Ellie B rises with the sun

Some days I just let Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle out the back door of A Bitty Better in our Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville and hardly open my eyes. Last week I saw that the sun already was saying its howdy-do for the day. I grabbed my iPad Pro from the nightstand to capture the…

Here come the butterfly bush blossoms

It’s August. The butterfly bush blossoms are pushing out in the triangle garden in the backyard of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwoood. In the two of the four, anyway. The tall one has purple flowers showing. And the white one has the biggest cone-shaped blossoms out for the world to…

Dogamous Pyle escapes into a pickle

I felt the iPhone 6 vibrate in my pocket as I talked to my boss Diane at the Liverpool Public Library. Once, twice, three times it rang. I ignored it, figuring I’d look to see the number come quitting time and discover yet another listing of one of the folks you don’t call back because…

Coming up red and yellow

The reds and the yellows look quite nice sharing space in the hourglass garden in the front yard of our beloved Little Bitty in the Syracuse City neighborhood of Syracuse. And the red bush in the corner of the back porch is springing up rather nicely, too, despite the attention that spot gets from Ellie…

Sprucing up the backyard of the Little Bitty

With a few days off between leaving my job at the store and starting my position at the Liverpool Public Library, I decided to tackle two of the backyard projects that have been sitting on my spring list. Hover over any gallery photo for a description. Click on any image for an enlarged slide show.…

Somebody needed a haircut in the worst way

Ten inches of rain in June. More on July 1. A whole bunch of writing and working on my busy schedule. I could practically hear the grass growing in the backyard of our Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Into every life a little rain must fall … yeah, right. The Lush…

A beautiful Friday in May this second

The weather guy is calling for a record high on this Friday, May 8, predicting that it will reach 89º F here in Syracuse, N.Y. On “Today,” the stories from Al Roker and crew are of early tropical storms coming toward Myrtle Beach — first of the season, in particular, by the name of Anna…

Green backyard grass, except for that one patch

The mower will be out of the shed soon in the yard of my dear wife Karen and I’s Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. A good portion of our backyard is looking lush, considering it’s the year-round playground for Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle. Playground-plus, actually, if you know what I’m…