Posted tagged ‘sunny day’
March 30, 2013
Mother Nature is spoiling us with these sunny days and blue skies. It is chilly still but not cold, true sweatshirt weather. Fern is sprawled and napping in the sun streaming through the front door while Gracie and Maddie are napping elsewhere. I just watched Godzilla which I haven’t seen in years. It made me laugh. Most of the film is still in Japanese so scenes with Raymond Burr were inserted so we’d know what the heck was going on. He spends the entire movie looking straight ahead and doing voice-overs. The special effects are mostly miniatures, easy to spot. I got a big chuckle out of Burr at a press conference. He was writing for all he was worth while the information was being relayed in Japanese which he didn’t speak. In one scene a woman fell as she was running from Godzilla just as every B movie dictates but so did a soldier. That one is a new twist. It was in one of the inserted scenes and the guy was saved by Raymond Burr. During Godzilla’s rampage on Tokyo, Burr stands at a window, sweat pouring down his face while he describes the horror he’s watching for his editor into the microphone of a tape recorder. He just stands there until Godzilla destroys the building and the ceiling falls in on Burr who does survive. Godzilla doesn’t.
My neighborhood is quiet. I haven’t even heard a car going down the street or a dog barking. I have no plans for the day, no errands and nothing to do around the house except make my bed, but I’m hesitant as I’m thinking afternoon nap. I’m in the middle of a Lisa Gardner book called Touch and Go so I may curl up on the couch with my iPad and read away the afternoon.
Holy Saturday was always just an ordinary Saturday. We didn’t go to church: there were no services. We’d play outside weather permitting. That night we’d take our usual Saturday night baths with maybe a bit of extra scrubbing. The Easter Bunny was coming, but he never conjured the same excitement and anticipation as Santa did. We knew they’d be jelly beans and chocolate rabbits, a candy egg or two, a coloring book, crayons and a few small toys. My mother would let us eat one choice from our baskets, never the whole rabbit, and then we’d have to get ready for church. Our new clothes were all laid out, tags snipped and ironing done. After we’d gotten dressed, there were usually pictures, black and white pictures. We wore pastels.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bath night, Godzilla, Holy Saturday, Japanese Horror movie, pretty day, quiet neighborhood, Raymond Burr, reading, sunny day
Comments: 20 Comments
March 24, 2013
What a bright, sunny day it is with the bluest of skies. Though still a bit chilly, only in the high 30’s, the sun makes it feel much warmer. The breeze is slight and only gently rocks the branches. The snow is just about gone. Today must be an apology of sorts from Mother Nature for the grayness of the past week.
This morning I watched a spawn of Satan be thwarted by my bird feeders. It tried all three sunflower feeders but got nothing except frustration. Its paw jabbed and jabbed inside the wires and still came back empty. Take that, you spawn of Satan!
I have high hopes. My back is getting better, my outlook on life is rosier, Easter is next week and baseball starts April 1st. Life is good.
When I was a little kid, small things gave me joy. Blowing puffy dandelions into the wind, catching fireflies, picking and eating blueberries or watching pollywogs at the swamp were the best ways to spend part of a summer day. Getting dirty while doing it was a bonus. I’d lie on my stomach and look into the water at the edge of the swamp because that’s where the pollywogs first appeared. We’d go and see them every couple of days and watch them grow. They were the tiniest black specks at first darting so quickly I could almost miss them but then came the arms and legs, and they were easy to see. When they were full-grown, they just disappeared, moved on to somewhere else in the swamp, probably in the back among the trees and bushes where we seldom went.
That swamp was my favorite of all places when I was young. It had a wide open area in the front where we watched the pollywogs in spring and where we’d ice skate in the winter. Small channels on both sides led away from the wide front. In the summer these channels were bordered by overgrown bushes and trees growing on what we thought of as islands. Exploring into the swamp meant jumping from island to island, getting scratched by the briers and getting wet feet if you weren’t careful, but at least once every summer we’d explore as far as we could. In the winter it was easy. The channels froze and the trees and bushes were bare. We walk and follow the channels as far as they went holding on to limps to keep from slipping and falling. We’d get on our hands and knees to look into the ice. It was like looking at a tiny world. The ice was so clear we could see all the dead leaves, the vines and the limbs of trees which had dipped into the water and been frozen. I can still see it all in my mind’s eye. I thought it was beautiful.
Categories: Musings
Tags: blue sky, blueberries, dandelions, ice, ice skating, pollywogs, spawn of satan, sunny day, Swamp, winter swamp, \exploring
Comments: 16 Comments
February 25, 2013
Today I woke up nearer afternoon than morning. It had been a late night. I watched the Oscars at my friends’ house then came home, checked e-mail and watched a little TV. Before I realized it, the time had slipped away and it was after 3.
