Blue Mouthwash

Everyday Life, Gardening, Memories, Pets, Reading, Scenic Photography, Wildlife

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

Power Less and Powerless

Everyday Life, Food, Memories

Woke up this morning noticing my phone’s connection to the WIFI network had disappeared. When I went over to the router I noticed there weren’t any lights on it. Then I noticed that nothing in the house seemed to work. The power to every light and appliance was gone. I went to the basement and reset all the switches but that lead to no avail, so it must have been a neighborhood outage. Thankfully it didn’t last long though and was back up within 10 minutes. Of course I had to reset the clocks on the oven and microwave but otherwise everything went back to usual. I couldn’t even brew a cup of coffee because the power was out and I was jonesin’ for some caffeine. I thought about hitting a Dunks but then the power came on making the trip unnecessary.

It was kind of too hot to really do much of anything today so this afternoon we watched a couple of old Booker episodes on Tubi on the TV. One episode was clearly based off of the movie Die Hard with Booker playing the Bruce Willis part. Kinda cheesy. We also finally moved the exercise bike into the basement as we got sick of it taking up too much room in the den for months and sometimes tripping against it. After that we made a run to Target to get some supplies and then drove around to 3 different Dunkins to get LD an iced tea. For some reason a bunch of the franchises here close before the late afternoon on Sundays and perhaps every day but I was able to finally find one that was open for drive thru service.

For dinner we finally tried out the Air flyer and made French fries from potatoes and zucchini chips. It’s actually not bad. We may end up getting one with a bigger capacity at some point but as of now we’re still experimenting with air frying. I was going to grill but we decided that would be better down tomorrow night so for this evening we just did the chicken in the Instant Pot thing we do.

Today I had a moment where I thought to myself that I had become somewhat of a failure, and so this day had a vibe of being a bit of a downer. I know its not true of course but sometimes I can’t help feeling that way. A few minutes of vulnerability I guess.

Birding Love and Moonstone Nights

Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography, Wildlife

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

Cape Cod, Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography

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.

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

Cape Cod, Everyday Life, Gardening, Memories, Scenic Photography

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

Cape Cod, Everyday Life, Gardening, Lighthouses, Memories, Pets, Scenic Photography

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

Cape Cod, Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography

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.

My Car Can Understand Conversation

Everyday Life, Memories

Finally went ahead and started using my car’s voice commands. This isn’t through the phone, the car actually has built in voice recognition but I never enabled it until today. However, while I was messing around with that, I had the idea to use my Sirius App through the Bluetooth to be able to listen to all the many more channels that the app has as opposed to get the radio stuff that I have. It works! I suppose I could use Spotify in the same way but I haven’t tried that yet. Anyways, back to the voice thing – I was unaware that I could actually make dinner reservations and typing emails through the system with voice dictation, and again, this is not using Google. So that’s pretty cool. Might be cool to dictate text messages replies without having to pick up the phone. Not sure I would ever use it in that way, mostly just things like “Call Ladydoc Mobile” instead of the just hitting the hotkey on the panel as I have it now but still kind of fun to play around with.

I’m stuck on Level 17 of that Headlong Hunt game I posted the other day and it’s driving me bananas! I could skip ahead but what’s the fun in that?

I’m taking my mom to get her stiches out tomorrow. She seems to be doing pretty well so that’s a relief, but still lacking a little bit of function, which I suppose is natural but maybe these Carpel Tunnel kind of operations aren’t all they’re made out to be. Anyways I spent the day with her today and it was a hot one.

Finally we do see the little bunny Shiloh now and then hopping around the yard, even if there’s a chance that he went to town on the phlox plantings in the new rock garden area. (At least we assume it’s Shiloh although who really knows). Hey, he’s a growing boy and needs his nutrients! Still cute and not fully grown yet, but we’re happy to see him happy and doing well.

Thanks for the Plug!

Everyday Life, Lighthouses, Memories, Scenic Photography

Thanks to the Lighthouses in the USA group for choosing one of my lighthouse photos for their cover! This is also one of my favorite photos ever that I was lucky enough to be in the right spot at the right time. (This was also the night we saw the amorous skunks running around the property!)

