Bogieblog

Memorial Day 2019

Simple message - unfortunately I don't know who to credit

Flower Pictures

I haven't posted any flower pictures since 5/11/19 because there were basically no flowers. However, everything decided the weather would never get better so is making the best of it. All these were taken 5/17/19

Blue and lavender phlox starting to fill in
Hyacinths
Hot pink phlox

The poor yucca was beaten over the winter.

Next are pictures of the crabapple taken 5/19

Then on 5/21 the lavender phlox had not only grown, but was in its glory

And these pictures were taken this morning - the white phlox is priming up beside the driveway

The phlox under the living room bay window took me by surprise since it hadn't really started blooming last weekend.

And a couple of pictures form some work I did today, moving rocks, vines, small stumps (hidden in the rock wall), and roots out by the road. The rocks were moved for access to stumps and vines and weeds. They will probably be put back in place, in a more orderly manner than they were originally.

For comparison, here is what the rock wall used to look like (picture taken almost 3 years ago)

And sadly, the Rhododendrons were severely damaged this winter from the dry winds. They usually get a lot of protection from mounded snow, but not this year. The NH Extension says to let them be and see if they come back. Holding my breath that they do!

9/11 Memorial

Here are the promised pictures of memorial buildings and reflection pool. Unfortunately we didn't have much time so I couldn't go thru the museum.

And then there is this interesting "Junga" building

Visit to NYC - Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

The place where I work organizes "field trips" about once a month. This month, it was a bus trip to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the 9/11 memorial. Figuring I would never go by myself,  jumped at the chance to go with a group of coworkers (none of whom I had met before). So, yesterday morning I got up at my normal time to make it to the bus by 5:30 am, then I got back home about 12:30 am this morning.

On the way to the Statue of Liberty, we passed the Intrepid which had one of the space shuttles on deck.

Pictures from the boat to the Statue of Liberty

We were escorted part of the way by the US Coast Guard. That was actually coincidental as they were on the way out of the port.

Pictures from the island

Some random dude beside the scaled face.

The original flame - it was a lot smaller than I imagined.

The Liberty Bike

Last shot as we were leaving for Ellis Island

On to Ellis Island

First Immigrant processed in Ellis Island

That is enough for one post - I'll post 9-11 pictures later.

Happy Birthday to the Kittens

Today Rainey and Spot are 1 year old.

Picture taken by their "step-dad" a couple of days after birth

A week after I picked them up in July 2018

February 2019

They drive Rita and me nuts on occasion, but they are such a bright spot and source of entertainment that I would not trade them in for anything.

Happy Mother's Day 2019

Wishing my wonderful Mother, Cop Car, a most excellent Mother's Day. I hope your weather is better than ours so you can enjoy some garden time this morning, then go on to doing whatever will make your day special.

One to Go

Last weekend I picked up the rest of the register covers that I need to hide the FHW fins in the living room (post on other rooms here). I got the covers on under the bay window done.

That wall is just under 14' long so I used one 6' piece and two 4' pieces. Since the longest the covers come in is 6', I would have had to use 3 pieces anyway, so chose to start with a length close to what the final length would be.

I still need to find supports to do the covers behind the stove and bird cages. At least the one wall looks much better.

A Tale of 3 Stumps

A couple of years ago I covered a portion of the front yard with plastic, landscape fabric and bark mulch to smother some stubborn poison ivy. A couple of weeks ago I removed the plastic, fabric and bark mulch. Today was a lovely, dry (for a change), and fairly warm day (61*), so I started working on some stumps that needed to come out.

This is a crop of a photo I took in 2016 after starting the smothering project. Note there are 3 stumps; a large one in back, a smaller one directly in front of it, and another to the right and furthest to the front.

I started by scraping away some of the soil with a hoe, but quickly ran into a tangle of roots. I decided to go right to work on the stump on the left. For a lark, I struck it with a point of the hoe blade and found that it entered the wood quite easily. To be fair, there were a lot of insect holes, and I found quickly that the wood was quite punky. Between the hoe and a shovel, I made fairly quick work of that stump. The stump to the right was not quite so easy as it wasn't as punky and I found it had grown around a decent sized rock, but I was still able to use the hoe and shovel to tear most of the stump apart. Then I grabbed the 5' crow bar and moved the rock out of the way so I could get to the part under ground.

One stump gone and the second mostly gone - the rock is still there

Both stumps and rock gone. That large stump is still quite solid, so it will be there for a while.

The rock (thankfully, just a teenage/young adult rock)

I also took out most of a small stump behind the rock wall. I didn't realize until I took this picture just a little while ago that I hadn't removed the whole thing :O . My excuse was I was being wary of the poison ivy vines that were wrapped all around, and covered the top of it. Yes, the PI has been dead a couple of years, but the oils can stay volotile for some time. I think I had filled my last bucket so started loading up the truck and figured I would get to it when I got back from the dump. Obviously I didn't .

I took all that to the dump then started raking leaves over by the swamp. Although it had been raining most of the week, it was never heavy so it wasn't too wet over there. After 2 more trips to the dump for disposing of leaves and, branches and dead stalks, I'd had enough.

But, I did take time to enjoy the beauty of some phlox along the rock wall by the garage. That is a hosta growing up thru the plants.

It was a productive, enjoyable day. There was enough breeze to keep the bugs mostly away and keep me cool while working in the sun. Tomorrow we are back to dreary, heavily overcast, rain and high temps in the 40's & 50's that will last for the next 5-6 days. Same stuff we have been seeing for a month.

IFRD 2019

International Female Ride Day was yesterday and my HOG/LOH participated by holding a group ride - sponsored by our dealership.

The rain finally broke about 7 am and although I rode to the ride on wet roads, they had dried out by the time the ride got started. It was heavily overcast but we did see peeks of sun. Had a great ride with 23 omen and 5 of our male counterparts as safety crew. Many of the women were not from our chapter, coming from as far away as North Conway.

I am toward the front of the pack, behind the big gold Trike and in front of the smaller black Freewheeler (three wheeler).