Our Very Own Resident Hummer!

First time in 30 years our hummer feeder has been put to steady use!
And above's the proof!
Yippee!

After all these years

Our very first hummer has

Made our home her home!

~~~

xoabb

expect anything!

Lilacs in Missourahhh

I've been lazy busy of late and haven't taken the time to do much on the www. I'm in my Missourahhh right now visiting my parents for spring break. As much as I adore Connecticut this time of year, there is nothing prettier than Missouri in the spring. As I've written before, my mom and dad are gardeners extraordinaire and their entire place is one big flower garden/vegetable garden that is one ongoing burst of different colors and vegetables as the spring/summer/falls seasons roll along. At the moment, it's lilac time!

There are at least 12 different varieties of lilacs - along with one rogue snowball hydrangea bush - in the hedge alongside their driveway. Everything from deep purple to white from small to large blossomed, then there's white rimmed, double flowered, and on and on.

Just when I think I've picked my favorite, another one catches my eye and that one is my favorite! (If you'd like to see more of all the lilacs, please visit my flickr here!)

Missouri Lilacs, 4/19/10, click on photo to see more!

(Above is the hedge that greets you as you come up their driveway to their home.)

~~~

xoabb

expect anything!

I am quite a Xanthippe* of Late...

And this is why.

Below is pictured the very bane of my existence:

And I don't even know what they are.

They have to be the "flower" of some tree in our yard, and I'm leaning toward hickory as that's the predominate kind of tree we have. I've blown them, in great quantities, off our driveway, walkways, patio, deck I can't tell you how many times this spring. (My hubs, GB tries to tell me it's for no other reason than that I'm obsessed with my leaf blower. And while I admit I have a most likely unhealthy attachment to said leaf blower, that's not the case this time.) See those little round bud-looking thingys? They come off, and if they're not flying through the air making it hard to breath, they're clinging to shoes, paws and such and getting all over the house. A mess I tell you, a mess!

So today I also blew off our totally covered roofs and collected two wheel barrows full of the damn things! When I was done and had put away my trusty leaf blower, a good wind kicked up as a summer storm approached. Above is the photo of more of very bane of my existence that flittered and fluttered down from whatever tree I'm really thinking of chopping down onto my just cleaned patio. When will it stop??

~

*Xanthippe was the wife of Socrates...and because of ~certain events~ that occured in their marriage, her name has become synonymous with "shrew" and more popularly (to whom I do not know) with "ill-tempered woman". (Personally, I think she was unfairly maligned.)

Very much a xanthippe - ill-tempered woman - is what I've become of late while dealing with the above unknown bane of my existence. So watch out!

~~~

xoabb

who expects an allergy headache at times...

(from those thingys!)

~

ABC Wednesday - We're up to ~X~!

Do Join Us!

P.S. - Second time I've used this word, but it just fit so very well, I had to! And last time the word wasn't directed at me - so there! Different!

Give a Guy a Chainsaw...

Before...

After...

Hubby and son spent the good part of a recent weekend ~redesigning~ our front yard. What started with the removal of one bush that was ugly and in front of the bay window ended with the subsequent removal the crab tree and all the over-grown monster bushing lining our front steps. As soon as we get the stumps removed, we'll figure out what to plant next. That's a new female holly bush and the smaller one to the left is the male holly. (I want holly berries and you must have both a female and male for that to happen.)

Be careful what you wish for when 

you give your guy(s) a chain saw! 

Could get ugly...

~~~

xoabb

expect changed landscapes!

~

That's My World Tuesday!

Come join us!

First photo:  4/23/09

Second photo: 6/15/09

There IS a reason it's called ~Fall~

Our backyard this past Wednesday. 

Looks kinda leaf-free...

Our backyard yesterday...

the leaves have fallen...really really fallen...

"Driveway? Driveway? Has anyone seen the driveway???"

xoabb

expect anything!

The Flight ~Path~ Home

On our flight home from Columbia, GB and I flew into Westchester County Airport. It's fairly close to where we live, but I never thought we'd loop around our area of the northeast during our descent. Guess what? We did!

(click on photo to enlarge)

I was sorting through my many (try thousands of) photos, editing the better ones, trashing the worser (that's a word - my word) ones when, lo and behold, I came across the above photo. Never in a million years did I expect to find what I did, (once I bothered to really look). It was a perfect aerial photo of the area I live in!

That's I-95 cutting a path across the photo, and just to its left, (until it branches off on the other side of the river) is the Amtrak/Metro North rail line. The golf course in the foreground is Long Shore; the one on the far side of the river is Shorehaven Golf Club. Our home is somewhere on the far side of the river between the golf course and railroad tracks. Considering where we live, isn't it amazing we have an ~infestation~ of deer, a worrisome number of coyote, and a bothersome amount of wild turkey, never mind our plethora of squirrels and rabbits?

You know, I really must write a note and request USAir pay more attention to the condition of their jet windows! Dirty windows certainly affect the quality of photos taken!

~~~

xoabb

expect anything!