Saturday, June 28, 2014

Relaxing on the lakeside porch this morning with Irish Breakfast Tea, my Kindle, and the pack. Currently reading some Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries by Dorothy Sayers. Fog horns from the lake freighters warning of the visibility, lack of same. Ah - peace, perfect peace.

                                                        Bear
Yesterday the geothermal unit signaled that there was a condensation problem; called the installer and got one of those infamous "mailbox full" messages so I called his competitor, Thumb Heating & Cooling, who responded promptly this morning. They'll visit this coming Monday or Tuesday.

                                                        Pila

                                                    Korpur

                                                     Totty

                                                       Kata

                                        Tryggur and Grandma Kria

                                    Bear - again - a ham like his son.

Clicking on photos enlarges them.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Last evening I went to Sandusky (Michigan) for a "Garden Walk" and had a wonderful time. All of the gardens were very nice; two stood out as exceptional. One even had a few plants that stumped me which was absolutely wonderful. I love learning new things.

From left to right: Thordunu Kria (10), Kersins Kata (12), Vinlands Pila (6), Vinlands "Tryggur" (4), Bersi av Isheim (9), and Alaskastadirs Korpur (10). (I think clicking on photos will still enlarge them - maybe.)
The above photo was taken with my new camera.

My "Old" camera stopped working so I went back to the camera store (Woodward Camera Store and Digital) in Royal Oak/Birmingham where I bought it to have it fixed. Like so many other things these days, it is cheaper to buy new than to fix old. Sigh! So I have a new camera, a Nikon COOLPIX, and have actually read how to use it and understood. Of course then you have to connect it to the computer - my also new laptop -  and download the photos. Then I had to actually find where they were stored on my laptop.

This is all part of the many interesting challenges my move has precipitated.

(I pause for a few minutes because my new washer and dryer has musically informed me that I have laundry ready to be moved and folded. My new cell phone rang/vibrated; Lora from Half-Way Fence in Bad Axe called and told me that Dave wondered why I had not paid the balance for my new front yard fence - . It's a black chain link fence that had not been properly finished;  a final coat of black paint on exposed metal parts was not done and there was a missing post cap. They asked me to buy the paint and spray it on myself. I asked them to mail me a post cap. They wanted me to drive up to Bad Axe to get it - a 35  minute drive each way, which I did.  I told Lora that I had not received an invoice, a bill for the balance. Lora sounded surprised - you mean they didn't drop it off. Isn't Half Way a great name? It - the fence - does look nice.)

On the arbor at my Royal Oak home is a wonderful wild white flowered species Clematis that I discovered and transplanted from an old apple orchard in Rolling Hills north of Oxford where my parents had a travel trailer for a few years. It is a male clone that never produces seeds. I had never seen this Clematis anywhere else - - - until I just yesterday discovered the same Clematis growing (poorly) in my evergreen forest. I'm going to transplant some to join the ones I've transplanted from Royal Oak up to the fence around my new house near Forestville. I'm hoping they will prove eventually to be female clones. I posit the species is Clematis virginiana (Virgin's Bower - because the small abundant white flowers or Old Man's Beard - because of the gray silky plumed autumnal seed heads). John Cynar has said he will bring that arbor up north. I am anxious for it!!

If you can enlarge these - the dogs look so quiet, peaceful, obedient - you might be able to see my Icelandic Sheepdogs.

I am always reminded of a "poem" my Mother used to repeat when I see my dogs in photos: -

There was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good she was very, very good and when she was bad she was horrid.
(My apologies to the author.) While they are not actually "horrid", one or two may at times come close.

Oops - Wednesday, June 4, 2014

My address ends with .com (and not .net ).

Apparently only the big companies like Comcast and ATT end with .net because they own the net - almost literally.

Poor little Frontier is only a .com.

So if you failed to connect, that's why. I'm at the low, beginning end of the learning curve - sigh!

Ever So Slowly But Surely - - - -

 I now have an email address. I am not going to post it because I want to avoid spam and some people.

My friends and relatives have my old email; the new email starts out exactly the same but ends with @frontier.net [I needed to correct this ending. My email address ends with - - - @frontier.com (and not - - - frontier.net).] You think you're confused! HaHa! Me! I'm the confused one. What a Brave New World  this is now. Amazing.

I do not have access to any of the emails from my old Comcast account. It took frontier almost three months to get me up and running and during that time I "lost" my contacts.

I am very anxious to hear from people, so write a short note. Please. 

My adventure continues. I see large birds (bald eagles) and small birds (hummingbirds) as well as many migrating warblers, resident Orioles, catbirds, mourning doves, crows, red-wing blackbirds, house wrens,  - all of which which I absolutely love. I putter around my sanctuary while trying to avoid the mid-day sun.

John Cynar, who along with Jon Parlangeli "hung" my Palms house, is working on my Royal Oak house repairing wall damage, removing and replacing carpet, refinishing the living room floor, cleaning accumulated dirt from almost 40 years or living in the same house, enhancing "curb appeal" by cleaning out the front yard, etc.

Every day presents new challenges and opportunities. I drive 30+ minutes to get to the grocery store in Sandusky, MI - the capital of Sanilac county. Today I went to Bad Axe just to buy some Spirea at Wal-Mart. Yes, I've become a Wal-Martian!!

I have not found any plant nurseries - yet.

I am falling in love with the gorgeous scenery here. There are dozens and dozens of windmills and the farmland is lush and productive.

I still want to buy a telescope so I can see the freighters, watch the birds, and dream on the stars.

My brother David came to help me with the move; I could not have done it without him! I have had some weekend guests and we've explored the near and far neighborhoods together - from the amazing waterfall down a path at the end of our private road to the harbor and beach in Port Sanilac about 12 minutes by car.

David and I fell in love with burgers and beer at a nearby biker bar. Tracy and Jon and I found a great ice cream place which was below a really nice sounding restaurant overlooking the sailboats in a harbor.

My camera seems to be broken so I've inserted an old photo of Korpur above; if  were still in Royal Oak I'd know exactly where to go to get it fixed; Port Huron is where I may end up taking it (or I may end up buying a new one).

Korpur is ten now; so is Kria. Kata just turned twelve and Bear is nine. They are in older photos below.

We are loving life and getting old(er) together.