Take A Walk With Us

Spring In Our Step

Hey you guys....Happy Monday!

I have to say, waking up to a bit of sunshine today was quite welcome here.  It's not meant to last so Lucan and I took to the yard for a walk about.  Despite the generally non-cooperative spring weather so far, things are doing their best to pop.

All sorts of tree buds....

.....including the forsythia!

Hello Gorgeous! (didn't need to make one single adjustment to this beauty).

In the woods, the ferns are unfurling and the evergreen remains, green.

And in the yard...........flowers, both gone-by and awakening.

Sunset Meadows

The weekend had a rather interesting end, gray clouds mixed with a bit of sun giving it its best shot.

 

 

I hope you all had a great weekend. I did a pretty good job staying away from the computer (other than spending time deleting a gazillion emails that were slowing my system down....more to do on that front for sure).  It wasn't very nice weather wise so we kind of just hunkered down for the count. Then Sunday, Gar woke up with a cold. So I went into a cleaning frenzy while he watched soccer on the tube.  Then I said, 'that's it. I'm quitting' and played around with watercolors for a couple of hours.  I was finally about to sit and watch some TV around 8, when our cable went out. Talk about timing. Oh well, I went back to sketching and painting. Why fight it?

In other news: I beat G in a game of Yahtzee, made a delicious white sauce veggie lasagna, had some nice toast for saturday brekkie topped with the apple jelly my nephew made and was kind enough to share from his pantry, visited with the neighbors, enjoyed a little bit of youtube singing and dancing, oh............and watched my Bruins beat Detroit to take their first series on the way to the Stanley Cup.  What did you do?

Make it one awesomely spectacular week and I'll do my best to do the same!

Ciao for now,

Take A Walk With Us: For The Birds

Both Small & Big

Ah, Spring. It finally feels a bit like there is a new season in the air. The birds are flitting about, chirp-chipping, and have been quite busy in general.

This includes the bluebirds, which make me happy.  Partly because of their pretty color and sweet disposition, and partly because they were quite scarce here for years. Luckily, they have made a comeback and they love our neighborhood. Some of that has to do with the field at Sunset Meadows. Blue birds like open space. What this means for us, since our place faces Sunset Meadows, is the bluebirds are quite comfortable in our yard.

This fellow planted himself in one of our lilac bushes so he could spend time preening. G spotted him first and said, 'That bluebird is huge!". Which made me think that it was going to be a pregnant female, but it was a roundy little guy making sure he looked his best.

What? You think I could look a bit more handsome?

Fine. I can take a hint.

Don't worry, I won't forget behind the ears.

Well, will you look at me.....I said, look at me!

Yesterday, when the hound I took a walk over the field, as we got back to the house, I could hear a Pileated Woodpecker.  The Pileated Woodpecker is North America's largest woodpecker and is about the size of a Crow.  These birds can take care of an old dead tree like it's nobody's business.

As I got going at my desk, I could hear the Pileated had come closer. It sounded like it was right out the side door, behind my desk. I got up to have a look and lo and behold, he was there. And he brought a friend! This has to be one of the coolest bird pictures I've gotten yet. What are the odds of capturing dueling Pielateds?

They were quite busy working the tree.

Up and down.

And all around.

Until they'd had their fair share.

In other nature news, some signs of Spring are starting to pop up.

Snowdrops!

And moss.

Generally speaking though, everything still pretty much looks like this.

We'll get there inch by inch.

Sunset Meadows

It's been awhile since I posed a Sunset Meadows shot, and quite frankly that's because it's been too damn cold to stand out there like a fool taking sunset shots.

Last night however, I was out raking in the yard (yes! raking in the yard! hip hip hooray) and was treated to this beautiful spectacle.

How perfectly wonderful, yes?


Is Spring showing it's head where you are? Are the birds very chatty? Flowers popping up? I know some of you are ahead of us on that front and probably have a bit more spring color, but at least I have something to look forward too!

Have a great day, one and all. I'll be sure to do the same.

Ciao for now,

Take A Walk With Us: Sunday Drivers

Out Of Office

Happy Monday all.

As suspected, I worked at my desk a lot of the weekend. This is all good, except by the time Sunday rolls around and I've been at my desk, in my home office/studio all week, I need to get the heck away from it.

So, yesterday, after spending a couple of hours at my desk in the morning, I asked G to take me for a ride. I didn't care where, just needed to get out and about anywhere.

