trees

VIBRANT COLORS — BIRD STYLE! – Marilyn Armstrong

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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge:
Vibrant Colors

It was a brilliant day for the birds today. The most brilliantly colored of the birds is the cardinal, and for once, I got a lot of pictures of both male and female cardinals — and a few other birds 😀

Cardinal feeding
The Lady Cardinal
Downy Woodpecker with his red hat
In the snowy tree
Bluebird on the fence – the perfect blue and orange combination!
Fabulous profile!
A titmouse enjoys the bright colorful woods
Six little American Goldinch eating on a wire feeder
There will always be special seeds for you!
Lady Cardinal
Photo Garry Armstrong

 

ABOUT THOSE DOGS AND TREES – Garry Armstrong

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Now that it has snowed, the mud that had almost become solid has turned back into gummy mud. With the best will in the world, this house will never be entirely clean. Too many dogs. Too many trees. Too many people. Dog hair, dust, and dead oak leaves — the triple D of home ownership.

Live in the country — both inside and out!

On their way

Always, the trees

Trees

Home again, from the road

There is more snow coming tomorrow unless it’s rain or unless instead of getting cold, it gets warm … or unless the winds change and everything blows northward. But something’s going to happen, whatever it may be!

CEE’S FUN FOTO CHALLENGE: UP IN THE TREES! – Marilyn Armstrong

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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Trees

We’ve been away for a few days and I’m going to need a bit of time to get up to speed. I’ve got some interesting ideas, but it will take me a bit of time to write and edit them, so be a little patient. Didn’t take any pictures. It rained the entire time we were away, so there was no boating and mostly, Garry was trying to learn how to use a microphone and cut audio tracks — something with which I am NOT familiar, so I couldn’t be of much help.

Japanese maple in full leaf

My primary function seems to have been surrendering my Mac to Garry’s professional ambitions. I didn’t use it much anyway.

Meanwhile, I’ve got some trees!

Trees along the river and the pathway to the road

Sun through the trees

HOW CAN YOU GET SPRING FEVER IF SPRING HAS NOT SPRUNG? – Marilyn Armstrong

/ Marilyn Armstrong / 22 Comments

Weekly Word Prompt: Spring Fever

I don’t have even a hint of spring fever unless you count a deep yearning to see a flower bloom and have the temperature rise regularly about 60 degrees. But spring isn’t much of a season in New England and every year, we hope we’ll get a “real” spring … and we don’t. It’s something about winds and ocean and rivers and rocks.

Birds not of a feather

Living in New York, which is just 240 miles south of here, we got a real spring. By this time of year, we had magnolias and crab apple blossoms and the daffodils were up and the grass was green. You wouldn’t think a mere 4 or 5-hour drive could make such a difference in climate, but it does.

Two Goldfinch

The closest vision to spring I’ve had is watching the birds change from their winter colors to their breeding colors. The dull greenish-yellow Goldfinch are brilliant yellow and even the brightest birds of winter are brighter now. Otherwise, though, we have some green shoots coming up from the ground, but other than a few crocuses, that’s pretty much it. No leaves, no flowers. No green grass.

A pair of Goldfinch – Two boys this time

We do, however, have ticks. And ants. They know it’s spring, even if the rest of New England still thinks it might yet return to winter. I think we are past that, however. It isn’t warm, but the really deep cold is gone. Now, it’s just muddy and chilly. And, I need to remind myself, by a few weeks from now, summer will show up overnight.

Our spring is usually one afternoon in early May. The next day, it’s 85 degrees. Flowers are blooming like mad and all the trees are in full leaf. Sometimes, this rollover into summer happens in a few hours. We go grocery shopping and by the time we are on our way home, everything is blooming.

I’ve lived up this way for more than 30 years and I’ve never gotten used to the suddenness of the seasons. Autumn was like that too, until recently with climate changing. It would be summer and the next day, it looked like every tree had been lit from within.

For the past few years, we’ve barely had any autumn at all. I’m used to missing spring, but fall has always been my favorite season, especially in New England … and having it disappear is very sad.

Maybe it will come back this year.

MORE OF THE LAST AUTUMN TREE – Marilyn Armstrong

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The Last Autumn Tree – FOTD – November 9, 2018

We had a second sunny day in a row. Unbelievable! But not to worry. It will rain tomorrow. Probably not until the evening. The rivers are full and they are expecting rivers to flood.

I am trying not to think about it, hoping the sump and the pump are up to the task. And our French drains are not clogged with leaves and the gutters are still viable. And the roof doesn’t leak.

