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.

Mini-Vacation

Our house is not air-conditioned so hot, steamy nights are not welcome. We do have two window air-conditioners built into the walls. One in the living room and the other in the master bedroom. Both of these units scream 1970. When we, in desperation, turn them on normal conversation must cease. Sleeping with the constant, drone is nearly impossible.

The weather reports Monday were calling for extreme heat starting Tuesday night. Amy suggested that perhaps we should find a hotel room for Tuesday night. Normally this is not a big deal, there are three large hotels and several other smaller lodging establishments within 5 miles of our house. This is, however, not normal times for hotels in the greater Boston area. It's graduation season which means lots of out of town relatives descending to see their beloved children, grand-children, nieces and nephews walking across a stage to receive their degrees. These out of town relatives fill our roads (a story for another day) and hotels. Normally we could also have gone a little farther afield but I had to be home early Wednesday to meet the chimney sweep.

So it was with some trepidation that I began to look for a nice cool room for us to sleep in Tuesday night. Online searches were less than successful, unless I wanted to spend a lot more money than I felt I could. As a last resort I decided to call one of the larger hotels (the one whose loyalty card I have). It was late, so late it was almost Tuesday. The clerk who answered the phone mentioned that they only had one room left for Tuesday, and asked how much I'd be willing to pay. After I named a dollar amount we chatted while he looked up some information. During this I mentioned that I was a local who didn't have air-conditioning. He was then interrupted by an arrival (he was the only one working) and took my phone number so he could call me back.

A few minutes later he called back, and after a few more standard questions announced that since our air-conditioning had died (his interpretation) he could give me the bereavement rate for the room about 50% of the normal graduation season rate. (He also fessed up that he got a bonus if the hotel was sold out.)

So after a quick stop at home after work on Tuesday, we headed off to on our mini-vacation. The room was nice and cool. And we enjoyed a movie before bed. I was up in time for a swim Wednesday morning and then it was home for me and off to work for Amy.

Thin Ice

This picture was taken nearly a year ago but it's fairly close to the view outside our windows now, though instead of sun we've got light snow falling. Through those trees, if you know what to look for, you can see the pond. There is only one house between us and it. It's a small pond and with the exception of the access path that runs down the hill on the other side of our next door neighbor is fairly inaccessible. It's set down from the few surrounding houses and ours is the only nearby road.

It's a small pond and doesn't get a lot of use - an occasional fisherman, teenagers looking for a spot to be alone, and in the depths of winter ice skaters. Yesterday our little pond was the focus of a lot of activity. Early in the afternoon Amy noticed fire trucks and police cars parked, lights flashing near the access path.

My first reaction was that someone had fallen through the ice, but the lack of an ambulance and the quick departure of the police car - sirens blaring - had us thinking that maybe we were wrong and they were just checking the barrier on the access path. But the fire truck didn't leave and we heard shouting. The only words I could make out were "talk to us". The fire trucks were there a long time.

Amy was out shoveling when a neighbor walked by headed back to his house. He'd been more curious than we were about the activity and had gone to see what was happening. As it turned out my first instincts were correct - someone, or rather two someones had fallen through the ice. Apparently two teenage boys, 15ish according to the tv reports, had decided to walk across the pond. They almost made it falling through the ice just before reaching the far side of the pond. The very good news is that the fire department was able to rescue them and they are going to be okay.

It was not been cold here for very long, in fact until the last three days it has mostly been in the mid-30s. There's been frost but we have not had the kind of sustained cold to form reasonable ice on any pond. Given the lack of cold I'm amazed that these boys didn't fall through within feet of the shore on this side.

The boys, despite their really bad decision to walk across the thin ice on the pond, did a couple of things right once they ended up in the water. They removed their shoes and pants - which worsened their hypothermia. They were able to pull themselves out of the water. When the firefighters finally got to them, after what the news reported as a mile long trek through the pathless woods, two of them removed their cold water protection suits and wrestled the boys into them.

The fire trucks and the news vans that arrived in their wake are now gone. The memories of this will stay with me. My heart goes out to the families that came way too close to losing their children. The outcome of this incident could have been much, much worse.

Please remind all those close to you - stay off the ice!

Shutterday: Thing Seen

This week's theme at Shutterday is "Thing Seen" (swing on over to see other submissions). The photos submitted are to be of things yoy have a unique view of, something you noticed that most people might have missed, or something you saw and needed to show the world. I spied this traffic cone while walking in my neighborhood last weekend.

Thursday Challenge: Broken

Taken on a walk in my neighborhood in September. I don't usually post pictures that I've already posted but this was the only one I had to fit the theme and since it wasn't posted in response to a photo challenge I thought it would be okay.

See more Thursday Challenge here.

Christmas Lights

Most of the people who put up holiday lights in our town do so with restraint - a few strings on the bushes in front of the house, lights around a few windows, a lighted blow-up character or two. There is one house, though, which we pass when returning from the grocery store that goes all out with their Christmas decorations.

It started innocently enough. When we first lived here the bushes on one edge of their yard looked like a row of gum drops. When the holidays rolled around the owners added colored lights to the gum drop bushes. With a coating of snow the bushes were quite beautiful.

