The things Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and I spy on our walks beyond our Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhoods of Eastwood and Lyncourt.
Tuesday’s eyeful started with odd. Eccentric. Provocative. Well, odd.
We had to look twice.
Anybody can put a basketball hoop at the peak of their garage. And it doesn’t take much chutzpah to hang your favorite pair of deer antlers up in the den, now does, it?
But to paint the rack white, split ’em wide and mount them up high at the end of the driveway to protect house and home, that takes special thought and execution.
Welcome. Or else?
Yes, they did. I went up closer to make sure this was indeed that. The arrangement does look like hands held open in a certain religious gesture, perhaps? I also thought the light fixture immediately below is a good touch.
Woof. Really.
Half a block down, this neighbor chose the fake and flat black dog mounted against the wood fence. It looks as if it could frighten certain scaredy cats, birds, folks creeping around where they don’t belong who upset easily … Heck, it looks fine, I say. Ellie B was not fooled. No woofing from her.
Bird of paradise?
Next door, this happy-looking house had as its welcoming symbol a far more colorful character. The gent enjoying the sun on the front porch called out to me that he rescued this small but proud cock from an unlikely predicament. “I found it in the garbage,” he declared as I clicked my iPhone 6.
Imagine that.
What’s the oddest thing you’ve seen decorating the outside of a house? What’s the most interesting thing? What would you like to have welcoming folks to your home, and why?
Mark Bialczak 
Those are hilarious, Mark! The antlers are by far the oddest. 🙂
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Those antlers are something else, Rachel. What, I’m not quite sure, but something else!
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Mark … I tried voting twice – for the dog and then for the rooster. But, unlike Chicago elections, they only accepted one vote. Interesting photos.
We have a few unusual ones in our neighborhood: a fake owl perched on a pole on a roof to scare off birds, and a neighbor with a huge sign in his screened-in entry way warning that he has a gun and will use it. Yeah!
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I put in the parameters, one vote per blogger. Silly me, Judy!
I like the fake owl. I got faked out by one here this winter and wrote and posted a photo of it. The gun warning would have me cutting a wide swath, though. Oy.
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I enjoyed your post about the fake owl. About the gun warning, I’ll just say: we’re not close. 😉
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Hey Mark! I think I finally figured out how to get your new posts by e-mail. cool post = love the pics. I travel by a handicap transit and there is a gentleman in town here who uses the same service. He started with a few decorations in his front yard and over the years it has grown to consume his whole yard except for the path to the door. I couldn’t find a pic it is mind boggling.
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Wow. I think there is such a thing as too much yard decorations, Paul.
I’m glad you figured out my email dilemma. It is upsetting for me when you are not around, my friend. Go back to Tuesday. I did a photo post and named you in it!
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I have a rooster infatuation Mr. B, they are so regal! Not sure I would put one on my house but love them. 🙂
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They are very beautiful and regal, yes, Mrs. B. And they make a racket in real life! 😉 Come on, tell me how many decorative roostes you have inside your house … I bet more than one.
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My favorite are the hand written notes and signs we find when we approach houses….but I better not repeat what they say….. 😉
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Oh, I will use my imagination, and it’s not good, MBC. 😦
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It’s …..interesting….. let’s go with that MBM.
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i loved the white antlers the best. incredible.
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Quite the sight to greet us, I agree, Beth,
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In the suburbs of Chateauguay,Quebec where I grew up, a lot of people had those little statues, you know, mushrooms, dwarfs, gnomes, etc., all over their front yard! Mark, I like the poll daddy. It was fun and so far I am on the winning team! ❤
Diana xo
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Little Canadian yard thingies! How interesting, Diana. And you for you being on the winning team. ❤
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😉 haha
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I’ve seen five foot iron chickens in the front yard and many Momma ducks and her ducklings, but the worst was a canoe with the characters from the Wizard of Oz fishing out the side…makes sense in Kansas, a bit, but still…maybe the man was retired. 🙂
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One of my fave yards ever had one of those old claw foot tubs and a toilet, filled with beautiful flowers on the front lawn – I loved it!
