Fodor Farm Storm Damage....Um Yup!

Partially felled pine tree that has managed to have the last word!

That pine really portrays a perfect example of the way I've been feeling about our weather of late. First we had that tremendous unnamed hurricane (that destroyed the above magnificent pine), and now we are the recipients of three days of heavy rain and later tonight - o joy - wind. I imagine more trees are going to "fall" out of the ground, we're so saturated! Even now, more than a week later, clean-up continues from the first storm.
Must relate a conversation I had with our right-on-top-of-things City Hall. You might remember we had a big tree fall that took out four other trees as it fell out of the ground during that first storm. I called the city to see if they were responsible for the debris in the road (the trees' final resting place) or were we. City Hall told me they were responsible for cutting down the remaining trees, but then the debris would be stacked in our yard and we were responsible for its removal. I inquired about FEMA supposedly coming in, accessing the damage and then taking care of it. City Hall wasn't so sure that would happen. So...a dear friend of my son, said son and the hubs cut down the rest of the tree, but left it stacked neatly in the cul-de-sac as there was no place to put it in our yard.
The next day, a city maintenance truck came down our road, complete with a chipper, took one look at our mess and left. I called City Hall, again, the next morning:
"I saw the maintenance truck come down our road. Does this mean the city is going to clean up the tree debris?"
"Oh no, you as the owner of the property are responsible for the removal of all the debris."
"Ugh!" (silently said) "Fine! Goodby!"
I went to work with the thought that as soon as I got home I'd call a container company and rent one of those big old steel thingys so we could get all the tree stuff out.
Drove home from work...didn't notice a thing...a short time later I'm in the kitchen looking out at the street...WHAT THE HELL??? There was not one twig left from our fallen trees! Not one!
Thank GOD I forgot to call and order that container! And my beloved city? Don't know what you were thinking, but THANK YOU! You took care of a major (and expensive) headache for us!

Sunday Serenity

Two ways to dye Easter eggs..

One in earth tones...

And another in blue...

~~~

xoabb
Palm Sunday Serenity!

Both dyed eggs & photos by MumBum

The Fog Creeps In...

3/22/10 Saugatuck River

...On little cat feet.
It sits on silent haunches,
Looking over harbor and city,
And then moves on.

~ Carl Sandburg

~~~

xoabb
expect anything!


Sky Watch Friday
Do join us!

Le jardin saison a commencé*!

*I have the gardening shoes to prove it!

~~~

xoabb
expecting spring things and flings!

First Day of Spring

Missouri spring photo courtesy of MumBum, 3/20/10

Our first day of spring here in Connecticut was simply beautiful! Clear blue skies and temps that hovered just below 70º. My mom and dad's first day of spring in Missouri? Not so much! Though their daffodils are far advanced from what we have to offer, all the ground was covered with snow, and their temperature closer to 35º. That's right, Missouri and most of the midwest had a spring snow and ice storm on the first day of spring! But...isn't it just beautiful?

Connecticut spring photo courtesy of me(!), 3/20/10

Here are the same daffodils I posted just a few days ago. Amazing how much they have grown in just a few days! Of course, the rest of our week is supposed to be dreary, cold and rainy so when they decide to bloom is anyone's guess. (I have noticed, and Miss LaLa has gleefully pointed out to me, that there are daffs already in bloom all around our town, just not in my garden...YET!)

~~~

xoabb

expecting spring!

Sunday Serenity: And So It Goes...

My pond. Anyone who knows me even a tiny little bit knows how very much I love this pond. We've now lived by it for the last 29 years. Wow! I've never really thought about all those years and how they've passed...so fast!
We are one of four homes that are directly on our Sasqua Pond. The family in the home to our left has been here longer than we have. Lovely folks. Their boy was around 15 when we moved to the neighborhood; he's now well grown and a successful lawyer (Peace Corps on his resume, and yes I'm bragging on his behalf) in D.C. The home to our right and across the pond originally housed a family with two girls, one of which was the same age as our son. The girls went to Norwalk High and we had the pleasure of watching them grow up with our kids. One of the nice things of their going to the local high school was their hockey team taking advantage of our icy pond in the winter (not every winter - CT temps are often too mild for skating) to practice. Such fun to watch the guys skate and then the girls watch them. Now that home is occupied by a young couple who have just had their second child. They've added a big swing set/play scape to their back yard, and the sound of young children's squeals and laughter fill our air! How wonderful is that?
Now we come to the home pictured above. The first family that lived there when GB and I moved in were quite nice, but they were career folks and were rarely home, let alone outside to enjoy our pond. The next couple were delightful folks that had quite a few grandkids between the two of them. They all enjoyed fishing, skating, birding and just gazing at our pond for many years. A few years ago both of these wonderful folks died within a short time of each other and left that home vacant - but only for a short while! Now it is inhabited by a young couple with two young girls. Imagine my delight when I came down to my kitchen yesterday and looked out to see this little girl fishing! (Don't worry, Dad was close by, but was chasing her younger sister who had run behind the shed. Naughty!) I'm just delighted there are young-uns once again in two of the Sasqua Pond homes!
Don't know how long GB and I will be living here on this pond I adore. Maybe we'll move next year, maybe we'll show our grandkids the fishing ropes here. What I do know is that the goodness and serenity of this Sasqua Pond will live on long after we and the three other families living here are gone.

