No park today, it rained just enough to make mud

But I caught this guy (or gal) watching me thru my kitchen window.  I don't know what kind of bird he or she is, but sure is a cutie.

I took the pics thru the window (with screen), so they're not crystal clear, but you can see enough of the coloring and shape that if you knew what it was, you could identify it.  Chubby little thing!  It was munching on some of the fungus that tends to grow on trees around here.

If anyone out there knows the variety, please let me know!

Sunday in the park - again

After a very rocky week with Pablo feeling very under the weather, he is acting more like himself today, so we went to the park.  Glad we did!  All sorts of wondrous things were there for us to see - probably because it was otherwise quiet, not a lot of people, and no barking dogs.  Pablo knows to shh when I tell him to shh, and he's getting better (finally) at staying put when I tell him to shh, not yanking too hard on his leash.  That helps more than one might imagine with my shaky focus.

So, here's what we found:

The deer looked like Mom and quickly growing baby.  Of course, once he caught their scent, Pablo wanted to go back and meet them.  I managed to dissuade him from that pursuit.  I have a feeling we would have lost the game if we got close enough to play it.

No signs of the turtles or snake today.  And lots of mud, after the deluge we had Friday nite. 

It's a pretty awesome park, especially for being in the middle of a suburban area, not out in the sticks.  But now I need to go clean the mud off my sneakers.  Yuck.

It's finally spring

Just wanted to put up some pictures from the neighborhood and the park.  Things are blooming, finally.

There were a lot of tadpoles in the pond, too, but they zoomed away before I could get a picture.  They're worse at posing than the birds are.  Maybe when they get legs, they'll slow down enough for me to catch them.

And then there was the snake, but we didn't see him (or her) today.  This is from last weekend.

As far as wildlife is concerned, if it's not a dog, Pablo doesn't see it.  Just as well, I think.

A walk in the park

Just at dusk yesterday, on my way to a meeting, I got to walk in Central Park for a bit.  Lots of people out, it was nice weather (the one day this week we get of nice weather), a bit chilly, but clean feeling.  By the time I left the park and went the rest of the way to my destination, the wind had picked up and it was getting downright cold again.  But for a while, it was just nice to be outside, the air felt fresh, and people all over the place, biking, walking, skating, boarding, riding in bicycle rickshaws or horse drawn carriages, kids in strollers, and dogs of all sorts. 

Make up your mind, already!

Last week we had temperatures in the 70s F.  Last night it was 11 degrees F.  My sinuses are throbbing with the change in temperature/air pressure.  Not having fun yet.

I really don't mind the cold too much, but I prefer that it be consistent, not bouncing up and down like this, from day to day.  To go from shopping for a light jacket to wishing my parka was warmer is not my idea of a fun time.

Then I worry about the birds.  The spring migration is in progress, and all sorts of birds are around, the air is full of chirping and singing.  This guy posed for me the other afternoon, right outside my kitchen window:

I know March weather can be crazy around here.  But I'm hoping for more sun than clouds, and no more snow, please.  Moderate, seasonal temps would be fine.  We don't really need 70s quite yet.  But pick a short range and stick to it!  And please keep the birds warm!

Fragile

Everything feels very fragile here.  The entire fabric of society is as thin as new ice, and liable to break down completely at the least incursion. 

Changes and more changes

When I get unhappy, or dissatisfied, or generally things are not feeling right, I have a tendency to tear into things and make changes until it feels better.  When I wake up in the morning and can't imagine how I'm going to get thru the day dealing with a certain person, that's a clue.  Been doing that lately, and got rid of a couple of my more agita-inducing clients.  I think it's better now.  We'll see.

Also trying to get outside more, but with the rain and snow and generally muddy conditions here lately, that's not working too well.  Pablo and I have found a park we like to go to, which, considering it's woods and no paved paths, amazes me. He usually doesn't care for woods type settings, he's more a pavement kind of dog.  But this park has deer, and skunks (we've smelled those but not seen any), and a little pond that, the first time we were there, had a great blue heron floating on it, who took off before I could get a picture because another dog barked at it.

Of course, when we get home, I spend the rest of the day cleaning the mud off shoes and paws and picking up park debris that tracks into the house no matter how hard I try to keep it out.  But that's mostly ok. 

I'm waiting to see if the pond really freezes solid.  So far, no, but we've been having these mild weeks in between the cold ones, so even if it's shallow (which is hard to tell, the water is mostly black-looking), it hasn't frozen solid yet.  Someone we met there told me the park used to be a Christmas tree farm, and the pond was built there so kids could ice skate.  The person who told me this is close to my age, I guess, and yes, when I was a kid, we used to have parks with ponds that froze solid enough in the winter to be skated on.  Pretty much doesn't happen around here anymore. 

I wanted to go to the park today, because it's warmish and I was off work, but last evening the rain came down by the truckload, so thinking mud, mud, mud, we pretty much stayed home.  Even my back yard is soggy.

So pictures are from a couple/few weeks ago, on a couple of dryish days. 

The trees are mostly younger than I would expect in the area, probably because it used to be a Christmas tree farm, rather than woods.  A lot of land around here was once orchards of various sorts.

Pond on a sunny day last month.  It's been more overcast the last few weeks.

 

Ice forming, I like the crackly texture.  And the water looks really black here.

 

Just this past weekend.  Solider ice in spots, but nowhere near frozen solid. 

