Category: Scenic Photography

The Hawk Hangs Around

Posted on by Markman
This juvenile hawk keeps hanging around!

This hawk just keeps hanging around still. Maybe it still hasn’t totally gotten the message that he needs to be on his own and start feeding himself. Actually according to MassAudubon that’s exactly what it is! He looks pretty healthy to me though, so I don’t think he’s in any distress. Maybe he’s making this area his home base, which is true, might not be good for Shiloh! Better leave little Shiloh alone!

Meanwhile, at Earth-1 the takedown of the house next door is coming along little by little, floor by floor. The roof is long gone and yesterday it appeared that most of the second floor had been removed as well. I should mention the reason for the teardown is to build, you guessed it, another new condo. I took a couple of pics but they don’t really do the magnitude of the work justice in my mind.

I ended up putting up some more shelving in the basement. The idea is to become more organized and not have anything on the floor that wouldn’t need to be. Mostly though, it’s for neatness and organization moving forward. I also inflated all my car tires using the portable. Believe it or not it actually works! Not a bad purchase! You can blow air from it either thru the car lighter plug or via the stored energy after charging the device itself through USB, which is what I’ve been doing. Next thing I want to get for the back is a cargo net, They’re cheap and I think it would help in keeping any groceries or such that I put back there from sliding all around the back when making turns.

Yesterday I got new some new sneakers from the New Balance Outlet in Brighton, after destroying my previous pair working down in the basement. Ended up getting the Fresh Foam 880s in Light Aluminum/Black/Steel. Pretty sharp looking!

Throwback Thursday

Posted on by Markman
Throwback Thursday Nubble Light views

I think I am going to pop on that e-bike but I’m going to wait until after this next trip we have planned coming up. The fact that it folds up and will allow me to just pop in the back of our trucks makes it very appealing to me to be able to ride on trips and such. I’ve been watching reviews and everything and for the longest time I’ve been on the fence about it, going back and forth, but seeing as my birthday is coming up, this could be my yearly “gift to myself” purchase. I did just order a portable air compressor however as I’ve been wanting one for some time to inflate things.

Here’s a pic from earlier this year that I felt like reliving. Would definitely stay there again.

The Day After the Fourth

Posted on by Markman
The USS Constitution floats along Boston Harbor. A July 4th event that happens yearly here.

Started today by watching some old ST:TNG episodes, some good ones too, like the one where Picard lives a whole lifetime as someone else, and the one where he gets taken prisoner by the Cardassians and they try to break him by making him believe there are 5 lights instead of 4. Classics. I’ve seen them bunches of times. Maybe I should try to watch that new Picard show that came out a year or so ago.

Later in the afternoon I finally got around to mowing the backyard, refilling the bird feeder, making hummingbird water, grilling hot dogs, steak tips and veggies, I ended up eating three of the dogs for lunch, I was so hungry. Usually the most I can eat is 2. If I try to have more I end up feeling sick for whatever reason, but today I had 3, and so far all is good. Must have been all that work I did mowing and such, worked up quite an appetite.

We dropped off some produce at the Sanctuary for the animals but made it back for the late afternoon festivities of having some friends over for S’mores over the firepit visit. That was fun, and lasted about 3 hours, although it didn’t feel that long, time flies when you’re having fun as they say, so not so bad.

Unfortunely earlier in the day I kind of ripped my healing thumb again–owwwww! Is this thing ever going to heal!? Not if I keep ripping it open, right?

A Wet Day Means Movies and TV

Posted on by Markman
Wet Fire Lilies from the garden 2021.

It being so wet and rainy these last few days gives us a chance to catch up on some entertainment viewing. The latest go to was a documentary called Class Action Park, detailing the history of an amusement park in New Jersey in the 80s called Action Park, where basically “you controlled the action.” Basically the owner let drunk teens practically run the place and the rides he created were unsafe. Many people got hurt there, some even died, and yet the place was allowed to continue for years. It became sort of a badge of pride and courage if you made it through alive. That’s how it got the nickname Traction Park by all the kids. So Jersey! Definitely worth a view if you have Amazon Prime Video. Another movie I heard about that I might want to see is called The Fare. I read it’s a trippy time loop sort of movie with some major twists toward the end. Update: We’ve watched it and it was weird, not bad, bur I thought it would be better. Very Twilight Zone-ish vibe. Also tried to watch a bit of the series called Hunters, an episode of Booker, a old 20/20 episode and a show about Jodi Arias’s cell mates.