And so it goes...

~~~

xoabb

Sunday Serenity

Like A Murder of Crows

Every time I see a crow I think of Sting. There are few music artists I simply adore and Sting is most definitely one of the few. Do you know his song "All This Time"? There is one little mention of a crow in the lyrics. Just one! But every single time I see a crow, I think of that song, though I have to admit the lyrics don't make a lot of sense to this non-religious girl. See for yourself:

Two priests came round our house tonight
One young, one old, to offer prayers for the dying
To serve the final rite
One to learn, one to teach
Which way the cold wind blows
Fussing and flapping in priestly black
Like a murder of crows

And all this time, the river flowed
Endlessly to the sea...

~~~

xoabb

~

Sky Watch Friday
Do join us!

UPDATE @ 10:53am: My good friend Daryl found the neatest website that lists collective nouns (i.e. murder of crows, box of crayons, swarm of bees, etc.). Wow! There are so many I've never heard of - and a lot of really strange ones. Ever heard of a sleuth of bears? Or a charm of hummingbirds? I really like that last one. Oh, or a party of jays - I like that one too. If you have a minutes pop on over here. Oh dear...~lounge of lizards~. That just might be my favorite collective noun ever!

Trey-You Takes a Nap

As we all know, Stella-Dog bothers Trey-You incessantly, tho from what I've observed, for the most part, Trey-You seems to love it. Except when it comes to cat-nap-time. Trey-You is very serious about his cat-nap-time.

When the sun is shining into our sunroom, he always plants himself under a kitchen chair. He thinks his ~cat fortress~ will protect him from the affections of Stella. And surprisingly Stella doesn't ever bug him when he's there. She's such a good dog to know Trey-You's boundaries! Are you kidding?? I don't think she's figured out yet that with just a nudge of her nose Trey-You's fortress would be toppled and she could bug the crud out of him!

O if I could only take such a contented cat-nap!

~~~

xoabb

expect cat-naps!

Promise of Good Blooms

Garden daffodils, 3/16/10

In spite of the ~storm~,

Spring will still bloom!

(Just wait a few weeks.)

~~~

xoabb

anxiously expecting spring!

Uh Oh...

It's never a good sign to see white caps on a river...uh oh!
That should have been my first indication that possibly
this storm could have big time damaging winds.
And that I shouldn't have been out driving in it.
(Saugatuck river on 3/13/10)

Looking to the top of our road Sunday morning...uh oh!

Hemlocks that bit the dust in our yard...uh oh!

Quite the storm we had this past Saturday! It's being called ~The Nameless Hurricane~ considering the fact that we had near hurricane strength sustained winds for what seemed to be days hours on end. The damage has been so bad that my school, and many surrounding coastal schools were cancelled for both yesterday and today.
We finally had electricity back in our home once again last night around 6pm. Amazing what you can't do with no juice! Thank God it wasn't cold enough for pipes to freeze!
We lost one big hemlock tree, and when it fell it took out 4 other hemlocks. Quite the cleanup will have to be done, though son Bly and friends got a good start on it Sunday. I wonder if you can use hemlock wood for the fireplace...if we can, we have about 5 years worth of wood!
I've heard rumors that one of the worst damaged areas is our Fodor Farms Community Garden. It's on my list to go see for myself tomorrow. Hope it's not as bad as they say...

But, in the end, we're all safe and that's what is most important.

(If you click on the "photos" on the right you'll find more storm distruction.)

~~~

xoabb
wasn't really expecting this!

Sunday Serenity

There isn't any.

We've had/are having the wind and rain storm from hell. 65 mile an hour gusts! That's not far from hurricane speeds! No electricity at our home and there are trees down everywhere. Matter of fact, there's one that's covering the top of our road (I'll try to get a photo tomorrow), but we played brave and drove under the broken part. I'm able to blog courtesy of cousin Jules. Her home is one of the few not affected by 'lecetricity loss. There are so many folks in Norwalk (and all of the surrounding towns) without electricity, I really wonder when ours will be back. 48 hours and all the fridge and freezer food should be fine - well, except the ice cream - after that...bye bye! Oh well, worse things have happened...