Yesterday it poured all day, but last night, as I was going home, the rain had turned to heavy snow and it was slushy and slippery, but right now the day is lovely with blue skies, lots of sun and a bit of warmth. I have feeders to fill, dog food to buy and laundry to do. That’s my agenda for the day. I hope I can manage.
I can see the white flowers of the drooping snowdrops in my garden. They don’t mind snow or cold. They are spring’s first miracle. Other green shoots are just appearing through the soil, but in one part of the front garden, the dafs have grown high. Perhaps yellow buds will be next.
Winter is beginning to weight me down. I am tired of cold and snow. I don’t remember ever before being so anxious for spring. Usually I just hibernate with good books, and I’m fine with that and patient with the weather. Maybe all the rain we’ve had, those days without heat or the heavy snowstorms have pushed me to ache for spring. I want one day when the deck is the perfect spot to be.
I don’t like vacations centered on the beach, even when I’m sick of winter. I want to see things, to eat new food and to hear a language not my own. I like old places, even ancient places. The fun of a new city is wandering and getting lost and finding wonders on the way. Sometimes I take all rights or all lefts. I like to sit in the sun at a table at a sidewalk cafe and drink coffee and watch the world go by. When I shop, I look for the unusual. I take a lot of pictures. I am partial to doors and windows. I always think of the generations of people who looked through those same windows and I wonder what they saw. I walk so much I am exhausted and always fall asleep early.
Today I’ll have no adventures, but I do have some sun and some warmth. I guess that will have to do.
Categories: Musings
Tags: ancient cities, dafs, deck, dog food, old places, sidewalk cafes, snowdrops, sun, sunny day, tired of winter, travel, vacations, warm day, winter
Comments: 30 Comments
February 19, 2013
Today is warm and sunny. I had an early morning meeting and did some errands after that. It was as if the sun had given me a burst of energy, taken away all my reasons for griping and made me glad to be out and about so early.
I have been nominated for a Liebster award by Peace, Love & Great Country Music. The award is best explained if you read Good Golly Miss Molly who nominated Peace, Love and All. Good Golly Miss Molly explains what I need to do, which will take some pondering before I post. Good thing I have tomorrow.
I am devoid of original thought. That happens to me every now and then. It’s as if my brain has slowly leaked away anything of interest, even to me. Nothing in the papers caught my attention. The headline in the Globe was More Women Become Breadwinners. I’m sure newspapers were quickly whisked off stands and grocery counters with a headline like that. I’m reading a James Patterson. Sometimes it seems as if I’m always reading a James Patterson. This one is part of the Private series.
My errands are all done; I have no laundry to wash; my house is clean; the yard has been shoveled and plowed; I took a shower last night and yesterday the bird feeders were filled. I can’t imagine what is left except something esoteric. I wonder if cleaning the cabinet fits the definition.
No trip is planned which may be part of the cause of my ennui. Last year and the year before I had Ghana. A few years before that I had Morocco. Now I have Hyannis, the hub of the mid-cape.
Today is the birthday of Copernicus. Might be a great reason for a party!
Maybe Gracie and I will take a ride and look for adventure. Sometimes just around the corner there might just be a surprise.
Categories: Musings
Tags: ennui, esoteric, James patterson, need a trip, nothing to do, pretty day, sunny day, take a ride
Comments: 15 Comments
February 18, 2013
Today is a pretty day as long as you’re looking out from inside the house because it’s cold, and that dilutes the pretty. No drips from the roof and no melting of the weekend’s snow despite the bright sun is a sign of how cold it is. I had to walk through fairly deep snow to get my newspaper, but my plowman just arrived and shoveled the walk, freed my car and made the mailbox accessible for the mail truck tomorrow. I may go out later, but then again I’m liking the warm house.
When I was a kid, there was a blind girl in a neighborhood a few blocks from mine. I didn’t know her personally, but I knew her name was Patty. I remember her eyes were set in from her face and looked black to me. I don’t know if she ever went to school. I really didn’t know anything about her. Her parents would tie a rope around her waist which allowed her to go to the sidewalk but not into the street. Patty would walk up and down the sidewalk and clap her hands whenever a car went by, and I remember how loud the claps sounded. It didn’t seem strange or cruel to me that she was tied outside. I just figured it was the safest way for her to be there. On the few occasions, I go back to my hometown, the route sometimes takes me right by Patty’s sidewalk. I always wonder about her.
Another person I remember was developmentally disabled though in those days he was considered retarded. I don’t remember his name, but he was an adult when I was still a kid. I remember he always neatly dressed in grey, heavy chino work pants, a collared shirt and a light jacket. He walked everywhere around town and shook hands with just about every man he met. My dad always stopped to say hello and shook hands and always called him by name. Just about everybody did. I know he went to all the funerals at St. Patrick’s. I don’t know about the other churches. He always sat in the back and nobody ever minded. I don’t know what happened to him. We moved away and I never saw him again.
