A Lazy Afternoon

A photo-essay of my afternoon.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed living it :)

After working up a drip drip drip sweat cutting the grass out front (10:30 - 11:30 a.m.) taking the full brunt of the sun, I took a little break and posted here.  Then I headed out to the DISASTER AREA known as my back yard.  It's a mess since the wind storms that came through next week, chasing out the prior week's gloomy wet, cool weather.  Now I've got half-foot tall grass and what seems to be half a foot of branches from my mini-forest that must be cleaned up before I can give everything a once-over with the lawnmower out.

Messy yard!  How many branches and twigs can you count?  Way too many! Work work work - tomorrow.

I had the best of intentions.  I pulled out one of my yard waste containers on wheels and the rake!  I had my nasty dirty big fat yard work gloves on. But raking felt beyond me today.  So, I did the next best thing.  I gave the deck a sweep, scrubbed down the plastic table and chairs -- the table has developed two cracks radiating out from the hole where the umbrella goes that weren't there a few weeks ago.  Damn! 

See!  I actually was working, darlings!  Yard waste container (on wheels), stuffed
full of yard waste stuff, my trusty old brass dust pan and a worn down broom used
to clean off the deck.  The rake is out of range.

And then I set up for an afternoon of relaxing.  Up went the umbrella.  It got very warm today -- 81 degrees F!  Amazingly enough, I don't think we got near to breaking any temperature records.  There was a breeze from the south but also humidity.  I hooked up the hose and cleaned out the bird baths.  It wasn't long before my feathered friends visited the fresh water en masse.  There's just something about that water fresh from the hose -- pouring a 2 gallon bucket of clean water every day into the baths just isn't the same, it seems...

Hooked up the big Acer laptop from upstairs (that I haven't used for awhile), got my wine, arranged my chairs so I could put my feet up, and went to work.

The grass was dry, amazingly enough, after all the rain we received over a week ago now, and so even though it's October I never deprive my grass of anything.  I put the sprinkler on.  I may have to rob Fort Knox to pay my water bill the coming quarter.  Oh well.  Back and forth, back and forth, the hypnotic rhythym of the arcs of water and the delicious scent of dry earth soaking up moisture had its usual salutory effect on yours truly.  I fell asleep.

Hazelnuts for squirrels in yellow cup, cheap wine glass half-filled with cheap pink wine (my favorite),
Acer netbook, empty popcorn bag.  Behind the wine glass you can see my ugly yard work gloves.
In the background on the right you can see the concrete birdbath, freshly cleaned out. 

Woke up to a squirrel sitting a foot away from me with one paw up, begging for a hazelnut. It was an older squirrel, not one of the latest crop of babies just down from the double BIG tree that haven't quite figured out yet what "nuts" are... He (or she) wasn't afraid of me -- the baby squirrels still are. He (or she) waited patiently as I went through the process of putting my feet down, rose from my chair, stepped into the kitchen just a patio door and a few feet away and grabbed a handful of hazelnuts out of the box on the counter (I order 25 pounds at a time for my furry little friends). He (or she) was a very happy little squirrel after I stepped back outside.

The grass is happy once again, too.  I moved the sprinkler around as the hours ticked by and most of the yard and what's left of the perennials got a good drink.  I checked out some things online, sent some emails.  I did some research.  I switched over to my little Acer netbook (I love that netbook) and turned on Smooth Jazz Online. The smooth jazz sound makes me very happy.  Everything and everyone was happy this afternoon in my backyard :)

Eat your heart out, Natalie Portman.  Despite the fact that your eyes are exactly the
same color as mine, you will NEVAH look like me, darling.  NEVAH!

About 4 p.m. I pulled out the very first issue of Vogue I received a few days ago on my brand spanking new subscription (ordered during a fit of madness that seems to have taken a strong grip on me of late).  Eighty-five pages later, I finally come across the Table of Contents.  The ads fascinate me.  So much airbrushing.  Julia Roberts, in one of the make-up ads, cannot possibly have the face of a six month old baby...