I finally set up the sound bar to the smart tv. Sounds good! It can also be used to stream sounds from our other devices as well. Get ready for booming bass and theatre quality sounds! Think I’ll hook up a Bluetooth keyboard we’ve had hanging around here as well since typing letters through the little remote gets tedious. Ahhh, technology.

In the afternoon after running an errand to the bank and LD getting us some hot chocs from Starbucks, I happened to take this photo of the fire lilies all in bloom with the raindrops all over them.

Injurious Behaviors

Posted on by Markman
Fire Lily on Display (Available in store)

Quick recap on the last coupe of days: On Tuesday I got my brakes done, ay curumba, that was a bit pricey but I should have expected it, plus I don’t mess around when it comes to something important like that. I went for the whole thing – pads, rotors etc. for the truck – front and backs. I had a minor stomach ache most of the day and I was really hot and sweaty from the oppressive heat all day. In the evening when I was starting some meal prep I ended up slicing my thumb. I saw the knife go in as I was trying to halve a Brussel sprout and then I freaked a bit when I saw the blood come gushing it. I wrapped it tight and thankfully it eventually stopped bleeding. (LD also helped me out a bit although she was pretty busy at the time so I do appreciate her coming to my aid to check it out for a bit).

Yesterday we went down to the beach house and got to enjoy the day in the water. We were determined to be in the water before July and it happened on the last day of that month. It was a good day to be in the water too because it was the last of the oppressively hot days up here. I’d like to thank our host for their generosity in letting us come down to her beach house to enjoy the waves and the breeze and the meals and the company. While there I also got to see one of those electric bikes in action (might have actually been this model in fact), which kind of makes me want to buy one, assuming I can find a way to afford it – looks pretty cool. Once again, birthday’s in August people!

I’m going to try to complete the meal I started Tuesday before I injured myself tonight and hopefully this time I’ll be more careful. My thumb does hurt a bit now and then and it hurts to directly put pressure on it but overall it’s not too bad. Also something bit me yesterday while I was in the water and now one of hands seems to be swelling up. Going to watch that, I think it may be beginning to subside actually.

The story behind the photo: Here’s one of our Fire Lilies from our garden that had some raindrops on it from an earlier pop up shower passing by. <plug> I think it makes a pretty good photo! As mentioned above, it’s available for your wall or on other things as well. </plug>

Weekend Blooms

Posted on by Markman
Some lilies from the garden are staring to bloom.

A pretty good, if low key, weekend was on tap. On Saturday night we went over to our couple friend’s house and played some games. One was one card game where you had to figure out which player was a werewolf, and we found that kind of weird, but then we played a game called “I Should Have Known That” and I rocked that one. My various knowledge of things came in helpful. They were very impressed with me answering all the questions correctly, like “how the f*ck did he know that!?” Heheh! We made a nice salad to bring over with the lettuce we obtained from our garden and the RI trip last week, and used up a lot of the fruits and vegetables we had lying around so it was a good use of getting through our stuff. We also picked up some takeout to bring over as the main dishes. We made the same salad again with the remainder the next day when one of LD’s friends came by a couple of hours on route back to her house from a NH drop off and I even grilled some salmon to go on top of it. In the meantime I discovered a new show called Cellmate Secrets on Lifetime (of all channels) but I’m finding it really good. Narrated by Angie Harmon, another celebrity crush of mine back in the L&O days, it looks at famous notorious criminals from a different angle, interviewing people who knew them in prison. I binged the first three episodes yesterday through On Demand. It seems to be getting better as the shows go on. Best one so far was the lady who let those two inmates escape from jail up in upstate New York a few years ago, but the Casey Anthony episode was pretty good too. Didn’t care too much for the Drew Peterson one. Apparently there’s three more shows to go.