While I was growing up, I never saw anyone else who was in any way disabled. Maybe they were kept inside the house or in hospitals or boarding schools. Patty and the man I mentioned were part of the fabric of my town. I never thought twice about their disabilities. That was just part of who they were.
Categories: Musings
Tags: blindness, cold, developmentally disabled, disabilities, hometowns, Snow, sunny day
Comments: 30 Comments
January 31, 2013
The wind howled all night and rain pounded against the windows. I heard it when the coughing woke me up, but I didn’t mind being awakened as I might have missed the rain, one of my favorite sounds. The howling wind was a bonus. It could have been from the soundtrack of an old black and white horror movie, like The Werewolf.
Yesterday morning I called my friend of over forty years, and he thought I was a guy named Paul. That was it for me. I called the doctor. They wanted me in right away. I think my coughing during the phone call worked to great effect. Come to find out my cold has morphed into bronchitis and was working its way toward pneumonia. I’m on all sorts of stuff right now which should make me sound far less like Paul and more like me.
It’s still windy and rainy. I had to convince Gracie to go out this morning then I ran for the papers and yesterday’s mail which was still in the box. The mail was boring. I have to get Gracie’s license today. It is, of course, the very last day to get it without an extra fee. I like living on the edge!
At the doctor’s they told me I needed to rest. I almost laughed out loud. Rest is my middle name. I love a good afternoon nap.
Because I haven’t seen anyone or been anywhere, my life has no new stories and no new people. I communicate entirely by phone. I spend the day reading and relaxing. I know, I know, a really tough way to while away the day. I’ve been reading David Baldacci, The Forgotten, and I like it. I stretch out on the couch with my afghan covering me and my dog beside me. If I weren’t sick, I’d think my life idyllic.
The rain has stopped, and the sun is out. The sky is mostly blue. I can still hear the wind, and through my window I can see the swaying branches of the oak and pine. It looks like a pretty day.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Baldacci, blue skies, Cough, Gracie, rain, reading, sick, sunny day, Wind
Comments: 14 Comments
December 20, 2012
The rain has finally disappeared. The day is bright with sun. A small breeze is swaying the brown leaves left on the oak tree hanging over the deck. The birds have been constantly in and out at the feeders. I noticed a flicker at an empty suet feeder and went out right away to fill it. It is a new feeder with a long bottom so the big birds like the flicker have a place to rest their tails. The woodpeckers too seem to favor that suet feeder over the other. I still need to go out later and fill the seed feeders.
My sister is in the middle of a real winter in Colorado. Snow is on the ground and last night was going to be around 1 or 2˚. She said the Christmas lights are pretty shining through the snow. I figure if you’re stuck with that sort of weather looking for the pretty makes even the cold easier to endure.
I don’t remember when cold started to bother me. When I was little, I never noticed how cold it was. I played in the snow all day. My clothes got soaked and my lips sometimes turned blue, but I’d stay outside until my mother dragged me in, not literally but it was by that yell from the back door every kid knows. I never went right into the house but rather went down the outside steps to the cellar where I’d strip off my wet clothes and hang them on the clothesline. I’d run upstairs then run up the next set of stairs to my bedroom where I’d put on my warmest pajamas and my slippers. I remember my face, my hands and my feet were red with cold.
We always made a snowman on the front lawn. We’d ask my mother for an old hat, a carrot and buttons then we’ d look for arms. I don’t know why but snowmen always have spindly arms. They also all seem to have three buttons down the middle. Their hats differ, but their faces tend to look alike with two eyes, a carrot nose and a smile. Our snowman usually lasted a long time, but I can still remember him melting away on the warmer days. He’d get smaller and smaller until finally he’d fall apart and on the ground would be three snow balls, one with spindly arms.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Bird feeder, blue lips, Christmas lights, cold, Colorado, playing in the snow, snowmen, Suet, sunny day
Comments: 21 Comments
October 16, 2012
Around 1:30 last night (although I suppose it should be early this morning) I was roaming around the house unable to fall asleep so Gracie and I went outside for a while. It was a misty, warm night. When Gracie went down to the backyard, she triggered her sensor lights so I joined her. She roamed while I picked up and piled a few fallen branches and emptied the bird bath. One house had lights on, but it always does no matter the time of night, but the other houses were dark. I went about my yard cleaning then came back inside. It was well after 2 before I went to bed. By then I could hear the rain: the gentle mist was gone.
Today is sunny and warmer than predicted. It’s the sort of day which makes me glad I’m not working, not staring out the window and wishing I could sit in the sun. Happily, the day is mine to do with as I choose, no wishes necessary.
Nothing in today’s papers made me glad, except maybe the comics.