The angle of the sun says sunset is less than two hours away...Sigh.  The quality
of the light is breathtaking, wish I could capture it better in a photograph...

As the sun started sinking in the southwest at an impossibly early hour, I sighed and slowly started gathering my gear together.  Then I stopped and rested for another 30 minutes.  The quality of the light this time of year is so breathtakingly beautiful.  I loved how irridescent some of the leaves looked with the fading light bouncing off; I loved the play of light and shadow on sights so familiar to me after 21 years of living here I could probably describe them in minute detail in writing if my life depended upon it.

The contrast of shade and light always catches my eye.  Birds nested this year in the bird house
sitting on the post, near lower center of the photo.  I did not invade their privacy while in residence.  Now
they've moved out.  In the distance is the cell phone tower where the local hawk population hangs out.

I ran into the house and got the Nikon digital camera I spent a mini-fortune on in 2006, or 2007 - or whenever.  It's practically an antique now, darlings.  I don't care.  It feels rich in my hands.  I snapped photos here and there. 

The double tree is shadowed now, as is the wild grape wine growing on the fence.  Today I noticed the
first grape vine leaves turning yello.  Neighbor's windows are open, as mine are!  It's wonderful to air
out the house.  The long shadow of the satellite dish on neighbor's roof signals sun going down soon!

That light - it just drew me in.  The sapling is glowing and translucent in the sunlight.

Close-up of the sapling caught in the rays of the sinking Sun.   Look how the light is
bouncing around the leaves!  How many different shades of green in this one image...

Tomorrow is another day, and I'll be outdoors again, but this time I'll have to rake up the storm debris and cut the grass out back before I can put my feet up.

My little haven on the deck, now bathed in shadows of the sinking sun.

But I will put my feet up. I'll have the first game of the Brewers run for the National League Champion Title against those St. Louis Cardinals playing on one radio while listening to the Packers game on another.   I wish I could live with days like this forever.

A Break from the Stormy Weather

For awhile on Sunday afternoon, the sun came out and I took some rain-drenched photographs. 

Wet squirrel on the rain-slicked deck.

The sky to the northeast was still quite dark but the sun was bright elsewhere.

This is the view I see from my front window as I work at my desk in the living room.

A few toward the southwest and the backyard.  It was sprinkling out when I caught this
shot but the sun was still shining, thus the haze and you can see blurred rain on the lens!

Another wet squirrel on the other corner of the messy deck (haven't been able to clean it
on the last 2 weekends because of bad weather) and the yard is dappled with watery sunlight.

Promised Stormy Weather Hasn't Arrived Yet...

After I finished cutting the grass out back yesterday I was whipped!  It was warm and humid but there was a bit of a breeze so I got through the lawn in two sessions -- only because the mower ran out of gas when I still had about 200 square feet to cut.  So I had to wait for the mower to cool down in a patch of shade while I myself recuperated with feet up and a glass of ice water on the deck.

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon puttering and reading, puttering and reading.  I'd do a little bit of gardening, then a whole lot of reading, rinse and repeat...

So I didn't get a whole lot done yesterday other than get more bug bites despite spraying myself down 3 times with bug spray!  But I sure did enjoy my day off from blogging and thinking and everything else! 

I should have shut the house down last night and turned the AC on, but it was hovering on the brink of coolness outside -- no breeze -- so I sweated it out and eventually did fall asleep.  I got up at 6:15 a.m. and opened up the doors downstairs and let the early morning coolness seep into the house.  Between the patio door in the dinette and the front door in the living room I have a clear path and get good cross ventilation.  I was able to read my newspaper in peace and quiet as the sun rose higher and higher in the east but still hidden behind the tree line across the street, so the house stayed cool.  It was heaven!  But by 7:45 the sun was high enough to start heating the house, and I could feel the temperature creeping up even as I was just sitting still reading.  When sweat started forming on my upper lip, I knew it was time to shut down the house and turn the AC on.  Ahhhh, relief!

