Missing You

Dear Sun,

We are grateful to have you back after months of darkness. Ken is enjoying the extra vitamin D, Kenna is enjoying sleeping in patches of sun, and the flower bulbs are happily popping through the soil. Even the creek seems happy that you are back.

Please come back tomorrow, too. We promise to bake you some cookies if you do.

Love,

Ken and McKenna

The Tide is High

I thought that some of you gentle readers might enjoy seeing some of my daily route to work across one of the gorges. This is the suspension bridge that I walk across:

Here's a photo of the gorge from the bridge:

Looking down into the gorge from the bridge:

The other side of the gorge, looking out onto the city and the lake:




...and back at my house, I had some visitors for the holiday weekend:

I hope that you enjoyed this little taste of central New York in early September.

Here Comes The Rain Again

I'm back after an unexpected trip to Kansas and I've got a couple of posts in the works. Until they are finished, I leave you with this photo of tonight's sunset after a storm:

I'm so glad that we got some rain. When I got back to New York yesterday, it was in the 90s, humid, and still. The house was 90 degrees when I walked in, but I've got it cooled down to a chilly 81 now. Hopefully, we will have some more rain tonight and I can pull the cool air into the house so that tomorrow is a little more bearable.

Heat of the Moment, Part II

Before I get to today's activities, here are a few shots of the creek from locations other than my yard. This is the creek below the waterfall:

And here it is further south--this is an area that is specifically reserved for anglers:

I began my day at the Farmer's Market, where I bought a giant cinnamon roll for breakfast:

I also bought a bag of mesclun lettuce (with pansies!) and some Carola potatoes, which I am very excited to try:

I bought a bunch of plants at my regular flower place yesterday because I wanted to plant the pots on the porch and the hanging baskets. I went a little crazy and bought more stuff than I really needed, so I had to call some pots that were in the basement into service. While I was already dirty and disgusting, I cleaned the porch, so here it is clean and pretty with all of the nice flowers planted:

Behind the church pew are my herbs: lemon and lime basil, flat leaf parsley, and sweet basil. There is also a pot reserved for the chives that I haven't purchased yet.

My hanging baskets are all petunias--purple and white. I'm trying something new this year that I hope will work out. I wanted the flowers in my hanging baskets to cascade down from the planters, so I cut holes in the coconut fiber liners and stuck the petunias through and then planted more on the top. I hope that when they grow and fill out, my vision will be realized, but we'll see.

I had a store credit at Lowe's, so I bought this three tiered plant stand to put in the corner of the back porch. This really makes the porch look nice--it's just what this side of the porch needed to look more complete. On the top shelf are my violas, then I have two pots of delphinium and alyssum on the lower shelves. The pots on the floor are verbena.

I put new mulch in the front flower bed where Mother and Father of Ken helped me plant some summer bulbs when they were here in March. I have a lot of stuff popping up, but nothing blooming yet.

The front porch with pretty new flowers:




The larger pot in the back has cosmos, alyssum, verbena, and a really pretty dahlia and the front two each have a dahlia and purple and white vinca:



The hanging basket. I know they look weird now, but I really think that when they grow and fill out, it will look really cool.

Kenna "helping:"

Once everything was planted, I reloaded my greenhouse with the the soil pellets that were left over from my first batch of seeds (which I also planted today). I had some seeds from Aunt of Ken to plant, so I prepared the greenhouse for them:

These seeds are so funny--they look like little Oreo cookies and I think they are a kind of flowering vine. They are popular among the members of my family and in my Grambi and Papaw's retirement community, where everyone has been asking for seeds from my aunt. I can't wait to see what they look like.

I'm also planning to plant tomatoes this year, but I want to wait another week to make sure that we stop getting below freezing at night. We've had about four nights in a row now of above freezing temperatures, so I should be able to plant tomatoes next weekend.

Sail On

This morning, Kenna and I woke up to a beautiful, sunny day. She stayed on the porch for most of the day, watching the creek and basking in the sunshine.

I went out to check on her later in the morning and I noticed something strange floating down the creek:

Finally, a sure sign that spring has arrived--pieces of snow and ice are breaking up in the higher elevations and floating down the creek past our house. I had a piece of snow/ice float by during the last week of May last year, so this is probably the first of many.

Kenna was busy watching the ducks and rabbits for most of the day:

Haven't We Been Here Before: Some Updates

I am sure that all of you gentle readers are on the edges of your seats waiting to find out what is going on with the refrigerator. So far, the Offensive Beast's replacement has not arrived. When I called to find out what was going on, my conversation with the delivery person went something like this:

Delivery Man: "This is the delivery man calling."

Me: "Yes."

DM: "We have your refrigerator. When do you want to schedule the delivery?"

Me: "I'll be home all day today, would you like to bring it this afternoon?"

DM: "How about Sunday?"

Me: "Is that the soonest you can bring it?"

DM: "Yes."

Me: "Well, then I guess Sunday will have to do."

DM: "Is Sunday afternoon convenient for you?"

Me: "Not really, since it is Easter, but since I don't have a working refrigerator right now, I don't have much choice."

DM: "Okay, we'll bring it on Sunday afternoon."

Me: "Okay."

DM: "Well, I guess I could call you if anyone cancels today or tomorrow."

Me: "I would appreciate that."

Gee, thanks. I love that they brag about next day delivery for their in-stock appliances, but when you order one, it takes three days to deliver it after it arrives. For now, my little NuCool refrigerator will just have to do...

My Grambi has been asking me to update "It's a broad noodle." all week. I must apologize for omitting a reference to the important people who "fluff" the noodles several times a day as they dry to ensure even drying. The chicken and noodle dinners would be nothing without the "noodle fluffers" who ensure the high quality of the noodles made in the St. Timothy's kitchen.

In other news, because I know you are dying to find out what I have been up to all week, the creek is running pretty high as a result of the rain and snow that we have had lately. Here's a short video of the roaring rapids outside of my back door:

The highlight of our week was the arrival of a box from Mother and Father of Ken. McKenna was convinced that Piper and Boomer were in the box and she spent most of the morning sniffing and rubbing on the box and trying to put her head inside.

McKenna received a special gift from Mother of Ken: a St. Patrick's Day t-shirt from Old Navy. For some reason, she loves to wear clothes, although she doesn't have an extensive wardrobe nor do I dress her regularly. Here she is modeling her new shirt:

Maybe my next post will include news that the Offensive Beast is gone and the new refrigerator is presiding over the kitchen--wish me luck!