~~~

xoabb

unexpected high winds - UGH!

Miss Stella Has a Sleep-Over

My son Bly was traveling down the Post Road minding his own business around 8:00 pm this evening. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted this beguiling girl trotting down the side of the road. Of course, being my son, he got out of the car and persuaded her to get into the car. (Actually his friend's car, who was as much into rescue-mode as Bly was.)

And, of course, Bly brought the dog here to our house. His words: "Dad, Mom come out to the driveway - I have something to show you!" Those are never words a parent wants to hear. Trust me. It almost always means you are going to have an additional animal/person living under your roof.
As you can see, my Stella-dog is tolerating this insult with great dignity and aplomb. Good girl! Don't forget mommy loves you!

As much as she is an endearing dog, tomorrow will be a day of trying to find her owners. And if owners aren't found?? Anyone want a loving and adorable basset hound named Edna? Oh, had I mentioned she's been named? That's not a good sign, is it? Welcome to the family, Droopy Edna...O dear!

~~~

xoabb
expect strays every now and again!

10:00am Ed/Edna/Dolly update! Got a call from Officer Smith this morning at 8am. (A bit early to be calling on a Saturday morning don't you think, Officer Smith??) "Is this Mrs. Blystone? Yes? Good. Got your message from last night. That dog's name is Dolly! Did Dolly have a good night with you? Yes? She's a bit of an escape artist. We spend lots of time together." He called Dolly's owner, (who turns out to be a dear friend of Lauren/Mental Mama), she called me and Miss Dolly will be heading home in just a bit! Dolly's mom said Dolly's human siblings came home and left the door ajar for approximately 5 seconds. That's all the time Dolly needed to make her escape. And she can't wear a collar because she's so fleshy and collars cause her to develop sores. Lucky dog this time around!

Sky Watch Friday - The Path

Wherever you look
there's a path toward
something undiscovered...

~~~

xoabb
expect anything!

Sky Watch Friday

Do join us!

Miss Stella's Play Date

Last Sunday our good friend Tony brought over his family's recently adopted 8 month old CeCe for an impromptu play date with our Stella. Needless to say, the two of them got along swimmingly! Don't they look like daughter and mama?

~~~
xoabb
expect anything!

Stella used to be so fast! What happened??? No exercise!!

CeCe, will you come over every day???

~~~

xoabb

expect anything!

Sunday Serenity...On Monday

Crocus flowers daring tiny warriors
Fighting their way up through
The winter ice
Crocus darling early Spring harbingers
Promising days will soon
Be turning nice

Tiny Crocus flowers grow in close groups
Strength in numbers seeking
Where winter snows still may lie
Encircled encampment of floral troupes
“We march onward to spring”
They raise this brave battle cry

Bold strength contained in Crocus so small
Should winter challenge again
They simply refuse to die
Delicate blossoms possess such wherewithal
I cannot help but wonder then
Should not likewise you and I?

~Mary Havran

~~~

xoabb
expecting springtime!

Photo taken 3/7/10, Westport CT

Sky Watch Friday

~ Storm outside my window ~

~

xoabb

expect anything!

Sky Watch Friday

Do join us!

A Promise of Good Things to Come

On Tuesday I drove past this particular yard and nearly wrecked my car when I caught sight in my rear-view mirror at this surprising and glorious first burst of spring-time crocus in full bloom. Unfortunately I couldn't turn around and take photos of. I was depressed.

When I drove by my favorite little crocus field yesterday, it was cold and dismal and all the crocus were tightly shut. You can just see their lavender hue, but they are certainly not in their full sunny springtime-to-come finery!

BUT! Just wait till this weekend! We're going to be sunny and in the 50's! I'll be back with a photo of my crocus in all their glory! Truly a promise of good thing to come.

~~~

xoabb

expecting springtime!

Stand Off

I've just realized that when I'm home during the daytime, when I let Trey-You out of the house, Stella-Dog almost always follows right behind him, both out the door and then wherever Trey decides he's going (usually he's desperately trying to escape from Stella). I now understand this is a very good thing for my bird friends. Above, Stella has parked herself right underneath the bird feeder and is having a stare-off with Trey-You who has tried to hide himself under the bush. Mind you, though Trey was initially there to ambush an unsuspecting bird, he is now hiding from Stella and all thoughts of catching a bird have left his cat brain. He's now concentrating on the evasive tactics he needs to employ to avoid Stella's mouth. Do you know how hard it is getting from under the bushes and to the side door without being totally slimed by one big-mouthed Stella-dog?

(BTW? Above stand-off lasted a good 20 minutes. I was timing it.)

~~~

xoabb

expect anything!