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Home My WebLink AboutApril 17, 2003 - When spring springs a leak • April 17, 2003 • The Suffolk Times �� • s rin s a ea �. � �� *,„�,�y .�;ws r x � ._`'"' `.� �&�. � r�w,�'�G'� •;3'." e. � -., ;� a 9 ' � Pll�k� ��.�y .� {K ...�.�, ,; ,� � �._�„ �:�:�,' � 'kr� �'�N , -:_ . ;,, - �«.., a� . , , g \ . � Y � � "� �m �; � � � �: a �� 4 ��, � �� ' �� , r � � :�� ili�'+�i'( �p�P ��,o ',<< I ,6 � ° ' � � 1�' j � 7 �� I `1 I I � �� a�, ' �%��4y; ��' zt� o �.,��' I� �� S s �II�'� 'a,':.S � ..� � �� .,.e� • � � ^�� E � �A:� �g � i� .. �� ,�... �,, � �� &.a°" �, ,� >� � �.. �� - ,� ""�: �,�, ,� � �.� ` �' %"�� ,� �` � k"��'v ,k � � � � � �'�� . � �; :�, ,� � � �:� , � � �„;�' �; _-� �»�- �, ,, � � �, $ � �R�' m�� '� r g �� , �" @, ... �. �� `?r... '+�.� ?{ '� �, � G """^�H«» '°"� .. _._� e #� s F':^"0 � ..' ,.,r;�;;,. � �'. � z r� s�.p.., j ,.1 '.�, $ "�IR• � Y,�� '�� . N � �A� �� N � �> � .. , .. 'A .: . .., � ` .. ,. �E , ��'� � � � }�.t"Si�'' . �z . `"F:.� �R�qp 1., � �h '��t � ��y/ �� . Y;�_( ^,�•�� : �_ : . .. � .t �d; �y' ..:w.. ..... •.�,�;... ' � �- .,� �" , Times/Review photo by Barbara Stoutenburgh One of our early spring flowers is the yellow trout lily. The nice part about this plant is Its col- orful leaves of green with purplish-brown markings. IT is PRiL AtvD it is snowing. The dnveway is a out_ eet long We've had enough of that,but then,a and 200 feet of it has a makeshift stone walk in the snow is always worth- wall that runs down both sides.The while,so come with me as I go down stones for the wall came from old cel- our driveway to get the mail.It's not lars,discarded stones at the ends of particularly cold.It's just about freez- farmers'fields or just giveaways wher- ing.As I step out the door and head ever I could get them.The majority are down the driveway,the snow crunch- made up mostly of red sandstone that es under my was cheap and easily handled.I was FOCu$ feet,telling me told they came from across the Sound, iYs half frozen somewhere in Connecticut.Many old Q(�] and half snow. farm cellars were made out of these This is just the quanied red blocks of stone.Granite NATURE beginning of was also used. by Paul what the weath- One old building had grayish blocks Stoutenburgh er channel tells of granite in its cellar wall and when us is a major the house was trashed,I was able to winter storm working its way up the rescue them.They found their way coast.We'll have to watch out for that into my patchwork wall.The field- tonight. stones I used were mostly groun� boulders worn smooth by the moving glacier some 10,000 to 15,000 years many a load of rock ago.Farmers would pick these stones and rubble into those out of their fields and leave them at ruts.To this day you The wa:er,being warmer,has now the end of the rows out of the way. can see some of them stirred the roots of the thatch grass Most are about six to eight inches in at ground level,a and soon we'll see the green shoots size with a couple of jumbos thrown reminder of the ener- emerge,eventually growing to a heigh in.I used no mortar in the walls but gY�'e had in those of four to six feet or more.This was just stacked one on top of the other. early days. the thatch our early settlers used on The wall has prevented the erosion of If you look real their roofs.All winter long the marsh its sides for over 45 years.In some close at the base of has been knocked down by ice and places the wall is now covered over by some of the rocks in snow and it's now decornposing and ivy that blankets the ground on each the driveway wall,you see a ern creatmg nutrients that later will be side of the driveway. growing that stays green year'round. flustred on each change of tide.Our When we first came to where we It's the Christmas fern,so called marsh works year'round cleansing, eventually built we planted rhododen- because the leaf reminds you of a tiny producing and acting as a.storm barri- drons and hemlocks all along the dri- Christmas stocking,and since it's green er.LeYs never forget the salt marsh veway.One of the reasons we liked the all year it was picked and used for and its importance. rhododendrons was that