{"id":28687,"date":"2024-05-03T05:00:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T09:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=28687"},"modified":"2024-05-02T16:24:21","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T20:24:21","slug":"emerging-from-the-cocoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/03\/emerging-from-the-cocoon\/","title":{"rendered":"Emerging From the Cocoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just finished up a large and annoying project at work.\u00a0 So, I\u2019m celebrating a day of freedom with a big mug of coffee that Camera Girl made for me.\u00a0 To paraphrase a line from a movie, \u201cWhat did people do before they had coffee?\u201d\u00a0 Someone once told me that the American Century was fueled on coffee and cigarettes.\u00a0 I could believe him.\u00a0 Could the decline in American effectiveness in so many arenas be attributed to the decline in smoking?\u00a0 It\u2019s an interesting idea.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking out the window at the grass growing and the first butterflies of the year.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I\u2019m also seeing the first carpenter bees of the season.\u00a0 For anyone lucky enough to not know what these are, they look like exceptionally large, aggressive bumble bees that burrow into wood (such as the outside of my house) and make a nest in which they lay their eggs.\u00a0 Camera Girl was picking some dandelions that were in one of her raised gardens when a couple of these destructive bugs started to buzz around her.\u00a0 I warned her away from the garden and promised to find out where they were burrowing and use lethal force to settle their hash.<\/p>\n

May will be a very busy month both at home and work.\u00a0 And that\u2019s fine.\u00a0 With the longer days and hopefully the warmer temperatures there will be more time to fix stuff and set things up around the grounds.\u00a0 Today I was reminded of another piece of carpentry that has intruded on Camera Girl\u2019s sense of how things should be.\u00a0 And with the price of lumber and hardware reaching astronomical heights, what a wonderful time it is to be a homeowner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The first hummingbird sightings have occurred and Camera Girl has put up her feeders.\u00a0 I\u2019ll try this year to do a better job with the 200-600mm lens to get some really good shots of them.\u00a0 Yesterday I went out to get a few shots of the big elm tree that grows around here.\u00a0 The leaves were bursting out of their buds and the tree has a very distinctive appearance that I wanted to capture.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another drama playing out this spring is the epic battle between Camera Girl\u2019s pet crow Moe and his arch-enemy Poe (a newly arrived raven).\u00a0 She leaves scraps out for Moe in the morning but lately Poe shows up and snatches them.\u00a0 Just now Camera Girl called me over to the living room window to witness Moe dive bombing Poe and forcing him away from the snack area.\u00a0 Secretly I\u2019m a fan of Poe.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always wanted a raven in the neighborhood and this seems like my big chance.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s my fate to become the man who made peace between Moe and Poe.\u00a0 I mean can\u2019t they all just get along sharing the chicken fat?\u00a0 Nobel Peace Prize?\u00a0 We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s time for a photo expedition.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have to make a survey of what the local environment has to offer.\u00a0 There are usually some antique car rallies and such things but I was hoping for something a little different.\u00a0 What I think I\u2019d like to get to is a gun show.\u00a0 I know very little about guns but I think they could make a very good photo opportunity.\u00a0 I\u2019ve contacted one of the bigger shows to see if they have any qualms about photography.<\/p>\n

Well anyway, we\u2019ve finally put the last vestiges of winter behind us.\u00a0 I saw a spring peeper stumbling around after I raked up some leaves and he staggered away into the woods looking like Mitch McConnell blinking in the lights of the photojournalists trying to confirm that he is indeed still breathing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This weekend we\u2019re going to a lecture on the latest word on beekeeping.\u00a0 It\u2019s been more than a decade since my last hive collapsed.\u00a0 I\u2019ve watched a few videos on the \u201cnatural\u201d beekeeping method.\u00a0 I stopped trying to keep them when the varroa mites devastated the whole industry back fifteen years or so.\u00a0 I\u2019ve toyed with the idea of catching a wild swarm on the theory that these bees have come into equilibrium with the various pests and will fare much better than the heavily \u201cmedicated\u201d hives that exist on the edge of succumbing to the very insecticides used to beat back the mites.\u00a0 I\u2019ll ask this local expert what he thinks and who knows, maybe I\u2019ll try my hand at beekeeping again.\u00a0 Although I\u2019ve been warned that between blueberries, raspberries and bees I\u2019ll have every black bear in a fifty-mile radius lined up to clean me out.\u00a0 Such is life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Well in the immortal words of George Costanza, \u201cYou know, Spring! Rejuvenation, re-birth, everything’s blooming, all that crap!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just finished up a large and annoying project at work.\u00a0 So, I\u2019m celebrating a day of freedom with a big mug of coffee that Camera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2728,818,3],"tags":[300,721,164,847,132],"class_list":["post-28687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-guns","category-ocf","category-photography","tag-camera-girl","tag-guns","tag-new-england-spring","tag-ravens","tag-spring"],"yoast_head":"\nEmerging From the Cocoon - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/03\/emerging-from-the-cocoon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Emerging From the Cocoon - 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