So - no outside today - except for a quick run to dump a watering can of water on the grass seed sprouting where the city took out a tree stump on a corner of my front lot some weeks ago - and a quick trip out back to clean out the bird baths and put fresh water in.  Those baths saw HEAVY traffic yesterday!  I was amazed at the quantity and variety of birds who flew by to get drinks and take dips as I sat out back all afternoon!  Early today (before it heated up) I pulled out the third bird bath and parked it center front about 10 feet from my front window, where I have a view of it as I sit and type this.  Once the birds discover it (it usually takes a day or two) I expect to be entertained with regular visits. 

I checked the weather a bit ago.  Thunderstorms are expected this afternoon and possibly severe weather tonight.  Yesterday was a bust - not a drop of rain!  I watered in the back from about 1:45 until about 8 p.m. as I puttered around and relaxed on the deck under the umbrella.  Occasionally it rained leaves from the Chinese elms overhead.  As I mentioned yesterday, lots of leaf drop again this year, such has been the weather.  Cha ching!  I can just imagine what my water bill will be for the quarter.  Damn!  But the trees, grass and flowers are very very happy with me. They are showering me with love today.  It's lush and green out back so I guess it's worth it, even if it is too uncomfortable for me to sit outside today.  The flowers espeically are putting on a show - the rugosa roses sent forth three new flowers just for me this morning - I could smell them all the way through my upstairs bedroom window which overlooks them to the southeast - and the day lilies haven't even bloomed yet!  That's unheard of - they are about 3 weeks late this year!  Usually by now they are bursting forth and are finished blooming (they bloom sequentially) in about 10 days.  Not this year!  So it's possible I'll have flowers into the beginning of August, which will be wonderful!  It doesn't take much to make me happy...

The temperature at 9:40 a.m. was 82 degrees F and the dew point was a whopping 70!  That's tropical, and it's difficult to breathe unless you're a kid or under 30.  Everyone else is just kidding themselves if they say they're not affected by this kind of moisture content in the air, it's like trying to do normal chores inside a steam bath which is to say, impossible unless you want to keel over!  Hopefully the sun will soon be swallowed by clouds and it won't get up to the promised 88 degrees. 

So, I don't feel like doing a thing again today, but I'm doing laundry because I need clean underwear and fresh clothes to wear this coming work week.  When is my next three day weekend...  LOL!  I had like three in a row and am terribly spoiled now...

Aha - my first bird visitor to the newly planted bird bath out front!

Another pic from yesterday morning:

It's Grandma Squirrel at the edge of the deck, and just at the edge of the dividing line between shade cast from the house and the sun line you can see another squirrel out hunting for nuts.  The sunlight is blindingly bright.  You can see the area just to the left of the patio umbrella where I huffed and puffed a few weeks back, got all bit up and bruised and scratched, cleaning out a small pocket of the island so now you can see the fence once again.  Just clearing out that small area (about a third of it's length) has made a positive difference for the flowers and shrubs that are planted in a bed to the right (out of picture range) because of increased sunlight and air flow.  As soon as the weather permits (that is, the dew point is in the mid-50's and the temperature is 75 degrees F or below) I'll work my way in from the other side with loppers and hand pruners, and also clean up the stumps and detrius left behind from my first pruning foray.  A woman's work truly is never done...

Invisible Critters in Action

Earlier today I tossed some bread outside for the birds and was surprised to see, about an hour later, that one piece in particular that had landed on the top of a railroad tie retaining wall had disappeared completely.  I had my suspicions - it wasn't the birds that made the bread disappear.

So, I decided to do a test.  Just before 12:30 p.m. I placed another slice of bread half-way on the top tie and half-way on the grass, fully exposed.  I watched it for a few moments but I saw no tell-tale movement of "tugs" of the bread from underneath.  I suspected that my close presence while placing the bread spooked the suspect bread thieves.  In this photo you can see the slice of bread resting half-way on the grass and half-way on the top of the railroad tie.  Should have got a close-up.

