Inspiration

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What does home mean?

It’s been a long week here — actually a long month — well, really a long year so far.

2016 has been full of stresses and April chock-full of busyness. My quilt guild had a very successful show over the weekend. My part in the show prep started way back in July of 2015 and finally ended at about 6pm on Sunday.

The week was full of appointments and various duties and responsibilities, culminating today in a wonderful, restful time at our Spirit Stitchers group at my church. I spent the day talking, eating, knitting, talking, looking at others’ projects, knitting, talking ……I ended the day taking a dog for a walk, and I don’t have a dog, but a good friend does and we walked the town. So, I generally had a wonderful day.

But it felt so good to come home, take off the blue jeans and crawl into favorite knit yoga pants and a decades-old, favorite Mickey Mouse t-shirt. Note that you do not have to actually do yoga to be very fond of yoga pants. My husband is out of town so I had the quiet house to myself to do whatever I liked, which was mostly nothing.

Usually home means coming HOME to our wonderful property and house and my wonderful Hubby. But tonight it meant knit pants, feet up on the futon, quilting magazines, glasses of iced tea, and not much else. Home . . . . . welcome . . . .

Mindfulness

Mindfulness. It’s certainly a word being handed around a lot lately. So what does it mean?

I’m beginning a 8 week practice to see if I can find out. My doctor recommended a training session, which I went to last night. We actually did a 20 minute meditation session as part of the beginning training. And now, in usual fashion, I’ve bought a book so that I can read all about it. And downloaded an app to my iPhone.

I do need a way to be more present in my life, more aware of what is actually going on around me, and less distracted and occupied with the many worries that surround me at the time.

My image from last night – is the beautiful blue sky with a cardinal flying across it. More about that later.

Sunset at Skaket Beach

Sunset at Rock Harbor
Sunset at Skaket Beach

Sunsets on Cape Cod rarely disappoint. This time I “almost” caught the green flash that occurs just as the sun disappears and part of the color spectrum goes away, leaving green. I saw the flash of green and captured the sun being just slightly to the green side of yellow, but didn’t capture the full green that my eyes saw. Oh well, better luck next time — and there will be, hopefully, lots of next times.

Whales to the Left, Whales to the Right!

A overcast, somewhat chilly, but beautiful day to be out on a whale watch today. As we headed out from Provincetown Harbor we were into the wind and the boat ride was like a roller coaster crossed with a water flume ride. The folks who stomaches were not “sea worthy” were in pretty bad shape. But for Hubby and I the only challenges were to stay standing as the boat rolled and pitched — keeping our eyes on the horizon for the water spouts of whales. Out on the South edge of the Stellwagen Bank the whales were feeding, diving, breeching, and in general providing a great nature watching event. The bright sun was the only thing that ruined some of my photos but the day was great.
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Sunflowers in August

Hubby planted some sunflowers at the end of our veggie garden. The seeds were a Valentine’s Day Gift!! So different and thoughtful. Well the sunflowers are at full height and the blooms are opening. Only the yellow ones are open now, the red ones (shorter) are yet to open. And the photo illustrates just how tall they are. I’m looking up at them to take this photo and am zoomed in a bit on my iPhone. They are about 4 feet taller than me. But OH SO PRETTY!

Sunflower with bee
Sunflower with bee

Wren Parents – feeding the babies — ready to fledge?

There are lots of bird sounds coming from the West yard. In the nearly-devastated Kousa dogwood hangs the wren house. The wrens had started a second nesting when the micro-burst hit our property with 80+ MPH winds that knocked down a 50 foot maple. It hit the Kousa dogwood dead center and totally broke all the limbs. Somehow, the wren house was not knocked down and, four days after the storm, the arborists came out and removed the maple. They first pruned the Kousa with a chain saw then carefully pruned the Kousa remnants. I had the bird house in my hands for a while and hung it back up in the tree where it had been, mostly because I had no where else to put it. The next morning, the wrens were in the tree remnants singing and soon the male was bringing the female food while she sat on the eggs. I cannot believe that they did not abandon the nest. These are determined bird parents.

So, the eggs hatched and the parents have been busily feeding the babies in the nest that are becoming more and more noisy as they clamor for food. I am hoping that they are ready to fledge – in fact early tomorrow morning would be a good time. The landscape project is beginning here tomorrow — demolition of the sidewalk that runs right by their nest. I’m sure they won’t be happy with all the activity, but I’m guessing they won’t abandon the nest either.

Here are photos from my viewpoint at the table pondside.

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Mom feeds the babies
Mom feeds the babies

And so it begins ……. outdoor construction, Day -4

The materials for the front walk and the dumpster arrived on Thursday, July 30. Demolition of our outdoor landscape is supposed to begin on Monday, so I’m calling this Day-4 of construction. 15 yards of sand, two pallets of portland cement, 2 of concrete blocks, and 3 of granite and that’s only for the front steps, sidewalk, and front door step. Wowza!
Hubby is supervising and I’m up on the deck and in the kitchen taking photos.
sand pile
delivery truck
carefully unloading

Markers of Spring

Yes, spring is here! Spring is (finally) here!
There are indications all over our yard.

The PJM azalea is in bloom. Beautiful purple right outside my kitchen window. I call this my “thermometer plant” as I can tell how cold it is in the winter by how curled up the leaves are. This past winter was really hard on it and leaves and blooms are scarce, but it is still alive

The marsh marigold plants are in full bloom in the pond — beautiful yellow.
The forsythia is solid gold up on the hill and by the driveway.
The daffodils are also in full bloom.

Oh yeah, and I’ve played 2 rounds of golf so far. Lots of bogies, which are good for me. Don’t know where this good golfing is coming from, but not worrying about it too much less it go away. 😉

Yes, at last, spring is finally here

(photos to be added later)

Ridgefield’s largest sugar maple

And it’s a big one! Thursday was a beautiful day for a walk. It turned out to not be really great exercise as I was enjoying the weather too much and stopping too many times for photos. But, at least winter appears to be gone and it’s good weather for long walks in town.
Here’s Ridgefield’s largest sugar maple — from a 2008 survey and contest.

It's a whopper!
It’s a whopper!