Red chairs highlight the lone flower

My dear wife Karen requested that I bring the red Adirondack chairs up from their winter basement hiding spot. I think they offer a wonderful complement to that one lone red backyard garden flower that decided to emerge.

Back to jazzy

The Syracuse Jazz Fest returned to downtown Syracuse a week ago, and so did my dear wife Karen and I. We pulled out our bag chairs and headed to Clinton Square on a sunny, hot Saturday afternoon in late June for some music and relaxation. Fest founder and producer Frank Malfitano was back in fine…

Backyard roses work hard

I do agree with the experts who gladly chatted us up at this spring’s rose fair at the Liverpool Public Library, which my dear wife Karen and I attended with open ears. This has been a tougher year for our plants than usual. Still, try, try, try our backyard babies are all in their own…

A summer wallop for the knockout roses

I’m happy when the big corner rose bush up front takes its turn making our yard look spiffy. It’s a tough year for roses, we were told by the local experts when we visited this spring’s fair at the Liverpool Public Library. Tomorrow, you get to see our backyard roses.

Real-life plate action for the kids

Elisabeth and George have carefully studied all those Triple-A batters during our trips to NBT Bank Stadium to watch the Syracuse Mets play. This summer they jumped into the backyard batting cage put up to help the Little League days of nephew Mason. Hard work, texted Elisabeth, recalling her high school softball days. You have…

It might be pool weather

With my dear wife Karen working weekdays in Schenectady for her traveling sterile tech gig this month, we’re off to a slow pool start. She’s the one in charge of the whole backyard pool thing, glady. The pool company has visited. The cover is off. Karen starts a local gig come the start of July.…

The kids just had to, they declared

The agreement declared that all the work it took my fantastic daughter Elisabeth and terrific fiance George Three to fix the quite broken shed doors while my dear wife Karen, cherished rescue mutt Ellie B and I were on our annual Cape Cod getaway would serve as this year’s Father’s Day present. I didn’t want…

So much tasty Polish food

The family did indeed return for our annual visit to the big Polish shindig in Syracuse’s Clinton Square this year. We were quite thrilled, in fact, that we could stock up on our beloved food from the Utica Polish Community Club without having to make the drive east to Utica. See all that food on…

Finishing another Cape Cod puzzle

Congratulations to my dear wife Karen! From the shelves in the store in Chatham to the dining table in our Dennis Port rental, this 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle went from all apart to complete finished. Yes, one last Dennis Port rental shot needed to be shared! Last year she had the help of terrific daughter Elisabeth…