Late in the afternoon we got a few more plants, bird seed, and a new plant stand for some of the hanging plants, which will look really nice on the patio. It has slots for 4 hanging plants all around at differing heights and was a breeze to assemble. Things look really nice which all the plant life in abundance all around the back patio and yard. I love just relaxing out there in the morning before the heat and stress of the day start up.

After I went out for a Wegman’s run to pick up some curbside groceries LD had a mason came by to check out the front steps to the house. It needs to be redone as it’s been crumbling for a while, plus she hates the look of them. We are discovering however that a job like this seems to be pretty pricey, so not sure what’s going to happen with those just yet.

It’s been really hot outside so that has limited a bit of what we can do, although we did sit outside yesterday afternoon late. I was thinking of doing a fire pit but in the end I was too tired and decided not to do one.

Some lilies from the garden are starting to bloom, including some of the ones we obtained from the garden club lady, as shown above. One of the fire lilies has also popped. If I can get a really good picture of those as more of them begin to open I’ll try to get a nice picture of those. The Stargazers are also going to open up soon as well, which are some of our favorites.

Of Mice and Men

Posted on by Markman
field mouse

The latest updates: Here’s a little field mouse we saw while checking out some plants yesterday afternoon. LD ended getting up a Dwarf Hummingbird Mint plant. We swung by the plant place after checking out some mail from her PP office. LD also finally got a new phone, same Samsung S20 FE. That phone really is great value for the money. She’ll like it. The big news of the day is my sister might have cancer of the uterus. Biopsy appointment in a couple weeks to see whatever next steps might be. My mom is still waiting for her results from the lump on her neck. When it rains it pours, as they say. I’m not even sure I should be mentioning those things on here. Just some more items to add onto the worry pile of my life. To keep my mind off things I’m still playing that Headlong Hunt game. I’ve somehow made it to level 35 of 37. Maddeningly good puzzles and provides me with a respite. The creator did a good job on the quality of the puzzles. Just hard enough. I took my car down to my Earth-1 mechanic for an overdue oil change and while there it appears I’ll be needing new brakes soon, so I made an appointment to get that done next Tuesday morning. Ended the day by watching 20/20 and cooking dinner.

Blue Mouthwash

Posted on by Markman
Moonstone beach again.

Had a dentist appointment yesterday morning early so the night before I kept waking up so as not to miss waking up on time, if you know what I mean. Everything checks out fine but he did prescribe me this mouthwash to use for my gums. While I was waiting at the pharmacy to pick it up their computers went down and I had to wait even longer for that to get back up before I could get my prescription. All in all I’d say that whole process took about an hour, something that usually only takes 10 minutes.

Later in the afternoon I took my mom’s cat Hardy to the vet to get his nails trimmed. He was pretty good this time, got into the cage easily and was quiet the whole time, whereas he usually cries a bunch.

I started back around 3 o’clock and I can tell you that traffic is back to it’s awful pre-pandemic self.

We finally got around to setting up some more streaming services on the new tv. Prime video and HBO/Max are ready to go. It is nice to have so many options. This should increase our movie and series watches for entertainment.

I grilled up some burgers before nightfall. It was getting a little windy and it looked like it might rain, but it never did. Annoyingly the wind would ever so often blow out the burners so I had to relight it a few times. I hate when that happens. I did notice while I was waiting that one of those day lilies from the garden lady bloomed and nearby were Shiloh the baby bunny and what I think may be it’s mother Gracie. Nice to see them around.

Currently Reading: Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family

Birding Love and Moonstone Nights

Posted on by Markman
Checking out Moonstone

I had some interest from some folks for the image I took while we hiked the Nauset Trail a few days ago and if the image was available on other media and I’m happy to report that I’ve added it to my store, so if you like it, please check it out. The image above is from a walk we did yesterday going up to the beach in the area. We saw some guys fishing there as well with nets and it appeared that they caught some things. Anyways while we visiting yesterday we noticed all the various birds that were visiting the feeder as we chomped on freshly baked cookies and admired the amazing home and garden and koi pond! I’ll leave the identification of the birds shown here as an exercise to the readers.

