The Rhododendron Festival makes me curious

As we walked the grounds of the Rhododendron Festival in Sandwich, Mass., I thought and thought. Why do some plants indigenous to this are have flowers so big? While others right beside it are far less bulky? What are these hanging pods that might or might not be fruit? Why don’t we in the land…

A flowery festival makes us very happy

My terrific daughter Elisabeth doesn’t just visit a new place. She investigates what’s what. So she saw on the interwebs that the Rhododendron Festival would be in full bloom in the deliciously named town of Sandwich. After some back-and-forth, I went online and purchased our tickets for the Sunday before Memorial Day. Oh, what a…

Yes, this was a wonderful surprise

As we prepared for this year’s Cape Cod getaway, my dear wife Karen instructed me that I could not plan anything for the first Sunday of the stretch. Then she told me to make sure I packed my swimming trunks. A surprise was in store. Hmmmmmm. But it was early Saturday afternoon when a knock…

Cape Cod vacation comes early this year

We booked our week-plus in the Cape earlier than usual this year. Many factors led to our decisions. The waning of the epidemic in our part of the world, yes. Our totally vaccinated condition, yes. The available time period of the cottage that accepts my dear wife Karen, cherished rescue mutt Ellie B and I,…

Ava looks awesome in person

On our recent visit to see Elisabeth and George Three, we were enthusiastically greeted by Ava. Our favorite kitty had plenty of affection for my dear wife Karen and I. It was as if she knew that she was often the center of attention on this blog from photos texted to me by Elisabeth ……

Great growing, George

On a recent visit to have a great Polish feast dinner for George Three’s birthday celebration, we noticed his hydroponics garden in their kitchen. Oh, my, his vegetables had a fantastic winter growing season from the Christmas gift from Elisabeth! We are quite impressed at the red tomatoes and green basil, you betcha.

They did dig it up

Not too soon after I marveled how the neighborhood construction had somehow managed to leave unscathed the pretty Salina Town Offices front gardens, my cherished rescue mutt Ellie B and I met with a disappointing sight. Gone were the flowers we’ve enjoyed for our almost five years living here. They had to fix what was…

Perfect place for soothing chimes

My former boss at the library used to give us really great Christmas gifts. My dear wife Karen has been searching for the perfect spot for the wind chime crafted lovingly and creatively by a local artists. We had it in locations too far for us to enjoy it’s lovely ringing or too close to…

About that upper deck

My good friend Steven T read my posts about our first visit to NBT Bank Stadium this season and commented that he was less than thrilled about what the Syracuse Mets organization had done to the upper deck. My dear wife Karen and I went upstairs during our second game. The view wasn’t bad. But…