It’s just grass
I was delighted to see a fifth of an inch of rain two days after the first lawn treatment of the season — I bought a package of eight — and said so; and then by the sheerest of coincidences, Dan B, a...
View ArticleI, geezer
In fact, here’s one way you can tell: I didn’t even know that AOL still existed. Or that people still had email accounts with them. Very, very old people, apparently. Still got mine. Then again, I...
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Made in the shade, sort of
Two cool cats, possibly related to one another, were engaged in two different sorts of frolic this afternoon in the back yard. This one was exerting less effort: The other one at the time was...
View ArticleHailing frequency
When I bought the palatial estate at Surlywood, insurance on the place was a hair under $900 a year, which sounds high until you consider that we have every known disaster here except tsunami. For...
View ArticleNew and actually improved
Every third year or so, I pick up a little foam cup to fit over the faucet on the north side of the house so it won’t freeze. (The faucet on the south side is one of those rural-looking handle-operated...
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Close quarters
I caught this bit of weirdness on the west end of the flower box, as though the Head Rose had ordered everyone to squeeze into a small area: You can tell it’s fall, what with that yellow leaf at one...
View ArticleGoblin report
Previous record: 102, recorded in 2010. I didn’t expect to break that; in fact, I bought only enough Dental Mayhem for about seventy. The city didn’t put out a curfew. However, some neighborhoods...
View ArticleEasily LED
Several of this house’s light fixtures are inclined to give me grief, though the one most likely to give me grief at a moment’s notice is the two-bulb fixture over the kitchen sink: it has a neat and...
View ArticleWhere it all goes (’13)
Two things are notable about this year’s property-tax bill: the millage is up by a smidgen, and the value of the palatial estate at Surlywood is not exactly climbing. End result: the outlay drifted...
View ArticleHome, home again
It was ten years ago this very week that I took possession of the palatial estate at Surlywood, by a considerable margin my longest stay at any single address ever, and this observation from the first...
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And snow it goes
We set the clock back a couple of winters: In that horrible month of February ’11, I broke my snow shovel; after waiting for the spring price break, I bought one of those not quite industrial-strength,...
View ArticleThe bulb report
For each of the past six weeks, I have picked up a four-pack of 60-watt incandescent bulbs at the grocery store, which gives me a reserve of 24. (Actually 26, since I had two on hand at the beginning.)...
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Yeah, that’s what they said
Generally, within a few days after the lawn treatment is conducted, the rain comes in. Except, of course, when it isn’t rain: See the full, uncropped shot on Flickr, if you so desire.
View ArticleNot a whole lot of fun
I got back from the polls at just after 5 pm, and the far corner of the garage was soaked. Weirdly, the water was warm, which meant only one of one thing: the hot-water line to the laundry apparatus...
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Carrying on unbowed
A medium-sized ice storm came to town in the third week of December, causing a bit more damage than the water volume might have led us to expect. I reported at the time that “one of the twin redbuds...
View ArticleSemi-tremendous waste
That water leak out in the garage last month might have started five minutes after I left for work, five minutes before I got back, or any time in between; there was no way to tell in the absence of a...
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Without benefit of graft
This one particular rosebush, on the west end of the front-walk flowerbox, has in the last ten years resolutely produced pink flowers, and only pink flowers, when it’s bothered to produce anything at...
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Neither pink nor white
From the last time we were talking roses, which would be, oh, last week: There is a bush in the same flowerbox producing deep reds, but it’s at the far end of the box, on the east end, about 16 feet...
View ArticleHighly perishable
The last time I lost a sweetgum tree was back in ’06, in the wake of some 60-mph straightline winds. Both its twin and the one that grew back in its place, once stirring (sort of) features of the back...
View ArticleI’ll just sit tight
Friday, you may recall, the top portion of a dying tree decided it couldn’t take it anymore and plummeted to the ground, directly on top of my telephone line, pinning it in place and pulling out just...
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