Lately I’ve been watching this Going RV show constantly and I think it’s annoying LD. I do find these Class A’s so interesting though!

The Sun Rises and the Sun Sets

Posted on by Markman
Raw image from Eastham at dawn

A weird thing happened with the new tv yesterday. It appeared to lose the HDMI connection for no apparent reason. Eventually I was able to get it working again by reinserting the cable and reinitializing the setup for the FIOS. Also it strangely seemed like my phone would turn the cable box off even though I wasn’t using the phone. Something I’ll be keeping tabs on moving forward, otherwise everything else has been great so far. I’ve even got my YouTube subs and Tubi and Samsung accounts going. Still need to get Amazon Prime video and HBO Max up, just need to get the deets from LD. This stuff is probably old hat to most people but we were pretty late jumping into the smart tv bandwagon. It is nice to have all these other options besides just regular cable.

Raw image from Eastham at sunset

LD’s old boss invited us down to RI to see her new house so that’s what going on this afternoon. It’s close to Narragansett so I’m expected to intake some great sea air and grab some lunch by the water.

Crossing the Salt Pond

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Wooden bridge along the Salt Pond

Here’s a shot from our walk the other day along what’s now called the Nauset Marsh Trail, a 1.3 mile loop essentially that crosses a salt pond (not too ponds around that contain salt water, right?) and passes through a salt marsh, then meanders into a forest of cedar trees and bayberry. We did get bit a couple of times by bugs here but overall it wasn’t too bad. These photos I take never tell you of the bugs!

Back on the home front I harvested more lettuce as somehow it all grew back real quick since I picked it last time just under a week and a half ago. The little rain we have had up here has made the rear lawn rather unkempt so I plan to mow that down tomorrow and do some neatening up in general. I’ll check on all the various gardens we have as well and see what’s next to pop.

Some Shots from Nauset

Posted on by Markman
Nauset at Sunrise

Here’s a couple of pics from our little getaway at the cottage. I’ll post more as the days go on. The lighthouse shot was from when we both got up at 4:30 am to catch the sunrise over the cliff across the street. I haven’t processed those pix yet but while we were there we saw the cutest bunnies and actually a toad in the yard (I haven’t seen a toad in the wild in many years, and especially not in a yard!) It was a relaxing little trip and the cottage was just so cute, will definitely stay there again. LD twisted her ankle on the beach (a little tweak) so we had to turn the activities down a little bit but since this trip was all about relaxing it wasn’t a big deal. One place we discovered for meals is a place called Mac’s. Very impressed, probably will be our main go to moving forward and of course as always, we visited the Chocolate Sparrow every day. Before leaving we hiked around the Great Salt Pond which travels through salt marsh and into cedar forests. Later in the day we spotted a young coyote in the marsh grasses over at First Encounter Beach. Basically we didn’t want to leave but we were starting to miss Carson a bit (I know I was) and I think he missed us too. So it’s nice to be back but it was nice to get away too. We will return!

Happy Life

Posted on by Markman
One of my happy places

Can’t wait to return to one of our happy places in a few days. To help in my cooking endeavors I purchased a new Calphelon pot, this morning and now that’s a true sign of adulting. I also got around and purchased a new smart tv, not just for the upgraded picture and options, but also so I could stream from my phone or PC directly to it, in true nerd geek fashion. I spent the afternoon setting that up after giving the front lawn a good mow. There’s still some things I need to get running like the voice stuff, using my cell to operate it and select apps, but the basic functionality is good to go.

I was surprised to see the first set of day lilies we planted from the garden lady are starting to bud for blooms. She said that wouldn’t happen until next year. Then again, they are hardy little fellows so I’m not totally surprised. I’ll be interested to see what color they are. I figured they’d just be the boring orange ones but the lady said no, so we’ll see.

