Pam – Page 112 – New England's Narrow Road

Pretty Floral Bouquet in Pink and Green

I love flowers but this is the beginning of the flowerless season, unless you count all the Poinsettias and Christmas Cactus. I don’t know if I will have any Poinsettias this year because of “Mayhem” my new cat. I don’t want her to eat them and get poisoned. Her real name is Skittle, but that is too cute. I have renamed her May (short for Mayhem) because she is a terror.

Anyway, I usually pass right by the grocery store flower shop and consider buying cut flowers and little plants an additional and unnecessary expense on top of the huge amounts I pay for food. But, something recently made me think differently and I bought two small bundles of flowers this past week. I came across a couple of my favorite little vases (yes, I’m still unpacking) and knew they needed to hold bouquets.

The little white pitcher with tiny blue painted flowers was purchased years ago at a yard sale and I used to have it in my beautiful Florida bathroom. I knew I had to use it once again after years of not having a place for it and my small drab bathroom needed some color – so there you go. I think the pink flower is a Gerbera Daisy and the green one is a Spider Mum, but I’m not sure. The rest of the bouquets were put into a pottery vase on my kitchen table.

If having flowers in the house makes you happy, splurge once in a while and brighten your winter days.

Pink, green and bronze flowers in a vase — Daisy and Mum Bouquet

House With A View

Just up the road from where I live, I discovered this great view. There are several houses at the top of the hill, but one is located in the open and can clearly see these hills year round. They don’t have much of a yard as it is steeply sloping – like most of our yards in this neighborhood, but who would care with this mountain view!

View from the top of a hill — Just Up the Hill - This View!

I only recently discovered that I do live higher up than I thought. I had just never walked into this particular section of the neighborhood.

Now that most of the leaves are gone from the trees, I am able to see things that I never knew were there. Homes that were built back in the woods have lost their privacy for winter and I imagine that some people welcome the season for the long distance views from their porches and picture windows that were blocked by foliage all summer.

What would be your choice – living up high with a view, or on the water?

Fall Photos, Not What You’d Expect

Like most people, I look forward to Fall with it’s gorgeous array of color, but this year things were different. At first I thought it was just that I lived in a new place, but I heard others complaining about the lack of reds and brightness that we usually see here in New England. Fall got off to a slow start and then suddenly it seemed to pop. And then just as suddenly it was gone – of course then there was the storm which not only removed leaves, but whole trees in that one unfortunate section of the northeast. They are still cleaning up from it. We got close to 2 feet of snow and were lucky in comparison.
Also, I was a bit distracted by all the home repairs going on, so this Fall was a bust. Maybe I’ll be around next year, and the colors will return. If so, I’ll plan to get some good photos.
So I’m sharing my Fall photos, but they don’t contain the lovely color of previous years.

Signs of Fall at my place include bright yellow mums (now dead after being buried by a freak snow storm), stacks of wood and mushrooms.

Foliage Season Winds Down In New Hampshire (newenglandsnarrowroad.wordpress.com)
Fall Color Around the Country 10/11/11 (naturalhistorywanderings.com)
Some Fall Cheer (at Last)! (leberpr.com)

Relocating a Little Bat

This little bat was hanging out up in the eaves of my house and he had to be removed when the guys were doing the siding. One day when Brandon was here working, he asked me if he could hook up the hose to spray the eaves where he could hear squeaking. He said that they had just had to deal with bats at another job and spraying water made them leave.

It took a while – and I was inside, but the bat finally came out and was cold, so he put it in a box and brought it over to the sun in the driveway. I felt bad for the poor little thing who had a nice place to sleep and suddenly he was sprayed with cold water! But I can understand why the guys didn’t want to work with a bat in their faces.

The little guy crawled out and sat in the sun for about 20 minutes and then flew away. I was watching him from inside with my binoculars and he’d shake himself and flap his wings and then suddenly he flew off across the yard and into the woods next door.

I hope he finds a new place nearby to hang out. I like the idea of having bats around for bug control.

New siding – before and after.