Nice neighbors

Festive! Terrific daughter Elisabeth and fantastic fiancé George Three are enjoying settling into their first just 1.1 miles away from my dear wife Karen and I. Oh how happy they were when the neighbors stopped by to present them with a lovely wreath. They hung it proudly on the front door. It reminds me of…

Looking good at The (former) Little Bitty

Michelle needed a refresher on getting the split duct air conditioner ready in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. We were taking Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle over to her vet’s at Shop City. It seemed like a good day to go check out The (former) Little Bitty for the first time since we moved…

Tim catches a swallowtail butterfly … with his camera

My dear wife Karen and I have been waiting patiently for a butterfly spotting in our backyard garden in the cherished Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. I have more hope now than ever. Good Neighbor Tim sent me two great photos from just his side of our shared fence. He did…

The other side of the fence

When my dear wife Karen was pulling weeds and sprucing the spot we call our backyard butterfly garden behind the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, Good Neighbor Tim saw her from his side of the fence. She was struggling with the stuff coming over from the dead spot behind. He offered…

Trying to keep the neighborhood base solid

I noticed a couple of big rocks hanging out on the empty lot separating the Little Bitty and our neighbor’s brick house the other day, and got hit by one of my little ideas. Those are the perfect size, I thought, to place in the holes the Eastwood skunk digs under our Syracuse city fence…

Looking out my back porch door

Stepping to the top step of the porch to let Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle out to do her backyard morning thing, I couldn’t help but look right and left to check out autumn’s progress in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. The empty lot to the right has a brightly yellowed tree hiding out…

Why we like our neighborhood walks

As Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle were completing a big loop around our street in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood the other day, we encountered a project obviously completed just moments prior. In fact, the gentleman who’d done the grunt work was still putting away his spade, his wheelbarrow, the tools of his good…

3 pretty bushes all in a row

In the last week, my three sturdy backyard garden butterfly bushes have changed personality a bit. The white, in fact, became the loudest of the bunch, with blooms so big, so long, so wide, they threatened to drown out their neighbors. But the pink indeed morphed chameleon-like into the multi-colored beauty of seasons past, and…

This time Good Neighbor Tim’s got the butterfly

By mid-July, I’d hoped to be able to proudly show you the purple blossoms on my most mature of butterfly bushes in the backyard garden of my dear wife Karen and I at our home in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Yes, I can, but not in the striking manner in years past. Here’s…