The Dackel Princess

Birds & Ice

Tuesday was quite simply, the best Spring day. It started with a wonderful hot shower in the morning, and as I dressed, I heard a loud thump on my bedroom window. Bird!

I raced down the stairs and opened the door and there lay a Northern Flicker Woodpecker. He was lying completely still on his side and I feared he was dead!

I felt tears well up in my eyes, as I thought he was dead. But I inspected him a little more closely and he blinked at me!

I went to get my gloves and I carefully turned him right side up to inspect him and check for broken feet wings, or neck. He seemed to be in one piece, but I am sure he had one heck of a headache!

Isn’t he handsome? I looked up all about him and discovered that yes, this is a male. As I spoke to him I called him Woody, and I tried to soothe him.

I decided then to move him carefully to an area on our driveway under the briars where he would be safe from predators while he recovered. He never struggled as I moved him and when I set him down he winked at me again.

I left him there for an hour, watching intently from the window. After an hour or so, I went back out to see how Woody was doing and as I approached him, he jumped up and down and then…flew off!

I stood there watching, then jumped up and down waving my hands in the air! Go, Woody, Go!!!

After this, I checked our Lake and at 11:30 Tuesday morning, Lake Waukewan was iced out!

The big lake, Lake Winnipesaukee was still not clear, but it is expected by the morning to be free of ice as well. Ice Out is a big dear up here in New Hampshire!

Springtime in New Hampshire

I woke at 5 AM this morning quite anxious to see if we had ice-out on my lake, Lake Waukewan, here in New Hampshire. We’ve had such warm weather in the last few days, and our nighttime temperature has also stayed fairly warm.

I ran to the window (or should I say, walked quickly), and noted that we are so close! Just a few icy areas near the shorelines. I feel certain that by the end of today we will have official ice out!

It’s rather a lovely time of year. It’s warm and yesterday I opened all the windows and let the air flow in. As I sat here I listened to the Loons calling to each other.

Could it be any more wonderful? Warm air, the silence of the day, and the Loons singing to me, their Spring song!

Easter 2019

Easter Sunday was a nice one. We all gathered at Mandy’s home and I finally got to meet their new puppy, Freya.

She is a rescue puppy, half Lab, half ? but probably something in the retriever family. She is sweet and loving and goes full on, before simply crashing, and falling asleep.

Since I am a seasoned doggy lover, I took Freya out quite a few times for her to do her business. But like all puppies, she did have one small accident while we were there. It is to be expected with puppy potty training.

Soon it was time to set the table and get down to eating the lovingly prepared Easter dinner. My daughter really did a wonderful job preparing the meal.

After dinner, we all sat around talking and sharing memories of Easter pasts. I’m so in awe of my daughter. She made a great meal, sat with us and enjoyed it, and then got it all cleaned up lickity split and never once did she ignore the kids, puppy or her guests. Mandy is quite amazing!

All too soon it was time for us to drive home and feed our own pups. But now before Oma had a chance to hug her little grand-puppy!

Happy Easter

I think I was probably 3 years old when this picture was taken! That’s my big brother, Dickie, and my sister, Melodie and that little bit of a thing, is me.

I miss my brother, who died far too young, and every day in every way, I am grateful for having the best big sister, ever!

This was Easter 1961. We always dressed up in new clothes, new shoes and our baskets for the holiday. Both sets of grandparents came down and quite often my mother’s brother Bob and his wife Cynthia and their kids, Carl and Rikki and their families joined us. Holidays were always a big deal for us. In my mind the holidays still are.

Weekend Happenings

I woke this morning to rain, fog and just generally sad weather outside. Even the dogs didn’t want to go out. I cannot say I blame them, as it’s just plain crappy.

The weird part is that it is really warm. It’s already 60 degrees at 7:00 in the morning! Thus the fog.

Today I will be doing some cooking for Easter, which we will be celebrating at my daughter’s house tomorrow.

I will finally get to meet my new grand-puppy, Freya! She is 14 weeks old and already a much-loved member of their family.

Savannah and Freya.

Quinn playing with Freya.

So I expect tomorrow will be a lot of fun! You know me. Having had a dog in my life for almost all of it, I’m thinking that this is a great addition!

The Friday Five

So here we are, another week has come and gone. I’m actually feeling like Spring has finally arrived, as we have not had any snow and on the lakes, the ice is finally melting!

