Last Days of Summer

It all came to an end today, when the Autumn Equinox marked our passage into autumn. Equinox comes from Latin meaning "equal" "night", which is the time when night and day are equal in length.

 "The September equinox takes place whenever the sun is at zenith – straight overhead – at the Earth’s equator. This magical moment signals the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and spring in the Southern Hemisphere. On the day of an equinox, the sun rises due east and sets due west all over the world"   http://earthsky.org/tonight/celebrate-the-september-22-equinox-and-the-first-quarter-moon

We've welcomed the breath of cool air we've had in these last couple of weeks after a long, hot summer, and we've  been enjoying these golden days that are great for taking long walks.

Stuyvesant Cove Park

The Hole Story

Hello World

The other day I had a delightful encounter with a new PCV resident who was very inquisitive about squirrels. He had recently moved in and was understandably fascinated by the squirrels. He asked a lot of questions, many on the technical side, some of which set me thinking. I found out that he was a mathemetician, which could  explain why he looked at things with  different eyes. Oh, and he was also ftom China.  One of the things he was most curious about was squirrel holes.

Prayer on 9/11

"Never again war,
adventure without return,
spiral of struggle and violence,
never this war in the Persian Gulf . . .
threat to your creatures in the sky, on earth and in the sea....
No war ever again."

Prayer of Pope John Paul II

Saturday Night Special

Bernard Goetz Gets a Special Visit on Saturday Night   
 
It was 8pm on  Saturday night. There was a knock at the door and Bernie Goetz opened it to find two uniformed policemen standing in the hall outside his apartment, one of them armed. They were from New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and they indicated that they wanted to come in. 

Here's the story of DEC's attempted home invasion, as told by Bernie Goetz in an exclusive to The New York Squirrel:

The Hottest Mom in America

has to be Spunky... 


Spunky's pregnant again!

From Russia with Love

 

A soldier of Belarus and his squirrel

I love the pictures of this adorable red squirrel.

 

"Daddy" is a bit of "all right" too!!!! lol

Solidarity

Eating Squirrel

WHAT!!? Somebody wants to eat me?

There's a piece in the Post this week about this Brooklynite who says he likes to barbecue  squirrels in his backyard. He is Steven Rinella, host of the Sportsman Channel’s show “MeatEater”, who according to the piece,  travels the world in pursuit of big game, and has a freezer full of it at home.  There are instructions on how to bag a squirrel, how to eat squirrel, and even Steven Rinella’s recipe for Lemon-Thyme Squirrel.

What about that little thing called the law? Well, “If someone wanted to experience some type of hunting lifestyle [here in NYC], they first have to make a study of the laws and decide what they’re comfortable with. Some [laws] are open to some degree of interpretation”.

Interestingly, Mr. Rinella draws the line at eating dogs, saying “We come to eating with baggage.” That's an understatement! This comment shows the kind of discrimination squirrels are subjected to by this dog-loving society we live in.

Read the entire story here, if you have the stomach for it. http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/food/urban_chow_boy_EKtwF01vNechm8IXYWXuRI/0

Last time I looked, 98 people liked it.

What's to like?

It's NUTS

Blue Moon

On August 31 we have the second Full Moon of the month. Sooo, you know what that means -- the moon on the 31st is indeed a "Blue Moon"!

Occupy Stuytown-PCV

 

On the Ground activists show how it's done!

The Risk

The Reward

Summer: A Retrospective

As the beastly hot summer slouches towards Labor Day, a few fond reminiscences are in order.  Even though it was largely a disappointment in these parts, with the endless heat waves of July and August, and the unsummerly bareness of the grounds that I've been complaining about, there were still some memorable moments.

Rescuing Baby Robins




A friend's cute baby robin story.  There are some great shots. Enjoy!

Stuyvesant Town Greenmarket

I've been doing a lot of complaining recently about the disappointments of summer at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. But summer there can still be beautiful, even magical at times.

Duck Doings

All's Fine at Cloud Nine.

In fact everything's ducky!

I love Lucy

My Favorite Redhead

What a wonderful day! I finally saw Lucy. Actually, we saw each other at about the same time. I was feeding the squirrels by Spunky's tree when I spotted her over by the flagpole. She was waving and walking towards me. We were both excited, as we hadn't seen each other for a long time. It turned out that she had been looking for me too. We just kept missing each other.

A Midsummer Nightmare

At midsummer, Peter Cooper Village looks like a nightmare.

Digging the Dirt NOT

More dirt and it's almost the middle of August. What's going on here?

Hen or Chicken of the Woods - either way, a great find in NYC!

Earlier today a friend called to tell me about a mushroom sighting at Peter Cooper Village. There's something large at the base of that tree! I can see it from a distance.

Remembering Mother Red Tail

I've been spending time over in the ball court area, waiting for Brownie or Mother Red Tail to show up. Neither does. I need to face the fact that they're gone for good.

Sitting Ducks

Home Sweet Home

The ducks are back on the Cloud Nine raft!

Dirty Old Stuyvesant Town - Peter Cooper Village

Another recent walk around the grounds  found more dirt.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Stuyvesant Town

Here we are in smack in the middle of July and there's hardly a flower in sight. A walk around Stuvesant Town shows so much dirt and so few flowers. What's going on?

Spunky's baby

There were two of them out looking for food, but only one made himself available for pictures. He sure is cute!

Here he is a few weeks later on July 9th. We've discovered that he has three siblings, but they are still shy about making their debut.

Nuts in the Mail

I received this wonderful big box in the mail the other day:

And inside:

The peanuts are of excellent quality, with no mold on them.  They're tasty too.  Here's Spunky enjoying one:

Magic

I sometimes talk about how squirrels can be such magical,  mysterious creatures. But what about us humans? We must seem magical to them too, especially when we arrive bearing bags of nuts that we distribute freely without cost. Ever wonder what a squirrel thinks about that? I do.

The nuts that arrived on my doorstep are part of the magic, and the love.

Mother Red Tail

Waiting for Mother Red Tail

There she is!

Showing off her new svelte self:
Looks like she's dropped her babies

So that's a cherry?

Taste Test

To bury or not to bury...

Following the trail of treats

She da bomb!

I can only imagine how cute her babies must be.