Two of my friends are coming to dinner. I missed their birthdays in September so tonight we’ll celebrate. Their brightly wrapped gifts are ready to be opened, and I have my shopping list for the grocery store, one of a few errands I have to do before tonight. We’re having sausage shepherd’s pie, a favorite of mine they haven’t ever had. I figure some crusty bread will perfectly complete the meal. I’m thinking a round loaf.
With the storm doors up and almost all the windows closed, the house is quiet. Gracie is sleeping on the couch beside me, and she is lightly snoring, and every now and then she sighs; they are the only sounds I can hear. The window in my bedroom facing the backyard is still open, and last night I fell asleep to the sounds of the night birds and the rain. How wonderful that was.
Categories: Musings
Tags: birthdays, sunny day, warm weather, yard work
Comments: 9 Comments
June 9, 2012
This morning I went out to the deck to fill the suet feeder then I just stood there enjoying the morning. All of a sudden the smoke alarm in the hall went off. Animals ran: the cats low to the ground and the dog out the door into the yard. I went in and the house was filled with smoke, mostly the dining room and kitchen. I went looking and found the culprit: the toast blackened and on fire in my toaster oven. I had forgotten all about it as I don’t usually have anything but coffee in the morning. The house still has a charred smell.
Finally a deck day! I have to sweep and clean it a bit but that’s fine with me. When I’m done, I’m going to bring out my book and a cold drink and soak up the sun and the beauty of the day. It is the best sort of day. The sun is bright, the breeze just enough and it’s already 70°. Gracie is asleep on the lounge. That’s a sure sign of a beautiful morning.
Once my brother and I rode our bicycles to East Boston to visit our grandparents. It meant riding along Route 1, a busy, busy highway, crossing it at a rotary with cars all over and then riding, still on Route 1, into the city. We knew the route because we used to go visit my grandparents many Sundays and every Christmas and Easter. When we knocked on his door, my grandfather opened it and looked around for my parents. He was shocked to find we’d ridden our bicycles. He called my mother, and she was horrified. She didn’t drive back then so she couldn’t pick us up, and my father was a salesman who could have been anywhere on his route so he couldn’t come get us. All my mother could do was tell us to ride home and be careful. My grandfather gave us some money for a snack and off we went.
It was just a ride home for us. For my mother it was waiting and looking out the door hoping she’d see us riding our bikes up the hill. My brother and I just couldn’t understand why she yelled when we got home. Her, “You could have been killed,” meant nothing to us. We hadn’t been. We let her yell as that always seemed the best approach. When she was finished, we asked if we could go out bike riding. “No,” was all she said.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: beautiful day, bike riding, deck, Grandparent, smoke alarm, sunny day, Toaster
Comments: 12 Comments
May 27, 2012
The morning is perfectly beautiful and amazingly quiet. It is already 71°. The branches over the deck leave shadows across the wood, highlighted by the brightness of the sun. I hear nothing except a few birds and the clicking of Gracie’s tags when she runs around the backyard. The deck is almost clean of pollen. I took the hose to it yesterday and drenched my pants and flip-flops in the process. The table still needs a bit of cleaning as do the backs of the chairs, but the rest are summer ready.
Last night was the strangest night. I didn’t go to bed until 1:00, and I couldn’t get to sleep. I kept hearing the noise I’ve been hearing the last few nights. I had already figured out a mouse was up to something, but I had to figure out what it was. I decided the sound was metal against glass. I knew then the mouse was probably cleaning the cat food cans in the eaves where I keep Fern and Maddie’s dishes safe from the dog. I turned on the light and opened the door to the eaves, but, of course, he was gone. I put the cans in a new garbage bag and brought it out of the eaves then went back to bed. The next sound was easily identified. It was the bag of dried cat food. The mouse had moved to something new. I turned on the light again, got up and went into the eaves and took away the bag. The sound disappeared. I then heard scratching, and I gave up figuring that one out. I also gave up figuring out why Fern and Gracie could sleep through all of this and never even hear the mouse. By this time it was 2:30, and I still couldn’t sleep. Gracie had deserted me for the rug forced out of bed by my restlessness. I settled back into bed, turned off the light and Gracie returned. She started dreaming, making a muted barking sound and moving her legs. I called her name and she got quiet. I think I fell asleep, but I woke up again, and it was still dark, but I didn’t know the time. The electricity was off. I didn’t care and finally fell asleep.
This morning I came downstairs, and it was around 8, too soon to be awake, and I found the rest of the house had electricity. I knew then I needed to go to the breaker box in the cellar. I pushed every breaker then went up two flights of stairs to make sure all was well. It was. Electricity had returned to my room. I then came back down the stairs and reset all the devices which were now blinking furiously. I made myself coffee and finally settled into the morning. That brings us right to now.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Fern, Gracie, insomnia, mouse, noises, sunny day
Comments: 24 Comments
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