Stuff for Friday

I thought I would post a time-wasting Coffee Break this morning to help your Friday go a bit faster, and perhaps give you a little kickstart for your weekend...

 
The first item should really be a post for a Monday morning.  This is a very funny video of Foozie, who just does NOT want to wake up from that nap.  I can identify with that...

Via Yahoo Video

The Inexplicable Sign of the Week--this one from Clearwater, FL--isn't actually hard to understand.  Though...does it make any sense really..??  Are men being warned that a wave could moosh their...ah...manly bits..??  Shouldn't they know that already without a large sign..??

This is good.  Apparently a child drew this picture of her mother at work.  Unfortunately, it looks so much like the mother is getting paid to pole dance, the mother felt compelled to explain it to the teacher.  (Click on the drawing to make it larger if you can't read it properly.)

Via Oddee

And last but not least, here's an interesting educational tidbit.  I am, and always will be, a tree hugger, so when I find exotic or amazing trees, I have to share.  This is a very cool tree called the Cannonball Tree; you would have to be extremely careful to stand underneath it.  Follow the link to see more photos, including the tree's beautiful flowers.

Via Kurio

That's all I've got for the Coffee Break today.  Have a good weekend everybody...

R.I.P. Riley

I heard from my ex-partner, Art, last night that our Jack Russell, Riley had passed away.  He had reached the grand old age of 16-1/2 years, but even knowing his days were surely numbered, it's heartbreaking that he's gone.  Most devastating for Art, as he and Riley were inseparable for all those years, and Riley was truly his best friend and sidekick.  I hope he's now cavorting and running happily in Doggy Heaven with Wes--my sister/bro-in-law's dog and Riley's brother--who passed away three years ago.

Riley was a wonderful, loving companion.  He will be missed more than I can say.

Landscaping and Lizards

I took some photos yesterday afternoon of the front yard.  Yikes, what have we done..??  Just kidding...it's great to start with a clean canvas, so to speak.  Matthew has saved many of the pines, and several shrubs we wanted to keep; their root balls are now encased in burlap to await the transplanting.

Here are some before and after shots...

 

Fairly dramatic difference.  The only plants still in the ground--besides the Birch trees and the Pine--are the Rhodies by the front deck.

 

Looks pretty barren and awful, doesn't it..??  Oh well, with any luck and a lot of skill from Matthew, this will be an amazing transformation in a few months.  Today he's been busy hauling all the discarded shrubs and debris to the dump, but I think later this afternoon he's going to level the front in preparation for the stone wall.  Rusty, the sidekick, is on holiday for the rest of the week, so I'm not too sure how much Matthew will be able to do on his own.  Still, they have already made such a difference, I really can't wait to see what happens next.

Late in the afternoon yesterday, I was out on the front deck when the guys shouted up to me that if I wanted a photo of the Alligator lizard, they had just found another one.  (And good grief..!!  How many of these darned things are there in the garden..???)  Thankfully, this one was small--at least half the size of the one earlier in the day--though its tail was (**shudder**) so long and snake-like it still made my skin crawl.  The sun was blazing, so the wee lizard was just lazing about and didn't seem mean or nasty like the bigger ones.  Frankly, if they didn't get larger than this, I would be very happy.  Too bad I saw the Komodo Dragon one first...

 

For perspective, the body on this one was about 4-5 inches long, but yuck, the tail was double that.  Just imagine the Komodo I saw in the morning with a body about a foot long, then add in that horrific snaky 50-foot tail.  Okay, okay...maybe not exactly 50 feet, but you weren't there so you have to trust me when I say:  It was long, it was gross, and it creeped me out.  It was like a snake attached to a lizard.   

EEEeeeewwwwww.  Enough already.  I can't type with my knees up around my chin.

February Tuesday...

I changed the Meandering photo this morning, though might change it again.  I'm not sure.  I couldn't find the exact picture I wanted for February, though with the month being so short, maybe I'll just leave these twinkling little dew drops.

