A Morning Surprise

Got up this morning and was out in the back yard.

Was somewhat surprised to find this…

Pretty,

But it's not supposed to be here.

This is an Apple Blossom!

It is the middle of August for cats sake.

I don't know what's going on here.

Even if this is climate change, it still doesn't make sense to me.

I mean, it's not springtime.

Actually, it's been quite hot around here.

But, theres not much point in puzzling on it now.

May as well just enjoy it.

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

AN Unexpected Upgrade

We've been having thunderstorms about every day lately.  It's good to have plenty of rain for the well and all.  

But there can be problems as well.

I had to go over to the home improvement store for some lightbulbs for my ceiling fan in the kitchen.

Ceiling fans are critical here in the summer in NC - especially without AC.

I had tried the light a couple days ago after a thunderstorm, but it wouldn’t light.   Fortunately, the fan still worked.  So that could have been worse.

I slid a chair over and climbed up to have a look.
When I opened it up to change the bulbs, one was dead and the other had blown up.

Lightning does these sorts of things.

The destroyed bulbs were special ceiling fan lights with those tiny little bases.

As one would expect, I didn’t have any of those.

Went over there today to find some, and got some LED replacements.

I kinda came out ahead in the affair.   

The originals were only 40W, the max allowed, which made the light annoyingly dim - since it is over the kitchen table.   

But the LEDs are “60s” or I suppose "the equivalent". 

Now there’s plenty of light.   

Yay!    

I like LEDs.

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

A River walk

All this hanging around the house has been getting pretty old.  And the lack of exercise isn't helping the tummy either.  So I got up off of my lazy butt, and went down to check out our little river trail again.

It had taken quite a beating in the flooding this spring.

I seem to Remember The Fuzz putting up a post about it at the time.

Since the Covid disaster, I have been neglecting to go much of anywhere.  This is probably due more to depression than any fear of someone sneezing around me.

Anyhow, it was time to get my little self up and out into nature again.

And the walking would do me some good, including for the depression.

Although it was no longer blocked off, apparently there is not much maintenance going on. 

The trail in was kinda overgrown.

The river was really pretty high - especially for this time of year.

Guess we're not in a drought along with everything else.

I had the place to myself.

I used to see a few walkers, joggers, and even some on bikes.

 Though I did eventually run into a guy with a fishing pole.

The area around the ill fated bridge was pretty overgrown.

You can see the remains in the center of this pix.

I've heard there was a grant of some kind to work on putting the bridge back together.

But of course the pandemic has disrupted things pretty badly.

There probably won't be any money for that now.  Let's face it, we have plenty of other problems these days.

But I did get to enjoy a bit of nature time.

Here's a view of one of my favorite places to stop and sit a bit.

I hope both of the followers of this blog are doing well.

As for myself, I think I will make more of an effort to get out in nature in the future.  I does wonders.

Take care

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

Saturday (Again)

Happy Saturday!

I like to have that very necessary cup of coffee out on the front porch.

The morning routine includes filling the bird feeders and scattering a bit of seed in the yard for the non-bird-feeder-guys, like doves etc.

Of course the squirrelly neighbors are quick to take advantage of this as well.

Oh well, what are you going to do?


Saturdays, pre-pandemic, used to be my day to go to town.
Not usually anything exciting, but just to hang out.
I would stop by the coffeehouse for something - maybe even one of those tasty moca-milkshakes they make.
Then just wander around.  Really there's not a whole lot to do in this town.  There might be something new at the Arts Center.  I could stop by a shop or something and visit.
And then head somewhere to see what was the current beer on tap.

But that's pretty much tanked for now.

Saturday is pretty much like every other day in these times.
Just hang out at the house, have some coffee, watch the squirrels and birdies.

I find myself wanting to just say "the hell with it!" and go uptown anyway.
But it seems that even this mostly rural area is becoming a Covid hotspot lately.
So I suppose that would be rather foolish, being in one of the theoretical high-risk groups.

The hard thing is that there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.  So what do we wait for to happen?
That's what I'm beginning to wonder.
I mean?……………

Just trying to hang in here,

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

Is it August already?

Well…

It seems that yet another month has passed.

I find myself wondering if life will ever get back to "normal," whatever that is.  It's getting harder to remember.  

Of course there is this new normal.

I confess I was a bit lazy this morning, and slept in just a bit.  But in my defense, I had been up past midnight face-timing.  That seems to be the only way to meet with people these days without the mask-distancing-stuff.

And then there was some laundry to get in off the line before it got rained on again.

