maison rustique Posted December 21, 2025 Posted December 21, 2025 Two Bluebird couples came to celebrate the Solstice this morning. Pardon the winter grunge on the windows and deck. 2 Quote
small h Posted December 23, 2025 Posted December 23, 2025 (edited) Laszlo the Wonder Cat (and H & I) wish you joy, health, peace and freedom during this holiday season and in the year to come. Love to you and yours! Edited December 23, 2025 by small h 3 Quote
Steve R. Posted December 24, 2025 Posted December 24, 2025 Ahh....choo. (otherwise, same to you) Quote
small h Posted December 24, 2025 Posted December 24, 2025 14 hours ago, Steve R. said: Ahh....choo. You allergic to pine or something? Quote
maison rustique Posted December 27, 2025 Posted December 27, 2025 On my husband's last Father's day his daughters sent a lovely plant arrangement. He never really understood what it was and kept carrying it out of his room and putting it in other places in the facility. The staff would bring it back but it sort of got neglected in terms of watering. At the time he died, there was one straggly plant left alive. My sister took it and I completely forgot about it. She potted it and nursed it and it is now huge and gorgeous. She recently brought it to me. 3 Quote
Wilfrid Posted January 15 Author Posted January 15 I guess I am cheerful. My apartment is so clean I don't dare touch anything. I treated it to a deep clean, partly because I had read about a Brooklyn-based Latin women's collective. I would be paying the women and their own business rather than some .com. It was great, but two women working hard for 6 hours is obviously 12 hours of cleaning. They should have charged more! I did tip heartily. 1 Quote
maison rustique Posted January 16 Posted January 16 I really hate winter, but we have had some wonderful sunsets lately. I seldom take pix of them because when they occur, I generally have about a dozen cardinals on the deck, but I disrupted them for a few seconds to snap this last night. 2 Quote
backyardchef Posted January 16 Posted January 16 Sunrises have been beautiful as well. I should get a picture but I have been too drowsy. 1 Quote
backyardchef Posted January 16 Posted January 16 My father is coming home from the hospital this afternoon after 48 hours. Thankfully, this does not seem to have been a serious issue. While there may be no logic to this statement: I am not impressed with 2026, so far. 2 Quote
maison rustique Posted January 25 Posted January 25 Hard to find anything to be cheerful about in this godawful weather. This is as close as I can come right now. 1 Quote
bloviatrix Posted February 2 Posted February 2 I received an email from the lawyer I hired that the ticket I received for driving about 35 miles over the speed limit this summer while driving up to Toronto has been dismissed. No points and no fine. Best money I ever spent. 1 Quote
maison rustique Posted February 3 Posted February 3 These videos are just precious. I could watch them all day. Moolala and Pip Feed the Forest Quote
Wilfrid Posted February 4 Author Posted February 4 Just stumbled across Johnny Mathis, age 90 and still great. Unless it's AI. 1 Quote
splinky Posted February 4 Posted February 4 That clip looks like it's from his final concert series in May 2025. I wonder if he'll ever do smaller format, if he feels up to it. 1 Quote
StephanieL Posted February 6 Posted February 6 I won a fancy (and pricey) fig & chocolate panettone from someone in our local Buy Nothing group. 2 Quote
maison rustique Posted February 8 Posted February 8 Having a nice few days, weather-wise. My sis & BIL came in from Topeka yesterday to help me with some chores. I'd gotten very nervous about my garage door at the Gladstone house. Since I bought it, I had all the locks changed but did not change the code on the garage opener. Several times I've gone there and the cover on the keypad was open as if someone had tried to get in. I am also getting a ring camera and light for that area since the doorbell doesn't reach that far. I had ordered a couple of new remotes since one of the originals had stopped working. Took us a bit to figure out how to do it (manuals suck), but we got the code changed and programmed the new remotes (a 2 person job). I now have 3 working remotes and all is good. We put some weatherstripping around the basement doors, packed and moved a bit of stuff. Consulted on a few other projects I want to get done. A productive day and lunch, too!! Went to a Vietnamese place that has been around for quite a while, but we just hadn't made our way there, yet. It was delicious and is only a mile or so from the new house. Broken Rice Quote
Wilfrid Posted February 8 Author Posted February 8 Looking forward to a few days of nice weather later in the week. We actually reach freezing! Quote
small h Posted February 8 Posted February 8 My bar for optimism is now so low that any double digit temperature is fine by me. Have Hot Hands, will travel. Quote
Wilfrid Posted February 8 Author Posted February 8 I just did my last shopping for the SB party because this is the warmest hour of the day: 3 degrees. 1 Quote
bloviatrix Posted February 8 Posted February 8 Boy's hockey team won their League championship morning. So proud of the kids. After a brutal start to the season, they haven't lost a game since November. Now it's tournament time. (and it was warmer in the rink than outside) 1 Quote
Wilfrid Posted February 12 Author Posted February 12 I finally got sick. It's been a long time. However it's diagnosed, it's my usual set of symptoms (long pre-dating COVID): inflamed and congested bronchi, productive cough and at least one night of fever. Am I in the right thread? Well, the fever usually means a night caught between sleeping and semi-waking during which my brain kicks up a frenzy of non-stop, repetitive content. Sometimes it's a song on endless repeat, sometimes something I've read. Really annoying and exhausting. But the last thing I did before going to bed was to dive into some Chinese cinema (Soulmate on Amazon) featuring the remarkable and glorious Zhou Dongyu. I've seen a bunch of her movies now (the powerhouse acting is in Better Days, but she's very unglamorous there). So my fever was hours of uninterrupted Zhou Dongyu. Nonsense of course, movies she would never make, movies with stupid, made-up titles, crazy scenes. It was wonderful. I'd do that again. Will watch her again tonight. Quote
maison rustique Posted February 13 Posted February 13 It was like Spring when I put out birdseed and water yesterday evening. I recorded Northern Cardinals, American Robins, Black Capped Chickadees, American Crows, White-throated Sparrows, Carolina Wrens and of course the nasty European Starlings. Made me so happy! 3 Quote
maison rustique Posted February 14 Posted February 14 Another beautiful day with a new bird and a funny one. Downy Woodpecker House Sparrow Brown Creeper--NEW! Northern Cardinal Carolina Wren American Crow Eastern Screech Owl--only this was a little kid screaming in a yard somewhere--cracked me up! Quote
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