A Hot Saturday BBQ

Everyday Life, Food, GameTime, Gardening, Memories

What have I been up to lately? Not a whole hell of a lot.

We had some friends over last night for a BBQ. I had to run to the grocery store a couple of times to get some needed ingredients. LD made a special salad dressing from scratch and also a vodka/strawberry lemonade drink. I picked the lettuce we’ve been growing and used that in the salad. Just burgers and dogs and some corn cobs, pretty basic. Thankfully everything came out great and I was complimented on my grilling expertise, which has gotten better and better with time. After all the eating, I lit the firepit and we had smores. It was a hot day but actually it wasn’t all that bad as there was a breeze and the patio is generally shady in the late afternoon. In the supermarket I saw some Del’s Lemonade Shandy Beer which I’d never seen before so I bought some and decided to try it, and I actually like it!

My microSD card came the other day and I inserted it into my phone, now rocking another 512GB on top of the 128GB I have internally. That should last me for a while. My grill cleaner also came yesterday so today I went ahead and gave the grill a deep cleaning. Strangely even though I ordered it from Amazon, it came from the Home Depot, which I thought was a little weird. If you’re interested it’s a grill cleaner by the makers of Simple Green. Anyways, the grill has never been deep cleaned since we got it, plus I wanted to get rid of the built up grease on the underside of the lid which made it look like peeling paint. I removed all the grates and flavorizer bars and gave them a good spray and scrub down. LD helped as well! We also picked up some more day lilies from the garden lady this morning. At this point we’ll have so many! Late in the afternoon we soaked the bulbs in a pail of water for a few hours before putting them into the ground, as per the garden lady instructions.

Gametime: Headlong Hunt.

A Little History

Everyday Life, Gardening, Memories, Pets, Reading, Scenic Photography

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

Everyday Life, Gardening, Memories, Scenic Photography

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

Cape Cod, Everyday Life, Gardening, Memories, Scenic Photography

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).

Operation Plant Swap: Success

Everyday Life, GameTime, Gardening, Memories

We went down to LD’s acquaintance’s house and swapped out some of our rather large hostas that LD hated and traded them for some day lilies that this lady had tons of and had dug a bunch out. What a character this woman is. Talks a lot but I actually had fun listening to her various stories. LD knows her from her gym. She’s apparently a member of the town’s garden club so she could be a good resource. Anyways, eventually we planted the lilies in various spots in the yard. They won’t bloom this year but hopefully they’ll establish themselves over time.

Made some steak tips on the grill tonight. Had to use them up before they go bad.

Game time: Box Bob. You know I love to try to solve these types of puzzle games. Currently stuck on level 10. Arrrgh!

Everyday Has The Potential to be a Great One

Everyday Life, Gardening, Memories, Pets, Scenic Photography

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!

The Best Laid of Plans…

Everyday Life, Gardening, Memories

Was all ready for today, drove Mom down to her 6 am surgery and left to go home til it was done. About 2 minutes before I pulled into the driveway, she called me saying her doc called in sick and to come get her. So we needed to reschedule. Basically all next week. So another covid test on Friday, and the surgery this coming Monday. They’re all a little later in the day so we don’t have to get down there at the crack of dawn. These things happen I suppose, although it’s a little annoying but no harm no foul.

Those tubers I planted a few weeks ago after storing them in the basement all winter and they ended up looking all dried up were apparently still good as each and every one I replanted is starting to sprout up from the soil. So, victory there. I believe they’re these super tall dahlias that take forever to bloom.

I’m 5G, Android 11 Now

Everyday Life, Memories

Yesterday ended up being a busy day. I woke up early to drive my mom down for her covid test. After been through it once before it was even easier than last time, plus I don’t think people are getting as many tests nowadays. In and out in no time. Then I went over to the nearby Best Buy and bought the cell phone that I wanted unlocked. They had them in stock and I was in and out of there in like 3 minutes. From there I went to my carrier and had them switch the account over from my old to my new, I must say I’m very happy with this new device. What a difference. I still need to install some apps and figure out how to work some things but in general I’m up and running again. By then it was around lunchtime so we got some meatball subs down in Winter Hill and ate them in the car. I hung around for a few hours more before heading back. Heading back Kinda sucked because it’s apparent that traffic is pretty much back to it’s normally shitty self. Especially in that Needham stretch – that’s the worst, just before Canton isn’t too swift either. In the early evening we actually went into a Trader Joe’s – first time in over a year! We ended off the evening by making a shrimp and kale salad with some roasted sweet potatoes and some television.

