First frost, bullets of weird green

It's 34 degrees outside and we had our first frost. I brought in most of the houseplants, but not all of them, and I did not cover the tomatoes, zucchinis and other garden plants, so I will have to wait and see if they survived or are gone. The broccoli should make it.

• We haven't turned our furnace on yet. I don't think it's that cold in here, but PB has been complaining bitterly. He stands in his boxers saying it's cold, it's cold. I say, when I am cold, I put on a sweater. He hangs over me, gets in my face while I am trying to work, harping on turning on the furnace. He wants it to be warm enough to be as close to naked as possible. I think that's unenvironmental and unhealthy. I tell him, go talk to your Dad.
• PB wants a ride to school because it's cold outside. I say, wait til it snows. We live in a decadent neighborhood where most of the parents drive their kids to school every day. We think it's unhealthy and unenvironmental to do that and have decided not to. He thinks we're monsters. I feel a little guilty until I think of all the wasted gas and him turning into a lazy slug.
• In the spirit of reduce, reuse, recycle, I have reduced my usage of shampoo and conditioner to about a third of what I used to use and the results seem to be just as good. YAY!
  

Yellow Calla

I took this with BB's camera while out walking the night before last.

BB commented that it looks like something you would lay on a casket.

The reason people lay flowers on a casket is because they are lovely and filled with hope and are reborn every year. All good reasons to enjoy them any time, not just when someone dies.

Which reminds me of a story about myself, lol! When I was (much) younger, I didn't like cedars, because I always saw them in graveyards and associated them with death. Then when I took dendro, I learned that they were often called arbor vitae, the tree of life. In jest, I called them arbor morte, the tree of death, but as I thought about it, I decided that the association was human and did not reflect on the trees themselves. They are just trees. And besides, a tree of life is a worthwhile tree in human association. I successfully overcame my dislike for them.

For Thursday Challenge: Spring.

Ice and Snow!

We had a thaw with lots of rain that melted most of our beautiful snow, followed by freezing rain that left a layer of ice on everything, followed by more snow. BB and I shoveled last night for 23 minutes together. He started at one end, I started at the other, and we met in the middle. Around us, we could hear snow-blowers churning out noise and fume and scratched our heads. Why would anyone want to ruin the silence of a snowy night with all that noise and stink? I could understand it if we had a lot of snow, but we only had about 4 inches and it was pretty light. But still snowing.

We went out for a walk and took a bunch of pictures with the camera on the tripod.

This morning I got up and there were two more inches of snow on the ground. Some people still hadn't shoveled. Which is okay with me. I just went out and shoveled again. It took me nineteen minutes to shovel the driveway, the walk,and the path. Got some fresh air and exercise and luckily, no one else was out making noise and stink, so I got to enjoy the birds and squirrels.

The picture of a local church was one of the ones we (I) took last night. Click image to view larger. See more images from last night here and here. The red color is a result of the street lighting and red color reflected from businesses off the sky.

October Wind SP

OK, here is yet another version of my October Wind Self portrait. I'll probably stop playing with it when I get one I really like. One that says, "this is it."

Or not.

I was about 19 when the photo from which this painting was made was taken. This version is a little gaudily bright. Oh-oh, I am feeling the urge to dabble some more. Click image to view larger.

fog and longing

I don't know why it is, but I love fog. It seems mysterious and beckoning, it encloses things and makes them seem both wilder and simpler. It hides things. It was very very foggy yesterday, because of the thaw and melting snow. I desperately wanted to run around in the woods taking pictures, but by the time we got out of the motorcycle show, it was dark. WAHN!


These pictures were taken in the dark.


Right there at the arena where they held the show, I discovered a
frozen pond with many muskrat houses! YAY! It was already pretty
dark, but I had fun attempting to get some pictures. You can see the
lights from the surrounding area in some of the pond pictures. By the
time we got to Kensington Metropark, it was totally dark. I was very
disappointed, but I did take some pictures there with my tripod,
which, after adjustment, don't look like night.

I was really pleased to see the pond and muskrat houses. I like
muskrats. I like nature, and I don't get enough of it any more to
suit me. WAHN!

But it was nice to get a mini fix of nature last night. YAY! And to be somewhere a little different. I don't get out as much in the winter.

Today--thaw

We're having a thaw that's supposed to last several days. We rode our
motorcycles down to Pier Park. The Bay is still frozen out about 75
to 100 feet, then open water. Those boats are on ice, It's supposed
to rain though, for several days.

I am still blogging, as you can see. However, I am trying to get organized to start on several big projects and once I do, I may not be able to blog every day.

More holiday wishes

Every day, I want to give you my holiday blessings and best wishes. I
hope you are happy and enjoyiing the holiday season! :-D

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! ENJOY!

old and tired

Phew, I'm getting old and tired. I shoveled snow for 16 minutes and came in to rest. That's my car up by the garage. The snow is 10-12 inches deep and drifted deeper some places. The neighbors put all the heavy plow snow from the end of their driveway behind Biker Buddy's car --they're young and they forget we're in our sixties! Biker Buddy had taken Piano Boy to a
friend's and I had to shovel all that heavy hard-packed stuff he could get back in. I shoveled the sidewalk and maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the driveway and now I am resting and Biker Buddy is taking a turn. And it is still snowing.

