Sepia Scenes ~ mystery photos

This is an unusual subject for sepia scenes, but here goes. Some of you may know we have had a problem with squirrels in our attic. You can read about it here. They get along quite well with the bats in our belfry. OK, I'm kidding.

The pest-removal professional set cages and put them on the roof. He used a peanut butter concoction to lure the squirrels. After he catches them he will seal up the hole; problem solved. Maybe.

Unfortunately the cages you see pictured have been up there for more than two days and the squirrels have not been back to have a snack. The weather has been nice and clearly they have been out and about, because we haven't heard any footsteps "upstairs" since Monday.

To see more scenic sepia shots, visit Mary T, The Teach, at Sepia Scenes.

Domestic engineer? Not so much

I just opened a box that we got Saturday in an Angel Food order containing what I thought was a ready-to-eat blueberry pie. But the dough is raw. Woopsie-doodle. Quite disappointing!
So I put the pie in a 375-degree oven for 45 minutes. We'll see how that goes.

Dang. I was all set to bring a big chunk of it over to my mother for a tasty treat. It's not chocolate, but at least it's something sweet.
The label on the box didn't indicate that it wasn't baked. It just says to keep refrigerated, which I did.

I hope this pie tastes good, after all this.

Ruby Tuesday = ^. .^ =

The 3 Rs - Ruby, red, and Rigby.


To see more photos featuring a little or a lot of the color red, visit our hostess, Mary T, The Teach.

Squirrel update

Cage traps have been set...pest removal technician said he put a "concoction" that included peanut butter in the cages to try to catch them. "They usually cooperate," he said of the pesky squirrels who have taken up residence in our attic.

He'll be back tomorrow to check on things.

That's all from here. Have a good Monday.

* UPDATE: My friend Linda asked what if the varmints don't cooperate. Well, then we go to phase II, which is a trap. Let's hope they decide to cooperate and get out of this alive.

~ * Happy Birthday * ~

Dear Ralphie,

I"m sorry your birthday weekend was marred by the news that it's going to cost $425 plus tax to get rid of those varmints in our attic.

At least we had a nice dinner out last night.

Enjoy your day today!

Love,
Patti

Updates to earlier posts...birds and frubbles, part II

In the frubbles department, we do have squirrels in the attic. I was right! Good guess.
This morning the young guy from the pest-control company showed me the hole between the eaves where they have easy access to the attic. Why didn't I notice that myself?

He is coming back Monday to, ahem, work on getting rid of the guys. Traps will be involved. I don't want to know. They will come back every day and check on the traps.
All I know is it's going to cost a lot of money, money that we really don't have to spend on squirrel removal. Sigh.
A least there is a one-year warranty for the hole that they are going to seal. Warranty won't cover any new holes that allow varmint access.

As for the wheelchair, all is back to normal. On Friday Ralph got a new chair cushion and back. They wanted to charge him, a fairly-regular customer, $1,000 but somehow he got it for a little over $300. You go, Ralphie!!

And in the female cardinal department, that vain little bird was preening in the side-view mirror of my car again, yesterday afternoon and this morning. She likes to look at herself, it seems. See photos below:


And the lucky reflection capture:

Looking at the Sky

Such drama seen from a shopping center parking lot! The clouds were everywhere Thursday, but today the sky is clear and blue. Ah, our ever-changing weather.

To see more sky shots visit Tisha, our hostess for this meme, at CrAzY Working Mom.

Happy Weekend to all!

Frubbles, we've got frubbles

Usually I try to keep things fairly upbeat here. But today is not one of those upbeat posts kind of days.
You could say that when it rains it pours, because we are drenched.

Yesterday Ralph knocked on the door (our doorbell is broken) and when I opened it up, he was leaning way back in the wheelchair, with his feet suspended in midair, as if he were on a carnival ride.
The dang chair back had snapped on him when he had leaned over to get something in the van. It had been making clicking noises for awhile when he would shift his weight, but who would have thought that it would break on him?

What followed was an hour-long attempt to shore up the back of the wheelchair. I'll skip the details. Then when it was time to go to bed, it was another hour to get the broken, wobbly wheelchair at just the right height so that he could transfer into the bed. Finally he figured out a way to do that. Long story.

This morning he headed off to the medical-supply place where they repair the chair. He has been a fairly frequent customer, I must say.

Meanwhile, in other news, we have squirrels running around in the attic. At least I'm guessing they're squirrels. Or very large and noisy birds!
We started hearing them on and off yesterday. At least they quieted down at night and didn't keep us up. But our poor kitty cats have been hearing them and smelling them. They are going bonkers.
Must stop writing and call pest elimination experts.

Wish us luck.

Timing is everything

I often see incredibly beautiful nature photos as I cruise around the blogosphere, including a lot of close-ups of birds and water fowl, and I admire each and every one of them.
Today I was fortunate enough to look out the front window in time to get three photos of a cardinal (I think) sitting on the side-view mirror of my car.

The tale of the tail ...


Whaddya think? Was she getting ready for a big date this afternoon? It's always good to check the mirror before heading out.

Sepia Scenes

Sepia-toned photos always remind me of the 1950s, so I thought sepia would be a fitting look for this photo of a Korean War Memorial.
Ralph and I visited Bradley Point on Long Island Sound in West Haven, Ct. last week, and this is one of the war memorials there.


To see more sepia-fied photos, go over and visit Mary T, The Teach, at Sepia Scenes.

Ruby Tuesday

I didn't have any current photos featuring the color red to share, so I dug through our archives, something that Ralph often does. He is one sentimental guy when it comes to old photos!
As you can see I took this more than five years ago. This is where we stayed when I accompanied our daughter's first high school trip to Paris. Yes, we went twice; I have no idea how I pulled that one off! I think I'm still paying for those two memorable trips, but c'est la vie.