So that's what we've been up to lately.  Nothing exciting, and still trying to organize the house and find stuff I haven't seen since before the move.  That's being a treasure hunt.  Keeps things interesting.

Anything to keep from working

Motivation is being a huge issue around here lately.  I haven't got any.  At all.

So in order to prevent work from taking over my entire day, here are some doggies pictures from my kids' and granddog's recent visit.

It was hot, and they got tired.  What else can I say? 

In case you haven't been following, the big one is my granddog, Kaylee.  The little guy is Pablo, who lives here.  They are color coordinated, of course, and also go nicely with the house decor.

There's something charming about dogs laying about the house.  IMO. 

End of summer....except it's not

Doesn't feel like the end of summer.  Usually by about mid-August, things are cooler and people are thinking more about shopping for back to school than going to the beach.  Not this year.  Still in full beach bloom, if you can call it that.  Hot, and buggy (as I scratch my latest mosquito bite), and not at all evocative of fall and changing colors and falling leaves.

Rats.  I always kind of like the end of August because it is a preview of fall.  But no.  Not this time around.

So I managed to find another flat of hens and chicks, which are sitting on the front yard waiting for me to be comfortable enough in the temperature to get out and install them.  Somewhere along the way I decided to do a lot of succulents.  Maybe because some of them have spikes, to keep people away, and maybe just because I like succulents, they do tend to take care of themselves, and they have a way of spreading out and taking over areas.  Very nice feature for my front slopey parts of the garden, where I'm afraid I'll slide down the hill when I try to dig or weed or anything.

What also helped was Kaylee (or someone else perhaps) knocking a piece or two off my potted prickly pears (nopales), so I had to find a spot in the ground to install those.   They have joined some bulbs I didn't know were there in the front slopey. 

The slopeys are two rather steeply pitched sections of the front yard, leading down to the sidewalk.  The fronts of these patches are populated by humongous sea grass type things, which when left unattended create a sharpish jungle to wade thru in getting up the steps to the front door.  I suppose if I left them to their own devices, at some point noone would be able to get up the walk.  Might keep the postal people away, I guess.  I could come and go thru the garage. 

Something I have noticed here that is pleasant.  You can leave things like flats of plants sitting on the front yard, and noone comes up and steals them.  Unlike the place I lived before this. 

Speaking of which, I hear that Pablo's oceanfront girlfriend, Heidi, has been walking by the old place, looking for him.  Love can be tough when you're a dog.  She's a Yorkie. 

I'm meandering.  I'd better go check on the laundry, and stop the random thoughts from spilling out here.  Ciao!

Hot hotter and hottest

Third time's the charm, they say.  I've started this post twice before, and got interrupted.  The story of my life.  So I'm trying for the third time, maybe this time it'll get done.  Fingers crossed.

It's been absolutely miserably hot here the last week or so, unreal in as much as in all my years of living here, I don't think there's been anything like it, in terms of heat, humidity, and duration.  Going outside is kind of like wading through a pot of boiling soup.  Not my idea of fun.

Of course, this hasn't stopped Pablo from wanting to be outside, although it has slowed him down a bit.  Thank goodness.  I don't think I could manage a mile or two walk in the afternoon when the weather is like this.  And while I can carry him home, I'm afraid he can't do the same for me.

So we've been slogging along, sometimes literally.  Sopping wet feels familiar now.

Today it was finally not so bad, and I shut off the a/c.  Give it and my electric bill a rest.  Which was fine until I somehow got the bug in my head to go out after dinner and trim back some of the blasted decorative grass that fronts my property.  Pretty, yes.  But I am tired of feeling like I need a machete to get up the front steps.

Of course, one thing leads to another while in the yard, and I eventually wound up clearing out all the crud that was growing wild and uninvited in the front sections of the front yard, where the slope is steep and I need cleats to not slide down it.  So now I'm sopping wet from that (it isn't COOL out, it just isn't boiling hot). 

And of course I decided in the process that I need to go back to the store and buy another flat of hens and chicks, because one is not enough to fill the area I just cleared out.  Tomorrow's project.  It's ok, tho, I needed to get more for the back yard as well.  Sigh.

In my spare time, of which I have surprisingly little (I thought I would be working less, it's off-season in my business, but no, I'm working more than I did last summer), I've decided to try to snag some photos of some of the nice features of the neighborhood; the ones that make me smile when I see them, out on a walk.  It's not easy.  It seems people are not so comfortable with a person walking around taking pictures of their stuff.  But I shall persevere, and try to post some here from time to time.

This is the first one I'm really almost satisfied with the photo of.  Yah, it's national end a sentence with a preposition week, get over it.  It's across the street and up the block a bit.  I was hoping to get some of the little globule thingys being red, but it seems the red ones fall off once they turn red, so it could be a matter of split second timing to catch it just right.  The plant is a Japanese dogwood, I've been told, and I absolutely love the lantern, which stands on a stone post, about chest high (for me, and I'm short).  This particular house also has a brick driveway, which I absolutely love, but driveway pictures can be kind of blah.

So, other than sweating and working, that's what I've been up to lately.  That, and a jaunt yesterday into the West Village, to meet a new client.  I did a little bit of walking around, too, since the area has it's nice touches (and has yet to be overtaken by glass and steel monoliths).  So this is my favorite stoop:

If I had to live in a city, I would like to have these guys guarding my stoop.  If you don't know "stoop," Google it.

And that's all, folks.  Happy last days of summer, looking forward to opera season!