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Wow, the front garden looks totally...strange.  Matthew and Rusty have taken out all the juniper bushes, and today are painstakingly removing the small pines in hopes they can be transplanted.  It's very cool to have the crap shrubs gone, though a big dirt mound for a front yard isn't too attractive.  Still, even just dirt is better than the ugly scrub.

One interesting thing, though sort of creepy.  Yesterday Alan watched both guys leaning into one of the juniper bushes they had just ripped out of the ground with the tractor.  Then Rusty jumped back, Matthew grabbed a shovel, picked something up and flung it across the road and over the embankment.  Curious.

Later in the afternoon I was outside and asked them what that had been all about.  Turns out they had unearthed a slumbering Alligator lizard.  What..??  Matthew calmly tells me it's a local lizard that looks like a baby alligator.  What..??  He goes on to say they like burrowing--for the Winter--in thick bushes like the juniper.  I ask if they are poisonous--I have to think of the dogs...right..??  Rusty says they are very aggressive and will bite, but aren't poisonous, hence why he jumped away from it.  Matthew smiles and says, "He (the lizard) was pretty angry at being kicked out of his home."  I make the mistake of asking how big it was...thinking a little Gecko-type size.  Matthew says (too casual for my taste), "Oh, it was just a small one, about 8 inches."  Holy Reptile, Batman..!!

This morning, I'm walking in the field next to the house for the dogs' early constitutional, and Matthew waves me over.  Crap.  It's another lizard they have dug up from the final juniper bush.  And yes, it looks exactly like an alligator.

Two photos to prove my point, taken from a search on Wikipedia.  I think the bottom picture especially resembles an alligator.

 

Unfortunately for me, the one I saw this morning was about a foot long.  Seriously.  A flaming foot, if it was an inch...and very ticked off that it had been made homeless.  If I hadn't been so creeped out, I would have thought to grab my camera.  It was all I could do not to climb onto the tractor shrieking like a girl.  So far, they have found three, and chucked them over the road, hopefully to find new digs elsewhere.

I really appreciate that the guys didn't kill them; after all, lizards have as much right to live as the rest of us.  But I also like that they were...ah...relocated.  With any luck, they don't have a homing instinct and will scuttle right back here to slay me in my bed to build a new home once things have settled down.

Later today, after the guys leave for the day, I will take some photos of the decimated yard.  I'm really looking forward to the stone wall getting built as that will separate us from the road; right now I feel like we're sitting on it.  They have done a huge amount of work in just a couple of days, so it shouldn't be too long before the tearing apart becomes the rebuilt.  Woo hoo.

And so it begins...

Misty morning on the mountain, and Matthew and crew have shown up for Day One of the major landscaping renovations.  They are taking out the crap shrubbery, then (I think) they will start on the stone wall along the road.  We are salvaging some of the smaller pine shrubs and transplanting them to the back, though Matthew said he would have to check out the root balls once they're out of the ground to see if they would survive the move.  It would save us some money if that works since we were going to have to buy some pines for the back anyway.  We'll have to wait and see how that plan works out.

Matthew--on the bright orange tractor/digger--and Rusty, the sidekick, starting the very first rending of shrubbery. 

I'm really glad this process has begun, though I fear it will be a very long two months.  The amount of work seems overwhelming to me, but Matthew said he's been looking forward to this project for months.  Go figure.

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Here are the answers to yesterday's quiz:

First set of three photos...

Photo #1:  Glendevon, Perthshire, Scotland

Photo #2:  Idaho, on the road from Twin Falls to Oregon

Photo #3:  Mountain pass on the Eisenhower Highway, heading to Ogden, Utah
 

Amazing really, how similar the landscapes are.

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The second set of photos...

Photo #1:  The Columbia River, along the Gorge, taken on the Oregon side

Photo #2:  Loch Ness, taken from the Dores side of the loch, Scotland
 

Photo #3:  The Columbia River, on the Washington side

How did everyone do on the quiz..??  I still can't get over how thousands of miles can separate the geology of these areas, and yet they have an uncanny resemblance to each other.  Very cool.

