Posted tagged ‘beautiful day’
July 29, 2014
The humidity is gone and has left behind a wonderful summer day. I have no plans for today except to do a few things around the house. The errand or two I have I’ll save for tomorrow. I love these quiet mornings when all I can hear are the sweet songs of birds.
When I was a kid, I noticed bugs more than I noticed birds. Grasshoppers were one of my favorites. I loved watching them leap into the air as I walked through the field. In my mind’s eye I can still see it all. The houses were clustered around a small roundabout in a cul-de-sac. A path led from the street behind the houses to the field which stretched across from one group of trees to another. On one side of the field the trees were beside the road while on the other side the trees were thicker and we thought of them as the woods. The boundary of the field was an old tree trunk with one branch still attached and lying on the ground like an extended arm. We never went around the branch. We always climbed over though there was a path which went right around the old tree. Beyond the tree were a few other paths. One led up a grassy hill with blueberry bushes all along the side. The hill led to the water tower at the top. Another path from the tree went straight ahead to the swamp and continued to a street where the path ended. I always thought of that path as a shortcut to my friend who lived on that street. We played in the woods, hunted grasshoppers in the field, watch polliwogs grow into frogs at the swamp and ate our fill of blueberries. We’d race each other up the hill to the water tower. The winner was king of the hill, at least for that day. We could be gone the whole day and still be close to home.
When the town decided to build elderly housing, they took down all the trees and bulldozed the field. Even the swamp was gone. We were devastated.
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, blueberries, fields, grasshoppers, old tree trunk, paths, polliwogs, Swamp, woods
Comments: 4 Comments
July 12, 2014
Yesterday and today have been delightful days and last night was cool, low 60’s cool. Today is sunny with a sharp light. The sky is dark blue and cloudless. Tonight will be in the low 60’s again. It is my first movie night of the season. The War of the Worlds, the original with Gene Barry, is on the big screen. We’re having hot dogs and chorizo and a salad or two. We’ll munch a few appetizers beforehand and have candy and popcorn for the movie. I love movies on the deck.
I do a crossword puzzle everyday. Some of the clues and answers are anachronisms. One of the Bobbsey twins is a frequent clue. The answer is always Nan, twin to Bert. Today Look-alike was the clue. The answer was carbon copy. I have no memory of the last time I used carbon to copy anything. I do remember using them years and years ago when I taught, and I remember how the kids always smelled the papers when they got them. They had a peculiar smell from the carbon. I think carbon copy for many people will have to come from the clues around it. Card catalog was another answer, but the clue acknowledged it no longer exists: Part of a library once. My mother would sometimes but not often yell, “Ash truck,” so we would hurry to get the trash barrels out. The need for haste brought back a place in time, a childhood memory. My dad always called the cleaners the cleansers, a word also dating from his childhood. We always knew what he meant.
Words and phrases are born then fall out of usage and finally disappear. I remember having Chinese fire drills at red lights. I still call a bottle opener, the simple metal one, a church key. Police were heat and then pigs. I remember, “Oink, oink I smell bacon,” when police were around. Submarine races were popular viewing except they didn’t exist. I can’t remember the last time I said groovy or when I last rapped with anybody.
My dad would call someone a good egg. My sisters say it now and then in a deep voice like my dad’s just for the memory. I remember heebie-jeebies and ants in my pants, neither of which I get any more.
I grew up outside of Boston. Wicked good is common. I still use it all the time. That one, I think, will never fade and disappear.
Categories: Musings
Tags: anachronisms, ash truck, beautiful day, Bobbsey Twins, carbon copy, Gene Barry, great weather, movie on the deck, slang, War of the Worlds, words
Comments: 14 Comments
June 29, 2014
The day is breathtakingly beautiful. My day lilies in the front garden have started to bloom with orange flowers tilted to the sun. The deck pots are awash with flowers, and the vegetables seem to double in height each day. Birds are plentiful at the sunflower feeders, and the grape jelly needs to be refilled. It seems the orioles have found their feeders. On the deck this morning were two grey spawns, two huge grey spawns, chasing one another. I watched them jump from chair to chair then jump off the deck to scurry up trees one after the other. I think love is in the air.
My neighbors at the other end of the street had company last night. Their voices carried through the chilly night air. I felt like an eavesdropper so I shut my windows, but those voices brought back a flood of memories of summer nights when I was a kid. All the neighborhood back doors faced each other from houses at the top and bottom of a tall grassy hill. I’d lie in bed on a summer night trying to fall asleep in the heat, and I could hear the neighbors. The closest neighbors had distinct voices, whole conversations, while those from up the hill seemed more like whispers. I’d hear the clink of dishes and silverware being washed. The houses were duplexes, and their floor plans were all the same. The sinks had windows above them and they all faced the hill. Soon enough, though, as the night got older, the sounds from the kitchens faded.