A Little History

Posted on by Markman
Carson
Oh, Hello Carson!

I see that according to my records, this website is going to be 20 years old in November. Now mind you, that’s just this website with this URL. I started blogging a few years earlier, first on Geocities in 1998 (!), and then through my ISP at the time. I can remember I would have to code the HTML and then upload it through FTP, and then check it. If there was a mistake or an update I’d have to re-edit the HTML, re upload the file through FTP and check it again. It made archiving a real pain. Nowadays it’s all automated and I can just focus on the content. I wish I could find the Geocities HTML. It was so terrible but I was teaching myself how to make web pages. I think it does exist on an old Zip Disk somewhere (remember those?) but even if I could find it, I’ve no way to read it. The old ISP one can be found on the Internet Archive WayBack Machine in bits and pieces.

Over the rainy long weekend we went over to LD’s old landlady for a little inside BBQ, we picked up the air fryer (haven’t tried it out yet though), we got through just about everything we had ever DVR’d including finally finishing every season of 21 Jump Street, went to the Sanctuary to drop off some carrots and apples for the animals, and did a shitload of meal prep. I also finally got around to setting up the SmartTV but when I turned it on the screen was all cracked. Going to have to figure out a way to return that since it’s been a while, plus after seeing this one I think I want to get a better and slightly bigger one.

Everything in the garden appears to be doing well, and today I noticed the lupines are starting to blossom. I see LD also obtained some more blub plants from the gardening club lady today while I was over at Earth-1. We’ll put those in tomorrow. I also ordered some Simple Green grill cleaner because I want to do a deep clean soon on the outdoor grill and a 512GB microSD card for my phone to store all the wonderful cell photos I plan on taking with this new device.

A few weeks back in Marshfield by the beach I happened upon a Little Library which had a book written by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt. That’s now next on my reading list.

As our Garden Grows, the Beauty Shows

Posted on by Markman

Life begins the day you start a garden.

– Chinese proverb

Well, my mom seems to doing well after surgery. I’ve been helping out a bit over there so that’s why I haven’t been updating so much lately. She’s a pretty strong woman but I still worry. Meanwhile over here, the roof to the sunroom and it’s gutters got redone all over, which took about 2 days. It was needing a little bit of an overhaul since but I’m pleased to say it looks good! Hopefully the new materials will last for years to come. They also put in a new gate system ala LD’s wishes to access the area underneath the sunroom from the outside which is a better setup than what was there before. The real test will be how it fares when we get our first serious rain storm but I’m feeling pretty good about it, the work looks really well done.

In the meantime I’ve been playing with all the new features of this new cell phone, watching YouTube vids on tips and tricks, etc. – I’m very pleased with the purchase! I’ve also been trying to get LD’s old iMac to see the new printers (just for fun, we never use it anymore since we both have Windows 10 laptops and a 7trh-generation iPad) while also looking for a new phone for her. I think for her the Samsung A52 might hit the sweet spot. Curiously her carrier doesn’t seem to carry them online which seems odd to me. I need to go down there and see what they have in stock. They also seem to have conflicting policies on unlocked phones which is a real drag. Part of the reason why I went with the carrier that I went with and pleased as punch about it. I did find an incredible deal on an new air fryer at Best Buy for sale new for only 20 bucks so we’ll be trying that out soon. (The sale has since ended). If we like it we may purchase a bigger one, but this will be a good one to try to test out what we would do with the capability.

On the gardening front, the foxgloves, fuchsias, clematis, rhododendrons, various rose species, and various other plants are all really starting to bloom now. I transplanted the mosquito plant (essentially a geranium that really does smell like citronella!) into a bigger pot and mowed the lawns before the weekend. I was pleased to see the hibiscus is finally starting to have new buds. I hadn’t had luck the last couple of years with the placement but this one might be taking! Also the sourwoods are coming in real nice now and even the pine tree is growing new limbs and pinecones!

