Holiday Wrap-Up

There's really no competing with these folks. The front yard has a donation box for I forget which charitable organization, and raising money is ostensibly the point of the display, whose lavish excess is rivaled but unsurpassed by five or six other homes on the same block. I like to swing past it once every year; it's nearby but off any beaten path for me. And you know what? I think it's best that way.

Feliz Navidog

Well, La-Di-Da!

You know it's a s-l-o-ow news day when I get quoted in The New York Times! Nothing to get excited about; it's just another story about how libraries get all bent out of shape when people don't return the stuff they borrow. Weird! You'd think people were stealing municipal property or something.

A Random Book From The Stacks

This one is Cosmopolis, by Paul Bourget. Part of a series of books "crowned" by the French Academy, but apparently the library only owns the one. The light-brown bits are actually gilt, but my photograph doesn't capture the shine. A 1905 edition.

...Aaaand, We're Back.

Welcome (back.) Hope the new template is pleasing. Was gonna wait until the new year, but then again, why?
Too late for Christmas (and I don't even know if they're for sale) are these adorable "father-daughter dancing shoes" I came across.

Fall Planting

Dee's nursery had their annual shrub sale today, where I picked up a painted fern, a (white) Bridal Veil astilbe, and these two butterfly bushes, a small, dark "Adonis Blue" and this yummy golden yellow variety called "Honeycomb." (I would have gotten a few more things, but the bushes were so large I couldn't see where I was going anymore.)

Oh, Sure....

...the first one's always pretty...

Wyoming Gets Crafty

Wyoming's library consortium is running a kickin' ad campaign right now; click below and scroll down to the bumperstickers and billboards, which are fabulous - but if you can, please explain the radio ads, which to me say: "Careful! Going to the library can cause you to become temporarily delusional and unpopular with your social group!"

http://www.wyominglibraries.org/campaign.html

In For A Closer Look

A Love/Hate Thing

First sighting this summer!

I love mantids because they are so exceptional-looking, and as they stay in one spot or move slowly much of the time, they're an easy bug to watch. And, they don't try to fly in your mouth or skitter up yer leg, like so many other insects.

What I hate about them is their omniverous nature. They don't just eat aphids and mosquitos and pests like that, they also eat ladybugs, butterflies, spiders and other beneficials. (There

are pictures of them eating hummingbirds, but I can't find authority on that.)

(Sigh) It's a jungle out there.

By All Means, Go Right Ahead!

...y'all must be tailing some suspect, 'cause I know you aren't just cruisin' through the red light...

Hello? Hello?

...is this thing on?...Hello!

Just fell asleep there for a minute...dreaming of alphabets.

Go Look at My Flicker Page!

...at least that's been updated recently.

Go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kugler81

I might start updating there alone.

I might just do that. I mean, the photo descriptor field is just about as much space as I need for my average post. I'm a sentence-fragment-or-two sort of person, not a proper essayist (like some people I know.)

I Am A Leaseholder!

... of a wee bit o' Scotland.

Luscious

Almost makes you wish you were a butterfly.

Except for that 4-day lifespan thing....

Thanks, Martha!

A nifty tip from Ms. Stewart that doesn't involve first growing trees to make your own paper:

de-pollenize your lilies to prevent allergy attacks and stained tablecloths!

It takes point-oh-one seconds to gently swipe off the little bulbs of pollen on the ends of the lily stamens with a pinch of your fingers. Volia!

So easy. (Now, is there any way to make the daylilies last longer...?)

Two Houses of Worship

...with one doorway between them??

The Rather Quite Free Three

More than a year has past now since the Terrible Trio launched their first assault on the pristine waters of Lake Lapidus, and the quiet Bellmore community dares to breathe a sigh of relief...

despite the fact that the fugitives remain at large, their declared intention to return to the scene an (as yet) unfulfilled threat.

Well, There You Go!

That's how you compete with those 99-cent stores, isn't it? Find your niche.

Those Amazing Ospreys

On a boat ride out to the Huntington Harbor Lighthouse, the guide pointed out this osprey nest in the channel. Needless to say, I was pretty impressed with the metalworking capabilities of the birds.

Fiona Welcomes Us Back

Since we've returned there's been laundry and weeding and oh, yeah, that getting-up-and-going-to-work thing that takes up so much time. Irritating.

Anyway, there's also been Fiona to appease. She missed us so...

We Are Back

...back from Alaska, from Anchorage land of the midnight sun, from the land of Denali the big mountain, which graced us some four-count-em-four times during our stay, from Mendenhall, the glacier you can walk up to and damn near shake hands with, from the Tongass, one kick-ass forest primeval, and from the Inside Passage, a waterway of beauty such as I have only seen before in the last Lords of the Rings movie, where everybody goes off into the West...

we had a great time

Catsit Chronicles II

Everybody made an appearance today, as though they knew it was the last visit...Clark has of course become my best friend next to Legs, and Molly has now entered the room the last three days, and allowed herself to be pet. Today, for the first time, Betsy entered the room to look out the back door, and allow herself to be pet a little bit.

So that was special, and now we're off to Alaska first thing tomorrow morning!

Don't tell PETA...

...but I picked up a grand total of sixty-four of these %$!#$*(&!s

this morning. It was a massacree. They never knew what hit 'em.

No more holes in my foliage, thanks.

The CatSit Chronicles

Watching the triplets-and-Legs this week, until we take off for Alaska.

It's shedding season, (when is it not) so everybody needs a little time with the brush; (Clark actually allows himself to be dragged around a little by his...what is that, a mane? that giant bib of chest hair?? )

A Productive Day

Got Fiona's vaccination boosters this morning, weeded the front yard and driveway, planted two more relocated sedum, visited Garden World with Ken to look at the stones he'd found. (Going to go ahead with Joe's stone as it is prettier, but some of the ones at GW weren't bad at all...) Picked up two more pieces of luggage on sale at Kohl's, along with a market umbrella in tan canvas (a mere $35) which I took home immediately and installed on the 'patio'. Ken planted his veggies, I did the laundry, we booked a kayaking trip for June 6th in Ketchikan, and he went off to play softball. I wired a cheap little copper and glass candle-lantern to the good ol' rusty pole in the backyard. Can't wait 'till it gets dark and I can fire up the tealight inside it...

Witchi-Tai-To

The smell of manure is in the air and the new Kousa dogwood
is glowing in the twilight like a white paper lantern. The first
rhododendron bloom, just starting to open, looks like a hot-pink

flamenco dancer's skirt that's peeking out of a garment bag just a little too small to contain all the ruffles.

Fiona has a new friend, a small all-black cat with a tiny white
throat triangle. Comes to see her, jumps up on the deck box and looks through the window while Fi stares down from the loft inside.
Hmm, come to think of it, the orange cat from across the street
hasn't been around in a little while. Coincidence?

I'm Awake!

Look who came out of hibernation this morning!
He's a lucky toad who avoided my spade and
spent a few minutes warming up in the sun before hopping off on important toady business.