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And so, with the buzz of chainsaws in the air as the shrubs are taken out, I will get on with the day.  I can't wait to see the last of those wretched juniper bushes and will happily take some photos later of where they used to be.  Stay tuned...

Sunday Quiz

I was going through all my digital photos yesterday looking for my new Meandering main photo for February.  I have well over 2,000--covering the last four years--from Scotland, Italy, London, and all across America.  As I'm tripping down Memory Lane, I realize that though our world is incredibly diverse, the geology and/or geography is also startlingly similar.  I looked at a photo of Scotland that compared to another of Utah; another from Scotland looked like Oregon. 

So.  Let's take a short quiz.  Can you tell where these photos originated..??

I'll give you a hint.  Below are three photos:  Idaho, Scotland and Utah...not necessarily in that order, of course.  Can you identify which picture belongs to which place..??

 

 

Second part of the quiz.  These three are Oregon, Washington and Scotland...again, not in any particular order.

Interesting how alike they are, isn't it..??  I'll post the answers tomorrow.

I got so sidetracked with the similarity photos, I forgot to find my Meandering main picture.  Oh well, I still have until Tuesday, February 1st.  And wow, how fast did the long and dreary month of January fly by..??  Though, I have to say, for the first time ever--except when I lived in Hawaii--January wasn't dreary at all, but wonderfully pleasant and sunny.  The weather folks here are referring to it as Juneuary, and it's true.  Such warm, unexpectedly great weather has been an amazing blessing.

I'll leave you with a smile from this video about not judging; what you see may not be what is.  It's just a little something to think about on a Sunday morning...

Via flixxy

Saturday Stuff

Yesterday was another really brilliant sunny day.  I can't get over this weather...in January.  Alan and I were talking about it, as we walked the dogs in the park in our shirtsleeves.  I said I couldn't remember such great weather at this time of year; Alan--born and raised in Edinburgh--said he'd never experienced anything like it in his life.  The mornings start off misty/foggy, then by lunch it's clear blue skies and actual hot sunshine.  Amazing, really.

Matthew, the landscaper, called all the utility companies on Thursday, and three of the four came out yesterday to mark off where all the underground stuff is.  We now have a rainbow of dots and marks--one color per utility--all over the front yard.  The electricity people haven't shown yet, though they should come sometime today.  I like that there are no wires and poles aboveground to mar the natural environment of the mountain; it was interesting to see where things are below the ground, too.  I think, regardless of the landscaping to come, it's good to know where all these things are located.

Alan's Italian Creme birthday cake turned out pretty good.  It's a complicated recipe, though not hard to follow.  The cake texture is dense, though moist, and very rich with the--oh, yum, yum--frosting.  It was a good choice for something different.

Not much going on today, other than waiting for the mist to clear, and taking the dogs for their afternoon walkies.  It looks like a laid-back Saturday coming up...my favorite.

In closing, I want to post this great cartoon I found.  This is exactly how I feel about the crap surrounding the Mayan calendar's 2012 Apocalypse-Doomsday-Armageddon-End of the World scenario...

Via Miss Cellania

For me, this makes more sense than what the doom and gloom folks are ranting on about.  Course, I could be wrong.  In which case, I'd best go enjoy my Saturday and not waste whatever time I have left thinking about anything but sunshine and relaxation.  I'll leave the prophetic nonsense to others.

Foggy Friday

We are totally locked in with fog this morning.  Somewhere down there is Roseburg.  I guess, with the really warm weather during the day and the cold at night, the two have met in the middle and produced this:

It's not often we are encased in fog and mist, up here on the mountain.  Usually we're above it, though not today.  I love how the gnarly Oak trees look so mysterious and eerie, especially this one, directly across the road from my study window.

Hopefully, by this afternoon, it will have burned away.  It's getting brighter by the minute, so I know the sun is up there somewhere trying to break through. 

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Here's my not-so-good video of the current landscaping.  It's pretty jiggly as I was trying to keep my footing in some dicey parts, though you can basically get the drift of how crappy the yard is around the house.  As usual, I will bore everyone senseless with photos and videos as the work progresses.  I'm hoping this landscape deal won't turn out as endless and ungratifying as the blasted garage floor--which is still not right, but we won't go there right now.

