If you look closely at this photo you'll find two bluebirds. We see them maybe once in the fall and once in the spring. They're very pretty. You can see the foliage is pretty now, too. The maple in front of the house shed its leaves early, perhaps due to a large crop of seeds to disperse.

The basement renovation is coming along bit by bit. The perimeter drain is done and exits out of the walls at either end so the water should run out by gravity. Better get some critter covers for the exits though! The electrician and plumber have been in and corrected various creative solutions of old that weren't to current code. The walls and ceilings are free of old and mildewed sheetrock and ceiling tiles, and the smell is giving way to that of new lumber as the bathroom gets rebuilt.

And I'm slowly healing from my fall (broken jaw and wrist), feeling a little more human as the days go by, a little less stunned. 3 weeks down, 3 to go, more or less. Then we'll see exactly how my teeth fared. I'm a bit tired of the liquid diet but tonight's mushroom soup puree was pretty good.

Lost Cat

Lia-Boy, aka White Paws, aka le Sultan, aka Cary Grant, disappeared on Tuesday (July 29th). Mostly likely prey to a coyote, which happens rather frequently around here. He was a great love of mine, and is sorely missed. He was 10 last April.

This is my last photo of him, from June 25th.

City-living has a sinister side; so does country-living.

hay time (July 8th)

More on spring flowers

OK, those are mustard, honeysuckle, choke cherry, and Golden Alexander. I was stuck on the later. Zizia Aurea, "leaves 2 to 3 times divided" was what clinched it. Not many plants have variable numbers of lobes/divisions. Didn't get a great shot, but you can see it to some degree.

Spring meadow flowers

Can you identify these flowers? 4 from the lower meadow this morning. Click on the images to enlarge.

Spring. Earth Day.

Spring is coming along; the forsythia is in full bloom, the red maples are red, and the sugar maple is showing life for the first time today.

Yesterday was Earth Day. Michele drove the speed limit, to the ire of her fellow drivers, and took her lunch to work. This inspired me to turn off the electric power for the day, with the exception of the refrigerator, freezer and one phone. The house got very quiet. Can one 'hear' electric power? I was faced with a lack of water, and broke into our very dusty cache of spare water in bottles and jugs. It takes 3 quarts to wash a kitchen floor. I did not attempt to wash the flannel sheets by hand. After a bit I thought that the solar water heating panel wasn't working without a pump, and turned that on. Michele came home and thought of turning everything back on, then noticed how quiet the house was. She turned on the main water pump and electric supply to the water heater. We had dinner and talked until we couldn't really see each other, then took the dog for a walk. (Normally we tend to split, she to the ABC news on tape, and me to my internet reading). Then we read for a bit, she got in bed with a flashlight and a candle and I sat next to the kerosene lamp. Altogether in 24 hrs we used 9 kwh, instead of the usual 30 or so.

Meanwhile I made a list: manual laundry machine (I read about these somewhere), solar shower, alternatives for food preservation, light, solar power for computer/iPod, humanure compost system, dish washing set up, radio, oven. Fix the upper well for easy access. Water tanks. But am I looking at emergency preparedness or current civic duty in light of global warming?

Today I'm really enjoying this electricity business.

Pix

The other day a lot of weather came through that was a lot more like summer. We woke up to thunder and lightening, and the whole sky flashed orange and then red with the lightening. Later I realized it probably had to do with the rising sun. In the evening we saw a rainbow.