One of my bedroom windows faced the living room of the duplex beside ours where my Aunt Ruby, Uncle Billy and Cousin Susan lived for a while. I used to listen to their TV. Most nights it was the last sound I’d hear before I fell asleep.
My street is busy this week. The house beside me, the rental, has people. The other usually empty houses, all second homes, have owners down for the weekend or even the week with July 4th coming Friday. Mornings and evenings are noisier than I am used to, but I’ll adjust. Besides, I’ll be making my own noises soon enough when Saturday night movies on the deck begin. I can hardly wait for the premier.
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, busy street, clinking dishes and glasses, day lilies, flowers, grape jelly feeders, movies on the deck, night voices, spawns of Satan, the sounds of TV
Comments: 6 Comments
February 22, 2014
Usually Gracie is having her morning nap around this time but not today. The weather is beautiful, bright and warm. Gracie has been running in the yard almost since we both woke up. She comes in to look out the front door then goes back outside. She is one smart dog who knows to take advantage of a good thing when she sees it. Like Gracie, it is a day for me to be out somewhere, and I don’t think it matters where. I’ll lower the window and breathe in all the fresh air I can. I want to smell spring in the air.
Last night we had a spectacular rainstorm with thunder and lightning. I was in bed reading when it started. I loved it. Gracie, however, didn’t stir, didn’t even notice. Storms mean nothing to her.
The deck is now almost totally cleared of snow as is the backyard. Plow piles are still on corners but they are smaller and look the worse for the rain and the dirt from the road. I always wonder why the plows put those piles on the corners when right beside the corners might work just as well. If they do it so we can’t see oncoming cars, they succeed masterfully.
Today is bike riding weather. I would maneuver mine out of the cellar, up the steep stairs, ride down the sacred grass hill and take off down the street. Maybe I’d be lucky and have a dime in my pocket, plenty of money for a couple of candy bars or lots of penny candy. I’d wear a jacket instead of a winter coat and hope not to be noticed by my mother who would demand a warmer coat, hat and mittens. One warm day does not spring make according to the Mother’s Creed to which they all adhered. I would have headed toward the field close to my house to check out the horses or to the farm at the other end of town to see the dairy cows. My town also had a barn behind the town hall where horses were kept. It had and still has a zoo. Next to the zoo was a barn filled with stalls and MDC police horses. I’d ride most of the day. There was so much to see. Finally I’d get hungry and cold and ready to go home. The bike went back into the cellar until the next warm day when I could resume my world travels.
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, bike riding, horses, it feels like spring, penny candy, sunny, thunder and lightning, warm, zoo
Comments: 15 Comments
September 30, 2013
This morning I knew for certain fall had arrived. On my way to breakfast at nine, the bank’s ATM had no line, the streets were nearly empty and the diner had plenty of open booths. My friend and I even sat and chatted, something we could never do in summer. Back then a line of people stood waiting outside so we never took time just to sit and drink coffee, but the people have gone home and the lines have disappeared.
The day is another glorious fall day with a warm sun; it’s not even cold enough to be sweatshirt weather. Even the nights have been warm: in the high 50’s so my bedroom window is still open, and I’ve left the screen on the front door. It’s a day to sit on the deck with a good book and a lazy attitude.
On my way to breakfast I went by the high school where I used to work. I only gave it a passing glance. Though I spent thirty-three years working there, the nine years of retirement have distanced me. I have a sense of nostalgia as I am also a graduate, but that’s it. I am not at all curious as to how it fares. I have moved elsewhere.
My friends have either already traveled or are packing their bags to leave. I am envious. This is the year of staying home for me, and I don’t like it all that much. Looking forward to a trip is one of the pleasures of life. The anticipation builds, and the days are counted down until the big day: the day to leave. I even have a sense of longing for the smell of the jet when I board. During the flight, I check the progress of the plane and count the hours until it touches-down. I love walking out of the airport and smelling air filled with a sense of the place where I’ve landed. Hearing other languages lets me know I am far from home, but I am delighted in the unfamiliar. I roam the streets without purpose and often happen upon a spot to explore or a restaurant with an aroma that draws me to a table. Sometimes it is a shop window which catches my attention. Sometimes it is simply the wandering down one street or another.
I so love to travel and miss it when I don’t.
Categories: Musings
Tags: anticipation, beautiful day, empty streets, fall has arrived, jet smell, lazy attitude, nostalgia, open booths, staying home, sunny, the unfamiliar, travel, traveling, warm, working spot
Comments: 30 Comments
September 29, 2013
Gracie has spent most of the morning in the yard. She nows the day is too lovely to waste inside the house. Every now and then she comes in to make sure I’m still here, gets petted, wags her tail and goes right back outside. I can hear her on the deck and know she’s sticking her between the railing pieces so she can see over the fence. The birds are both noisy and hungry this morning. They wait for their turns at the feeder. The thistle feeder twirls when a bird or two lands on it. It is the only one they don’t seem to mind sharing.