Garden as though you will live forever

It was to see the natural gas guys finally dig up the street and fix the gas smell that had been permeating the neighborhood for a couple months now. To think that LD got that ball rolling! I don’t know if other people kept calling as well but apparently they finally decided to deal with it. I heard it was pretty noisy while they were doing it but I guess it’s over now as the smell is gone and I see they paved over they holes they made near the sewer openings.

Preparing for a Hot One

Posted on by Markman
One of my happy places, Lighthouse Beach in Chatham, MA on Cape Cod.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Boston Fox 25 News Station shared the above photo from my Instagram feed. The picture is actually from last summer but I felt like posting something. Boston is supposed to hit close to 90 degrees F today so a dip in that water might be nice right about now. Instead, I’m preparing for my mom’s surgery tomorrow. I took her down to the testing site on Friday and got that all done with. Just the formalities. Later in the day checking over the garden I saw some irises and a species of columbine began blooming. When it’s hot like this watering everything gets to be a bit of a chore, especially with all the stuff we have, but it’s worth it to see everything do well and explode with color everywhere. Speaking of everywhere, there’s pollen everywhere and all over everything. I have been seeing Shiloh all over the yard as well. He is so cute, but he’s getting a little bit bigger and bigger by the day.

My new set of USB-C to USB-A cables arrived yesterday all of varying lengths, along with some USB-C to USB-B adapters and a portable battery that can charge the phone either through the cable or wirelessly by plopping the phone on top of it, which I’m finding really cool. I may still buy a MicroSDXC storage card as the phone only comes with the onboard storage but I can add up to 1TB more. The 1TB is pretty expensive right now but the 512GB isn’t too bad. I can wait a bit longer on that, let the prices go down over time. Might be a good birthday gift for me though (my BD isn’t until August).

Everyday Has The Potential to be a Great One

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Sunrise off the Maine coast

Yesterday’s biggest adventure was bringing one of my mom’s cats to the vet for his yearly shots. He checked out A-OK with was great, but he did puke a bit in the cage when he got done. Poor thing was so stressed out, but like I said, he bounced back in an instant and everything checked out fine. I finally went ahead and strung up some warm lights outside on the back deck now that the outlets out there are working again. I might still rearrange it a bit differently or even move them to the table with the umbrella on the back patio – I’m not sure yet. Been playing around with this new phone a bit. It has so many features I’ve been watching YouTube vids on how to use some of them! Needless to say I’m very happy with it. I’m really digging the wireless charging. I did have to purchase some new USB-C cables and a couple of adaptors so I could still use my older portable chargers when I’m on the road but no biggie.

I went ahead and installed the AC in the bedroom. Little early this year, but at least now it’s done and ready to be used should the need arise. I still need to set up the Smart TV. Now that I have this new phone I should be able to cast to it effortlessly, which will be nice and to have more options. As for the gardening, the azaleas and columbines are blooming. Supposedly doing some kind of plant swamp with an old woman tomorrow sometime, a trade of some of our hostas for her many day lilies that she wants to get rid of. We’;; be starting off with 20 of them or so. The plan is to maybe plant them along the left side fence where there’s a bunch of bareness, hopefully they can fill out that area. We’ll see. Unfortunely it looks like the bunnies have been getting at and eating the phlox in the rock garden bed area but that’s nature!

My Cape Happiness All the Way to Infinity

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The Truro Cottages

To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion.

-Stephen Hawking

The story behind the photo: All 22 beachfront cottages are 420 square feet, all similar, with two bedrooms, a small kitchen, and a living space with windows facing the water. The cottages are numbers 1 – 12 and 14 – 23 along the beach – no unlucky 13 among them. I want to stay in one someday! (although it might be a little cramped!) Each cottage also a name, an individual identity, named after 23 different flowers, one for each cottage. I’m not in the area that often but the last time I was I decided to go around the back and that’s where this shot was taken from. I like how the houses seem to go to infinity in this short, almost like a fractal, or a recursive routine!

Here’s a shot from the backyard of what I call the Bunny Family. Could that possibly be Shiloh on the left, and either Mom or Dad on the right? Also, this was before I cleaned up and mowed the back lawn although it seems these rabbits seem to like it in this condition.

