A Room in Brooklyn

My rummage sale poster without some of the glare of yesterday's though the woman is still obscured

The original as it hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Not sure if it was converted to a lithograph and then printed in different colors or what. The new colors match my room...

flower basket in early morning light

Watched Tess and Oliver for a while. Will publish Oliver's photo later as he is holding a surprise for his mom



More early morning flowers They open once they are in the sun for a while

Turns out I was wrong in thinking the poster was some sort of late impressionist work by about 30 years: it is Edward Hopper's social realism piece A Room in Brooklyn. He is most famous for one of my favorite works: Nighthawks.

Steve figured it out by googling 'woman looking out a window painting' and got many hits. Amidst the Andrew Wyeth examples was our poster in a different color. Do we have a lithograph? Our elaborately framed art work was purchased at an art gallery at least 20 years ago (I can tell by the old area code listed on the back).  Also when we were trying to figure out what we were charged for things when I later considered that the overall tab was low, I think she forgot to include the price for this.

Last summer, Soulmate and I went to an Andrew Wyeth exhibit at the National Gallery in DC. Every single painting featured a window. Did Microsoft sponsor the exhibit?

Anyway, we are thrilled with our find and it does look good where we hung it.

The warmth of yesterday (and today) is wrecking my blooms though now crab apples and lilacs are blooming . I was able to run and bike before it became too hot. Exterior painting still not finished and it might rain today. I watched some of the grandkids while Shanna took Daniel to kindergarten round-up. I spend lots of time feeding those birds. Mr. Oriole now prefers grape jelly to the orange slices. We thought we finally saw Mrs. Oriole but she disappeared before we could photo ID her. Pesky the squirrel ran off with the seed cake that the grosbeaks loved. I should put it in a cage to slow the theft of it down. New bird: pine siskin, a kind of finch. We are up to 23 species.

Tonight Mom's night. I am making a new dessert. Hope it works out. Hope it doesn't rain today so painting can be finished and we can sit outside.

Rummage sale art

This was our most expensive purchase: a 30x30 painting that matches my guest bathroom perfectly



This embossed work of art is signed: the artist produces similar art unframed for $200. My cost $5. I was going to put it in one of the bathrooms but the blue clashed with the walls. Looks great in my floral room.

25 cent floral frame Looks good in floral room

I originally bought this just for the frame. This unsigned print matches my sage and purple room perfectly. I spent an hour going through an impressionist book to figure out the style. I assume it is a museum reproduction print

In this megachurch nearby, they were having a huge rummage sale. Maybe they would have a chaise for my den or maybe some cheap sweater for Maya for when she comes here underdressed. No good furniture except maybe a wicker set that I already have one of. Clothes were ratty and over priced. But then I was on a mission to buy a frame for my Snowy Owl . The cityscape frame would work perfectly but now I am attached to the print, which looks so good in one of my guest rooms. The top two frames, I bought for the art work itself. original though I assume the top one was produced in one of those starving artist places.  Total: $24 which included 4 small frames and 2 books for Steve. Yep, he went with me. Usually he has a dim view of these things. I bought all the grandbaby toys from them and he would heavily sigh when I came back. Clutter. But he was getting in the spirit of it thinking he would unearth treasures ala Antique Road Show, which he adores. He is back there with a tape measure looking just for suitable frames.

First day over 80. Second day of painting at the house. There is a slight chance of rain later and then 3 days of rain. Our windows are open and the house is full of competing birdsong. The heat is causing more things to blossom Best time of the year.

Her Eye is on The Sparrow..

Thrill of yesterday: male rose breasted grosbeak. He hung around most of the day and was back today. His mate hasn't come back

Thrill of today: we had the camera ready when Mr. Oriole came back. Have never seen Mrs. Oriole The orange I had on before was all gone though I saw a cardinal run off with some mandarin slices that I left to attract the oriole from afar

I took this through a screen so that's why it's a bit fuzzy

Spent some time yesterday at the old house weeding this rock garden.  Note quince hedge in bloom. The house is supposed to be painted today but there is a chance of rain...