We have been getting nearly daily showers lately.  On the downside, it does raise the humidity a bit.  But then the evenings do get cooled down a bit quicker with the storms.

And lastly, to bed.

I did finally get up though.

Fed the cat, washed up a little, and put on some of the clean clothes.

Then it occurred to me that I had never gotten around to checking the mail yesterday.  So I walked up to the road.

There was a really bad smell, that "something-is-dead-around-here" kind of smell.  Perhaps there are some who don't mind this - buzzards come to mind - but I've never been a fan.

I thought it must be coming from somewhere under the heavy bushes along the driveway.  But a thorough search turned up nothing but stink.

Well, what can you do? I wasn't really looking forward to finding it anyways.  So in one respect, it was a relief.

But of course, the essence of death was still in the air.

Stepping out into the road, the scent grew stronger, and its source became apparent.  In front of the neighbor's house there were the remains of a bunny-rabbit, beneath a heathy coating of maggots.

(I hope you appreciate the fact that I resisted posting a graphic illustration here)

Since said neighbors mostly stay inside under the AC these days I realized that it would fall to myself to take care of things, unless I wished to have to repress the gag reflex for the next few days.

Fortunately for me, this unfortunate creature had not reached the liquid stage yet, so the job, while unpleasant, was not difficult.

In a former life, I had always been one of those "essential workers," and this, also, was essential.

So with this unpleasantness out of the way, it was time for more hand-laundry, and then my daily session of doom-scrolling.

I suppose even in times like these, we develop a routine of sorts.

But something is going to have to give.

And since I promised The Fuzz that I wouldn't get into politics here, I'll leave off for now.

Y'all take care of yourselves…

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

Some Excitement

I've been going stir-crazy here lately.  So when my daughter suggested going over to the river for a dip, I decided to just go for it.

I hadn't been anywhere but the store in a long time - too long.

And it has been hot lately!

The original plan had called for grilling some Hot Dogs over there.  But the logistics were getting complicated, so we decided on going for a swim, and then doing the grill-thing back at the house.

With the heat, I had expected there to be a crowd over there.  That's normal for this time of year.  But there were surprisingly few folks out.

Perhaps they didn't want to be out in the heat.  Or maybe more people are deciding to actually stay at home like the governor suggested.

But since it was outdoors, and there seemed to be plenty of opportunity for social-distance, I figured it was worth a shot.

Turned out that it was easy to find a place we had to ourselves.

The river was pretty high.  There have been some pretty good rains in the area lately.  Of course with the rain, come mores humidity - another good reason for a dip.

The river felt wonderful for sure.

Got home and got the dogs grilled before the storm hit.

Sheesh.

Got 3in of rain, and knocked out the power for awhile.

But since we already had our grub, we were able to sit on the porch and watch the deluge.

The wind was pretty rough too.  I was kinda worried about the trees.

But no damage here.

Duke Power said there was a tree down on the powerline.

But the lights came back eventually.

Kind of an exciting day, really.

And a nice change.

Hang in there

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

The Year So Far

2020

Sounds good when it's your eyesight.

And they tell me that's what I have now, 20/20.

And this is a good thing.

The year 2020 started with finishing up my cataract surgeries.  But then just as life was beginning to return to normal, we began to get hints of a new crisis in the making.

At first, it seemed like nothing to worry too much about.

I mean, it was far away from home, and just seemed like something that would be dealt with.

There had been SARS, and then that Ebola stuff.  Admittedly dangerous, but the experts/professionals had been able to handle things - more or less.

Of course, we were mistaken.

Mistakes were made.

And now some world leaders seem more interested in blaming each other, than trying to do some damage control.

We really need damage control at this point.

It's hard to say what's next.

We have demonstrations in the streets, and there is an election coming.

Well, for what it's worth, the year is only half over.  So maybe it's too early to make a call on this Year of Our Lord, 2020.

On the other hand, 2020 is over half gone!

And so far I feel like I've spent it sitting here in this house.

I was kind of looking forward to starting over, after many (even extreme) changes in my life.  In many ways 2019 had been a confusing blur.  Now at last the light was beginning to break through.

Well, admittedly, things are different now.

But I just feel like I'm only marking time - waiting for something that's beginning to look like it's not going to happen.

And at my age, marking time doesn't seem like such a great thing.

It is depressing.

Seriously.

I'm sure this feeling is contributing to the general unrest and frustration in the country.

For now, I'm just waiting for something to break.

Hang in there friends, and be kind to each other.

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

Old School

Waiting

Still staying home for the most part.

But it is definitely getting old.

