One thing before I left was taking this picture of the baby bunny (there’s at least one in there!) peeking through the fur that it’s mother had placed on top of it to hide it and keep it warm. I’m hoping to document the entire early life of these guys with luck.
Ok, there’s something moving underneath the fur where that bunny starting placing a nest in the flowerpot on the deck! More discovery to come!
Allow me to be a “Promo Ho” for a sec: I got a lot of love on the Eastham shot on the Cape Cod Photographers group, so I decided to add the high resolution version of it to my shop for purchase if anyone’s interested. Also, jigsaw puzzles of my work will be coming soon, which I think is a really cool idea! Check out this particular product here: Eastham Love! And stay tuned for the jigsaw puzzle versions!
Yesterday I forgot to mention that a transformer blew on the street, so we and the neighbors were all without power for a bit. We all streamed out of our houses asking if we all had the same experience, since everyone is home these days. We even got to talk to the neighbor that never has spoken to us in 3 years! She finally introduced herself to us and as we were talking, maybe she’s not such a bad egg after all.
This morning was spent hanging at the car mechanic’s shop getting an oil change and inspection sticker. Mine was up in May but due to the pandemic we all got a few months extra so I figured I’d get it done now. No sweat. I also noticed this morning that our Balloon Flowers (Platycodon grandiflorus) are starting to bloom now! Yay! Pretty cool how they “balloon” out, hence the name.
I finally beat all 30 levels from Slimoban – the game I mentioned a few days ago – really good game! Oh! We’re going to try out a drive-in tonight, one of those pop-up locations. Should be an experience! I’ll update as to how it went later! Update: The drive-in was fun! Saw E.T. Ahhh, memories. I remember my first drive experience must have been when I was about 10 – the original Freaky Friday was the movie, down at what is now the Meadow Glen in Medford.
Today – woke up late changing plans for the day somewhat. Took a drive over to Winslow to drop off some food for the animals, had intention to pick up a “grill box” that a restaurant is doing a few towns over from there. They put it all together and you place and cook it on your own backyard grill. Unfortunately we discovered too late in time to order so it’ll have to wait for another time to try it out. Instead went for a 1.5 mile hike through one of the town’s trails.
Looks like that bunny is coming around again! Carson just watches!
Tonight’s movie watch was Can’t Buy Me Love from 1987 starring Patrick Dempsey. I was saddened to learn that the lead actress in the film had died about 5 years ago from a drug overdose. I really liked her character in the film – I know the role is not the person, but still, it saddened me.
The most exciting thing that happened today was that a hummingbird finally showed up. Didn’t stay long, just long enough for us to notice. Perhaps my plantings and such are making them visit!
“The voice of a single raindrop will always make a splash when it has something to say.”
Today is a day where I spent some time just sitting and looking at the garden and being all zen. I also bought a new hose and some other things, as the previous one starting leaking at the spigot and it got annoying. I went all out with this though – contractor strength connection! No more leaks hopefully forever! I also bought a couple more plants and planted them under the hummingbird feeder as I thought it was a little bare there and these plants’ blooms should also attract them as well.
Not sure what was going on here. Carson was watching this rabbit come on the deck (again!) and the bunny just watched Carson. They had a stare down for a good minute or two. Carson has now made ‘friends’ with this bunny, a finch, and possibly a chipmunk as of this afternoon.
Going to try something different tonight and grill a pizza out on the grill tonight. Check back to see how it came out. Also RIP Angel the cat, it’s been three years since you’ve been gone now – forever in our hearts.
Update: The pizza didn’t turn out so great. Oh well. Back to the drawing board on that one.
I can remember as a kid staying in New Hampshire one week by a lake for a vacation with my family. The memory is blurry and I don’t remember why or how we stayed there, but I do remember walking off a dock and falling into the water and scaring myself half to death over it. Luckily I was able to make it back to shore by myself. I had totally forgotten all about that memory until right now. I wonder if that’s partly why I am somewhat averse to going into the water a lot of times, plus I can’t swim. Never learned, never had the desire to. I must have been around 8 years old? Anyways all I can seem to remember is the lake and the sand and the dock.
