Once again, we got pummeled by the latest snow storm to hit the North East.
The snow-covered object in the following picture is a table and two benches.
Below is another shot of our Winter wonderland.
Tagged with Country Living …
Heat Wave
One of my least favorite aspects of life in NYC was the summer. We didn’t need a heat wave to make life uncomfortable – all that concrete and glass could easily turn a typical hot day into a sweaty mess, especially if your day began by waiting 10 minutes on a subway platform. Gross.
Even though I’m just a few hours north of the city now, the weather is dynamically different. One thing is for sure, if it’s hotter than hell up here, it must be ungodly hot in the city right now.
So for all my friends sweating in NYC, here’s a little ditty from Marilyn Monroe, Heat Wave!
Like this:
Come On Spring!
In my region of New England Winter can last well into April and we never know when the last snow of the season might happen. For this reason, we hold off until Memorial Day before doing any annual plantings in the yard. For now, we are focusing on the yard cleanup, which is extensive after a harsh winter that left tree limbs and branches everywhere.
During the cleanup, I uncovered this little patch of purple flowers.
I’m almost certain that they were not there last year.
2012 Came Early to BeachWood
In case you haven’t already heard about 2012, it’s the year that the Mayan calendar ends, which is supposedly going to coincide with the end of the world. 2012 is also the title of a new disaster movie arriving in theaters next month and I can’t wait to see that! I’m a huge disaster flick fan and will never tire of special effects-laden movies that depict the planets’ most recognizable structures getting blown up.
As much as I enjoy watching the shit hit the fan on screen, I don’t care much for disasters in my own backyard and last night, we saw several Hollywood style scenes unfold on the home front. The day started with insane rain that lasted for 20 minutes and was then gone. The sun came out and the makings for a lovely fall day were on hand. Then the wind started.
BeachWood, the name of our little home and acreage, is situated on the side of a hill at an elevation of 1000 feet above sea level. To put that in perspective for the topographically challenged, our house is as high in the sky as the observation deck of the Empire State Building. We are also surrounded by hills and mountains so weather is unpredictable and sometimes severe.
Yesterdays’ winds were casual at first. I wouldn’t want to go sailing in them but didn’t expect to see any cows flying past the window. As the day went on the winds picked up until they started grabbing tree limbs and flinging them at the house. This bombardment went on until the wind found something more mischievous to attack – our screened and tented backyard gazebo! The gazebo was plucked from its perch and flung into the trees. After doing everything I could to keep the gazebo from taking off, I headed back inside for a stiff drink. That’s when we saw the lights in the sky!
BeachWood is surrounded by woods (hence part of the name) and the mysterious lights were coming from the thickest area of trees. At first I thought it might be coming from a hill way off in the distance but there is no way we would be able to see that hill through the woods. So I jumped to the most obvious conclusion – a U.F.O. was landing in our woods! We headed outside to great our alien trespassers and were overcome by the wonderful, fall-like scent of burning leaves. That’s when we realized that the lights were sparks and flames coming from the power lines that run through the woods and connect to our house. It turns out that a tree limb was lying across the lines and slowly burning, shooting off sparks and fireworks. This would have been a great show if it wasn’t all happening in the woods that come right up to our house. Luckily that crazy rain from earlier in the day had soaked everything so the sparks weren’t igniting all the fallen leaves on the ground and in the trees.
We called the electric company emergency people and watched the show in the woods while we waited for help to arrive. Eventually, the tree limb burnt through and the whole thing came crashing down in a huge display of sparks. Again, very pretty but way too close to home. We trudged out into the woods to gather up the smoldering limb and finally headed back inside for another drink and to get back to worrying about the gazebo blowing away.
Welcome to Fall!
Today is the first day of Fall or Autumn, as it’s sometimes called, and the start of my favorite time of year. The leaves are changing, the temperatures are more suitable for jeans, the bugs are dieing and nothing is more enjoyable the a warm bottle glass of red wine in the morning evening.
For all my city friends, this is what the first day of Fall looks like