I didn’t go to bed until 2 this morning because I watched a movie called Gun Crazy made in 1950. It was so good I can’t understand why I haven’t heard of it before. It was based on a short story by McKinlay Kantor who with Millard Kaufman wrote the screenplay but not really. Millard Kaufman’s name was used to hide the actual screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo, who had been blacklisted. I have never heard of either of the two stars: John Dall and Peggy Cummins. Both were good, but she was amazing. Her eyes were often filled with a fury and anger which the camera caught and highlighted. You never had to question her motives. The film was too good not to watch until the end so it was a really late night; consequently, it was one of those get the mirror to see if she’s breathing sort of sleep. I didn’t wake up until late this morning. My mother would have said I must have needed it.
Today I get to watch the Sox play their last regular season game. The playoffs for them begin on Friday so no baseball until then though I’ll check in on the wild card games once the teams are finalized. I can’t believe that a season of 162 games will end today. I reconciled myself to the end of summer, but I can’t seem to grasp that baseball too will soon end.
The Amazing Race begins tonight as does our tradition. My friends and I get together early, eat appetizers and play a few games until the start of the race. Dessert comes during the race as do our discussions about the teams. Tradition also calls for each of us to pick a favorite team. Sometimes we even pick the right one.
Sort of an interesting day with the end of one thing and the start of another.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Amazing Race, beautiful day, bird songs, birds, Gun Crazy, last baseball game, Red Sox, sleeping in, traditions, yard play
Comments: 20 Comments
September 28, 2013
The morning is a delight, warm and sunny. Earlier, I stayed outside with Gracie. It was just too nice to go back into the house. I think today is the day for a ride, maybe a stop at a farm stand or the farmer’s market here in Dennis. It’s a small one, but I managed to spend money last time I was there.
This morning’s movie gem was Creature with the Atomic Brain made in 1955. Dead bodies were stolen from the morgue and then reanimated and controlled by a mad man out for revenge. The movie was unintentionally funny. It had one scene where a man and woman, presumably husband and wife, were sitting in chairs beside each while they were watching a TV newscast. He was smoking. She had a drink. He wore a suit. She wore a dress. Our hero’s wife was making a birthday cake for their daughter. She also wore a dress and had added pearls, the necessary ensemble for any wife in the 50’s. Uncle Dave, the police detective, arrived at our hero’s house but unbeknown to the wife and daughter he had been killed then reanimated. The daughter held his hand and told him it was quite cold. She gave him her doll, Henrietta, to hold and he tore it apart. Something was wrong with Uncle Dave! The hero killed the mad man and destroyed the equipment used to control the reanimated bodies which dropped where they were, including Uncle Dave. The little girl got a new doll for her birthday from, her parents told her, Uncle Dave. She decided to call the doll Dave, despite protestations from her father about the doll getting a boy’s name. The little girl said she’d tell everyone it was a tomboy. The mother and father laughed. End of movie.
After breakfast on Monday, I have an empty dance card until next Saturday. Every day is open. That hasn’t happened in a long while. Good thing I have plenty of books.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 1955 movie, beautiful day, Creature with the Atomic Brain, empty dance card, Henrietta the doll, plenty of books, reanimated dead bodies, sunny, warm
Comments: 12 Comments
August 6, 2013
Last night my feet were cold, and I closed the window in the den facing north. It was a wonderful evening for sleeping and both Fern and Gracie slept right beside me for warmth. Today will be another delight and tonight might just mean socks. The temperature all week will be in the mid to high 70’s during the day and the high 50’s to low 60’s at night. I figure that’s about as perfect as August can get.
My factotum is back today. Skip is right now replacing the two steps out my back door. Later, he’ll replace the long board on the deck that has a weak spot then he’ll paint the downstairs bathroom. This is the perfect week to work in the coolness of these days.
When I was young, I loved August because it is my birthday month. I knew I’d get presents and always a card from my grandparents with a five dollar bill inside. That was a treasure of great value in those days. Her whole life my grandmother never missed sending a card, but later, when I was older, the card had two one dollar bills instead of a five then a few years after that no dollars, just the card. I guessed she figured birthdays should only be celebrated by the young. I, of course, am of the opinion that birthdays should always be celebrated. The big holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas are celebrated by most people, but that day, that birthday, is so special you never have to share (I know-one of you might mention twins but I’m disregarding that for now ). About this time in August I’d start the countdown to my birthday. It always seemed so far away. Time seemed to take forever to pass back then.