Go visit our hostess, Mary T, The Teach, to see many more photos people posted for Ruby Tuesday.

Mystery perennial and some bloomin' trees

It was another sunny day today, so I took a few pix. I hear rain is on the way for Monday.

I don't remember what kind of perennials these are, but I'm glad they survived the winter and reappeared this week. They offer some color to my otherwise dried-up flower garden. Must get working on that!

The apple (or cherry?) trees that line the high school driveway have bloomed. The high school is right around the corner from our house, which was convenient when our kids attended.

Aren't they eye-catching? I love the pale pink.
As you can see, I'm welcoming spring around here. Yay!

A bit o' fun, frolic and fresh air

Yesterday Ralph and I decided to do something out of the ordinary for us and visit nearby Bradley Point Park in West Haven, Ct. We hadn't been there in years.

I checked the history of the park and learned that it "marks the area where invading British troops landed on July 5, 1779," according to the city's Web site.


The park offers some pretty scenery and views of the Sound and New Haven Harbor.
I sneakily snapped a photo of Ralph enjoying the view.

It was a lovely spring day and we certainly weren't alone there, but I tried to wait until people passed by before I took my photos.


This is the Vietnam War Memorial, which wasn't even there last time we visited. It lists all those from West Haven who fought in Vietnam.

Below is a memorial to all those from West Haven who served in the Korean War. It also was not there last time we visited.


Ralph said this photo looks like I took it from his perspective. I guess he's right. I was just trying to do something different.

This gazebo is right along the water behind the famous Savin Rock, once the focal point of a vibrant amusement park.
The area started being developed in the late 19th century, and featured all kinds of old-fashioned "amusements," from roller coasters to a water park to a carousel (my father used to call them "flying horses") and a car-racing track.
I neglected to photograph the "Rock," which is quite large, but I shall next time...

Hope you enjoyed your tour of part of southern Connecticut's shoreline.

It looks like Spring, it smells like Spring...

It must be Spring!
I seem to be in a yellow mode. It wasn't intentional. I need to find some other seasonal colors to photograph.

Happy Saturday ~ let the sun shine!

Looking at the Sky

I took a bunch of cloud photos one morning in March. I posted some of the series, but not these. At least I don't think I did. ;-)
The morning sky was pretty dramatic there for a while! The first one is from the back door.

I made this one a bit darker so that the clouds would stand out more.
Ralph and I are going out for some fun and frolic today, and I hope to get some more sky photos to post next Friday.


To see many more sky shots, visit our wonderful hostess, Tisha, that CrAzY Working Mom.


Happy weekend to all!

What I did on my spring vacation

Days 2 and 3:

1. Went grocery shopping with my mother Tuesday. We stopped at Wendy's for chili.
2. On Wednesday, thanks to a forwarded e-mail, I discovered Susan Boyle, the incredibly talented Scottish singer who has taken the world by storm since her appearance Saturday competing on "Britain's Got Talent." Watch her perform here. You won't be disappointed.
   
3. Spent 4 1/2 hours Wednesday at the Hyundai dealership having car serviced. Forced to watch daytime TV drek in customer lounge. Left $312 poorer, but hopefully my Elantra will be good to me.

Sepia Scenes

I snapped these photos of ducks sunning themselves last August and thought they might look OK in sepia, so I gave it a whirl.


To see more sepiafied photos, visit our hostess, Mary T, at Sepia Scenes.

What I did on my spring vacation

Day One:

1. took several naps (just following our cats' lead - I figure if my body wasn't in need of sleep I'd never be able to conk out like I did)
2. made Ralph a nice dinner (doesn't happen every day)
3. froze a marshmallow Peep for later dunking in hot coffee (after reading a suggestion by a friend of a Facebook friend)
4. figured out how to post a photo on my Facebook profile ~ it elicited a lot of comments too. That Rigby cat strikes the cutest poses.
   

A perfectly polished performance

Yesterday we attended a wonderful event: a clarinet recital given by our daughter's beau at the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford.

We had heard him play once before, in our living room, and we knew full well how accomplished he is on the clarinet.
But yesterday his performance mesmerized us, his family, and several friends who attended.
He played three pieces by Schumann, a Concerto for Clarinet by Aaron Copland, and four pieces for clarinet and piano by Robert Muczynski. He was accompanied on piano by an equally talented Hartt student.

The final performance, of Kleine Kammermusik by Paul Hindemith, featured five pieces he played with fellow students. They performed on French horn, flute, bassoon, and oboe.

Allegra's boyfriend had told us all on his Facebook invitation that the recital was going to be awesome. And it was.
It must be extremely strenuous to play the clarinet for such a long stretch of time. There was one intermission to give him a bit of a break.
Ralph's sister Michele turned to me soon after the recital started and whispered "He's fantastic!" She said she could picture him playing in a symphony. I can as well.

Attending such a beautiful recital made this Easter weekend a special one for our family, and one that I will always remember.

Bravo!

Looking at the Sky ~ near the water

I may have posted this photo last year, but not for Tisha's Looking at the Sky on Friday meme.
I took it last June when a friend of Allegra's was graduating from The Sound School, which is located on Long Island Sound in New Haven, Ct.

It was a perfectly gorgeous evening, as you can see. The shadow on the boardwalk is from my darling daughter.

Visit Tisha at CrAzY Working Mom to see many more photos of the sky. Thanks as always go to Tisha for hosting this fun meme ~

* Sepia Scenes *

And the original:

And the original:
I brought one of my many bunnies from my bunny collection outside Tuesday for a photo shoot. Looks like he laid a couple of eggs!

~ Happy Easter and Happy Passover to all. ~


For more sepiafied photos, visit Mary T, The Teach, at Sepia Scenes.