we could Christmas decorations.If you look far- �ite spots further down on what always tell if it was freezing outside ther down the way,you'll see a grape looks like a dead marsh prove to be a because all the leaves on the rhodo- fern,a very small,slender fern that I pair of swans looking for a place to dendrons would be rolled up,but the P�cked up in my travels years ago. nest.Last year they were flooded out. basic reason we One of the lesser trees along the dri- ��s hope that this year they'll build a chose these two veway is the shadblow.In another nest high enough to prevent any disas- shrubs was that month or so it will sprinkle the woods trous flooding.The other white is the they grow under with its whiteness.It is our first flower- stately egret.These hardy birds that the shade of trees. ing tree.It gets its name because it feed on killies and shrimp don't nest blossomed when the shad and herring They did well here but nest on the islands to our east until disease hit came u the rivers to spawn.On some Gardiners,Plum and possibly Fishers of them you can see Island.What we see now are ust tran- my hemlocks and ` ` 1 TI1� �'1@IdSt011�S We1'e ' �'here a deer in velvet sients who sto on their wa east. now they're nottl- P Y ing but skeletons It10StI b0lJI(I41'S rubbed its antlers on On the way back we pass a little y ' the tree,scraping the ond.It's reall an enlar ed birdbath where there once {�y0rp Sftl00�I1 b �Il@ ' bark loose.That's a p y g was greenery.A � that my sons and I put in many years friend of mine t1101l111�; $�aC�@I'S true indicator of deer ago.It's a great attraction for birds and in the area when you occasionally I've planted wildflowers who comes from S�Otil@ 1��QQO �0 ' see those rubbings. the Catskills says At the very bottom around it.Two of them seem to do ZrJ,000 years ago. ve well:the Ma a le,which hides he and his dad rY Y PP cursed the rhodo- ' of the driveway I cros its flower anci apple under its spread- dendron and its over and walk out on ing leaves,and the trout lily that I cousin the moun- t e little dock.Looking up the creek I planted along the edge.This has beau- see an osprey that for the first time ha tiful little ellow flowers each s rin tain laurel for the y p g taken a platform we put up six years that make it a great addition to the simple reason that ago.Each year we would hope an area.Both of these will be blossoming up at the farm osprey would take it,but one never they could hardly in May. came.Occasionally one would light on I also see one remaining clump of get through the it to eat a fish but that was the closest mountain laurel.All the rest have been woods because we got until this year,when we now chewed off by the�deer or have died. those shrubs grew see two of them there,hopefully with Mountain laurel belongs to the same so thick. family plans.Sometimes you have to famil as the rhododendron and grows The roadway wait a long time to get results. y that eventuall in profusion in the woods north of y Years ago I put some birdhouses in East Marion. became our drive- the marsh at the end of the dock in If you examine the flower of the way used to ex- hopes of luring tree swallows.Sorry to mountain laurel,you'll notice the tend right through say,Mr.Raccoon has seen to it that anthers that are tucked away.These our place,across nothing nests in them,for he has anthers are spring-loaded with pollen. lots and down to ripped the top off or completely �en a bee or other insect touches Little Creek.It was an old farm road demolished some of them on the the anther,it springs out and douses that had been cut away down through ground with his powerful claws.What the intruder with its precious ingredi- the earth by wagon wheels over the he's after are the eggs or young,of the ent of pollination.If you want to see centuries.When we first came here, birds or perhaps a mouse that might nature in its finest hour,touch one of during the time of the spring thaw,our have nested there.Whatever it is,it's a these"triggers"and se:,for yourself car would sink into the mud and leave meal for Mr.Raccoon,who knows how it works. ruts six to ei ht inches dee .I ut how to get into birdhouses.