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Tiolet planter! I’d put a sign next to it that said: Flush with success. What do you say, Diana? ❤
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I love it! It actually looked really pretty.
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I love those, as well. Too funny!
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It does make sense in Kansa a bit, Aud. Maybe the retired gent’s wife name was Em!
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Maybe so, Chum! 🙂
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Well, I already told you about my encounter with the fake snake so…definitely going with the deer antlers on this one though I guess I’m in the minority. Probably something to do with animal rights…oh boy the PC police will probably come after me on this one.
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The Guardians of the Gates will stop the PC police, for us, Marissa. 🙂
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Whew! A good thing for me!
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I love the last house. That looks so cozy and welcoming. Also for a country girl like me, the antlers are a great touch! I wouldn’t do it, but I like it. The most interesting welcoming (or unwelcoming) decor I’ve seen on a house were skulls, both pictures and replicas, everywhere – windows, walls, the door and in the yard.
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Oh, and it was in the summer. No where near Halloween.
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Even spookier, Me Who.
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I would run away from the skull house very quickly, Me Who. I am glad somebody spoke up for the antlers. Here in deer country, there are plenty.
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I’m the strange one who was actually interested in going to their door to see what kind of person lived there. 🙂
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Well, good for you, Me Who. Open-minded!
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Down the road, there is a trailer with a bottle tree–green and white bottles mounted in a tree fashion. I doubt that it rivals the flat dog. The trailer across from it used to have car tires painted white and carved into swans before it all vanished one day. I like the rooster (and have some in my kitchen/dining) because morning and crowing and breakfast are all signs of the potential for a new day of opportunity. If I could have a carved Indian at my front door without seeming racist (like the Seinfeld episode), I would sure have that. There was also a nursery, growing up, that used to place hundreds of pink flamingos in its front yard each spring. A sea of pink! It was fantastic.
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I like the pink flamingos by the hundreds. A lot, Kerbey. Up here, NOT the carved figure of a Native American, no matter pure intentions per Seinfeld. Interesting regarding the bottle tree and disappearing white tire swans down your end. Hmmmmmm.
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The trailers are slowly disappearing to make way for commercial buildings. They added 100 homes to our subdivision, which increased appraised value and our taxes by a couple thousand, which is pricing the trailers out of the area. That’s my guess. And maybe we could steal one of Sandra’s garden gnomes for our yards!
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Let’s sneak up on Sandra’s garden, very, very quietly, Kerbey. Shoes off …
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The house down the street has pink flamingos on the lawn… imagine that in Florida! LOL! Fun post Mark!
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How unique, Colleen! Thanks, my friend. 🙂
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Go to Ohio and check out all the hex signs hanging on barns….
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Oh, boy, Trey. Wiccan way do you turn at the fork in the road?
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I think the rooster is charming — what a great junk find!
Our back gate displays a metal sign with a squirrel on it, reading, “Welcome to the Nut House.” We’re very fond of our squirrels 🙂
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Now that appears to be a great match of animal and human surroundings, Joey, from the time I’ve spent reading your blog. Well done.
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Thank you, Mark! 😀
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I applaud anything added to provide a punch of panache to personal property. However I am still a bit nostalgic when ever I see the great painted barn roofs in rural America. Rather they are advertising tobacco or advising you about the good time you’ll have in a visit to Rock City I think they are just great. I do recall one particular roof on a small general store in Washington Indiana that was covered in broken soft drink bottles. Now that was one shiny sight.
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Benson, you are a shining sight yourself today with this comment. “Provide a punch of panache to personal property.” Way to pound out the P, my friend. I love it. I would like to see the roof sights out your way. They sound beautiful and intriguing. Thank you.
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There are lots of pineapples around here, Mark. Do you know what that means?
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Hawaii wannabes, Ann?
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If you search for it, Mark, you’ll find that it means “welcome.”
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Mahalo, Ann.
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I saw antlers adorning a garbage box in front of someone’s house!
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Ha! Good one, Jennifer. I have a feeling those antlers were gone in no time flat and tacked up somewhere else.
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