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That's about all I've got time for this morning.  It's Alan's birthday today and I'm making him an Italian Creme Cake for the event.  I haven't made it before, so it will be interesting to see what a mess how it works out.  I really shouldn't experiment like this on the very day I need things to go well, but there you go...life in the fast lane.

Have a good Friday, people.

Birthdays and Beauty

Today is Ozzy's 8th birthday.  Wow, where has the time gone..??  Now that he's been peeled like a grape, he actually looks younger than his age.  More like a fuzzy Papillon puppy than a grown man-dog.  At least one thing about hair...it always grows back.  (Well...sorry Alan...except in your case.)  Mwah hahaha.

Here's a great shot of the Birthday Boy this morning, pink toy stuffed in his mouth, ready to play.  I think he's getting used to being scalped, or at least he doesn't mind so much since the weather has been so incredibly warm and toasty.

And, speaking of the weather.  I was sitting at the computer earlier, the sun just breaking over the horizon, the mist thick over Roseburg, and as I glanced out the window, this was what I could see:

So beautiful, isn't it..??  I went out to the front deck, just to admire the view, and discovered the Birch trees were covered in sparkling drops of dew.  Of course, I had to try to get some pictures.  It looked like the branches were covered in little twinkling fairy lights.  My photos don't do justice to the actual, but still, you can almost see what I mean.

Two macro shots...

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Matthew (the landscaper) has just left after a run-through of what will be happening over the next two months.  I love his vision of the changes, though am still having a hard time truly seeing it.  I can't seem to get beyond the ugly now, to see the beautiful later.  I did a video of the landscaping yesterday, and will post it tomorrow.  It's not great, but will do for the "before".  Let's just cross our fingers that the "after" lives up to expectations--though as I've already said, nearly anything will be better than how things look at the moment.

Absolutely stunning day today.  The mist is lifting in the valleys--though we have been above it all morning--and the sun is shining and warm.  I need to get motivated so we can get the dogs out for their walkies.  And, hey...Happy Birthday, Oz...!!!

Last Phase

The landscape guy, Matthew, called this morning and the last phase of the outdoor renovations are set to begin on Monday.  **Deep, mournful sigh**  I would much rather spend the money on doing stuff inside the house, but as this is the last task for the outside work, we might as well get it over with.

I will try to take a Before video, not only to show how bad the yard is (remember the Path of Doom..??), but to document the changes.  It's to take two months...ugh...though by Spring everything should be done and dusted, and we will have a totally new look.  In theory.  We are also having a drip irrigation system put in, instead of the water-wasting sprinkler system that marginally works now; this will help conserve water in the blazingly hot Summer months.

We will be getting a stone wall along the road in front of the house, then a stone pathway leading through the front yard to the back deck--now a slanting slope of ankle-breaking danger; the Path of Doom off the back deck will be stone steps leading down to the lower area where we are having a new lawn put in for the dogs.  Right now it's pretty much scrub grass and weeds. 

The landscaping at the moment is minimalist, and littered with hodge podge stop-gaps of random bricks, stones, and what looks like scrap materials collected from a junk yard.  The elderly couple who owned the house did absolutely nothing to change or improve things, so in effect the yard is about 15 years beyond neglect.  **Another deep, mournful sigh**

I'm having trouble visualizing all the changes, though regardless how it turns out, anything is better than how it looks now.  Matthew and crew will remove most of the dead and/or dying shrubbery from the front, and the sad, dead Oak tree skeleton in the side yard, then when we get to the end of all this, we will get new trees and plants.  Matthew assures me we can find things the deer won't eat.  Mostly.  Hopefully.  

Course, I'm doomed for the vegetable garden I wanted, and won't be able to recreate the gloriously beautiful garden we had in Edinburgh, but whatever.  I guess it's a "when in Rome" situation really.  The deer aren't going anywhere, and it makes no sense to plant fodder for them.

So, in closing, let me reminisce for a moment on what was, and will never be again...the garden in Edinburgh.  Blasted wildlife...