Roundtop News of the Day

It's a good thing I did take a lot of photos during my walk down in the valley earlier this week. It is raining now and has been for two days. It is a lovely, soaking rain totalling perhaps an inch so far. This fall, all-day-long rain is much different than the momentary gully-washers that seem to be the only kind of rain that comes in summer.

Between the rain and the shortened hours of daylight, it is now too dark to take photos during the weekday hours I'm at the cabin, so it's a good thing I have plenty to use, even if they are now 3-day old photos.

Last night after I went to bed, I looked out my bedroom window and was surprised by how light the night appeared. At first I thought the pale gray cloud cover was the reason it appeared so, but then I realized that wasn't it. The rain is starting to bring down the leaves, and I am suddenly able to see the sky through the leafy canopy. Hurray! Soon I will be able to see Nell's Hill without traipsing 200 yards out to the abandoned ski slope. My view to the west will slowly reappear.

In other news: Still no juncos, but the other winter residents are gobbling up the bird food as though they haven't eaten all summer. I am seeing decent-sized flocks of sparrows as they flush from inside one bush and fly to the inside of the next bush, but they are so skittish and flush so far ahead that I rarely get close enough or get my binos up fast enough to ID them. I suspect the flocks are primarily white-throated sparrows, as I occasionally see enough of a bird to ID one, but I'd love to be able to see more.

Baby Dog has broken the end of her tail. When I came home from my hike on Monday, she was all excited to see me (as usual) and was jumping up and down in excitement. Somehow, during this jumping, she got tangled in a cable I had placed by the car in anticipation of throwing it away. Even as I was bending down to untangle her, she got scared by the tangling and bolted, but her tail was still tangled and was broken about 2-3 inches from the end. After a vet trip to detangle her from the cable, she is home and now back to her normal antics of rough-housing the cats and barking at any object that has been moved from its appointed place. I am hoping the tail heals well and doesn't need to be amputated at the break.