So, without further adieu, here is this week’s Friday Five!

1. I wanted a nice quiet week, and once we filed out taxes on Monday, things got blessedly quiet!
2. I got the results of my yearly bloodwork. My numbers aren’t looking so good for things like A1C and Cholesterol. Crap! It means more restrictions with my diet and really paying attention to my sugars.
3. I do not like that! Jack told me that I need to accept this stuff because I’m getting older. The body may be 60 but in my mind, I still feel incredibly young.
4. Our snow has all melted in the yard, and now we are just waiting for the ice to melt off the top of our Lake.

5. It’s almost Easter! This means, grandchildren, daughter, and granddog! The whole family is getting together at Mandy and Matt’s house for dinner. This should be fun!

I Love My Phone, But…

I’ve loved my phone, a Galaxy S8 very much. That was before this last system update. Suddenly, everything has changed! I mean everything.

I have spent so much time looking up how to do things on the Internet because this blasted update made my much-loved phone nearly unrecognizable!

I’ve always enjoyed the camera on the phone. It takes great pictures. I like the little mini-videos that it takes and the ability to send them to friends. The videos are just sort of a gif-type file.

I spent over an hour today trying to track down how to do this now because the update completely changed the format! It’s like going from Windows XP to Windows 10! Ugh!

I want to love my phone again, but right now there is a certain amount of frustration that I am feeling and I’m not loving it.

I know I will eventually learn it all again, and then I will be happy, but I expect by that time, they will do another upgrade and screw it all up again!

Spring On The Lake

It seems Spring is starting to arrive on my Lake here in New Hampshire. Yesterday, after a 45+ mile per hour wind storm overnight, I noticed the very beginnings of the ice breaking up. Hurrah! Soon the water will be back, as will our Ducks, Geese, and Loons!

If you look in the center bottom of the picture you can see the very first open water on our Lake.

Our day had been a fairly quiet one, but as I finished the dinner dishes, I saw fire in the sky! What a sunset!

I raced outside, with coat and cell phone and started to snap a few pictures. My neighbor yelled to me to come to use her porch above my house to get a few pictures.

So I ran up (old lady style I am sure), and got these wonderful pictures. Enjoy!

Half way up the hill.

From their porch.

The fire in the sky. One of the best sunsets this Spring!

Life or Something Like It

I’m sitting here watching Notre Dame Cathedral burn. I am saddened beyond words. No one seems to know why, just that it is happening. So very sad.

I never got to see Notre Dame on the ground, but when I flew into Paris I saw it from the sky and that was amazingly beautiful!

Then I started reading my Facebook Wall and I saw entry after entry with people lamenting this loss. A few said, “Could 2019 stop sucking so much!”, and I thought, yeah, 2019 has been a tough year and quite honestly I don’t see it getting any easier either.

I’ve had years like this before and the one thing I have learned is that you have to work at looking to find the good and making the best out of the worst that life throws your way.

I guess part of it is having faith that things will pass, things will get better. I know they will. It will be different, but life will go on and a new normal will fall into place.

So dear ones, don’t despair. Life will be full of happiness again, even if it is a little bit different.

It’s A Wrap!

Since I had worked pretty hard on Saturday, I decided I wanted to relax a bit on Sunday. Somehow, it did not turn out that way.

I seemed to be consumed with shelf clearing and organizing, but sometimes I feel like I am losing the battle.

Jack had seen a show about a woman who comes in and whips your home into shape. Her website is called Horderly.com and he said I should look it over.

I did, and I would love to be able to purge the entire house, but I live with Mr. Hoarder! So this would be quite difficult.

However, 2018 saw me finally finish clearing my office out and fixing it all up, so why not start with another room. I think the formal living room that we never use may be the next place on my list.

I think Spring is here, finally. We have had two pretty nice days and I am hopeful that this is it, but you never know.

One year we had a massive blizzard on May 9-10 we got 13 inches of snow! So, yeah, one never rules out snow until well after that! At least I don’t.

Jack got up early on Sunday so he could watch the Masters Golf. It was a wonderful round of golf to watch and we both were pleased to see Tiger Woods win after so much adversity in his life. Both emotionally and physically.

So, my friends, that’s a wrap of my weekend!