Actually, The Old North State seems to be one of the current hotspots for C-19 now.

I see where we are required to quarantine lately if we go to some other places.

Oh well.

But I don't actually need to go anywhere - except the occasional trip out for necessary supplies, like maybe the odd roll of toilet paper.

Mostly, it's just waiting, but for what?

It's like I keep waiting for something to happen…

Anything.

We all seem to be waiting for this to pass.

It's hard to not just say #@&% it, and go out and rip off the face mask.

Seems to be plenty of folks doing that already.

You start to think maybe a few sniffles would be better than this.

Of course that's not the reality of the situation.

Being on a ventilator doesn't hold a whole lot of attraction for me.

And then there is the aspect of contributing to spread of the crap.

So for now, it's just this waiting game.

Waiting

Waiting

Waiting…

For something to change.

So anyhow, let's have a happy pix for these frustrating times.

Some happy Day Lilies!

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

Mimosa

Mimosa:

"A mimosa cocktail is composed of champagne (or other sparkling wine) and chilled citrus juice, usually orange juice unless otherwise specified. It is traditionally served in a tall champagne flute at brunch, at weddings…"

However, that is not the subject at hand.

We are more concerned with these…

I've loved these things since the first time I saw one.  They seem (at least to me) to be almost tropical looking.

I don't remember them growing back in the Old Country.  But of course, that was years ago.

Really, there's a lot I don't remember from there.

But back to the subject at hand.

They grow pretty well around here - even into gigantic trees!

Well, maybe not gigantic, but still trees.

They're not particularly strong trees.  But they grow pretty fast.

In fact, not only fast, but everywhere.

If you get one established, which is not difficult, (it might even establish itself if there are any in the neighborhood) it (or its decedents) will be there for always.

But for my part I still love the feathery blooms and exotic looking foliage.

so here's a few more pix.

By the way…

It seems that the drink is named after an Astralian mimosa ( Acacia dealbata).

Still hanging in here

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

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Fungoid Fun

We've been having plenty of rain around here lately.  As a result, it's been tending a toward the damp side.  And damp lends itself to our Fungoid Friends.

I found this weird guy in the yard.

It always amazes me the variety of fungi one finds.

But I think this one is a first for me.

There was another strange one down in the back yard yesterday, but I was lazy and didn't get a shot at the time.

Big mistake.

When I went back today, it was gone - vanished without a proverbial trace.

You would think I'd learned my lesson by now.

If you want a pix - get it now!

Of course, some of us are just slow learners, very slow.

I wanted to use the excuse of being depressed from all this social distancing.

But really…

How hard is it to carry a camera into the yard and touch the shutter?

But that's a thing about depression.  It doesn't always seem logical.

On the plus side, the garden is supplying lettuce and kale for salad now.

And there are a few of these guys on the way!

There's nothing like fresh vine ripened tomatoes to brighten one's day…

And of course one's dinner!

Anyhow…

I do want to apologize for missing an interesting pix.

I would promise to do better in the future.

However…

I don't like to make promises that I'm unlikely to keep.

But, here is one more fungoid pix to make up for the missing ones.

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

P. S. Here's a little something extra regarding fungi.

Still Here etc… etc.

It's been a couple weeks since we've posted here.

But not much has changed.

I mean, I could be a bit more depressed than before… but maybe not.

Is there a depression scale somewhere?

Maybe on facebook.  They seem to have all kinds of ways to rank yourself, or determine exactly which kind of crazy you are.

Lately there seems like a lot of political crap.

I seem to have "friends" on both ends of the political spectrum.  But I'd prefer to keep Kinda Fuzzy out of the toxic politics.

Time is passing.

I just realized that 2020 is approaching it's midpoint.

Well… maybe we still have a month to go. But there's already been months in limbo, at least for me.

Time seems irrelevant now.

But the depression is real enough.

I frequently wonder what's the point in getting out of bed in the morning.

But one can only sleep so much.

So this is Memorial Day Weekend!

We had a family camp-out planned, but that kinda got canceled awhile back.

And so, it's just more of the same.

Last week I did go out and visit a friend.  They live way up in the country so I suppose it was relatively safe.  Anyway, we just sat on the porch at an appropriate social distance and talked.

That was nice though.

But summer is here.

There are a few things in the garden.  I can get greens for my salad now.  But the weird weather made some of the lettuce bolt already.  And the Napa cabbage as well.

But these guys are a nice treat for the eyes.

Planted them a few years ago, but, I don't remember what they are called.

Some kind of Lily I would think.