For the first 2 weeks we set up the feeders, we had just the 'premium' birds: finches, chickadees, cardinals, woodpeckers, titmice, blue jays but then came the scrubs: sparrows of 3 kinds, doves, red winged blackbirds, cowbirds and the absolute worst: grackles. The latter eat too much and scare the other birds away. Now we have a hummingbird, a pair of grosbeaks and an oriole with a special feeder for the latter. In our yard but ignoring the feeder are the robins and the barn swallows.  What I am looking for now is the indigo bunting and maybe a bluebird though I don't think they come to feeders.The swallows are perched on one of our lights ready to attack if we get too close to their nest.

Steve is gone again to maybe deal with the painters and to second guess the decisions I made yesterday with the plumber. Where the above rock garden is once was a giant silver maple. Although pretty, these are evil trees. Rule of thumb: whatever you see above the ground is three times below the ground. These roots destroy foundations and pipes. We have two series of pipes: storm sewer pipes and sanitary sewer pipes. Both were invaded by roots. The whole yard needed to be dug up and the pipes replaced. Having the massive tree cut down was just a small fraction of the total expense. And then they wanted to charge just as much to remove the stump. Around the same time, we replaced a rotted deck with a paver patio. The excess dirt I had piled on top of the stump and terraced the pile with rocks and plants. Gradually the pile flattened and weird fungal formations stopped poking through the ground so I assume the stump has completely rotted. I assumed the faulty storm sewer pipe had been replaced too. Steve was supervising this but he really, really is over his head in dealing with this kind of thing. He lived in apartments growing up and knows very little about these type of things.  City code dictates that sump pumps need to be hooked up to the storm sewer or drain in the yard; not the sanitary sewer. When we tried to hook up the sump pump to the storm sewer the overflow feature instantly was activated. We let it drain right in front of the house and it kept cycling so we hooked it up to the other sewer. We can't sell the house with an illegal hook-up. So yesterday, on my watch since Steve was gone helping 24 total voters on his shift, I met with a plumber. First we tried to see if maybe the storm sewer hook-up miraculously cleared up on its own (these roots have no tree). It was raining so we had plenty of sump pump action. Storm sewer  was still clogged and this guy doesn't handle that kind of work. I said, well we need to let it drain on the yard. The plumber's first attempt was way too short. I needed it longer and to go downhill away from the house. As it poured for 3 hours straight last night, we will see how that worked. I haven't received an enraged call from Steve yet telling me how stupid I am to have conceived this. I rescued some irises that were in the way of my diversion pipe and replanted them here in the pouring rain. Most of the overflow should head straight into my quinces. Steve thinks I probably have it headed towards our walkway where it could turn into a skating rink but we rarely have heavy rains when there is freezing. So my solution is ugly but legal.

While the plumber worked, I weeded in the steady cold drizzle. I was way too messy to stop to vote. Steve was gone from 5:30 am to past 10 pm. 24 voters showed up in his precinct. I don't know why the powers that be don't combine these elections. Only 2 things on the ballot. A woman with no experience whatsoever had been appointed chairperson of the precinct. They are paid slightly more. When Steve pointed out that she was messing everything up, she threw the ballots in is face and told him to do everything. Then he had to deliver stuff to city hall waiting in line forever.

My sparrow photos are on Steve's inaccessible to me computer. I do have a flock of what is supposed to be rare, white crowned sparrows. My 20 year old book shows them somewhere else though recent websites imply they might be migrants in this area occasionally. I listened to a podcast last night on 'citizen scientists' with website devoted to people reporting bird sightings and aurorae sightings. I know there are several websites devote to hummingbird migrations.

Steve did concur that our coffee maker is broken after some annoyingly patronizing texts yesterday about was I sure I pressed the on button and whether I accidentally unplugged the machine. Theoretically I had time to buy another yesterday but I was muddy and tired. Of course I need my morning coffee so I went old school this morning with boiling water, funnel and a filter.

