Thematic Photographic: Made of Glass

A very strong thunderstorm rushed through Cambridge yesterday. During the storm the windows in my office had sheets of rain flowing down them. This is looking through them at the building across the street.

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Cape Cod Visit

Spent last Saturday with my sister's family at their campsite on Cape Cod. I was not the most exuberant guest since I got injured in my softball game Friday night, but it was great to see them all. A few pictures from the day.

My sister preparing to clear the site of pine cones.

My sister-out-law looking up from her reading.

After several hours of board games D headed off on his bike with JT.

After several hours in his bike helmet the boy's hair had ridges!

Thematic Photographic: Rough

Detail of a weathered Adirondack chair (in the actual Adirondacks).

See more Thematic Photographic here.

Thematic Photographic: Signs

This sign cracks me up everytime I pass it.

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Neighborhood Walk

I played hooky today and I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. Today was the first sunny day in what feels like forever, and I wanted to take advantage of it. I did some work and spent some time in my workshop. Mid-day I took my camera outside. First stop was my own yard.

First stop was the end of the walk to document the planter I put out last weekend. It was finished last fall but we never got it put into place.
Click on the pictures to see larger versions.

The plants are dragon's breath sedum and pasque flower.

In the garden next to the driveway:

Pinks aka Dianthus

Lithodora - these are tiny flowers about 1/4 inch across.

Salvia thinking about blooming.
When it does it'll be dark purple.

Sage

Moving toward the back yard:

Chives.
We originally got a couple of plants from Amy's Dad.
We now have two window boxes full, though we never use them.

Fern.

Lily of the Valley

And then I headed out into my neighborhood:

Goldfinches enjoying our neighbors feeder.


Pattern on phone pole.
Can you see the heart?


Cornflower


I'm not sure what this pod will be.
I'll have to stop by in a week or so and find out.


Bleeding Hearts.

All in all a wonderful walk.

I know I haven't posted in way too long. I can't promise this will be the start of more regular posting, but I'm going to try.

Birthday Adventures

Today is Amy's birthday. We don't usually make much of a fuss about birthdays in our house. The absence of children probably has something to do with that. Most birthdays are celebrated with a card or two, a small present or two and a cake. Today was a little different. There were no cards and Amy got her present a week and half ago when we went to see Cirque du Soleil's Ovo.

Yesterday was a busy day. I spent the morning kayaking with my friend Carol. And Amy and I spent the afternoon with friends celebrating the college graduation of their son, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend Bill.

The handsome graduate.

So, we hadn't planned much for today. Amy decided she wanted to spend the day with me, and so she came along to Meeting this morning - though she chose to sit outside in the sun and read rather than participate in Worship. After rise of meeting we shared the cake I made last night with the Friends in attendance. It was once most Friends had left the Meeting House that our adventure began.

Last week our caretaker, Wendyl, had asked for me help and advise on a project she had started. The kitchen of the Meeting House has a wonderful butler's pantry. At the entrance there is a swinging door which opens into the hallway. On the wall perpendicular to that door is a second swinging door which used to open into the dining room. Many years ago that doorway was blocked off to provide space for shelving in the dining room. On the pantry side the door was left in place and toenailed into the frame so that it was no longer operable.

It was this second door which had captured Wendyl's attention. She was eager to remove the door so that shelves could be added into the space of the door frame. When she asked me to take a look last week she had managed to remove several of the nails holding the door closed, but was unable to release it. I gave it an unsuccessful try, and decided that we needed a different selection of tools to attack the problem.

Which brings us to today. I'd reported the details of the project to Amy when I arrived home last week, and she'd volunteered to help (silly girl). So we left the house this morning with crowbar and saw in hand. The crow bar made quick work of getting the door open. The goal, though was to remove the door. This proved to be much more difficult than any of us ever expected.

There are a couple of hinge configurations currently available that allow a door to swing both ways. One involves specialty hinges which are screwed into the frame and the door, like standard hinges. The other variety involves a pin that holds the top of the door and a spring mechanism that does the work that is attached to the bottom of the door. The hinge mechanism on this door was most like that. This might have been a fairly easy extraction had both sides of the doorway been accessible - but one side of this doorway is a wall, so access to the edge of the door was non-existent. Method number one was to unscrew the plates above and below the doors. That didn't work because there wasn't enough give in the door to lift in off the pins at the either the top or bottom.

Then we decided that we should chisel out around the plate that accepted the pin at the top of the door. This necessitated a trip home to pick up chisels. After the trip home (about 15 minutes round-trip) and the yummy lunch Wendyl made for us we went to work chiseling out the wood around the top plate. After this work we were able to wiggle the door more but still could no get it loose. Careful examination with a flashlight revealed that the pin was about the same thickness as my finger, and the plate included a large tab that stuck further up into the framing.

After much discussion, examination of both the top and bottom mechanisms, and much wiggling of the door we decided to go with the slightly less elegant method. We pulled out the circular saw, draped off a good portion of the room with plastic and sliced the door in the middle (side to side). Space didn't allow us to slice completely through the door, but it didn't take much separate the two halves. After cleaning up the cut on the bottom of the door, which we did outside, and some cleanup our adventure was done, for now. The pantry is used for folding table storage, so the bottom half of the door is going back into the frame with shelves above.

We did get a small surprise - a non-structural two by four in the center of the opening. I did attempt to remove it but there was not enough support for the dry wall and that attempt was abandoned.

The end result.

The top pin.

After our adventure we returned home to relax and promptly fell asleep. We both had nice, unplanned, late afternoon naps. Not exactly what we expected this morning, but a nice day anyway.

The birthday celebrations will continue - there's another cake to make (once Amy decides what flavor she wants) and the annual birthday lobster to be eaten (at one of the number of local restaurants that offer such fare).

Paradise

Sunday morning you will find me here.

For many people vacation means a trip to the sea shore or to a theme park. For me vacation means heading to the Adirondacks - lake water to swim and boat in, a rustic cabin to relax in, family to visit with and friends to reconnect with. For the next two weeks that's where we'll be.

Check out Wakanda if you want to enjoy a little paradise.