I returned in the afternoon to find the pair had not moved more than a few feet from where they had been seen in the morning. They were still feeding voraciously and sleeping in-between bouts of foraging.

Pectoral Sandpipers are more likely to be seen in the central part of the country during their autumn migration. Because they are mostly foraging in grassy marshes and wet fields on their typical migratory routes, they, along with several over sandpipers, have gained the nickname ‘grasspipers.’ Pectoral Sandpipers are in the same family as Woodcocks and you can sort of see that in the last clip where the male’s chest feathers are puffed out.

Male Pectoral Sandpipers have a special air sac that lies beneath their breast bone. The air sac fills so that he looks like a feathered balloon and while he flies over the female, he lets out throbbing hoots (and many other extraordinary sounds!).

The wind was still blowing hard when i returned the following morning. Neither were seen and I hoped they had taken advantage of the super strong tailwinds to take them to the next leg of their journey,  what seems mighty epic to this wingless human.

helllo and thank you!

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Dear Friends,

I hope you are doing well. We are all in this together and I just know we will get through these difficult times. I am so proud of my community for the way organizations and individuals are pulling together to help the food insecure, especially The Open Door and Common Crow.

Wildlife stories and dramas continue despite all and I am grateful for that. I’ve only touched very lightly on posting about the amazing fall migration still underway. Look for upcoming stories about a tiny bird with the outsized name, Golden-crowned Kinglet, a pair of sweet Pectoral Sandpipers that stayed for a one-day stopover on their supreme 17,000 -20,000 mile round trip migration, a three woodpecker sighting day, and much more. Aren’t these atmospheric months of September, October, and November wonderful! Stormy weather and high winds sometimes bring not often seen creatures to our shores, only needing a brief respite, before resuming their extraordinary journeys.A male Pectoral Sandpiper – you can see he is a male because males have an inflatable air sac in his chest that he also utilizes to puff out his feathers during mating displays

I don’t think I shared the video about the fabulous four plants for pollinators – The Fab Four Plants for Monarchs (and Bees)! There are still a few Monarchs straggling along, some still even in Ontario. The latest I have ever seen a Monarch in our area was November 4th. It was memorable because it was also the year Barack Obama was first elected president. A note about the Fab Four plants. Common Milkweed can be substituted with Marsh Milkweed, Seaside Goldenrod with Canada Goldenrod or Tall Goldenrod, and Smooth Aster with either New York or Purple-stemmed Asters. The idea is sturdy nectar-rich plants that also provide a convenient landing pad and that bloom late in the season.

I was nominated for the City of Gloucester’s Kindness Campaign by our Ward One City Councilman Scott Memhard, and accepted the award on behalf of our wonderful team of dedicated and kind Plover ambassadors and friends. Please read more here.

November 1st and 2nd are the days Dia de Muertos is celebrated. One of the most evocative locations we were invited to film at during the making of Beauty on the Wing was a small family cemetery in Macheros, a remote village at the base of Cerro Pelon Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.

Honoring our loved ones with offerings on this beautiful Dia de Muertos.
xxKim

Thank you Scott Memhard for the City of Gloucester Kindness Nomination!

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I am so very honored to receive a nomination from our Ward One City Councilor, Scott Memhard, for the City of Gloucester’s 2025 Kindness Campaign.  I accept this nomination on behalf of myself and all our Piping Plover Ambassadors, DPW, Conservation Commission, and Mass Audubon. Our Gloucester Plovers are very fortunate to have such a dedicated and kind team working to keep them safe and their habitat intact.

I’d also like to thank Scott especially, who has been a supporter since the Plovers first arrived in 2016. He has been a tremendous help navigating with the City to develop conservation protocols for the Plovers. The Plovers are under Scott’s ‘jurisdiction,’ so to speak, as Good Harbor Beach is part of Scott’s ward, and we couldn’t ask for a more helpful and engaged advocate.

Thank you to Scott, all our PiPl Ambassadors, the Gloucester DPW, Conservation Commission, Mass Audubon, and all our Plover friends and advocates <3

“I would nominate Kim Smith for her tireless environmental advocacy & her documentary photography and film educational outreach, now on PBS.

For years Kim has worked tirelessly with the Gloucester DPW, Conservation Commission & MA Audubon.  Kim has organized the local citizen group of the Piping Plovers Ambassadors at Good Harbor Beach.

In addition to the Piping Plovers, with her new documentary “Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay”, and working to protect Good Harbor Beach and dunes, Kim has produced a remarkable film documentation “Beauty on the Wing” of migrating Monarch butterflies which pass through Cape Ann every Fall.

Kim is a blessing & a credit to Gloucester. “

To learn more about  Gloucester’s Kindness Campaign, please go here.

And thank you to our little photobomber, Holly, who is generally not allowed on the dining room table

 

Spinach Salad for Autumn – Thank You Cedar Rock Gardens!

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WE Love, Love the weekly selection of fresh veggies from Cedar Rock Gardens. Online produce ordering is available every week, closing on Wednesday at 7pm for Thursday afternoon pick-up. This week I made creamed spinach and a spinach salad, both big hits with my family every time I make them, and a great way to include dark greens in a child’s diet. For the spinach salad we added chopped celery, walnuts, perfectly ripened pears from Russell Orchards, and blue cheese from Common Crow, and all tossed with a simple shallot vinaigrette. Yummm!!

Order your Cedar Rock Gardens produce here!

Yellow Warbler Particular Insect Eater

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I thought the warblers were attracted to the bushes because of the abundance of berries but no; watch how she snatches a winged insect and only eats the abdomen, tossing aside the wings.  

Yellow Warblers primarily eat a wide variety of insects including caterpillars, beetles, spiders, mosquitos, and moths. During the fall and winter months especially, they also eat fruits and berries.

Beautiful (and Super Delicious) Fresh Produce from Cedar Rock Gardens

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Order your farm fresh organic produce ONLINE today, through Wednesday at 7pm. Pick-up is Thursday from 2pm to 6pm.

I promise, you will be in veggie heaven!Frost-sweetened Carrots, Watermelon Radishes, and Spaghetti Squash

Photogenic Watermelon Radishes