Post amended to include two more photos at the end!

This beauty is now blooming in my sun room. It was gifted to me three years ago by my neighbor, Aileen. Somehow I’ve managed to coax it into re-blooming for me two years in a row. I really didn’t think it was going to bloom this year!

I tried several different angles, lenses, and views against the greenish-yellow of the walls. If I used the flash it made the walls look white, which I did not want. I shot most of these raw on shutter priority. I had to boost the exposure in iPhoto, but other than that they are like they came from the camera. I used my big telephoto lens, my normal lens and the LensBaby for the close-ups. I think I took about 50 photos and scrapped around 35 of them. These are the ones I think came out best for what I was going for.

More...

Here is an odd and random selection of photos that I’ve taken over the past couple of weeks.

1. Reflected trees in my pool.

2. & 3. Tree fungi.

4. “X” marks the spot. (I actually like lens flare!)

5. Inside of a tulip. (store-bought and not growing in my yard)

Let’s face it. Men go through a mid-life crisis just like women. With one difference. Woman go through menopause and put up with it. Men either get a mistress or a sports car. I still don’t know what women get.

Lately Rick has been talking “sports car.” Well, actually since we arrived in New Jersey I’ve been getting the “wouldn’t it be nice to” (have a convertible) speech. Lots and lots of convertibles here! You don’t see them that much back in Colorado and I’m not sure exactly why. Like swimming pools: lots here; not so much back there. The season is about the same, so it’s a mystery to me.

The other day on the way to the Great Falls I was talking to neighbor Kim about how Rick had called me up out of the blue and said he’d been down to the Mazda dealer looking at Miatas. He wanted me to drop by on our way back from the falls to look at a 2009 that they could make a good deal on. We joked about the sports car vs. mistress thing.

Kim had words of wisdom for me. She said:
“Well, if you let him choose the mistress then you might lose him to the mistress AND the mistress will probably let him have the car too.”
Good point.

Over the past few days we’ve been talking a lot about the pros and cons. Kim has been a big help. First, I heard from Rick that as we were leaving the dealership she gave him a double “thumbs up” behind my back. Then when I went back to Great Falls with Rick the following day so he could see them, she sent me an email that said something like “How convenient that the Mazda dealership is on the way back. Better take that checkbook!” Then today she sent Rick (and not me) an email saying “what a beautiful day to be out tooling around in a tiny sport car…” Isn’t she a big help? Well, it was a beautiful SPRING day (which arrived today at around 1:30 p.m.) with 70 degree weather and sunshine.

I am sorry to report that Rick chose the mistress. She’s younger than me. She is certainly a lot more agile than me. She is sassy. She is always ready to go. She always wears red.

Meet Mia.

Okay, Rick, when did you say you were going away on that business trip so I can drive her?

P.S. This is not the I-can-give-you-a-good-deal-on 2009 model we first looked at. Of course not.

Imagine in your mind, if you will, a dinner party without a table.

On Sunday we were hosting a dinner party. We had ordered a cassoulet “kit” from D’Artagnan and had invited a few friends we knew would enjoy eating duck + duck fat, beans, and sausage. A real peasant’s meal!

Let me preface by saying our dining room table is old. If not antique, very vintage. We’ve owned it since 1985 and it was vintage/antique then. Made of quarter-sawn oak, it truly is beautiful. But, it’s Queen Anne style legs are very fragile. Rick has had to bolster two out of the four legs up over the years to keep the old girl in service.

We were putting the extra leaf in the table when it happened. Even though we were being very careful how we moved the table (one of the legs had been a bit wobbly for a few years), when I set the table back down on its legs, the wobbly one split and fell off. Oh dear. In case it hasn’t occurred to you, having a table with only three legs does not work well for dinner parties of six people. With guests due in two hours we had several choices.

1) Try to fix the table leg by gluing it and hoping it held.
2) Stack up books on that end of the table to take the place of the leg.
3) Eat Japanese style on the floor.
4) Bring up the table from the basement that used to be in our kitchen in Colorado that we haven’t used in four years.

Gluing the leg didn’t really seem like much of an option. Two hours is not much time to try and do something like that. I saw the scene playing out in my head something like this. Everyone sitting down to a beautifully laid table. Rick bringing in the heavy cast iron pot of cassoulet and setting it down on the table for ease of family-style serving. The minute the pot of cassoulet hits the table that’s the last straw for the quick-fix table leg (or stack of books) and everything goes crashing to the floor (including the guest sitting closest to the leg). So now not only do we have a broken table, but nothing to eat or eat off of either since everything is now on the floor in a pile of broken shards, beans, and duck legs.

Erase that scene from your mind because it didn’t happen. We chose option No. 4 which was not without it’s own set of difficulties.

First we had to get the broken table down to the basement. Did I mention above that Rick had fixed two of the legs previously? He fixed them so sturdily that they do not come off anymore. No way. And, this old table is extremely wide so it was not going to fit down the stairs to the basement without the legs coming off. Just not happening. So, out the front door we went with our cumbersome and sad broken table, through the gate to the back yard, down through the yard to the basement door and into the basement where she awaits surgery sometime in the far off future.

Here you can see one leg that’s been reinforced and the broken one.

I love that table. {sniff sniff}

Next, we had to get the other table out of the basement and upstairs to the dining room. First I had to remove the boxes that were being stored on top of it and create a path around it. It’s big. It’s heavy. Heavier than the other table. A good sturdy farmhouse style table. All I can say is it’s a good thing the legs come off this one and it could be moved up the basement stairs instead of around the yard and into the front door. Even though it was only the top it was just too heavy for me to lift, so we had to enlist the help of neighbor Mark across the street (who just happened to be one of our anticipated guests).

Soon we had the legs back on the table, the table set and ready for guests, and near disaster diverted.

The dinner party that almost wasn’t turned into the dinner party that was.

The “new” look for the dining room.

Daffodils breaking ground today.

Lots to say. Just no words. In case anyone was worried about us with all the press about flooding in New Jersey and, more particularly, Wayne (where Rick works) we are safe, sound and dry. The same can’t be said for our neighbors, or those “down the mountain” from us. Let me just say that it’s mostly downhill from our house to the Atlantic Ocean. Wayne is at the confluence of three rivers, plus they are really low in elevation. Rick had an interesting drive in to work today taking alternate routes as many roads were closed due to flooding and downed trees.
Anyway ...

The heavens opened up and we got 3.5 inches of rain from Friday night into Sunday noon-ish. Add into that the melting snowpack we had from almost two weeks earlier and you have saturated ground and water with nowhere to go. Our yard is smooshy and gooshy. The dogs don’t even want to be out and laying on that damp junk. Who would? Trust me; it’s gross.

The skunk cabbage seems to be in its element though. Mother Earth is stirring. We can only hope she doesn’t drown as it’s still raining a little.

I promise, much more to come.