The tree in all her glory

It has been raining  … major storms … several times each week and the rivers are cresting. And guess who lives in a river valley?

Amazing colors!

I went out and took more pictures of The Tree. Because after tomorrow’s storm, it won’t have any leaves left. Count on it.

I have save more pictures because I’m going to need them.

BE IT EVER SO HUMBLE – Garry Armstrong

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FOTD – Be It Ever So Humble – October 26, 2018

It was a beautiful day. Actually sunny from earliest rays of the morning until sunset. I went out to clean up our front walk — the dogs, you know — and everything looked bright. We didn’t get much in the way of reds or orange, but the woods are quite yellow and the oaks are beginning to turn to bronze.

I went in to grab my camera and took a few pictures.

Photo: Garry Armstrong – Aldrich Street

Photo: Garry Armstrong -The oaks are changing color

Fred the Flamingo is still in the garden – Photo: Garry Armstrong

Down the driveway – Photo: Garry Armstrong

Photo: Garry Armstrong – West past the shed into the woods

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME – Marilyn Armstrong

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FOTD – No Place Like Home – October 23, 2018

It rained in the morning.

These days, it always rains in the morning. Every morning. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow morning, too.

With a little luck, it’ll stop before they start the World Series.

Sassafras

Which starts tomorrow evening. It’s on Fox network so most people with American television will be able to see it. Probably in Mexico and Canada, too.

Route 98, heading north

We had a bit of sunshine right before our doctor appointment, but by the time we got out, the sun was gone.

There’s no place like home.

There wasn’t much to photograph until we got home and I realized that at least our street had some nice color. No sun, but the trees look pretty nice.

TREES: OUR WINTER SPA FOR CHILLY MICE – Marilyn Armstrong

/ Marilyn Armstrong / 19 Comments
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Trees
I live amidst the trees. Sometimes, I think the trees live amidst us, too. The bug and mouse guy was here yesterday and reported that we have fewer than maybe a dozen still active mice and no visible bugs, except for a mosquito he found in our bedroom.

I said that mosquitoes are just one of those things, but what are those things that keep coming out of the drain and he said they were “drain bugs.”

I said “they don’t seem to do anything” and he said, “mostly, bugs don’t do anything.” I’m not sure how to feel about that.

Under the stars

But meanwhile, he pointed out that we live in the woods, so we’re going to have mice because the amount of room they need to climb under a door is about the width of a dime.

Snow

I said I sympathized with their desire to find a warm place for the winter, but not here. And he said, “This is the place they are looking for.”

Proudly announcing, we are the winter spa for mice.

A DAFFODIL-FREE GARDEN – Marilyn Armstrong

/ Marilyn Armstrong / 28 Comments

I went out and I was absolutely SURE the daffodils would be blooming.

Nope.

The oak trees are thinking about blooming

Everyone else’s daffodils are blooming. Everywhere I look, I see azaleas and blooming trees. Apple and cherry and all that. But not here.

Bud on the Rhododendron

I went out and I took pictures. The trees are beginning to put out leaves and we have some violets and those little purple flowers and there are at least half a dozen buds on the Rhododendron. But nothing else.

I’m sure it will burst into some kind of frenzied blooming any minute now, but not yet. Definitely, not yet.

Solomon’s Seal

HIGHLY UNLIKELY AND DEFINITELY ABRUPT- Marilyn Armstrong

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WordPress Photo Challenge – UNLIKELY

Also, Abrupt!

Yesterday it was cold and rainy and they promised today would be better. Not merely is it better.

Old hawk’s nest high in the oak tree

It’s just BEAUTIFUL. Warm, sunny, with a very light breeze. Spring arrived. Finally. I don’t know for how long it plans to stay. We’ve been teased before, but maybe this time, it’s the real deal.

Budding oak woods. You can see the damage from all the storms.

The budding of the oaks

Abrupt? Well … yesterday I was seriously considering turning up the heat and today, I’m thinking “air conditioner.” Is that abrupt enough?

Gate, from inside the yard

My carefully cropped front gate from outside … and Duke, of course.

We are not yet blooming, except for our forsythia which are in urgent need of trimming back. They are finally so big, they barely bloom at all.

Just about to bloom Japanese maple

They are huge and if not cut back soon, I think may march right into the house and take up residence here along with the flowers and dogs and us.

Inside, looking onto the deck. I’d open the doors, but Duke would be through that screen in a nanosecond.