Last night, we went Christmas shopping and were totally exhausted when we got home--went to bed about 9:15 PM we were so worn out. UGH! I don't know how people have the strength or why they find shopping fun.

I wonder if it will last long enough for us to have a White Christmas, that would be nice. :-D

early morning walk

Since it is now dark when Biker Buddy comes home from work and because we are all so busy right now, I've started walking early in the morning--just a part of my daily walk to get it over with. But when I walked this morning, there was a certain scent in the air, the smell of freshness and snow. It woke me right up and made me feel really alive. It was still dark, but I could feel little light snowflakes hitting my face. The puddles from all that rain we've been getting were frozen solid. I walked for 19 minutes and as I walked, the black sky turned inky blue and bit by bit, lightened a little. I began to be able to distinguish trees and the details of houses: shutter slats, brickwork. At one point, the sky reached a shade of blue that almost looked like the blue of a clear blue summer day, but I knew it wasn't, because of the snow. Then it lightened a little more and the grey became more evident. It was a quiet morning, no birds singing, but it was right at the time people were leaving for work and I had to keep running behind cars sitting in their driveways with their engines running and lights on--one even had their back-up lights on. I was both relieved and sad to get home and go inside where the air doesn't have that startling smell of snow.

Wordless Wednesday

(click image to view larger)
See Becca's photo and all photos on Wordless Wednesday.

rain snow and fog

It snowed last night, but it rained today, and the snow was shedding
fog. We took a walk at Cranbrook. It was cold and wet but really
pretty.

the wastebeds

These are the wastebeds from the Solvay Process in Solvay, NY, covered with the first good snow of the year. We went hiking up here yesterday in search of the rubber face of a dead lady with a rat coming out of its mouth for an artist friend, but we couldn't find it. The snow didn't help. The mask-like rubber face was from a Halloween event at the fairgrounds and we'd seen it on a prior trip but didn't get it because we didn't know anyone wanted it.

assistance with the apple pie

I started cooking for tomorrow's Thanksgiving Feast today. I got some
help from Rhea. Photo by Biker Buddy.

Winter Outing with jo(e)

We met for breakfast and then took a walk in the snow going from the warmth and happy companionship of eggs and homefries to the blustery wind and pelting snow. But we talked and talked and talked and walked further than we intended. It was so nice to spend time together and we had so much to say to each other. The wind and cold and snow didn't stop the warmth of love and friendship.

The Melancholy Season

November is deeply beautiful in a melancholy way. I love the fall
colors, even the fading ones, and the newly bared trees. They are so
beautiful it makes my heart hurt.

I took these in Hamilton. Now we are home, but leaving Thursday
morning for upstate New York to attend an opening at Westcott Gallery
that contains six of my paintings. While we are there, we will
celebrate a sort of thanksgiving and visit with various family
members, friends and bloggers. We'll be back again next Monday.

Click images to view a little larger.

Wordless Wednesday

(click image to view larger)

Sidewalk Saturday: signs of fall

Signs of fall on the city sidewalks.

I have too many blogs. I am resolved to simplify my life by consolidating my various blogs. Now that we have labels on the blogs, you can recreate the original blog by clicking on the label for that Blog. This post is a new post, but I would have posted it to The Invisible Trail. However, that is one of the blogs that will be subsumed into No Polar Coordinates as I have time to do so, so I am going to post its posts here starting now, if I ever have time. One by one, if and when I have time, I will move my old posts to No Polar Coordinates.

I like the name and concept of The Invisible Trail, and I hate to lose it, but my life is so overwhelmingly overstuffed that I just can't do all those blogs and no one reads them anyway.

The Equinox (Leaf)

For the equinox, we went up to Indian Springs and took the longish hike up to Timberland Lake, which is a bog, in hopes of seeing the early bog fall colors, the brilliant reds or red and silver maple and all the gold of the tamaracks, but we were too late! The bog was naked. All the leaves and needles had already fallen. (Click image to view larger.) We also went to the conservatory Saturday. And yesterday watched a preying mantis catch a beetle.

baby woodchucks

The most exciting thing at St. John's Marsh were two baby woodchucks--they were SO cute--they weren't afraid of us on the bikes--they didn't move and we almost ran over them because they were in the middle of the very narrow trail, but when we got off they hissed and spit at us like little kittens and then turned and ran into the tall weeds. It was very cool! :-D Unfortunately it all happened so quickly we didn't get any pictures. Too bad.

Trout Lilies and leaving

The trout lilies here are different than the ones where I used to live--white instead of yellow. But I know a place where both coexist at the same time in the same location. It's a waterfall in Canada. If I remember the name, I will post it. They are found at different elevations, which must say something about their habitat requirements.

I am leaving again and will be off-line and incommunicado all or most of the time. I do not know yet when I will return. Until then, enjoy life.