New tulips keep popping up including these incredibly tiny blooms. Photos tomorrow. It is fun seeing what pops up here though I now see I have no dogwood or magnolias as I thought I heard her say. The developer was very much into planting Bradford pears, the smell of sex tree. They are all in bloom right now on everyone's lot except mine  as our tree was destroyed in a storm. In the entrance to our sub, there is a row of them. There are also rows of flowering crabs, not in bloom yet though they are in bloom in our old neighborhood. I know our old neighborhood was in a warmer agricultural zone than most of the area. I can see that things bloom there way faster than here.

Still having that old house around makes me unhappy.

The bird on the left is the strange white crowned sparrow. The titmouse looks like she's giving it a piece of her mind

 

Orioles versus grosbeaks

This is what happens when I try to take photos of tiny birds with an iPhone even though the hummer is only 5 feet away through my bathroom window. Female grosbeak on cake feeder Miscellaneous finches on finch feeder

With a 300 mm lens. At this angle, she looks like a large sparrow. As she appeared shortly after a male oriole passed by, I assumed she was a female oriole eating the orange. But then I noticed that the orange had not been touched and her beak is too short to be a nectar sucking oriole. I matched her photo with those in the bird book: she's a rose breasted grosbeak. So many females look alike

My hummer sitting in the tree

On the feeder beating his wings

Not sure why he ruffled his feathers

Patio before the rain

Cardinals and grosbeaks are related: same beaks and diet 

The male rose breasted grosbeak showed up today. Distinguishing feature: red blotch on chest. I took many photos with the good camera but can't load them onto a computer as Steve, gone, has hid the supplies

Early yesterday I swear I saw a male Baltimore oriole (now called Northern Oriole) on my feeder. It flew away as soon as it saw me but I saw its orange and black back. I put out some orange slices on the cake feeder to lure it back. Within a half hour, a bird I believed to be its mate was on the cake feeder maybe eating the orange. Steve took photos. At some point, I noticed that the oranges were untouched  I looked at the photo closely: female orioles do not have black on their heads and have long, skinny beaks, not short, fat ones. Did I have some kind of thrush? Female red winged black bird? Giant sparrow? It matched up with a female red breasted grosbeak. I had only seen a male once a corpse. It flew into a window at work and died (the labs were all glass). People were curious what kind of bird it was. Eventually we figured it out as its plumage was so unique and striking.

The male oriole did return last night and sat on the cake feeder for a while. So it was not my imagination. Steve by then had bought an oriole feeder. Was he on that all orange feeder meant  to attract him? No. I told Steve to hurry  and get the good camera out but alas, he was loading the card with the hummingbird pix on to the computer. So I have the camera ready for the oriole's return.

This morning the male red breasted grosbeak showed up. He so far has spent most of the morning gnawing away at the cake feeder. He is stunning. I took lots of photos but have to wait for Steve to return to load them. He likes to hide the card reader.

I am an election day widow again. Working for minimum wage, Steve works an eighteen hour shift that sometimes extends to 21 hours. He is in a student precinct. As graduation was last Saturday, no one will be around to vote. Roads versus schools is the only issue. The road is torn up with lots of back-ups where I need to vote so I might not show plus, now, and this pisses me off with the timing, I have to deal with a plumber. This was NOT a good time for him to work the election. Our new township (slogan: We are Superior!!!) wants him to work here instead. More pay; less driving.

He leaves early with the coffee maker already to go as I can't be trusted not to make a mess. All I need to do is press a button which I do. It lights up but no@#$#@ coffee appears. In the middle of no where with no coffee. I need to have some blood drawn anyway, get dressed, and there's a Starbucks in the lab basement so I won't have caffeine withdrawal. It's rush hour and due to construction, only one direction of traffic can pass causing unbelievable back-ups. Dvorak is on and I have my coffee so I am happy but I won't go through that again to vote.

The weather report says rain is to start at 10:15 am so I get my run in before that. Much cooler than yesterday. And the rain starts on the dot. Tomorrow was supposed to be rain free, meaning we'd get our painting done, but now I see that has changed. I am waiting for a plumber to call so I can rush over to the Money Pit. Didn't get a chance to take a shower. I have a lot of little things to take care of today but they will have to wait.

