November Nor' Easter

As you may have heard, we had a Nor'Easter here this past week/weekend. Like nearly everyone else around, we were affected by it. Although the house is up on a hill, we had water seep up into the basement, and nearly a week later, we're still mopping. Here are a few pictures from the porch...

This is one of the first ones we took when the bottom of the yard was flooding.

At this point, the water was over the driveway, and running into the street.

Our street was flooding quickly, and at the end of the street, the Bay was coming up over the rock wall. The police blocked off access to our street with the exception of home-owners.

This is one of the first pictures of the water starting to recede. Leaving the leaf debris behind.

By Saturday, the street lights were still out, so Officers were directing traffic at our intersection. Good thing, because on Thursday, there was a pretty nasty accident there.

And this was what was left on Sunday. We cleaned it all up, filling 12-15 lawn bags of leaves. If you look real close, you'll notice we don't have any trees to speak of. Yep - All of our neighbor's leaves were in our yard...

We fared pretty well. Without power for 2 days and a flooding basement. We stayed on top of the water coming in, even when it meant setting an alarm every 1-2 hours in the middle of the night to mop. Why? Our heating system is down there, and by us staying on top of the water, we didn't lose the heating system.

Funny thing - nearly everyone we spoke to asked us if we had a sump pump or a shop-vac. We actually have both (although the sump pump is hand-held). But we didn't have power!!! These things don't work without electricity! LOL!

So, now most of the hype is over on the news about the "November Nor'Easter". We also head it called the "Nor'Beaster" and "Nor'Ida". TeeHee. The things the media comes up with....

AMW

Neighborhood Watch?

Well - it's good to know that there are some people out there that notice when things don't look right.

Yesterday, I was getting the trash cans ready to take down to the curb. I noticed the usual things in the area, like the young man across the street getting dropped off after work, other neighbors bringing their trash cans down to the curb.

Then, as I was getting ready to take the cans down, I noticed a truck had stopped on the side of the street. Being in my penguin pajama pants, I didn't want to go down there and look like an idiot, so I waited. I waited for a few minutes, and he was still there, so I got the recycle can ready.

When I turned around to look again - there were 5 police cars with their lights on! 2 in the middle of the road, and the other three scattered around. All of a sudden, there were police officers talking to 3 of the residents from the house across the street.

Slowly they dispersed, but the man in the unknown truck was still out there as well.

By the time the next door neighbor came home and walked over to see if everything was ok, there were the 3 residents, 2 officers and the man from the truck.

I called the neighbor to ask her what she found out, and she said that the man in the truck had seen the young man (who lived at the house across the street) climbing through a window. Seems he forgot his key, and his sisters didn't hear him knocking. So he climbed in.

All the man in the truck knew was that he saw a young guy climbing in the window of a house.

All's well in the end, and it was nice to see that someone would look out for the neighborhood is something didn't look right...

AMW

Long Overdue

I really haven't kept up with this blog like I would have liked. There have been new plants on the porch, and even new landscaping around the porch.

I was trying to remember when the plants had to come in last year, and it was right around October 8th. We've passed that date already here, but now it's really starting to get chilly both during the day, and at night. So, I think they may have to come in fairly soon! When they do, I'll try to get some updated pictures, and see if we can keep them alive during the winter again.

I think I'm definitely going to try some grow bulbs this year to help keep things growing strong.

It'll be nice to have some of these plants inside too. It should definitely boost the oxygen levels in the house with the number that we have!

AMW

What a mess...

I've been inheriting plants from work.  The new building owners don't care for plants much, and sometimes order a ton to be thrown away.  I try to rescue what I can, and see if I can get others to rescue some as well.   

Last week, they wanted a suite cleared out that had about 100 plants.  I called a friend, and she came down with her SUV and loaded it up.  I only brought home 2!   Really!  But one of them was in really sad shape...  See for yourself:

There were actually 2 plants in this one pot.

The roots were a  mess!

I don't know how this plant survived!

I've seen tight roots before, but this was just sad!

I took a knife, cut them apart, and loosened up the roots...

Here are their new potential home in comparison to the one pot they came from!  UGH!

And here they are in their new pots!  Yeah!  It makes me much happier

and I hope it makes them much happier, too!

AMW

Have you seen me???

There was a little mis-hap over the weekend, and one of our favorite pots (this one above) got broken.  Has anyone out there seen these pots online, or know where I can find another one???  She was one of our favorite porch companions..........

AMW

New plants (and some re-pots)!

When I pulled up this blog this morning, I looked at the header picture and thought something was wrong.  It took me a minute to realize that the picture was from last year when I *thought* I had a full porch of pots.  Now that the number has probably close to doubled, the header looks barren.  I'll try to update it sometime over the weekend, not that it's looking good!

And now, some new plants, and some repotted plants:

This is a small "money" tree that D bought at Ikea.

I don't know what the real name is, but she liked it.

She also bought a BIG "money" tree as well.

Anyone have ideas as to what it actually is?

Our sweet little neighbor across the street wandered over 

the other night while we were doing yard work, and 

offered us two plants to add to the porch.  She claimed

she was too old to take care of them.  So not true!