I went back to working indoors.  About 1:25 p.m. I checked again and saw the bread had been moved - quite a bit moved!  It was now fully off of the wall and on its way underneath the wall.  Even as I watched I could see tell-tale little "jerks" of the bread, signifying tiny critters underneath working on moving the bread.  Field mice!  There are several large 'holes" along the top edge of the retaining wall where I know they nest, and as long as they stay out of my house, it's live and let live.

I checked again at 1:35 p.m. and the bread had been pulled further into their lair beneath the top railroad tie.

At 1:43 p.m. the bread was now well on it's way to disappearing, and even as I watched further jerking movements of the bread attested to frantic action now that the mice sensed victory near at hand!

At 1:54 p.m. I noticed that the crust on the outer-most edge of the bread had been totally removed and even as I watched, there was a constant tugging of what remained of the visible crescent of bread , pulling it underneath the edge of the wood tie. 

The final check at 2:12 p.m., bread has disappeared.  Rustling of leaves and tiny movements signal mice still hard at work storing away what is left of the bread slice :)  Bon apetit! 

I was listening to the Wisconsin Badgers football game on the radio and the final minutes, where we capped a decisive victory over Purdue (yippee!) took my attention away from the mice.  Judging from their earlier progress, the mice probably already had the piece tucked away underneath the railroad tie by about 2:00 p.m. and were busy working on deconstruction and storage when I took this final photograph. 

Some Pictures of the Backyard

It's too brisk for me to comfortably work outdoors today, but I did take a break from searching for my ancestors long enough to run outside and take a few shots of the blooming Newport plum trees in the backyard.

Stormy Weather!

Whew! We finally got the rain we so desperately needed around here. It started raining off and on Friday afternoon. Yesterday morning (Saturday), we got a series of thunderstorms blowing through, and we got the bulk of our rain. The grass, particularly my neighbors' lawns who hadn't watered, literally grew greener in front of my eyes. Yesterday morning started out cool, although damp, of course, from the rain. I was able to sleep with the windows open Friday night. As more storms swept through Saturday morning I had the front door open to catch the breezes from the east and the patio door open in the back of the house to get good cross-ventilation as I watched t.v. in the living room. At one point there were some fierce blasts of wind and downpours and I thought "tornado!" - scrambling to turn on the radio to see if there were any warnings in the area. But I heard nothing out of the ordinary (nor were there any scrolled warnings on the bottom of the t.v. screen, the kind you see during severe weather). It happened three times in short succession, and then things calmed down, although it continued to rain for another hour. At about 11 a.m. the rain stopped and I quickly walked to the supermarket and back, because the forecast was for HOT AND HUMID, and I don't do well in such weather. When I got back to the house I wiped myself down, closed down the house and turned on the central air. Ahhhhhh, relief! It's been on since, and will be on for at least the next four-five days as the forecast is for HOT AND HUMID, with Heat Advisories in effect. The Heat Index will zoom over 100F today and will stay there for awhile. The dew point yesterday rose to 74! Anything above about 53 for me rates from extremely uncomfortable to sheer torture. It's actually going to be a treat to get to Las Vegas' dry 105F air! When I got back home from the supermarket and shut down the patio door I saw for the first time a very large limb down - obviously torn off one of trees, I figured during one of those microbursts. It had smashed down on some of my planting beds near the west fence line, so I dragged it to an area in the yard where I would be able to work on deconstructing it later on. That sucker was HEAVY! I don't think the photo shows just how large and heavy it was. Later on - after another series of storms rumbled through in mid-afternoon - I noticed some foilage that didn't belong where I was seeing it as I opened up the patio door to survey the backyard. I stepped out to investigate, down by the west fence line behind the "island" of trees and plantings. Sure enough, there was a very large limb down, straddled over the fence, sort of caught between two of the arborvitaes on the other side of the fence and one of the trees on my side. Much too large for me to attempt to remove myself. Thankfully, Mr. Don will be here on Saturday, so that branch can wait until then, when he can help me move the white trellis out of the way and then heave that branch from over the fence out into an open area of the yard where we can tackle it with clippers and saws. In the meantime, before 8:30 a.m. this morning, I girded my loins (figuratively speaking), pulled out the clippers and heavy gloves and commenced to deconstruct the large tree limb I'd pulled up to the hill the day before. It's not finished yet. With several breaks dashing inside to cool off, I worked about 20 minutes and then I couldn't take it anymore. Most of the easy work is done (clipping off the foilage). I have to tackle what's left with a saw. I'm waiting for the shady part of the afternoon to come around (after 2 p.m.) Meanwhile, I suffered several new mosquito bites. I should have drenched myself in bug spray but it's absolutely unbearable to wear that stuff when you feel like you're swimming in hot tea! Yech! That's what the air is like outside right now. Me, I'm staying inside as long as I can. The grass will NOT be cut although it needs it - not until the dew point drops below 60. That hazy look in the photographs - that is not intentional, or poor photography. That's how much moisture is in the air right now - it's like shooting through fog.

