Happy Birthday to Beatrice!

 

Happy Birthday to my sister Beatrice! While carefully considering all the ways to honor her and celebrate her name day, I decided the bestest way was to illustrate exactly where her present comes from. A true story of farm to table!

Here at our factory, our employees are skilled in the most efficient methods of converting feed to the raw stage of our product. Above, is Neko, your personal provider.

Freshly generated product is harvested several times a day and transported in our state-of-the-art conveyance to our modern processing department.

(Note: employee monitoring collection in the field). After arriving at our hygenic and scrupulously inspected facility, product is added to the ever-growing heap of compost in preparation..

Several months of patience is rewarded with the finished product, ready to be delivered right in time for Spring planting! Black gold! Happy Birthday Beatrice! May your garden grow green and be the envy of all your garden friends!!

Visitors!

Other people look out their windows and have lovely untouched expanses of pristine snow... not us! We had about an inch of snow the other day and it was quickly violated by our outdoor activities, which on this particular day included dragging 3/4 of a ton of steel down to Bob's studio on a cart. (They would deliver on a snowy day. Most of the time, the steel company is a day or two off in their projected delivery day).

Also, Robin and I do a fabulous job of running around and generally marking the snow up. It looks like a school-full of crazy kids has visited. But we did have visitors of another sort:

That's Robin the Good's paw print on the right, next to small pawprints that were left all through our back yard. I think they were foxes? And I think there were two of them as prints that worked their way to our terrace (nosy little buggers!) wove in and out of each other. They inspected Robin's cache of outdoor toys and probably looked in the back window to see what we were up to. 

Here's another shot of Robin's front foot print. She was very interested in the trail of the visitors! They're probably the same little individuals who left a small poop on the very southeast of the terrace a afew weeks back. Just letting us know they're here!

 

Gotta Love A Land Line!

 

Here it is! Thebest sort of technology. Take it out of the box, plug it inot the wall, pick up that hand set and make a call. Astonishing! Easy as 1-2-3 and no need to call for tech support. Yes, I realize there are individuals out that who will call me a Troglodyte or a Luddite but I like our land line.

And here are the two "other" sorts of phone. The one on the right is my old phone, being retired because (as stated in an earlier blog) it was possessed and devious and cranky. It still "works" but not really well and not on my terms. The phone on the left is the new model. I am just learning its ways...

(Sorry about the wonky lighting; that table is actually white!) Just to illustrate that they both still turn on. So the new phone seemed to start of auspiciously- after spending an hour and a half on tech support. The nice woman I dealt with tried to help me and I attempted to be my most self-deprecating self, saying, "Oh you must get so tired of dealing with peopel like me who can't figure anything out!"- but she was pretty patient but also seemed more than happy to dump me by saying, "Thanks so much for calling and enjoy you new phone" before hanging up on me. We did succeed in getting the phone partially set up (ie; I could acess the Internet and receive/send messages) but I hadn't been able to transfer my contacts or other info and I wasn't able to answer incoming calls. 

I will not bore you with my efforts the next day- suffice it to say the phone company in question was having a bad day and suffering from technical difficulties. (Was I supposed to help them?!?!) It took three attempts before I got connected to a less than pleasant guy did assist in getting the phone to work (I think) but then basically told me to "find an app" when I asked for help transferring contacts from my old phone! 

God helps those that help themselves, so I took Bob's suggestion that I watch a YouTube tutorial on how to transfer data and Hey Presto!! I did it! I am so inordinately proud of myself. Like magic, all 100+ phone contacts are now happily ensconced on my new device. I called it a day after that... still need to transfer some photos and still trying to figure out how to get home screen icons of thongs I use but there's always tomorrow!!

A Snowy Start

 

Well yes, a snowy start to 2024 but let's see how long that snow lasts! Not having had almost any for two years, it is interesting to contemplate a world of white. It's supposed to rain- like torrents!- tonight and probably turn all that snow into slush. Tomorrow is going to be almost 50 degrees so goodbye snow!

Januaury 3rd saw the anniversary of our having moved to the BauHaus Chicken Coop a full twelve years ago. As a friend remarked: time does fly! I have also posted over 800 (!!! Yikes!!) blogs describing our time here. I realize I haven't posted quite as diligently in the last year... but really? We've been really busy and soemtimes I just forget to document all the weird and wonderful things we've done.

And don't expect brilliance from me today. I haven't slept well in three (count 'em 3!!) days and am running on fumes. As the weather is supposed to disintegrate into nastiness soon, I may just crawl back to bed and hibernate. Wish me pleasant dreams!