This snake plant is over 20 years old, she said.  She 

had it on her closed in porch in a tiny little pot.

It is taller than I am, and some of the leaves are so

long they don't stand up!

I put it into a larger pot where it will hopefully thrive!

We stuck it on the side of the porch where we

needed a bit of a buffer.  And it sits right behind the swing.

This is the other little plant she gave us.  She said she 

got this one in 1983, which would make it 26 year old!

I hope I don't kill it!!!  Here in it's original pot

and below in the larger pot that the snake plant

came in.

I wasn't 100% sure what it was, but have been informed

it's a type of peace lily.  Kinda looked like the other one we have,

but it's a different variety.

This one came from work.  It was destined to be thrown away.

It's now repotted in the pot that the peace lily came in.

This little spider plant was a rooting from another we have.

I had potted it in this little red penguin bucket when

I didn't have any pots to put it in.  Needless to say, it

needed an upgrade.

It's now in this pretty forest green ceramic pot.

The porch is so lush and bright and green right now, and the weather lately has been fantastic!  I don't remember a July that has ever started out with such low humidity.  It's been such a pleasure to sit and read or relax on the porch!  

AMW

Yard Work

So the plan was to mow the grass last night.  No big deal.  But there is this branch of a crepe myrtle tree that is always in the way.  So D said, I'm tempted to get the chain saw out and cut it off.  Which she did.  

But since the chain saw was out, and running, we figured we'd get a couple other "branches" in other parts of the yard cut that were also in the way.  

Cutting the branches led to cutting a volunteer tree (or 20) that come up throughout the yard.

And somehow through all of the cutting down of trees, 

we still managed to get the grass cut.  Because, of course, the front little strip 

had to be cut before we could haul the crap down there for trash day.

So we have two VERY LARGE piles of cut trees and bushes.  

The piles of trees were so high, I couldn't see D standing behind them.  

I hope the big debris truck takes them all.

The piles of trees and branches that we hauled to the front for trash day, 

but the pictures don't even begin to do it justice! 

The sad part is, we didn't even make a dent in the amount of stuff we 

needed to cut out of the yard.  We maybe got an 1/8th of it done.  

AMW

The "Underground Railroad" Porch

I feel like our porch is a stop on the underground railroad.  That word is getting out that we're a "safe haven" for birds.

As you have seen, we had a finch nest last year that raised a couple of babies.  This year we had a finch nest, but their efforts were interrupted by a hungry BlueJay.  We had a dove who successfully raised two babies, and now we have ANOTHER dove nest with TWO MORE eggs.  

What???

I don't have any idea if it's the same parents, but it's possible.  It's in a different hanging basket (because they just couldn't go ahead and use the one they've already killed the flowers in), so this will be the third plant that's had a nest this year.  

I've got tons of pics of the first set of dove babies and now of the new nest.  So here ya go...

This picture is not of the parents, but of 

the babies a day before they flew away!

And here they are again, getting ready to go!

This is the empty nest after they flew away. 

Notice that ALL of the flowers are DEAD!

Here is one of our babies hanging out on the gate.

Baby hanging on the gate..

And this is one of our other hanging baskets that is about

to have all the flowers die, as there is another dove nest here.

And here are the two new eggs!  Nice and green

for now, but it the flowers will die soon enough.

We don't water the flowers with the momma on the nest.

AMW

And then there were none...

The babies have flown! 

Last night, we had some terrible storms.  Vicious wind, thunder and lightning, and driving rains.  I wasn't sure if the baby doves would make it in the nest through the night...

I've been watching them the last few days flapping their wings and getting air in the nest.  I knew it wouldn't be long.  I even figured by this weekend.  Yesterday, they were on the edge of the nest, and watching mamma who was on the porch.  Thought they might take the leap then, but they didn't.

This morning, D was having her coffee in her office, and looked to see if they were still there, and they were.  Standing on the edge, peering out into the world.  She got in the shower, and when she came out, they were gone.  That quick.  She said she saw two doves that were trying to land in a nearby tree, but were a bit clumsy...  Must be our babies.  While they had practiced flapping, they hadn't had any way to practice landing.

So now the nest is empty.  

Pictures to follow later....

AMW

Dove Update

I was right in the fact that there are two babies.  I have probably underestimated their age, as they are quite bigger than I thought.  The momma and daddy are on the nest minimally now, and yesterday, I caught the two babies flapping their wings, practicing.  One of them was getting pretty good air!

Here are two of the best pictures, taken a few days apart, and you can certainly tell a sharp difference even in the couple of days.  My guess is they will be gone this week...

Taken over the weekend.

Taken yesterday.

AMW

Dove Nest

This is our dove momma (or maybe daddy).  This is a stark contrast to the finch nest that was in our fern...  

For one thing, the finches would fly out of the nest as soon as we open the front door.  This allowed us to be able to monitor the eggs, but also made us almost feel like we couldn't use the porch.  We limited our time outside to small intervals so that she could sit on her nest.

The doves, on the other hand, never leave.  When we open the door, she (or he) hunker down so we can't see them.  Or so they think.  One of them is ALWAYS on the nest.   I hear they rotate out in about 12 hour shifts.  Only once have I seen two on there at once.