Busy Spring Day!

Whew! I'm tired! I spent part of the morning tracking down some Montreal chess tournaments that might be interested in providing special Goddesschess prizes just for the chess femmes; then I headed out doors and cut the grass in the back yard (1.5 hour project). Then I parked myself on the deck and looked through a decorating catalog and a decorating magazine while tossing almonds to the squirrels and peanuts to those black birds with the green-blue heads (I've no idea what kind of bird they are). When the electric grass shears were re-charged I trimmed the grass around the deck, the retaining wall around the big elm, the side walk back of the garage and the east fence line and around the plum trees in the lawn; then I did some weeding; then I cleaned out the birdbaths; then I camped out on the deck again and relaxed while listening to smooth jazz on the radio. Later, I clipped a spring bouquet from the yard - purple leaves from the plum trees, pink bleeding heart, and pink honeysuckle (photo). Later still, I decided to pull out the old hand saw and tackle some targeted branches on the "black berry" tree, to clean up the tree's lines and also hopefully let in some more sun into the rear portion of the gardens. If I keep this up, my arms will soon be tuned and toned... Hope you enjoy the bouquet as much as I am! Tomorrow it starts all over again...

Spring in the Backyard

Mr. Don has been busy with chores around the house since he arrived. He has chopped and dug out dead shrubs, hauled away the mound of gravel and sand the mysterious creature dug out from underneath my driveway at the very front of the house, pruned shrubs, cut down trees, dug out dandelions and thistles, tried to repair my hose reel (he got rather wet this afternoon when it didn't work - and bad me, I laughed and laughed and fetched him some towels to dry off); he attacked mounds of ferocious man-eating ants with ant control granuals, raked, cleaned off the deck, and cleaned out the garage. Then he cut the grass in the backyard (I did cut the grass out front). He also broke down and baled lots of cardboard boxes piled up in the garage and helped me haul the recyclables and trash out to the curb for tomorrow's pick-up. As a result, the garage is looking much cleaner and the front, side and backyards are looking much prettier. The first photo is a shot from the front fence (south side of the house) toward the back yard. I wanted to show the beautiful blossoms on the Newport plums and some of the back yard. I got more than I bargained for! Notice the robin in the foreground (just above the front fence pickets). That robin is VERY territorial. He was following Mr. Don around while he cut the grass. At one point when I was out on the deck Mr. Don called to me and pointed and mouthed "look" - so I looked where he pointed and there was the robin, trying to stare down the lawnmower. LOL! About ten minutes later the robin was still hanging around out back as I set up the blue glass birdbath in the smaller flower garden (you can see it in the second photo), and he continued to fly around, cheep-cheeping as we worked outside. The second photo is a sneak shot of Mr. Don hard at work cutting the grass. Then he turned around and saw me and made faces at the camera. Unfortunately, instead of snapping the photos I hit the on/off button by mistake and the camera shut down. That's what I get. Drat!