Guess all that work I’ve been doing to maintain these gardens is paying off – just look at these gorgeous blooms I’ve been waking up to in the morning.
Here we have Grace (an eastern cottontail rabbit that’s been hanging around – LD named her, I think it’s a her anyway) getting ready to eat some clover flowers. This particular bunny (a youngster we believe) spends all day in the yard and seems rather friendly and not so scared of people, as long as they don’t get too too close.
I placed the hummingbird feeder back out which had been gathering dust for a year or two now. I also moved it from it’s previous location. It was closer to the patio but I’ve now moved it into the back garden area where it’s more “secluded” and surrounded by natural nectar producing plants. I did this to make them feel safer and should provide me with a better view of actually seeing them. I remember earlier in the year just sitting on the back deck and this thing hovered in front of me with a buzzing sound. It took me a moment to register that it was a hummingbird in front of me! Of course, by the time I realized that, it took off – but it is pretty wild how they fly and hover and move in such varied ways, for a bird. So hopefully, I’ll get to see some more often.
Rando thoughts: Found an old copy of my Watchmen graphic novel from the ’80s. Think I’ll reread that. Setting up a new microwave. Got a simple outdoor inflatable pool yesterday, probably set that up this weekend. Still working on assembling the sideboard – it’s more complicated than I thought, with it’s Ikea-like directions and many parts. Hitting Home Depot to get a new hose and maybe some grilling accouterments, Speaking of grilling, I grilled last night and we ate by the firepit – I’ve become rather adept at it now – I actually prefer the hickory smell rather than the actual fire itself, although there is something meditative about just watching it burn – plus the smoke keeps the bugs away.
I spent the afternoon mowing the lawns, I like to keep it looking pretty, or at least, neat. Went to Volante’s this afternoon and ended up picking up a dwarf rose of sharon and a foxglove, which I planted in the patio area. Then hit another place down the road for a couple of hanging plants also for the patio area. Holy shit, gardening is a lot of work!
Tonight’s movie watch was Crash. Interesting flick – lots of well known actors too.
How pleased was I to see this first fire lily be open! I take another shot once more have opened but this is the first one. You can sort of see the hydrangeas and roses and clematis vine (can you spot it?) that surround it.
We were admiring a neighbor’s garden on our midday walk around the neighborhood, and so we got to talking and he gave us some great pointers about plants and the various critters and a little about himself. One thing about these quarantine days is we’ve really gotten to know the folks who live on the street in a way that we never have before. Very cool.
“It is a golden maxim to cultivate the garden for the nose, and the eyes will take care of themselves.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson
The petunias are in full bloom, the various species of Dahlia are starting to bud and bloom, tomatoes are starting to form on their vines, zucchini and eggplant are forming and everything else is so far so good. The clematis vine is crawling all over the hydrangeas, which is kinda cool looking and the various pots out front and full of different flowers all in bloom as well. I deadheaded some of the dianthus so that new blooms will form. I also picked up a new Celosia today with yellow, red and purple blooms. Someday I may try my hand at growing wisteria to cover the front fences – I bet that would look pretty cool but for now I want to go out later and get a new Hibiscus to replace the dead one out back. The Rose Campions have really started to spread themselves, one is even in the lawn out back which I left alone to see how it’d fare (it’s in bloom now too). LD doesn’t like them but I think they’re cool and I like how the spread and make more of themselves. They almost look florescent to me with their reds against the light green of their stems. Makes me think to get some more or something similar to take up any bare areas out back and to cut out the weeds from getting some space. I cut back all the spent blooms from the butterfly bush out front – hopefully it’ll have all new blooms in a few. The various lilies are starting to bud – the fire lilies always looks spectacular and I can’t wait for them to open, but the star gazers on the patio and the old regular lilies in the back are also getting ready to pop. The pumpkin and butternut squashes so far are still growing their leaves out. The salvia are keeping the bees busy with pollinating tasks.