Time now runs swiftly. Once I was told the reason for that, and it made perfect sense. When you were four, that year was only one-fourth of your life, but each subsequent year you got older and the fraction got smaller. This last year was one-sixty fifth of my life, and that took only the blink of an eye to pass.
Yesterday my grand-nephew, Ryder, started school, second grade. Where has the summer gone because I didn’t notice it’s been leaving.
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, birthdays, cool night, end of summer, getting older, presents, special days, swift in time
Comments: 10 Comments
August 5, 2013
Today has already been busy and it really just started. First it was Sunday breakfast, changed to Mondays until after Labor Day, then Skip, my factotum, came over and we went through the list of stuff needing to be done. He measured then off we went to the paint store then the lumber yard. He is replacing a board and two steps in the original part of the deck, sanding and painting a small table, filling in Gracie holes which are half-way to China, repainting parts of the deck chairs, painting both bathrooms and repairing an antique small cabinet which just needs gluing. I wait until I can keep him busy for most of a week before I get him over to work. Right now he is working on the Gracie holes. She’ll be thrilled. Tomorrow she can dig them all again!
My friend Clare has had spawns of Satan chewing the back webbing of her deck chairs, similar chairs to the ones I have where the spawn gnawed off the paint a couple of years back. Her spawns have eaten one chair so much the back is no longer attached to the frame. This morning I noticed one of my chairs has been gnawed a bit on both sides at the top, same spots as hers. I’m thinking her spawn has ranged about and found my deck. I sprayed the chairs with a red pepper spray the spawns don’t like and put chairs one on top of the other so the spawn has no access to the tops. I’ll check tomorrow to find out whether or not my efforts have thwarted those offsprings of Satan.
I have new neighbors. I think they are weekenders as they were here from Friday until this morning. The house they bought was in some obvious disrepair, needing paint and landscaping, but it seems the worst couldn’t be seen from the street as the backyard was filled with trash bags and hadn’t been touched by a mower or trimmer. My new neighbors did exactly what I would have done. They hired Sebastian, my neighbor and landscaper, to do all the back clean-up.
Today is an absolutely perfect day, sunny and cool. It was only 68˚ earlier this morning and has since warmed up but only to the low 70’s. The sun is brilliant and beautifully framed by the bluest of skies. Not a cloud mars the beauty. It’s a day to be on the deck with a cold drink and a good book. That’s it: my entire plan for the day. My work is done.
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, digging holes, factotum, fix-up day, new neighbors, spawns of Satan, yard work
Comments: 6 Comments
June 4, 2013
I should be outside singing, “Oh What a Beautiful Morning. The sun is brilliant, the sky dark blue and the air cool after the rain. This, morning, however, has been hectic. Grace woke me up barking her intruder bark, and I went downstairs to find the irrigation man standing and waiting with my paper in his hand. He needed to finish the job. Meanwhile, I let Gracie out then shortly thereafter went out myself to greet the morning. That was when I noticed the gate was open and Gracie was gone. I immediately called out the troops. Sebastian, my neighbor and landscaper, was checking on the progress of the irrigation and said he’d get her so I gave him the leash. Gracie came running of out of my neighbor’s backyard and ran down the street followed by Sebastian. Both of them disappeared but both surfaced in a few minutes: Gracie caught and leashed. Next, Gracie was a crazy dog running from one inside door to the other. I got up to grab her and noticed her friend Cody had come to play and was outside the front door. I let them both into the backyard, now secured. In a while both dogs were too tired and were whacking the dog door hoping to get my attention. They did, and I let Cody out and he ran home. Gracie is now calm for the first time all morning. The irrigation is set and ready so I’m going to stop for a moment and get more coffee.
I poured the coffee and found a dead moth floating in my cup. I picked it out and tossed it. Bugs on my food stopped bothering me in Ghana. The whole time I lived there bugs were my roommates. Most were fly bys, but my flour was the exception. I had to buy it in big bags because that’s how it was sold, and it took little time for the word to spread. All sorts of insects made the flour their home so it had to be sifted before it was used. Most of the bugs were caught by the sifting, but those that weren’t became part of the dish. We considered them protein.
Today I have a few errands and chores on my docket. I need to change the bed and the cat litter then hit the road to the pharmacy and the garden store. I need to buy the rest of my flowers and herbs, the flowers for the front garden and the herbs for the big herb garden. When I get home, I need to plant the rest of the deck flowers. Nothing’s better than getting down and dirty. That would make my shower the last activity of the day!
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, blue sky, bugs, errands and chores, flowers and herbs, hectic morning, irrigation system, runaway dog, sifting flour, sunny
Comments: 16 Comments
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