Slowly additional holiday items were added. And during the last couple years the house has attracted enough attention to slow traffic. There are lights on bushes, lights on the house, lighted blow-up characters, slide shows and those gum drop bushes - they now sport not only the lights but a stereo system playing carols to which the lights are synchronized.

For your viewing pleasure here are a few shots of the spectacle. (Click on the pictures to see larger views.)

Morning Visitation

Just after I got up this morning I caught sight of these turkeys in our driveway. By the time I got the camera they'd moved to the front yard. The picture was taken through the window since rushing out in my pajamas and slippers on this very icy morning was not a good idea. We think these critters have visited before - there are large bird prints frozen into the snow in the yard.

Early Morning Drama

One of my morning rituals is to look out the window when I get into the shower. I get a good view of the neighbor's house and the street in front of my house. Most days I don't see much movement. Occasionally I'll see someone walking, sometimes accompanied by a dog. Yesterday when I looked out I didn't see much movement and was about to turn to the task at hand when I caught something out of the corner of my eye. Looking more carefully I realized that there was a black cat poised on the edge of the neighbor's roof. The house is one story tall so said cat was not that far off the ground. This was not a kitten, but a full grown cat.

The cat was on the portion of the roof where the house forms an L. As I watched the cat extended one paw toward the small roof over the door to the house. The roof is a simple shed roof and is maybe a foot wide. The cat put a small amount of weight on the extended paw. The cat quickly withdrew the paw as if the roof was hot and backed up the main roof. It then proceeded to the far end of the roof where it walked to the edge of the gutter and looked down surveying the bushes below. It backed away, then moved back to the gutter. When it backed away from the gutter again it moved several feet down the roof and repeated this exercise. I could just hear the conversation in its little cat head, "Maybe I can get down from this spot. No it's too high. There's nothing to jump onto. I'll have to find another spot. Well maybe it's not so bad. ... No can't do it. Maybe over there." After repeating this a couple more times, the cat found itself back at the spot where I'd first seen it.

At about the same time my neighbor, having heard the pitter-patter of little cat feet on the roof, opened the screen door. This additional perch seemed to give the cat an extra dose of courage. Using the roof over the door, it made its way from the main roof to the top of the screen door. It perched on the door for several minutes. I watched as my neighbor attempted to coax the cat off the door. She was too short to reach the cat, and the cat wasn't one of hers. This went on for a minute or two before the cat gathered up all its courage and leapt to the ground.

That ended the morning's drama and I went on with my shower.

Morning Vision

bloodhound goes one way
beagle heads in the other
dog walker arms strain

Inspired by the view outside by bathroom window one morning last week.

Forgot This One

I meant to post this yesterday with the other pictures from my walk. Click on the picture to see the demonic look in the squirrel's eye, not to mention the acorn clenched tightly in his teeth.

Playing Hooky

I played hooky today, although it's probably not hooky if your boss knows. I slept late this morning, chatted with a friend on the phone, and then ran errands. Among the errands was a stop at the local dry cleaner/tailor to drop off a pair of pants to have a seam repaired. ( I could do this myself but it would require cleaning a table, pulling out the sewing machine, finding thread to match...). The tailor I use has hemmed a number of pairs of pants for me. She insisted on fixing the seam while I waited, and refused to charge me for it. It's nice to be a regular.

I stopped in the pizza shop next door to pick up a sandwich for lunch. The folks in there asked if I was going out in my kayak today. It was a gorgeous day and kayaking would have been a really good idea. It was not part of my plans although I did debate changing my plans after that stop.

I decided, however, to follow my original plan and treated myself to a movie. I saw Death at a Funeral (just me and 2 other women). It was a cute farce, not laugh out loud funny for the most part but amusing.

When I got home I decided to take advantage of the weather so I grabbed my camera and headed out for a walk. There were a couple of things in the neighborhood I wanted to get pictures of so I headed towards those. On the way I took pictures of other things that caught my eye. Click on the pictures to see larger versions. Enjoy!

First stop is my yard.


This plant is called blue threadleaf. In the spring it sports delicate blue flowers on the ends of the stalks. This time of year it's showing signs of fall.

A bumble bee enjoying our sedum.

Berries on our dogwood.

A house down the street is undergoing a major renovation. The overall design is garrison colonial. This small fake roof appeared on the front of the house earlier this week. Makes me wonder who thought this was a good idea.

The other entry in the "what were they thinking" category are these plastic tulips in another neighbor's yard. When I noticed them from the car the other day I thought they were wood.

It took all summer to paint this fence (it used to be white). It was painted one section at a time. Our guess is that the painter and the gardener in the family couldn't agree on the timing.

I live in the 'burbs so basketball hoops aren't that uncommon. However, I hope I never run into the critter who chomped on this one.

And finally a couple of signs.

This is on the door of a dump truck sitting in a neighbor's yard (they're doing some sort of work in the back yard).

On the other side of our next door neighbor is some town owned land, and a pond. About five feet back from the road is this pair of signs. The vegetation is pretty thick between the road and the signs.