I signed up a few days ago to attend a Zoom meeting about backyard birds. It was really good actually. I had already known most of the stuff but I did learn a couple of new things. It’s made me want to get back into birding. We’ve intentionally planted things that attract birds, bees, and butterflies but I think I might want to build a nest box for some species that may want to visit. Then spent the night binge watching old episodes (Season 1 and 2) of Grey’s Anatomy – what’s happened to me?
Did a bunch of lawn maintenance today – trying out the new mower. I’m very pleased with it! Spent a bit of the evening watching the firepit. As we were just hanging, a rather large skunk started toward us in the lawn. Thankfully it kept moving on to the other side and out, just passing by.
“Wildflowers aren’t meant to be cut & tamed. They’re meant to be loved & admired.”
I read and finished another book yesterday afternoon, My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. Not the kind of read I usually do but this one was pretty good.
More plants and flowers are starting to bloom. I’ve noticed that the dahia tubers we planted weeks ago are now starting to bud (really interested to see what these’ll look like as I think they are specialized species – Black Satin and Diva), and the rose campions out front are also starting to flower now. The salvia and speedwells have also starting showing their wonderful blue and purple colors and are attracting butterflies just like we planned. Even the zucchini and eggplants are staring to fruit! One other thing I’ve been doing is photographing plants that I don’t know on my phone and using Google Lens to identify them – I’ve discovered cats-ear in the lawn (the false dandelion) and some other species to educate myself. Some things that I thought were weeds actually are not and vice versa! (although some of them could be considered like weeds as they grow in lawns, etc). Yesterday we watched 4 bunnies run around and play with each other and later one was taking down clover flowers like no tomorrow. It bit the stems and then it moves into his/her mouth like spaghetti until the last part to be chewed is the flower. Really cute to watch – just as long as it keeps it’s appetite to the lawn is all we ask. Speaking of lawns, was able to get a brand new Toro gas lawn mower that a neighbor wanted to get rid of for a good price – so that worked out swimmingly! I really needed a self-propelled one which this one is so cutting the lawn now should be easier for me.
Been watching current events – Sharing anything in this digital space that isn’t directly related to the changes happening feels inappropriate in some ways.
The garden is coming along nicely – gives me something to look at and to do, a sense of accomplishment, although to be honest, the plants do most of the work themselves. It’s a treat for me to see a new bud forming, or a little tomato start to sprout, and the colors, the beautiful colors, brighten up things.
I feel I’m starting to become a little bit lazy. The days seem to pass by rather quickly. I grilled some trout last night on the barbecue. It came out pretty good.
Some of my photos finally got an actual mention on the newscast from the anchor along with showing them and that was exciting to see. It was the Fairhaven sunset and the bunny in the flowers on the deck, which I do have to say, feel are some of my best work. A lot of times I just never know what I might capture. Sometimes I’ll have an idea of what I think I might have in mind, but much of it is spontaneous (like the bunny) that just happened to be there. Like when I went to Fairhaven, I knew I’d like to get some sort of sunset shot (because folks seem to like those the best) but I had no idea of the surroundings or that I’d discover that field of poppies growing in the sand. I had to walk over to that location not even knowing it was there. Lots of times I’ll walk over to a place and there’s nothing great, but every once in a while I hit pay dirt. Part of the appeal for me is the discovery. Having had something of a sheltered childhood, I like to get out and see things now when I can. Somewhere in my head, there’s a curiosity – a need to discover and to learn, to find out more about the things that interest me. I only learned that over the years about myself. I started taking photos to prove to myself that I experienced what I saw and wanted to share it – almost like a validation that it really did happen, and to remember. That’s still true and probably always will be. Back to Fairhaven, I spent quite a while there, waiting for the sun to drop slowly lower and lower from the sky and to line up just how I wanted it to frame. I could see it in my mind how I wanted it to look – sometimes what I come back with isn’t the same as what I had envisioned, either the photo came out better than I had thought, or worse. I couldn’t get quite the angle that I had wanted, but it came out alright.
Kinda bummed that on a drive home a rock hit my windshield on the highway and left a nice chip with small cracks coming out of it. Guess I’m going to have to have that looked at. Balls!