During the afternoon, the fragrance fills the yard.

So perhaps there is hope for us yet.

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

Zombies ?

A couple of weeks ago - or more… maybe… I don't really remember, I found a dead possum by the road in front of the house.

That was nothing unusual, of course.  This fellow had made the classic possum mistake of trying to cross the road… unsuccessfully, as is common.

While I have heard that there are people who think they are cute little things, I am not one of them.

(Used to have problems with them getting into the henhouse)

Consequently, I was not terribly sympathetic.  However, being quite dead, and right in front of my house, it would only be a matter of time until I would be unable to ignore it.  To make matters more inconvenient, it was a rather large fellow.

There was nothing to do but get out the shovel and go to work.

I managed to keep a reasonably sunny disposition as I prepared the grave.  After all, one less possum in the world could hardly be a bad thing overall.

Knowing that there are more, and worse things, prowling the darkness I made sure to add a cement block in way of a tombstone.

With this crazy "stay-at-home-stuff" going on now, it has become necessary to hand-wash undies and other stuff to avoid the laundromat.  And, while walking down to the clothesline with a basket of the unmentionables, I discovered this!

It seems that some loathsome creature of the night had paid a visit, and tunneled under the headstone, to indulge in a disgusting act of grave-robbing.

Is nothing sacred?

At least this is what I hope has happened.

The alternative is too terrifying to contemplate.

Could it be possible that an undead possum, clawed it's way from the grave, and is even now, wandering forrest and field as a terrifying

Zombie Possum!!?

Perhaps I should sleep with a garlic charm from now on - just to play it safe!

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

A Brief Outing

Again, it's been over a week now since I've been anywhere.

Well no…

Strictly speaking I have been somewhere.  It's just the same place… constantly.

I mean, "here" is "somewhere"to be accurate about it.

(for all you literal minded folks)

But some supplies were beginning to run low.  So it was time to go out into the wide and dangerous world.

I had been working on a list, adding to it from time to time.  There had been a few times I had almost gone out, but figured I could get by for another day.  And "another day" became another, and so on.

So, I got out my little face-mask and…

The neighborhood grocery store was uncrowded, compared to the beginning of this lockdown-thing.  People were busy stocking the shelves with what they still had.  The meat section was pretty picked over - a whole lot of emptiness there.  But there was plenty of bread this time.

But still no toilet paper!

This is a strange thing.  I don't really get it myself.

Are people wiping their butts more now than before?

Maybe trying to do a better job or something?

I have a reliable source reporting that they have seen, here in America, a neighbor's garage piled with mounds of TP!

This is just wrong.

As for myself, I'll get by.

Awhile back, I purchased something online.  Ever since, I have received a weekly catalogue, like a hard-copy type.  Got quite a pile by now.  So, if worse comes to worse, I can always go "old-school" on that.  After all, here, plumbing is not an issue.

And there is a positive development.

It seems that Preying Mantises are fond of "Murder Hornet's" brains! - Like for munchies.

I saw it on the internet, so it must be true.

We need to encourage more immigration of mantises.

Dang.
Just realized I forgot the orange juice.

Just trying to make the best of things…

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

It Just Goes On and On

Welp…

Still here, but feeling on the edge.

I'll admit it, this Stay at Home business is getting to me.  It's getting hard to get up in the morning.  Just doesn't seem to be much point - unless nature is calling.  That will do it.  I'm just not quite to the point where that wouldn't be enough.

Let's face it.  There are times when a good BM is the high point of the day.  And that seems like lately.

I'm just depressed, I suppose.

Nothing to do but wonder about every little "symptom"I think I notice.

Went out to the outhouse awhile ago.  There was a snake in there - harmless I realize.  But I just have this thing about snakes.

Now, I'm not sure where it's hiding in there.

This should be one of those "out of sight - out of mind" things.

But it doesn't really work like that in this case.

I'm afraid this might take some of the enjoyment out of that morning BM.

I know I should just forget about it.  I'm sure it's been there all along.

And yet…

Depression.

It's not that there is nothing to do.  There's plenty of work in the yard.  And that's not off limits.  The house needs a bunch of work too.  There are sewing projects, and just cleaning up a bit.  There is some writing I need to finish up.

I did make myself go out and do some weeding in the garden.

And felt the better for it.

That should be telling me something.

I realize I'm actually lucky.

If I were in New York, I'd probably be in a bodybag by now.

And I do have family.  They're just not here.

There's no one to talk to.

I do have conversations with Jandi.

They are getting more frequent.

Depression.

And then…

there is that snake.

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