Return of the barn swallows

Where was I during the Great Earthquake that occurred around noon Saturday? At my computer. I didn't feel a thing though Shanna and Josh did. There have been only two others here that I can remember and I only felt one of them. I don't think this one even could knock over a lawn chair.

Allie pushing her trike underneath the swallow's nest. They would ignore her but swoop down on me

Close up of one of the parents. They are pretty and very graceful. They have a very long forked tail.

Blooms are tulip sized. I showed this photo yesterday on my bike ride to 2 workers at a nursery. They were stumped

Barn swallow couple staring me down perched 15 feet away from the nest

Hummingbirds are back!!!!Most of them winter in Mexico and Belize (Naomi and I floated down a river through Hummingbird Alley in Belize one year). Hardest part of their journey is getting across the Gulf of Mexico. I've been feeling guilty that my little flock would struggle to return only to find the feeders gone. And how long will it take new hummingbirds to find my feeder here? I put out a feeder 2 weeks ago tinting the water red to attract their attention from afar (usually I just make colorless nectar). Saturday evening, a little male flashing his bright red throat (called a gorget) was at my bathroom window. He found the feeder just a foot away and just drank for the longest time. But as soon as we returned with the camera, he was gone. Didn't see him all day yesterday. Was all the other avian activity spooking him? I had moved his feeder away from the finch feeder. I have been thinking that the finches are so tiny but they look huge compared to a hummingbird. He was back last night oblivious to us enjoying wine nearby. The males come first. Cheep thrill for this one. Yeah I guess I am easily amused.

Barn Swallows: These are champion migrants wintering in Argentina. Presumably they fly 600 miles a day sucking up insects during breeding season. Do they put fitness trackers on them? I had noticed a nest way up high when we first moved in. I assumed it was a robin's next but now I see it is all mud (robins' nests are made of grasses with some mud to hold it together). I started noticing the swallows last week swooping high above my yard. Yesterday I supervised Allie right by their nest, which as it turns out, is full of babies. Barn swallows will attack if they think their young are threatened. One flew within a foot of my face. A pair had attacked Josh's German Shepherd 2 years ago. When Josh went out to see why Sunny was jumping and yelping, Josh was attacked. When I watched Shanna's kids last week, tree swallows keep swooping near by. They are smaller and have white underbellies and don't have orange chin feathers. Back at the old house, we had no swallows but we had chimney swifts that lived 2 years inside our chimney. They made quite the racket. The nature pond near by put up purple martin houses, large purple-black swallows, to deal with the mosquitoes. They are fun to watch.

Northern oriole: Formerly known as the Baltimore Oriole. Very shy birds that I maybe get a glimpse of once every 5 years. They winter in the tropics somewhere. Never saw one near my old house but today, one was at my feeder. It quickly flew away at my approach. I have since left out orange slices to lure it back.

Smells like teen sex: That would be the Bradford pear. These are very hardy, ornamental trees widely planted in the NE. They have become invasive species there and people complain that the blossoms smell like semen and stink up the neighborhood. This house had one but storms blew it over a year ago. I did come across its roots when planting a spirea bush the other day. The neighbors had one very close to my patio that the hummingbirds lived in. How come I never noticed the smell? Yesterday when I was at the old house, I did make an effort to smell the blossoms. If you crush them in your hand, they do smell like semen but its a very faint odor. Maybe the Eastern variant has smellier blossoms or maybe those East Coasters have more delicate nostrils. There was a NPR story last week about them.

Earthquake: Didn't feel it but it was much discussed.