I am pleased with the garden results thus far. The Butterfly Bush out front is growing kind of wild though, so I’d like to rein that in a little bit. My purple rosebush is starting to bud, which is nice which sits right next to the butterfly bush. The two sets of columbines are in bloom, one the usual baby blue and white, and also a purple variety which looks really nice. I noticed the clematis has purple and a red which I never saw before. The azaleas out back are in bloom, but the lilacs are starting to fade a little bit. The Fuchsia is in bloom along with the dianthus, dahlias and creeping buttercups. Speaking of dahlias, one of the strange varieties that we planted may be starting to break through the topsoil. Same thing with the butternut squash seedlings. Not sure why some of the lettuce is already flowering and possibly going to seed. Seems a bit too early. There’s a lot more other plants too but I’ll describe their status better as they come closer to fruition.
This photo is from some of the gardening that we did the other day. I put together the planter (it has much more in it now then when this pic was taken) and LD planted and arranged it. NECN has really been liking my stuff as of late! Remember you can always get some of these on your wall from my shop if you really like any of them. I would much appreciate it!
Actually after taking a mini survey it’s quite an impressive collection we have to get started. Besides the petunias there are marigolds, lettuce and squash varieties, peas, ageratum, various dahlia species, verbana, rosemary, lavender, basil, eggplant, chives, snapdragons, cucumber, various tomato species, bell pepper, kale, salvia, zinnias, cat grass, bee balm, columbines, butterfly bushes, roses, hydrangeas, foxglove, clematis, azaleas, creeping buttercups, violets and various lily plants all starting to either starting to or already blossoming. There’s a few more as well but I forget their names. A good start though!
I took a visit over to Earth-1 today to take care of some personal business, just trying to get some of my accounts in order. While there I happened to notice these cool looking tulips growing on the side of the house so I snapped it. I always liked tulips – they’re pretty cool looking, but they seem to come and go so fast.
“But he who dares not grasp the thorn
Should never crave the rose.”
The story behind the photo: This was a valentine’s gift one year and I felt like playing around with close up photography. I wanted to focus on the rose petals toward the front of the shot with the baby’s breath muted in the background. I then applied some effects after to give it a “softer” look. The red rose has been associated with love and passion for thousands of years. In Greek and Roman mythology, roses are often linked to Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love.
Gametime: Ice Roll. In case you haven’t noticed I have a thing for Puzzlescript games. I like these kinds of games that make me have to think on how to get to the exits. Maybe they can help you pass the day away too trying to solve them.
Spent some time over at Earth-1 this morning/afternoon. It was a good time, ended up watching SpiderMan 2 of all things. I think tomorrow I’m going to do some planting.
Another somewhat uneventful day. Did go for a nice little walk around the neighborhood. Spent some time trying to get some things in order around the house. Did take up some of my old birding hobby today – managed to watch a little woodpecker begin to dig out a hole up in a tree in the backyard.
Did start watching a ridiculous show on Crime Investigation channel called Monstresses – basically women killers that are a bit on the deranged side you might say and I’ll just leave it at that and an exercise to the readers to find out more about it on their own should they so wish. I feel it’s shot weird too – like parts of it remind me of a comic book layout. (Actually looking it up I learned there’s only one season consisting of only three episodes).
I don’t know what the heck I did last night but my left shoulder up to my neck is killing me right now. Perhaps I slept on it wrong, or I don’t know, but it’s a real bummer. I did power on and mow the front lawn however because it really needed it but I should probably take it easy. While sitting out in the sun room I noticed the trees out back looked pretty nice, so I took a quick picture. Going to suck having to deal with these leaves when they fall but that’s life.
There may be a pregnant bunny that was witnessed out in the back yard, but it didn’t appear to be Brazen Bunny. Also Squibbs the squirrel out back appears to be clawing and scraping away at the pumpkins out there. Really annoying.
I’m messing around with the site design a little bit. Might go back to what it was before, but I do like how this design puts my photos front and center. Only thing is it sends all the sidebar material to the bottom of the page (click the ‘plus’ sign to see what I mean down at the very bottom of the page).