Decided the grill up some steaks tonight. Here’s me trying to be the Grillmaster.

Building a Butterfly House, Gardening Chores and Happy Spring Activities

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Swan Boats Spring in Boston

I went off this morning to the gas station to get some gas for the lawn mower. It was on my to-do list for the last few days. After filling up the can and bringing it home I loaded some into the mower and began mowing the back yard, which really started to need it. I made sure not to touch any of the plantings along the fence lines that ‘D’ helped us put in last fall, and also avoiding a couple of spots that the baby bunnies like to frequent that we’ve seen. I also did my yearly dodging of the random buttercup that seems to grow in the middle of the lawn. After it’s done blooming I’ll mow that down. Yeah, most consider it a weed but for some reason I kind of like the flower so I’ll let it bloom out before running it down. LD also noticed some poison ivy growing on the side of the shed and the side of the sunroom so I went ahead and sprayed some ivy killer on it. It’s already wilting but the direction say to keep up the spray for a few days so I’ll stay on top of that until it’s gone. After that I went down to the local deli and got us a sub for lunch, something we’ve been doing quite a bit more these last few weeks.

I finally got my hammer together and started to build my butterfly house. I was able to finish it within a half hour – it’s basically a closed box with some slits in the front for the butterfly to needle themselves through, and the top rotates so you can get inside the box to put in a banana peel which is supposed to attract them but I’m not sure about doing that because that just screams other unsavory bugs coming around to me. I’ll let LD paint it some bright colors and then we can hang it somewhere!

As you can see from the photo, spring in Boston has begun! It’s actually a wonderful time of year here in the city. I’m totally enjoying the warmer days.

Dawn of a New Day

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Sunrise in Suburbia.

Spent the day in Somerville, helping out my mom and deciding on which cell phone to finally pop on. I’ve decided to get the FE 20 unlocked at a store and then bring it over to my carrier to activate it. Plan on getting that all done on Friday after her second COVID test in preparation for her second operation on her other hand on Monday morning. She’s doing really well I’m very glad and relieved to say. I ended up trimming the front hedges while I was there as well. Good arm workout let me tell you, especially since I used the hand tool and not the power cutters. Just call me Popeye!

Back at LD’s saw a bunch of mother and baby/teen bunnies in the backyard. Could more bunnies be in our future?

A Plum Visit

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Crashing Waves

Spent yesterday just taking it easy. After my second shot I didn’t get sick or anything. My arm was a little sore for a few hours, and I felt pretty tired most of the day, but I still grilled and got some stuff done. I’m back to my normal self already.

Plum Island

Here’s some more pix from the Plum Island Reservation outing before me getting the shot.

  • View from a tower
  • Another view
  • An egret looks around
  • The boardwalks
  • The waves

Going through my camera bag I actually found my old Kindle (third generation). It said the battery was dead so I went to try to charge it up but nothing. I think it might be dead dead. I mean, it is pretty old. The thing won’t even reset. I suppose the battery inside it has completely died but there doesn’t look to be any way to open it easily to get at it. I see there is a way to actually replace the battery (saving this for myself for future reference) but I’d need to buy one and install it and I don’t think it’s probably worth it at this point due to the machine’s age. Perhaps I should just buy a newer version but I actually like the feel of real books.

How About a Romantic Ride in a Swan Boat?

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Swan Boats in Boston

On Saturday the Swan Boats come back to the Public Garden so I thought it apropos to include a shot I took of them a couple of years back.

We saw those two hawks in the tree again. They better leave the bunnies alone! Speaking of bunnies, I think we saw Shiloh today, or at least, one of his siblings. It was right in the back yard by the shed. This bunny wasn’t a baby bunny, but also not a full grown bunny like we usually see. I like to think it was one of the bunnies that was born here. I mean, it must be, right? It sniffed around one of the sourwood trees, which I’m pleased to say have started to bud and leaf out a bit, before darting underneath the shed.