I cannot say enough good things about BLACK EARTH COMPOSTand the amazing guys, Andrew and Connor, who provide this fantastic product. My client’s gardens have never looked as lush and beautiful since I began using strictly Black Earth Compost to replenish the soil.
Andrew even delivers to my butterfly and ABC gardens at Philips Andover. Thank you Black Earth for making such a great product!!!
The Piping Plovers have a nest and it is not in the parking lot! Four beautiful, perfect eggs are now being tended to by both Mama and Papa Plover on the beach, in the same general location as the 2016 and 2017 nest locations.
Early this morning, Essex Greenbelt’s Dave Rimmer, assisted by intern Fionna Hill, installed the wire exclosure that helps protect the Piping Plover eggs from canid, avian, and human disturbance and destruction.
Dave is permitted by Mass Wildlife, and is an expert in, building and installing PiPl wire exclosures. Dave and Fionna constructed the exclosure together outside the nesting area so that when they actually had to step into the nesting area to place the exclosure there was minimal disturbance to the nest. Dave noted that it only took the two of them about fifteen minutes to install the wire structure around the nest, and Papa Plover was back sitting on the nest within one minute of completion.
Gloucester’s conservation agent Adrienne Lennon was present at the onset, but had to tend to issues related to the dyke construction at Goose Cove. Dave’s new assistant, Fiona Hill, will be helping to monitor the Plovers for the summer. She grew up in Newburyport and is a a junior at UMass Amherst. Welcome to Good Harbor Beach Fiona and we look forward to working with you!
Papa feigning a broken wing in a classic diversionary display to distract predators.
So sorry the photos are very much on the pink side. I should convert the whole batch to black and white. My darling granddaughter was playing with my camera over the weekend and all the settings were messed up–the photos from the Cape Ann Museum were taken with the white balance set to underwater, and the beach photos this morning set to nine on the red scale! At least now I know how to fix it if it happens again 🙂
Papa back on the nest within a minute of exclosure installation completion.
Our friend East Gloucester great guy Stu Lehr received the USPTA (United States Professional Tennis Association) Massachusetts Tennis Pro of the Year award at the USPTA New England Conference in Portland, ME.
Way to go Stu!
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
Gloucester, Ma’s newest best friend from Gloucester, England just finished breaking the World Record for distance gone on a treadmill in a 7 Day stretch. Congratulations, Jamie McDonald….Adventureman.
See caption from Jamie’s Facebook Page below:
He’s done it!!!
Jamie is now the (unofficial, until verified) world record holder of the @guinnessworldrecords record for the greatest distance covered in 7 days on a treadmill 💪💪💪
As Jamie said when he equalled the record though… records aren’t just there to be broken, they’re there to be SMASHED!!!
We had a crowd of 500+ here to watch him break the record – let’s have the same here for the finish at 1pm!
For anyone who might imagine that the opportunity to run a bit, walk a bit, run a bit, and walk a bit in an enclosed area, protected by the elements, for 7 days is anything less of a monumental task than was running 210 marathons in the USA for 11.5 months ….. I can assure you… it was not.
Thanks to a YouTube live streaming feed and the social media prowess of the amazing Superhero Foundation team, every second of the past 7 days was available for viewing, cheering, supporting, and worrying. As they predicted in the beginning, it was a week that was full of very high highs….and very low lows.
With an average of 2-4 hours of sleep late each night….and a faster pace during the day to make up for slightly more sleep than originally estimated… Jamie nailed it. The end was not always easily visible though. In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, I dare say that Jamie was incredibly close to quitting. The pain he was in was palpable and it was hard to imagine he could recover from it. With an amazing amount of support from his physical therapist, Sylvia, and the one and only AdventureDAD (Don McDonald), Jamie somehow found the strength to persevere and plow ahead. He later said that the pain and inability to walk early that morning took him back to his childhood. With his mobility stolen at a young age and a long fight to get it back….he knew that this week, despite it all, he needed to find the strength to just keep moving.
And keep moving he did. Right past the old World Record and on to a new one.
At about 10:45 this morning, London time….and 5:45 our time, Jamie matched the previous record to much fanfare gathered in the plaza of the Cineworld Gloucester Quays
With a live band, a crowd of about 500 supporters, his dad, his mum, his amazing Anna McNuff (read all about how cool she is here), Sylvia, Ian, his phenomenal Superhero Foundation team, and many, many others…. Jamie just kept moving.
The old World Record stood at 517 miles….or about 833 kilometers. This morning Adventureman sealed the deal with a new record of 844 kilometers (still being made official).
To watch video highlights of this past week, or parts of his US Super Run (that recently ended in our very own Gloucester, Ma), or his run across Canada, or his 12 day marathon static cycling ride, OR his bicycle ride from Bangkok to Gloucester, England….. check out Adventureman’s YouTube channel HERE!
As if returning to Gloucester wasn’t rewarding enough, I returned to find our hawk couple together at their nest. I will keep sharp eyes open for chicks but I was happy enough to find the hawks together.
And, thanks t9 a heads up from Paul Morrison in a recent post, I put the hummingbird feeder out with some sugar water and was rewarded within 30 minutes with this welcome visitor:
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
Seaside Garden Club’s annual auction will feature donations
from area nurseries, hanging baskets, garden supplies, annuals and perennials
from our members’ gardens, and garden accessories. Doors open at 6:30pm at the
Manchester Community Center, auction starts at 7pm. Free admission. Cash or
checks, no credit cards. Light refreshments. Our annual auction supports our
club’s operations, programs, scholarships, and community service. Pick up a new
addition for you garden or a gift for a friend.
At our May 10 meeting, Amateur astronomer and perennial GAAC favorite Dwight Lanpher will speak about his visit last September to Birr Castle, County Offaly, Ireland to examine “the Great Telescope.” Any review of the history of astronomy will likely discover this large telescope called the “Leviathan of Parsonsonstown.” Built in Ireland in 1845 by the 3rd Earl of Rosse, it was the largest telescope in the world for 70 years. Each of two 72″ speculum-metal mirrors were alternately mounted in a 54′ long tube, suspended between two purpose built castle walls.
Dwight’s dynamic presentation will show details of how the telescope was operated and the modifications that were made during a $1,200,000 renovation in 1995. Images will also include the last remaining of the two, 3-ton, speculum mirrors examined during the return trip at its current location at the Museum of Science in London.
Good Morning Gloucester 