A Frog's View

When our tiny development was first started, there were these lovely drainage areas built. They are all over the area, including the next development over. They are necessary as we are on the top of a hill and there is a lot of water up here. People have a tendency to like dry basements.

Over the years these drainage areas have filled up and are even now being fill by ground water as well as run off water and have turned into bog areas and ponds. You know what they say "Nature always finds a way."

You can just see the roof of my house from the outside banks of this pond. Also note the bluebird houses that are installed around this area.

This was left go natural and is teaming with life, even in the dead of winter. The bluebirds are always hanging around as well as the red-winged blackbirds. Water fowl come to spend the nights here.

Each year this little pond gets prettier and prettier, wilder and wilder. Now we have toads, snapping turtles, bullfrogs and any variety of insects living there. There are also a large variety of bog, water and field birds living around this pond. The deer visit her regularly and can often be seen from my deck playing here.

This year, at the finch socks, I'm getting the regular gold finches that are here year round. Lately I've heard a lot of noise and squabbling out there and noticed another species fighting with the gold finches. These had to be finches too, as they wanted the seed in the finch socks. It turns out they are pine siskins, here because of a seed failure to the north. I don't get these interesting little finches very often, so it was nice to see such a gracious flock of them. Besides the pine siskins, the redpolls have also come to visit for the same reason. Both of these are northern birds that consider this area a bit to far south to inhabit. There is seed here for them. And it's nice having them here.

Finally Home!

Finally, after almost 2 months, Mom made it home. All those antibiotics that weren't doing her any good and all what we went through until the doctors finally decided to listen and saw she was severly reacting to the antibiotics, taking her off them and watching her get better in leaps and bounds. She is finally home and glad to be there.

A Cry for Color

It wasn't so long ago - or maybe it was - that my house cried out to me for more color. When it was first built, I had some colors painted on the wall that I truly liked (in my other house). Well in this house the color looked gray and grayer and it didn't impress me the way I thought it should or would.

Now, 7 years after building it, I've finally decided on a color. The decision actually came when we remodeled the bathroom. (It's been 7 years! What remodeling could the bathroom really need?) Well that's a whole other story. Anyway, in remodeling the bathroom, I decided on a color to match the tile we had installed and that led me to decide on a color for the rest of the house.

Well, now it's finally getting there. I'm not rushing this project at all and do it mostly on weekends or when I have the time. It's the peaks of the cathedral ceilings that are the bugger. To do those, I had to enlist the help of Husband. He did a really good job too.

I've always hated Husband picking up a paint brush in my house (my toy) because he had a tendency to kind of "slop" the paint on and it did horrible things to my sensibilities. But with these peaks, so high and near the clouds, I had no choice and he actually took his time and did a really good job. Hats off to Bob.

Now my house has color. Lots of color. I went with a Southwestern theme, not intentionally but that's just how it worked out. The ceilings are still the original color and that was actually what dictated what the rest of the house would be. The color is neutral, but a bit darker than my regular pallet, but it is just so lovely! Everything matches it nicely and I think all my accents stand out against.

There is one more peaked wall to paint and after that all peaks will be painted. All that will be left are the private areas of the house. Although, both bathrooms are painted and both halls. The next thing will be the master closet. I have already enlisted Husband to build the closet organizer (Another thing I was voted against when the house was built). So I must prepare it for this undertaking.

My guess is that we have about 20 years to get this place finished before we have to sell it. Who knows, maybe one of the granddaughters will inherit it.

The Morning Commute

It started late last night.  I had been watching TV and drifted off to sleep only to wake up to the late news.  "It was a surprise", I heard as I woke and realized they were talking about a surprise snowstorm.  They indicated that Lancaster County was hit pretty hard and show the Doppler.  I ran to the window and saw....NOTHING!

In the morning I started out of the garage to a light dusting of snow.  Oh, so it did snow after all!  The roads seem basically clear though wet.  I had no problems with the roads where I was but as I got into the city, they became icy and treacherous.   Once on a main street, going was a little easier but I did notice that traffic seemed heavy for that time of morning.  I got up the the intersection that would take me to the company's parking garage and a tractor trailer blocked the path ahead with police everywhere directing traffic.  Luckily I turned and didn't have to try to find a route around the blocked road.

Once I got the car parked and inside, I went to a window that showed the blocked street.  A trash truck that was trying to get up the road and slid into the side of the very building I was standing in.  There was the trash collector pinned between the truck and the building.  The entire street was very busy with fire trucks and ambulances.  People were everywhere.

At first reports I was told the that trash collector had died, but on following reports was that he actually hadn't died but I don't know what condition he is in.

The city was riddled with accidents of all types this morning.  I was thankful that I was able to get to work without incident.  Right after I got into the garage another car, a smaller sports car skid into a bunch of parked cars on the same street that I took and blocked that road as well.  It was a mess on the streets this morning.

The sun is out but the temps are staying rather cool.  The snow and ice are still here so I'm hoping that things are better by the time I want to return home.