Yesterday, I was peering through the office window (she didn't see me), and I caught her feeding babies!  I'm pretty sure there were two, but I can't be sure.  I didn't dare move or breath for fear that she would stop and hunker down again...

So, we do have babies!!  I'm gonna try my darnedest over the next couple of weeks to get some pictures of them...

AMW

No new news...

Nothing much really new here.  We still have a pair of doves nesting in one of our hanging baskets, but they are not bothered by us, and will just sit up there the entire time we are out there.  Don't know how many eggs there might be, but I imagine we'll get to see once they hatch and start feeding the babies.

I was finally told that this previously unknown plant was probably in the philodendron family.  You may remember it from THIS post.  

It started out with just two leaves, then grew, made it through the winter, and even had new growth on it.

 

Last week, it died.  I have no idea what I did to it.  The picture above was taken about two days before it's demise...

The evenings on the porch are lovely.  We've got citronella candles out to keep the bugs at bay, and the neighborhood is a-buzz with folks walking, biking, and just generally being outside.  It smells good, there's usually a breeze, and the wind-chimes provide a nice relaxing sound.  The birds help too.  They are very active in the evenings.

Thanks for stopping by!  Feel free to leave us a comment to let us know you were hanging out on our porch with us...

AMW

Here we go again...

After last weekend's BlueJay attack on the finch nest, I thought our porch nest saga was over.  But I could be wrong...

It appears that a pair of doves have decided that one of our petunia hanging baskets would be a good spot, and we spotted them this morning busily crafting a nest.

Not sure what will come of it yet, so we'll see.

AMW

Mother Nature Sucks!

They're gone.  All of the finch eggs are gone.

Saturday, while having our yard sale, we watched nearly helplessly as a BlueJay flew up to the nest.  We knew it wasn't good.  We managed to scare him off once, but he knew where the nest was, and went back.

He ate/destroyed all of the eggs.  

The momma and daddy finch haven't returned since they checked and saw the nest was empty but for a few broken shells.

Will they return and try again?  I have no idea....

But it sucks to watch mother nature in action.  

AMW

Amazing!

Well - our little purple finch momma has done it again!   She's laid another egg, for a grand total of 6!  SIX!  I'm tellin' ya, I have no idea where they're coming from.  She's such a tiny gal....

6 eggs on the porch!

The fern on the top right is her space!

Hope they all are viable!  That'd be pretty fun to watch....

AMW

Whew!

Lot's of action going on around the porch this weekend.  Between the finches, the cardinals, the psycho squirrel, it seemed line it went on and on.  Probably just seemed like a lot...

The finches have laid a total of five eggs in four days.  And this little momma girl is small!  I don't know where they were coming from...  We've pulled the nest down to give the poor fern a drink of water, and the eggs kept multiplying.  I've managed to get some pics along the way, but know that soon I won't be pulling it down anymore.  (I'll have to get a step-stool to take a quick peek and picture.)  Momma is not thrilled about us using our porch for ourselves, and will sit in a nearby tree and watch us while we sit in our chairs looking out.  She won't really come around while we're out there.  I hope that changes, though.  Luckily, she's got the weekdays to make up for it, and enjoy it all to herself.

The cardinals were also riled up by mr. psycho squirrel.  Daddy cardinal was keeping an eye on him, and when he ran up a utility pole that was right nest to the nest bush, daddy cardinal was very vocal about how unhappy he was.  Mr. psycho squirrel ran up the utility pole, then right back down and jumped into the bush where the nest is.  It's not a big bush, so we were expecting the worst.  Although I was pretty sure squirrels don't eat baby birds, this one is a tad on the psycho side, so who knows.    We tried to see in the nest, to make sure the babies were ok, but it looked empty.  With sinking stomachs, we were about to just retreat to the porch, when D spotted a baby cardinal right by my foot.  I snapped a couple pics, then we quickly headed to the porch to watch how things unfolded.  The momma and daddy cardinal came right in, and corralled the baby into the bush.  We could see it flapping it's wings and jumping up a couple branches.  Not sure if it made it back into the nest, but it appears to be ok for now.  (pics below!)

Also near the cardinal nest bush are some pointy yucca bushes (man, those things hurt!).  We've seen a hummingbird flitting around them, be he never seems to go to the feeder.  We've seen a downy woodpecker at the hummingbird feeder, but no hummingbirds.   We've seen this one hummingbird a few times, so there should be more, right?

We decided to go out, get a pole hook and a real bird feeder.  Got seed, and we were all set.  Put the feeder up, and put a hummingbird feeder on one of the hooks.   The hummingbird flew right past the feeder.  Sheesh!  Don't these birds know we're trying to help???

Anyhoo - here are some more pics for your viewing pleasure...

Here are the nest pics from the porch.

Here is the baby cardinal after being

flushed out by Mr. Psycho Squirrel!

Here is the Downy Woodpecker that is

 drinking from the hummingbird feeder.

This is definitely become quite a hub of activity!  It sure is bringing entertainment...

AMW