I have been patiently waiting for a magnolia blossom to fall off my neighbor’s tree. Yesterday, it happened. I found a blossom in the grass on my walk and brought it home.
It lasted about a day in a small dish of water.
On Day 2, I attempted a technique that was demonstrated in my watercolors class, but it didn’t really work. The idea is to press flowers and leaves into wet paint and get an interesting effect. You can also paint the veiny side of a leaf and press that onto white paper.
The image was not really recognizable as a flower after I pulled it off the wet paint. I ended up painting in some petals.
Yesterday our furnace died. Maybe the blizzard was just too much to keep up with, but it was only 14 years old. It should’ve had a few more years left. Note to everyone: never buy a Maytag furnace. We had several other problems with it before its untimely death.
Fortunately, my husband got right on it and we’re having a new one installed this morning. (K’Ching$$$) In the meantime, it’s cold in here! I’m thinking it’s about 45 degrees Fahrenheit, but I have my coffee and my Comfy, I’ll be fine.
Last night we lit a fire in our fireplace and I made s’mores and then put them on top of ice cream for mixing in. It took some effort to crush the s’more and fully mix it with the ice cream, but I did it. It was good. Not as good as the best mix-in I ever invented, but yummy.
The chocolate didn’t melt as much as I would’ve like, but I managed.
Here are some of my post-blizzard pics from Tuesday.
This is the snowbank at the TOP of my driveway—right next to the house. I’m 5’ 8.5” so that’s a lot of snow. The plow guy has no other place else to pile it all up. There’s a flower garden under there, which I’m worried about. Note: I had to balance my phone on a trashcan with my mitten and use “timer” to take this photo. That’s real skill.My aptly named street Neighborhood snowbankI can’t tell if this mailbox is still attached to its post. Sometimes the plows knock off mailboxes and people just shove them into the snowbanks until they can be repaired. People then try to make the town do the repairs, but I know from experience, it’s easier to do it yourself.
In all, we got about 12-14 inches of new snow, but Rhode Island really got slammed. They beat their Blizzard of ‘78 record, with 35” inches in Providence (38” at the airport).
Waiting for the plow guy to come and do our driveway, I’m trying not to be too antsy. Normally my husband snowblows the driveway, but not this year—the year of the knee. I cannot and will not operate a snowblower. I’m not that much of a feminist.
The word of this winter will have to be patience. That’s the only way we’re gonna get through it.
Wild turkeys in my neighborhood on Halloween day, 2025
At this time of year it always strikes me as funny that flocks of wild turkeys casually walk through our suburban neighborhoods, not at all concerned with the humans who are right this minute planning their Thanksgiving dinners.
As my friends and classmates continue to hit the big SIX-OH, it’s a natural time to look back. After all, we’ve most definitely got more years behind us than in front of us now. (Although there was one lady in France that made it to 122.5 years old.)
Another friend posted about going deep into the woods (off the grid) for his big birthday weekend. No party or foreign travel for him. Just weed and contemplation I guess.
When we were all sophomores in high school, Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States. In my mind, this was when the “fringe & ponchos” 70s truly ended and materialistic preppiness became fashionable. We replaced our earth shoes with boat shoes. Brand name labels (Izod, Polo, etc) were everything.
And as every true GenXer knows, the definitive preppy color combo was and always will be: Pink & Green. It’s not a color combo I wear much anymore, but I sure do like it in a garden.
I considered my chicken problem solved when I vanquished the annoying rooster last year, but now I have a coyote problem. I was actually scared to walk home yesterday because this fellow was standing on my sidewalk, not at all concerned about being out in broad daylight. To get home, I would’ve had to walk within 30 feet of him. I called my husband to come pick me up in the car.
He clearly wants to eat one of the chickens next door, who periodically roam freely in our yard. Frankly, I’d love to see it. I keep looking out my window waiting for my Wild Kingdom moment, but it hasn’t happened yet.
If I had small children or pets, I’d probably be Karening this situation by now. I would’ve had the Board of Health over here (again) to complain about the chickens attracting coyotes. But I don’t, so I’m just going to wait and see what happens.
GenX, let me know if you remember watching “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” on Sunday nights with your family. I think it was the first show to introduce us to both the beauty and the brutality of the animal kingdom. Some of those lion takedowns were epic. It showed us that predator-prey relationships are just part of nature.
In addition to amazing wildlife and geothermal wonders, Yellowstone also has spectacular waterfalls and a gorgeous canyon—“Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.”
Yellowstone Upper Falls – view from South Rim Drive
View of Lower Falls and the Yellowstone River flowing through the canyon from “Artist Point” on South Rim Drive
It was here that I could see where the park may have gotten its name. The canyon walls looked quite yellow in the sun.
As you might imagine, Artist Point was packed with tourists taking photos. In situations like this, my policy is that I always say yes whenever anyone asks me to take a photo of them, and I never say no if someone offers to do the same for us. A nice young Japanese tourist offered to take this photo of us. She did a good job! She placed the waterfall between our heads on purpose. (She was all set with a selfie stick and didn’t want me to return the favor.)
Our selfies are not very good. I just can’t figure out how to position my arm AND take the picture. People say to hold the phone up high, but then you end up staring directly into the sun.
A word about bison.
They are a big part of the Yellowstone experience. You see both herds and loners—sometimes very close up.
Traffic frequently stops for bison crossing in Yellowstone.Bison basically eat all day long. Sometimes they’re sitting down, but they’re usually munching.
They warn you not to get within 25 yards of a bison, if you’re not in a vehicle. They can run fast and have been known to rush (and even gore) people who get too close.
The animals in Yellowstone National Park are magnificent and wild, but the thermal features are insane. I was not fully prepared for the crazy geothermal activity.
This area is known as Porcelain Basin
Colloidal pool at Porcelain Basin
Roaring Mountain Old FaithfulGreat Fountain Geyser – we got very lucky seeing this one erupt precisely at sunset!Grand Prismatic Spring
Bubbling “cinnamon spring” at Black Sand Basin (this one really made me long for a hotel hot tub)
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