We hit the road and headed south.  We drove down into Massachusetts driving through Newburyport, Newbury, Rowley and beyond.  Then we made a loop back towards Newburyport and made our way out to Plum Island, which is right on the coast and has a lot of marshland.  The sun was shining, and making the water sparkle like floating diamonds.

When we left, the sun was shining. Then withing 5 minutes clouds started to roll in. It was a real fight between the sun and the clouds, producing a weird hazy like glow at some points.

By the time we headed back north, the sun was winning out again.

When we got to Hampton, my hometown, the sun was almost winning out again.

It felt great to get out of the house and office.

Beyond that, the weekend included some pulled pork that I cooked in the crock pot (yum).  We also watched a couple of hockey games. Our Boston Bruins are on a serious win streak. 12 games in a row.  Best so far of any team this season. Tonight, we meet our rivals, the Montreal Canadiens.  Ah!  So, beyond always wanting to win against the Habs, I really want the Bs to win tonight to continue their win streak. I'll be holding my breath.

We did a little youtubing- oh yes, we did some happy dancing in honor of World Happy Day last Friday, and we watched lots of funny stuff that had us cracking up.  We also skyped with my best friend Tina in Cork. 

That pretty much sums up our weekend. What happened in your corner of the world?

By the way, just thought I'd mention that today is March 24th. It is spring. It is also currently 21F.

What the heck is with that?

Thankfully, the fire is going. However, we are getting a wee bit sick of hauling wood. Then again, at least we have wood to haul.

That's our story and we're sticking to it.

Have a great Monday.

Ciao for now,

Take A Walk With Us: Or Perhaps A Drive Up The Coast

The Ocean Air

I am at my desk in my little office/studio a lot.  By a lot, I mean pretty much all day Mondays- Friday. At least one day most weekends, and sometimes both, too. The life of a one girl show.

This makes it necessary for me to sometimes high tail it away from the homestead, where my little office/studio is located. Get out and about. Take in the sunshine. Breathe in the ocean air. Luckily, it's only 6 miles from the house.

I wish these pictures captured the color that was the ocean yesterday. It was an amazing and stunning mix of blues and and greens.  Deep, saturated color.  It took my breath away. Ask G how many times I said, "I can not believe the color of the ocean" and he'll tell you at least 100. And he's probably right.

I also wish there wasn't some speck of dust stuck in my little lumix lens (my big camera's battery needed charging so I just took my little one with me). Ignore any blotches. And if you know any tricks for getting fuzz out of a camera lens, do tell.

For now, sit back and enjoy a little jaunt up our coast.

We had been keeping our eyes open for the snowy owls that have been making it's home near Rye Harbor.  As soon as we passed the harbor and turned the corner, there were cars lining the road and we knew there was an was owl nearby. They are such welcome visitors.

There it was. Sitting right on the ground in the marsh, having a little nap in the sun. Like the snowies we saw just south in Salisbury last month, this one could have cared less about all the people like myself making their way across the snowy marsh to get a picture. I was amazed at how close it let us all get.

Blending like a lump of melting snow, right?

They are just so damn cool.

Then we continued our way up 1A.

It was so clear, it seemed you could reach out and touch the Isles of Shoals, which are 6 miles off the New Hampshire coast.

G stopped here, a little bridge spot he has always liked.  The marsh looks frozen, but there was still plenty of water running under the bridge and back out to sea with the tide.

We made our way to Newcastle, and passed one of my favorite places, the Newcastle Commons.  Read: I pouted as he passed the turn. G redeemed himself when we got near the coastguard station and I said....'what's this little road? Maybe it gets us closer to the lighthouse?'. He took the turn and we found that it did indeed get us closer to Portsmouth Light and we still had a good view of Whaleback too.

 

The house at the end of the newly discovered road, had the most amazing chimney. Just look at that brickwork.

We continued north towards Portsmouth.

There were lots of people out and about, walking, running, taking their pooches out for much needed exercise. We still lucked out and found a parking spot right off the square.

I got out of the car and noticed I could see the sky straight through the window on the far wall of the church. 

As always, the North Church steeple, had quite a presence against the blue sky.

It was a perfect Sunday drive.

Beyond that we had a campfire with the neighbors on Friday night, followed by leftover antipasto that my sister brought over on Thursday night. When I was done working at my desk on Saturday, the neighbors got together again and we ordered some pie. I love it when the pizza man brings dinner to the door.  Yesterday, I treated G to lunch and we had leftover pizza for dinner. I did no cooking whatsoever this weekend, and I have to say, it was kind of nice having a break even though I love cooking.

Did you do anything exciting or did you stay close to home?

Have a great start to the week!

Ciao for now,