Flora, Fauna & Aminals (4)

Okie dokie, I got smart this time and uploaded the last batch of photos using the home computer via the picture CD, just in case my notebook wasn't up and running in time. I now present to you the last installment of Flora, Fauna & Animals for your viewing pleasure.

This shot was taken during a walk around the block. I was running into a dearth of subject material, so when I saw this relatively clean view of someone's side yard, I decided to take the picture. Not much there to look at, but from the stories I've heard, it used to be a large farm of some kind back in the early part of the 20th century. Eventually the owners (whose house you can see off to the left, subdivided and sold off parts for housing, of which you can see through the trees in the background.

There is an interesting story behind this and the next four pictures that you see. One late weekend afternoon, I was standing on my back porch getting a breath of fresh air, when I spotted our resident ducks taking a stroll through the backyard. Inspired, I ran back inside, grabbed my disposable and hoofed it back to the porch. I knelt down and stuck my camera through the railing and took a shot of the ducks. There were two, but in this shot, you can see only one (duh!) of them scrounging for food.

This one I apparently turned the camera sideways, so that I could get a better shot of them. I estimate that the one in the foreground is about three feet away from me. Yes, that is a tire swing, which is currently attached to the dead tree that is decaying in the backyard.

In this one, you can see the male duck (drake?) inching a little closer to the back porch. A couple of old summer chairs are making their presence known, and you can get a better view of the old pool deck in the far right of the photo, along with the other storage shed and the pond.

To take this shot, I leaned over the rail and aimed downwards. I have no idea about the white in the foreground except it may have been an overexposure in the camera. In any event, they were still scrounging for food, but definitely had no interest in the empty soda bottles.

Not much to describe here. Same ducks. I found it so fascinating to see ducks this up close and personal that I went hog wild taking these five pictures. Normally, I don't see any kind of wildlife in my backyard, save for the various birds that take roost in the trees. But from I've been told by the wife and kids, our backyard has been a temporary resting place for a couple of rabbits and the stray frog or two.

And no picture montage would be complete without showing you the absolute least favorite bird in the entire world of Cedar's Mountain and Shooting Suburbia. Still nasty as anything, loud as anything and has responded to the bulk of everyone's displeasure by squawking even louder and earlier than ever before. While I may like my aminals (cat and fishies), I will someday beat the absolute snot out this bird. I don't like this bird and this bird certainly doesn't like me.

Flora, Fauna & Aminals (3)

It. Is. Back.

After a one week hiatus, in which our computer got ill and had to be taken to the hospital to be binged and purged of said illness, we can now present to you the latest installment of Flora, Fauna & Aminals for your viewing pleasure and enjoyment.


This was taken while I was walking down one of the many side streets that populate the route to which I partake in while traveling from point B (the center) to point A (home). Now although the lawn looks well kept and a spiffy shade of green, with the shrubbery trimmed neatly and the sun shining ever so nicely across the yard and house, leaving a funky telephone wire shadow in the foreground, this photo is not about that. If you examine the photo closely, and you may have to click on it to enlarge it, you will see just off to the left of the triangular pine tree, the actual subject of the photo: a squirrel. Yep, a squirrel. By the time I was able to dig out my disposable, him had moved from the near foreground to where you see him now. Since I didn't want to step on someone's property without permission, this was the best shot I could get.

This flower bed was taken as I was turning down the last street before mine. Always has a well maintained flower bed and yes, this was taken right from the street. I think that this shot came out pretty well, with all the various colors of the yard melding together: purple and white flowers, pink blossoms, bright red chimney, tan house and of course, the solid non-burned green grass.

Same flower bed, taken at the far end. Just off to the right beyond the fence is an in ground swimming pool. Not sure if its used much by the current owners (who have been there since I was a tiny tot), but it is meticulously maintained, just like the flower beds.

This is my backyard. Specifically, a man-made pond, created when the above ground pool was taken out and removed. As of the day of this post, it has been bone dry and pretty much DOA, but during the spring, when these photos were taken, a trio of ducks had called it the Grantmoor. In picture itself, you can see a small statue of St. Francis of Assisi to the right, to the left a ladder for the pool and smack dab in the middle, one of our resident Romeo drakes.

This shoot is from the other side of the pond. In the foreground is one of our Romeos (or Juliet, can't remember which). The building on the right is one of our lovely storage sheds. Leaning against it is the old ladder to the pool deck, which is that white thing just off to the right. The pond, such as it it, shows the reflection of the shed and the sky quite well.

The backyard. In the foreground is the pond. To the left is our neighbor's and center is ours. The deck/porch that you see off to the right, is my other writing area. Yes, the one with the 21 wind chimes. The tree that you see just off to the left of the deck, is now dead, courtesy of our friend, the termite.

And finally, another shot of the pond, featuring the mountain in all of its sunny springtime glory. The last few shots were taken simply because I wanted to take a stroll around the backyard. Now, you're probably thinking to yourself, "So what. Everyone walks around their backyard. Why should this be something to mention?"

~

Easy. If you take a look at an old town map from the early 60's, you will see that a good chunk of this street (like my end) simply does not exist. In fact, what you see for a topographical symbol that denotes my section of the street, is the one for swamp land. Yup, my part of the street is filled in swamp land. Which means during a normal spring (which means a normal amount of rainfall), my back yard turns into the type of yard that can literally separate your foot from your sneaker.