Our neighbor's memorial: We went to that Saturday though he died back in January. It was very nice. These were our neighbors for 27 years. Shanna would babysit their sons. When the sons were older, I'd hire them out for various jobs. The younger son went through the same engineering program as Josh and now has a great job that flies him all over the world. He is the spitting image of his father. The dad discovered his prostate cancer almost 9 years ago during a routine check-up. He had no symptoms but the cell type was that of the most aggressive kind and he was given only 2 years to live though the cancer had not spread at that point. Even though women do not have prostates, prostate cancer is very similar to breast cancer in its incidence, hormone driven, some of the same chemo, and its spread (bones, liver, brain though I don't know if it hits the lungs). Male carriers of the BRAC gene deletions tend to get prostate cancer whereas their female relatives get ovarian and breast cancer. He went through numerous clinical trials. He would have brief periods of remission but then it would come back. The first line of treatment (beyond surgery and radiation) are testosterone blockers though after 5 years, that stopped working. In the medical literature, these patients are called 'castration-resistant', very odd terminology. He stopped treatment back in October except for pain palliation, which never worked enough. Just awful.

Busy, busy: We had beautiful weather for the past 3 days. But today, when the house exterior was to be painted, we had rain. Some time was spent on the old house which depresses me. I went for a long bike ride yesterday (I increase the mileage gradually though 21.5 miles is less than a third of our high mileage day in just 9 weeks). I stopped for a water break at the nursery that is So excited that we wet our plants. Nice people but they could not identify my mystery flower. They do have lots of aquatic plants if I ever get my pond and waterfall going. Josh came over to help us figure out the extremely complicated watering system. It partially works now but I think we have to hire an expert or ask a neighbor. A friend came over last night to enjoy wine and my birds. Although I have feeders in front, I haven't been able to lure the birds there. Below are Daniel and Oliver enjoying the weather.

My Outdoor Living Room

Pesky the squirrel makes yet another attempt on the feeder which is designed to snap shut under his weight. Two blue jays look on. Morning light causes weird reflections

Watched Shanna's kids yesterday

A good day to be outside

My outdoor living room framed by flowering crab (I think) and an undiscovered finch feeder

May Day!

Closed blossoms of some sort in early morning sun. I am thinking dogwood. Since today will be warm, I will find out later

Bought this clay village years ago at an art fair. It has 3 places to insert plants. Will make a fairy garden, a new trend, once the threat of frost is over

Many tulips will open later today

Always wanted an azalea and now I have one and possibly another

In the non-stop drizzle of yesterday, I am running towards home on the shoulder of the busy road about a half mile from home.  A string of 4 cars pass me headed in the same direction followed by a car that looks very much like Naomi's who is hell-bent on passing the 4 cars around a blind curve. Am I going to witness my daughter's death? And a UPS truck is coming in the opposite direction. There is no space for the Naomi car to get back into the tightly spaced string. I close my eyes but do not hear the crash.  The UPS truck had swerved into the shoulder to avoid the head-on collision. If I hadn't dawdled an extra five minutes at the fancy pants garden store near me, it would have swerved into me.

Was it Naomi? She drives a very common car with a common color plus it was headed in the wrong direction. It did not turn into our sub. But I was furious in case it was her. I called her as soon as I returned. She hadn't left her place. Earlier that day, we had to deal with an appliance crisis at her place. More $$$$$. So much fun dealing with 3 properties.

The forecast just 2 days ago said there was a 20% chance of rain but it rained all night and then drizzled most of the day. My dirt roads would have been too slippery to run on thus I was on pavement with cars whizzing by. I did stop at the fancy garden store to see what they have. Fairy garden supplies and now gypsy garden supplies along with many birdbaths. I walked among the perennials hoping to spot my mystery flower. No dice. A friend showed my photo to 2 different garden centers and drew a blank. I sent a text to my sister-in-law, a garden expert via my brother but apparently he does not do texts.

But today is beautiful and more things will blossom. My transplanted peony, after 2 years of abuse being in crummy soil on the north side of the house shaded by encroaching hostas, already has grown a few inches since Tuesday. The transplanted tulips are struggling though but I have lots of clumps of them. Time is slipping by all too fast. So many things need to be done. Steve dealt with the painters yesterday. They couldn't finish as anticipated. Meanwhile, I did nothing useful here though I did register for my annual bike ride. They changed the schedule to our benefit as it turned out so yay for that. Now my friend can be with me. Later today, Josh comes to help Steve with our riding mower. I will be with Shanna's kids.