Island Time

 We have been busy on the Island.  With fewer keepers everybody has more work.  So I have missed a couple of days of blogging.  But time moves on.  Our wildflowers are changing as we really get into summer and the heat.  But our lilies have finally bloomed.

Here are the lilies at the base of the tower.

This is not what the inlet looks like this morning but our youngest keeper this year, Taylor spent a good part of his time making good use of the little red kayak.  This morning our inlet has lots of water in it as a strong eastern wind is shoving water into it.  We had a peek at the sun as it came up over the horizon this  morning but then slipped into the clouds that fill the sky.  I am not sure I welcome the coolness but the last few days have been full of sun and heat.

Taylor and his family finished up quite a few projects around here.  This picture proudly shows Taylor and the foot board he painted for the privy.  He was not sure at first he wanted to touch anything that had to do with the privy but did put a couple of coats of paint on this new foot board.  Rick, another keeper helped him put it on just before they reluctantly left the Island for home.

Jack and his brother Steve are here refinishing the floors in the upstairs bedrooms.  We usually have too many keepers here to put those bedrooms out of commission but with just four of us here we should have them all finished before these two keepers leave on Monday.

The other night as I was walking up to the lighthouse to close up for the evening, I found this young woodpecker down under our information sign.  It was obviously injured as when I approached, it did not fly away.  I remembered once when I was in South America we had a chicken that had heat stroke.  It has been real hot here and I thought maybe this woodpecker was suffering.  From this blue bowl I fed it water.  Our conclusion was that the bird had actually flown into the information board and was stunned. We went off to bed only to find it dead in the morning.

Despite the ruff seas this morning the mother Merganser is out with her brood.  They bob up and down in the waves like they are all riding on the same boat.  We will see what the day will bring.

The keepers at St. Helena Light Station