I should mention that you really should wear shoes if you are going to walk on the path recently clipped of thorny roses. Ouch!

UP IN A TREE – ELLIN CURLEY

/ Ellin Curley / 19 Comments

The story of the cat in the tree is part of our family folk-lore. While not a major, life-altering event, it’s a good story with a happy ending.

Tom and I were scheduled to leave for London the following day. It was summer. Both of our young adult children were living at home with us. We were relaxing after dinner when we heard a cat meowing from outside the house. Our two cats — we also had three dogs — were exclusively indoor cats.

Tom, me, our kids, David and Sarah, and our three dogs at our wedding in 2002

We commented that we hadn’t realized our neighbors had cats. After a few more ‘meows’, we decided to do a head count and make sure that both of our cats were where they were supposed to be. One cat, Hillary, was missing. Shit!

So all four of us went outside and started to frantically search the fenced in backyard for our missing cat. We were worried she might be injured since she lived on the second floor of the house. The only way to get from there to the back yard, was off our bedroom deck and roof, which was pretty high up from the ground.

We searched and searched. It started to get dark so we got flashlights. When we called, she would answer us, but we couldn’t pinpoint her location. One minute she’d sound like she was off to our left. The next minute, she’d sound as if she was on our right. We got increasingly confused. We were also beginning to panic. We had to find Hillary if we wanted to leave on our trip the next day!

It eventually occurred to us that cats can climb trees. We might be looking in the wrong place for Hillary. So Tom took the flashlight up to the bedroom deck and shined it straight into the giant evergreen tree right outside our bedroom. There she was. Contentedly sitting in the tree. We figured she must have started to slide down the slanted roof and caught her fall by jumping onto the overhanging tree branch.

Tom said he’d climb the tree and get Hillary. The rest of us were afraid Tom would kill himself so we tried to dissuade him. Tom convinced us that it was an easy tree to climb and that he was an expert tree climber. So we agree and Tom climbed up to the second floor level and tried to grab Hillary. She got spooked and moved higher up the tree. After this little dance continued for a while, our daughter, Sarah, decided to step in.

Who do you call when your cat is stuck in a tree? The Fire Department. Sarah called our Volunteer Fire Department. She explained that both her cat and father were in a tree and needed help. The operator then asked Sarah if it was her father or the cat’s father who was up in the tree with Hillary.

Hillary

The Fire Department actually came. You might think firemen rescue cats from trees all the time and would know how to do it. This was true — fifty years ago. Not, however, these days. The firemen asked US what we wanted them to do. “Get a ladder.” Tom answered. So they brought out a tall ladder. But it was not tall enough.

The fireman then yelled up to Tom, “The ladder’s too short! What do you want me to do?”

What Tom did was creative and brave. He grabbed Hillary, hung upside down by his knees on a branch and handed the cat off to the fireman at the top of the ladder. Victory! Everyone gathered around the rescued cat – and completely forgot about Tom, still hanging upside down in the tree. One fireman finally went back to the tree and asked if Tom could get down on his own. Tom was hot and sweaty and exhausted, but he managed to climb down safely.

Before the firemen left, one of them phoned in a report to the office. This is what he said: “One cat and one adult male in tree. Successful recovery.”

That pretty much sums it all up!

UNTIL THE CLOUDS COME HOME

/ Marilyn Armstrong / 15 Comments

A PHOTO A WEEK – UNTIL THE CLOUDS COME HOME

From Nancy Merrill:

Yesterday and this morning, while other places in the country were able to get good shots of the super blue moon and lunar eclipse, here in the Salt Lake Valley, we had clouds. Beautiful clouds, but still clouds that made it hard to impossible to get good photos of the moon. (We’ll just have to wait until 2037.) But it’s okay. I love photographing clouds.

Usually, I look for stormy skies and dramatic clouds. But for this, I thought I’d try a change of pace — a bright blue sky and those lovely puffy white clouds that decorate our skies. The bright skies and clouds over the farm around the corner.

Across a plowed field …

Blue skies and puffy white clouds over the pasture gate

Clouds until the cows come home

A PHOTO A WEEK CHALLENGE – SQUARE

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SQUARE PIX LIKE OLD TIMEY BROWNIE PHOTOS

I know it’s not popular now, but when I was a  kid, we all had Brownie cameras and all the pictures were square. I got pretty tired of square pictures after a few decades.

All squared away.

I find it amusing that they’ve come back!

Square, because I liked the way it looked sliced and diced

Duke by the squarish window

All trimmed to square!