New Year A Comin'

 

For those of you who haven't had the chance to experience our lovely 2023 model Xmas tree- here it is! Still Xmas at our house, at least for a couple more weeks.

And it's going to be "New Year, New Phone" as my old phone (read very old, really old) shit the bed. Let's face it: it's been a long time coming as my relationship with my Luna Pro 3 was fraught, to put it mildly. 

The phone's existence started out fine but seemed to develop personal quirks and unnecesary idiosyncracies. I swear it was mildly possessed. It was sometimes cranky about turning on, but then became increasingly hard to turn off. It took to dialing random numbers when unasked and sometimes just sat there and refused to do anything at all. I confess to hurling/tossing/flinging and occasionally- yes!- throwing my phone across the room, or if outdoors, across the lawn. I horrified Bob.

So I am now phone-less in a society absolutely welded to their phones. I feel remarkably bouyant and liberated. The only thing I have missed thus far is my cocktail-hour immersion in Wordle and Spelling Bee. (Bob lent me his phone, but it wasn't the same.) My new phone is on its way; it should be in my possession by the end of the week. Meanwhile, I am perfectly happy to resort to landline and desktop for my communicating and computing needs.

And here's one last image to take away from 2023 and its increasingly weird weather. Mud. Endless overcast skies, lots of rain and so much mud!

Here's my pony, anointed in it. Let's not get into the ramifications of it's being New Year's Eve and we have had zero snow. The ground isn't even frozen. I guess we'll have to wake up tomorrow in a brand new year and embrace the mud. Happy New Year!

Doing Something Right!

 

Here's a view of our Long Border. I admit to yanking a few deceased annuals from its ranks and I think Bob chopped down a couple of Eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed) stalks that had fallen over, but it's pretty much left to it's own devices until next early spring. I always allowed for a certain gardening laziness that creeps over me by late summer. Early September finds me shrugging and suggesting it's too late to prop things up or edit and reorganize. 

Yup! That's me casting a long shadow on a kind of unsightly aster clump (the cultivar "Purple Dome" a half tall variety.) And while I admit to an unwillingness to walk back to the house and get pruners to remove the desiccated remains I also suspected that the seeds were possibly good food for birds. And I was right!

I just read an article in The Connecticut Gardener (#1) that confirmed my thoughts and applauded my laziness. The authors of the article in question averred that insects (hopefully beneficial) nest in the hollow stems and birds do indeed feed on seeds left behind. 

(This grass (Miscanthus sinensis) makes me look tiny; it IS tall and the inflorescenses look good all winter- until an ice storm beats them down!) So I've been vindicated in my waiting 'til next spring to clean up. Yes, sometimes when we get a warm February day, Robin the Good and I get out and start cutting down things that look particulary rough. Some plants don't age gracefully!

Here's another very poofy grass; I think this is one looks rather nice with the late day sunlight hitting the tufts. So... lesson learned: don't be in such a big fat rush to tidy up. There's plenty of time ahead to do that and the birds and bees will thank you!

(*1) The Connecticut Gardener is a really good resouce for all manner of garden information. Please consider subscribing! And I don't just say that becasue I write the occasional column for it!!

In Praise of Robin

 

A post to toast our little princess of a doggo, Robin the Good! A true gem of a dog... except not always.

I'll give you three guesses as to why that plate is empty. Yes, our little angel decided to remove the four (!!) slices of rye bread (seedless) that were thawing on that plate. Turn your back for one minute; she made quick work of the bread! Not a crumb left and Robin looking so innocent. She "selected" a half a sandwich from another plate a few months ago. I thought I was losing my marbles. I walked from room to room considering where I might have left my 1/2 eaten lunch. It finally dawned on me that Robin was looking very pleased with herself. (*1)

But how can you resist Robin? Look at that face!

Here she is comtemplating the chunk of wood that is on her blanket:

Hey! She picked it out! I'm constantly providing enrichment in the form of toys, Kongs and bones but no! She wanted a chunk of wood. Poor Robin! Neglected, innored and unloved! 

Hahahhahahaha!! She has it made. Two college-educated, unpaid servants that dote on her and see to her every whim and need! Would we could all live such a wonderful, stress-free existence. I'd come back as my dog in a future incarnation!!

See? She's laughing at me!

(*1) And need I remind anyone that Robin stole six eclairs of the picnic table... eclairs destined for a friend's stomach, not Robins.