Old Bear, New Bear

The Original Next Door Bear

 

For those of you wondering, the Bear emerged from the fire unscathed. The neighbor’s garage went up in flames, but the Bear survived without a mark. A true ursine miracle. So, he is still there, in the wilds of suburban Connecticut, in all his glory. He continues to mark every season, holiday, and world event with his own brand of style. And I will continue to visit periodically if only to keep up with the season's fashion.

Obviously, since I moved, I no longer live next door to the Bear. I was feeling a little lost until I came upon this guy for sale. When I saw this face, I knew I had to rescue him. He looked like a good listener. And he is. 

Dubya times two

When I got him home and looked at him closely, I saw a distinct resemblance to George W. Bush. He’s got that same goofy, confused wince to his expression. 

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce… Dubya. 

I love having him here and talk to him daily. He’s a constant reminder that even though I have strong opinions and sometimes see things in black and white, given the right context, I am fully capable of changing my mind. 

For example – I did not vote for Bush#2 and when he was POTUS I generally regarded him as the WORST PRESIDENT EVER. 

And now… looking back… Damn, I miss him.

A Suburban Murder Mystery

The Front Yard Bunny

So last week I caught a rabbit red-handed eating my beans. So I went out and bought a gate for the garden and sprayed everything with my homemade garlic-hot-pepper-Ivory-Soap spray. 

A few days later, I found a dead rabbit in the back yard. I don't know if someone poisoned it - some of the neighbors use chemicals in their gardens - or maybe a predator hurt it - maybe it got hit by a car and dragged itself into the yard to die. I'm not even sure it's the same rabbit I've seen in the yard every day. 

All I know is that it was dead. Dead as a doornail. 

I disposed of the corpse but I was concerned that now I'd have baby bunnies starving to death in the yard. I considered leaving food around the deck but feared I'd attract every deer, fox and coyote for miles.  Who would probably eat the baby bunnies. Bad idea. 

The next morning as I was leaving for work, I saw an adult bunny hopping across the front yard. 

Now we have a mystery. 

Who was the victim? Was it the Dad Bunny?  I didn't get close enough to check, but it looked bigger than the one I normally see in the front yard. 


Do I have more than one Bunny Family?

Perhaps this was not a sad happenstance of natural selection. Perhaps the late Bunny was a casualty of an on-going vicious turf war between the front yard Bunnies and the back yard Bunnies. 

Some scary shit goin' down here in Suburbia. 

Bear Nekkid Bird Sanctuary

SF Homes in Wooded Setting

When I was a new bride, I was a collector. For some reason, I felt compelled to accumulate groups of things - handcrafted things like birdhouses and hand-thrown pottery. Pretty things but not particularly useful and a pain in the ass to keep free of dust. Luckily, I have the attention span of gnat so these collections never grew to the hundreds or thousands, just enough (I thought) to make a statement.

Until recently, the birdhouses were displayed above my kitchen cabinets. Since Sparky retired, we've been doing a lot of work on the house and the yard and I've been in this "Re-use, Recycle or Dump" mode. In my zeal to de-clutter the house as we renovate,  some items have migrated outdoors.

The shade gardens in front of the house needed... something.

As you know, we New Englanders love us some yard ornaments. Yes indeedy, we do.

So rather than go the way of flamingos and Mary-on-the-halfshell, I decided to relocate the birdhouses outdoors.  We mounted the houses on some beautiful old weathered fence posts and I have to admit, I'm pretty pleased with the way they turned out.

Bird Condos -  Great Amenities, Low HOA Fees

Now, I didn't actually expect birds to use these since they're placed so close to the house.  My thought was that they would be purely decorative. The birds, however, had other ideas. Someone is currently renovating this Bait Shack directly in front of my Living Room window.

Cozy Single Family - Under Renovation

I came home one day last week and found a Chickadee about to enter the birdhouse with a bright blue string clutched in her beak.  Since I love to decorate, I decided to help her with the reno project. I pulled out my knitting bag and tied scraps of bright purple and blue yarn to various trees in the yard.

Apparently, Mistress Mother Nature is pleased because the next day, I was gifted with this:

Another single perfect bloom

Although, someone else is NOT so happy because I found the corpse of a baby bird on the top rail of my garden fence.  I felt like the guy in The Godfather who found the horse's head in his bed. I suspect it's the Subterranean Pythons...

This is war.

Dragons, Gargoyles and Pink Flamingos...

Le Garden - en mulch

We seem to be slipping into a gardening frenzy here. The garden is all neatly fenced, raised beds full of tomatoes, peppers, squash and beans - red mulch on the outside, brown mulch on the insides. Blueberries are in pots on a bed of red mulch under a cage to keep the birds away.



Blooooooooberries!

Today, Sparky and I went mulch shopping and stopped in a garden shop full of concrete figurines. We "oohed" and "ahhhed" over the dogs, angels, lions and birds, dragons and gargoyles, the gazing balls and even some lawn jockeys (who knew they still sold those?) ... but then, we stopped ourselves.

Thank Goodness.

Here in New England, the addiction to lawn ornaments is an epidemic. It's a slippery slope from one cute concrete gnome to Mary-On-The-Halfshell and Pink Flamingos.

 Our house is surrounded by solar lights and (are you sensing a theme here? ) red mulch.  I'm thinking we can skip the chatchkes for now.

Although, there's room in the back yard for a Koi pond...

50 Shades of Green

Some people picture Mother Nature as a benevolent, loving Earth-mother hippie chick. Not me, I see her more like this:

Yes, Mistress

She is a harsh Mistress. We live on her planet. Our purpose here is to serve Nature.  

Some people have this misguided idea that they can control Nature. Take for example, my neighbor - the Ninja Gardener.   She spends enormous amounts of time and energy mowing and planting and weeding and watering and weed-whacking and fertilizing… and yet, her lawn still looks like a brown and yellow patchwork quilt.

Other “suburbians” pay exorbitant prices for lawn services in their quest for perfect green-ness.  A huge truck comes to your home weekly and full grown lawn gnomes spill out and spray a chemical soup on your grass and then disappear. They leave behind tiny white flags and a lawn that looks like Astroturf.  

Not me. I have accepted Mother Nature’s dominance over me. I embrace the dandelions and in return, she scatters my yard with violets and 4 leaf clovers, and later in the summer – wild strawberries.

It took me a while to get it. When we first bought this house, I planted a columbine in the front yard, but it didn’t take. I planted another one in that same perfect, shady spot the next year, but it died within a month. I tried a third year, same result. (OK, so I’m persistent) Then, I gave up. And that same spring … a beautiful pink columbine sprouted through the concrete between the stones on my front walk. I’ve tried to dig it up, but it persistently comes back every year, bigger and more vigorous than the year before.

She wants it HERE

I take this as a direct message from Mother Nature. “Surrender, Fool – Resistance is futile.”

Last year, I didn’t do any yard work. Didn’t clean out the flowerbeds, didn’t weed… and the Dogwood tree in the front yard didn’t blossom.  This year, I’ve been diligently caring for the yard… and look.

My Dogwood Tree :)

But now I’ve got to cover my petunias.

There are little white flags on the lawn across the street.

The Weatherman is predicting frost tonight.

Some folks never learn.