I’ll also go back and read my latest issue of KMT magazine, It’s a quarterly that deals with ancient Egypt. This particular issue really strikes me as some of the articles in it are really interesting to me. One about the actual lineage of the 18th dynasty – does it really start with Tao I and end with Tutankhamen? Lots of gray area on that. A really cool article about using state of the art CT scans to look inside mummy coffins to see who and what’s inside including any artifacts they had on without opening them or damaging them (the photo quality they can get now is amazing and in three dimensions) and using iPads and software to recreate the hieroglyphic walls adorning various tombs accurately digitally – a process called digital epigraphy. Told you before I was a complete nerd for this stuff. So with all that I feel I’ve got to try to rest up and let this shoulder heal up a little bit.
Some friends of ours are opening a gym, so to celebrate them we created these “barbell” appetizers where the weights consist of different fruits for last night’s get together. We also ended up playing some games, including Scattergories (which is fun but hard, although I did learn from tricks from LD’s friend who visited a while back) and something they brought over called Mexican Train which uses dominoes (and I didn’t care for).
Our pumpkin, loving called Sean Connery Jr. because the seeds we planted were from a pumpkin I got the seeds from last year (obtained from same friends mentioned above) and they had named Sean Connery. (The reason why it was named that is a long story that goes back to a previous party outing with them).
We dropped off a bunch of books we had lying around from little libraries and deposited them at a bunch of different little libraries. While there I picked up two new books to read: The Golden King: The World of Tutankhamun (which I know a lot about already as I’m a big ancient Egypt buff – but I do find this book a great introduction to the Boy King) and Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America. Looks interesting so I’ll give it a read and it seems topical to what’s been going on in the news recently.
Went out after work to do our walk at a local plant nursery and ended up getting a giant hibiscus (along with some mums and a purple ornamental pepper plant). We’ve been wanted a hibiscus for a while now and the opportunity finally presented itself! Good deal price wise too. We’re going to decide where to plant it tomorrow.
I forgot to mention: It’s a Giant Hibiscus, not just the regular kind – so it’s blooms are large and spectacular looking in a deep reddish purple.
Well, I jumped on the bandwagon for this one and this afternoon partook in the trying out of an Impossible Whopper at Burger King. I had heard of this thing for about a week now so I was curious to try it myself and see just how it is. And you know what? I actually liked it. It tasted just like a regular whopper to me. It is more expensive and the patty is plant based meat substitute. So I give it a thumbs up. I would get it again.
Sean the Pumpkin Vine is really starting get long – will we get a real pumpkin out of it? Fingers crossed! We did get the flowers already. Also been watching the 90210 reboot. It’s actually not really a reboot, but a story of the actors from the show getting together to do a reboot of the show. Pretty Meta – it’s actually not bad, I find I’m kinda digging it. I never saw the originals anyway.
Got a new puzzle game to rack my brain on: Landfill. I like it, but I do find it challenging.
Nice to have an afternoon where I could just sit out back and get to reading my latest book for a few hours – would love to finish it this weekend if at all possible. I am finding it to be a enjoyable read. We did have a massage earlier in the day, which was nice. Even had another friend come over during it but she didn’t stay long, which in a way was also nice. The timing of that getting over was good as my boss called a little while later wanting to go over some of the text of the proposal we’re working on. Basically my section is too long so I needed to pare it down some. But what do you get rid of? Don’t want to ax something that may be important. Well, I’ve come to the realization that we can only do the best that we can, if we lose this project, well, I’ll have to find something else to do, even if it is a bummer for me. I can only control what I can. Probably wouldn’t lose this job on anything I wrote anyway – most likely it would come down to cost – doesn’t everything?
Now I’m heating up some more panko chicken dinner for us, while the annoying neighbors kids next door keep screaming as they belly flop and splash into their pool.
While putzing around the yard I noticed and was pleased to see some of our pumpkins are starting to sprout from their seeds (Sean Connery’s progeny – Sean Connery being the name that the pumpkin had that the seeds came from – we didn’t come up with that, the steward of Sean did). I also noticed some strangely colored butterflies (but didn’t get a chance to see up close unfortunately) and even a hummingbird visiting the fuchsia! Maybe tomorrow I’ll be lucky enough to catch it again. Maybe I’ll finally pull the grill out too.