Flora, Fauna & Aminals (2)

So now we muddle at the middle.

Continuing with my walk down the street, we come to the house exactly two doors from the one with the funky landscaping. Its funny (and just a little bit sad) to see how some houses have changed over the course of the decades on this street of mine. I actually spent my childhood and parts of my young adulthood and adulthood growing up and living on this street. With this particular house, the current owners did a magnificent job on the landscaping and remodeling. This particular tree is a recent newcomer (by recent, I mean within the last fifteen years or so) to this house and even though you can only see the red door just off to the left of the car, the garage area was converted into a common room.

As we walk down the familiar main drag that is featured in a good percentage of my shots throughout the past year and half, you can actually see a rarity just off to the right in front of the fence: a non-family member. I try very hard not to get any other people beyond family members in my shots. I figure when I'm taking pictures the very least I can do is respect someone's privacy and not include them (an exception to that rule will pop up sometime in the fall, when I post pics from our townwide celebration called "The Extravaganza" held on 7/19/10). Anyways, this tree is the green version of the pink/white one that was featured as a header about a year ago or so.

Tulips, of the yellow and red variety. We have three major housing complexes and one apartment building for senior citizens/disabled people located in town. These tulips are located directly in front of the apartment building. I figured that these flowers have such a spotty blooming record here, that it would make very good sense to get a few shots of them before the summer time heat took them out of picture.

Same tulip bed, but a more complete view of them. This bed starts about where the previous shot was and stretches to where you see that Sovereign Bank building just off to the right.

Unfortunately, same bed, just further down a piece. As you can see, Mother Nature did it's required torching of the bed, leaving nothing but one or two flowers in its wake. Sun usually hits with full force on this side of the building and there usually isn't much in the way of shade that can save the flowers. Or the grass for that matter, as you can see a little bit of the browning that has been currently gripping our state for the better part of a couple of months now.

But....there is hope. Amongst all of those wiped out flower stalks, I found this single solitary flower, majestically and defiantly poking its head out from the floral carnage that surrounds it (sorry, been reading "To Hell And Back" by Audie Murphy this week. fantastic autobiography. if you liked the movie, you'll love the book. reissued by Henry Holt books)

And finally, two solitary white tulips. Standing majestically and proud, these bad boys were the one sign that this particular day was going to be a good day. Fortunately, the day turned out well. Unfortunately for the flowers, about week later, Mother Nature decided that they would be better off someplace else. The parking lot directly behind it, is connected to the apartment complex. That tree you see in the distance, marks the beginning of what a lot people feel (including myself) was a big waste of money by the town. The town chose to blow about $2 million dollars on repaving and redesigning the downtown public parking lot. But we'll nip that in the bud and save it for a future post elsewhere about small town politics.

Flora, Fauna, And Aminals (1)

So, as Monty Python would say, "Let's begin at the beginning."

As I've mentioned on numerous occasions, I work in the city. But that doesn't mean that there isn't any photo opportunities to speak of. Take my office building for example. As you can see, it's very much a one way outlook. Those on the inside can see out, and those on the out can't see in. This picture came about in an interesting way. I was sitting outside at a picnic table in the no-smoking area of the building (read: the entire complex is smoke free) during my morning break, when the reflection in the windows caught my eye once again. I say once again, because I'm always seeing cool reflections in the windows. This time though, I had my camera with me, so I thought I would try to get a shot of the reflection. As they say, nothing ventured nothing gained. The building in the reflection is one of many units of low-income housing that dot the streets where my office is located.

My lovely daughter Jenelle posing with two of the nearly three dozen (yes, proud poppa said three dozen) medals she's won for ice skating over the past five years or so. This was taken on the weekend, and I know this because all her competitions take place on the weekends. And yes, there are stuffed aminals in the window cheering her on.

Another pose, same area, which is the front yard. I say that based on the shadow on the swinging bench, this was taken in the early afternoon. The front porch that you'll see in the next picture, provides the shade that you see, right up until 6p, when the sun is finally over in the front of the house. People laugh, but on my side of the street, it isn't unusual to see snow in the front yard until early March.

Still yet another pose (yes, I was having a hard time coming up with photo opportunities that day). I will mention that for about three months in 2009, the front bench is where I did the bulk of my writing/blogging. However, as you can see, that thing was not made for comfort, so I skedaddled to the backyard deck and the backyard, and have been doing the bulk of my writing back there ever since. And before you ask, I used that chair next to the bench as a writing area as well. Screwed up my lower back while using those two implements to rest my delicate heiny on.

Walking as you know is one of my favorite pastimes. This is at the apex of my street looking east towards the mountain, which as you can see, is very much starting to show signs of life. One of the interesting things about this street is that the trees that you see dotting each side of the road, have not been touched by the local electrical utility. Not sure if you have something similar in your neck of the woods, but the almighty Connecticut Light & Power will trim/de-limb/destroy/decapitate any tree that happens to even remotely threaten the power line, whether due to old age, young age, damaged condition or healthier than MoveOn.org's hate of GWB.

Not sure why I took this pic. I probably should've gotten closer, but I do respect a person's property, so no trespassing was done to take this shot. But, I will venture a guess that the landscaping in the front had a lot to do with me taking this shot. In the distance, you can see a small weathervane/windmill and one of those funky blue balls that seem to be the rage in suburbia. The gentleman that owns this house is a very decent landscaper and during the various holidays throughout the year, has the yard tastefully decorated.