My Cape Happiness All the Way to Infinity

Cape Cod, Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography

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

Everyday Life, Gardening, Memories, Scenic Photography, Wildlife

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

Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography

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 Walk in the Woods

Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography

We went for a quick walk in the woods over in Wellesley after picking up some stuff from LD’s office. That’s where this picture I took is from.

A Plum Visit

Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography, Wildlife

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.

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

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.

Fully Vaxxed, Baby

Everyday Life, Memories

I woke up at 6 am having not being able to sleep anymore. We went down to the DPW drop-off to get rid of the hazardous waste. Not really hazardous, just an old microwave and air conditioner. The line of cars to get in looked pretty long but LD figured it would move pretty quick, which it did, so we waited and eventually got it all unloaded and disposed of. While waiting in line I got a notification on my phone that my swan photo was being featured on Boston Fox25 social media news outlet. Very exciting! They’ve shared some of my stuff in the past and NECN has a bunch of times and I’m truly appreciative. My holy grail is to get on Boston.com’s but try as I might I’ve never been able to break through on that one. Seems pretty clique-y to me but I’ll keep trying.

In the afternoon it was off to my second Covid shot appointment. The first one had been in Amesbury but for some reason this one had to be moved to Newburyport. Might as well make an afternoon of it since we were in the area! Ended up walking around Plum Island Reservation and Salisbury reservation. I think I got a lot of good photos but I’m going to relax for a while. It’s nice to finally have gotten both shots. I’ll post some of what we got in day or two. Here’s a picture of me after getting the shot along the shore in Salisbury.

The Electrician in the Garden

Everyday Life, GameTime, Memories, Wildlife

The electrician came by today and fixed the outside outlet that I noticed had been wonky over the winter. I should now be able to string up the outdoor lights without problem. He’s also the town’s animal control officer and told us a bunch of stories – he meets a lot of crazy characters. While he was there though, we saw two bunnies jumping over each other in the yard and he told us that that is their courtship routine, and that within 30 days they will have babies. No sooner than he said that is when we also saw a littler bunny, possibly Shiloh or one of his siblings. It was like the whole family was out there. Maybe they’ll decide to use the pot again for another bunch of bunnies! I’ll need to mark this one the calendar and make a note. I also saw my first hummingbird come by this afternoon. It flited around the tulips and hanging plants before darting off. Very cool to see, I’ve been trying to attract them for some time.

Earlier in the day I mowed the front lawn and got some stuff out of the basement and into the car to drop off at the DPW for Hazardous Waste Collection Day. Finally trying to get rid of some old minor appliances that have been taking up space in the basement since last winter. I was also going to do the back but the gas was running low. I’ll need to go get some and then complete the back. The electrician/animal control officer also gave us some lowdown about the former sinkhole in the yard which we converted to a nice phlox rock garden. Apparently there must have been a tree there at one time that was taken down before we ever came here. Over time the insects in the ground ate whatever was left under the soil and it just starts to cave in. I learned some new things today. I also was able to finish the book on the theft of the Gardner paintings I started a couple of days ago. All in all, it was a very good read, if slightly outdated. It did make me what to go back there and see the artwork again. The crazy thing about that is that there just seems to not be any real leads. You would think sooner or later some talk about where they are would happen or a crook or someone would want to cash out somehow. Problem being that the works are just too famous. I will admit that out of all the ones that were taken, Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee is easily my personal favorite. It was the artist’s only known seascape scene. I hope it’s not too damaged – it really is a work of art. Oh I almost forgot, we even went to the beach for an hour this morning and saw some guy power paragliding (sort of like these models) right over the dunes!

Finally, for tonight I cooked up a walnut-crusted salmon with a roasted veggie jumble and lemon crème fraiche. It came out pretty good but I think I should have let the zucchini go a little longer in the oven. In the interim I was trying to solve some of the puzzles in Screw Gravity. Just when I think the game was over, there were more puzzles.

How About a Romantic Ride in a Swan Boat?

Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography

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.