The Weekend In Black & White: The Easter Lily That Wouldn't Bloom

Is this:

An angelic moment in the garden here at Piazza Uccello...

or a scene from The Day of the Triffids ?

You decide.

See all the other Monochrome Maniacs here.

Sepia Scenes: Hummingbird Chimes

This once belonged to my late mother in law and I have hung it on the back porch so I can hear it all during my  day as I go in and out of the house.
I like the gentle sound of the chiming, very sweet.

Visit Sepia Scenes here, hosted by Mary T.

The Repurpose Driven Life

Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I'm a dedicated DIY'er.  So when I decided to go looking for landscaping ideas after an appointment in the East Hill district, my ears pricked up and my radar was on full alert when I saw that the residents had put out scads of paint cans and gardening toss-offs along with a melange of perfectly cured junk. It was sitting on the right-of-way in front of their homes, all part of a program I later found out is called STEP, but right then a program of my own began to form: I'm driving the pickup. I like freebies. A good neighborhood = worthy castoffs. Maybe an involuntary Squee! has escaped my lips but I vow to only get things I want need. The name for this: The Repurpose Driven Life and I am a charter member.

I began by acquiring some very nice lattice pieces, then some a lot of  pots for flowers, vegetable gardening and seedlings, followed by several perfectly good soaker hoses and a Rubber Maid cart that needed and got a minor repair on a wheel.

Eventually, I got some really good, flat out "stuff." I've been wanting a swinging baby gate for the Bunny Man's room and this one is in pristine condition. Also, this squat little carrier is perfect for transporting him to and from the vet because it keeps him from bouncing around and getting hurt if I have to brake hard, neatly solving a special challenge for us indentured bunneh servants.















I confess to you now, I made two trips. But that's only because I have a pressure washer and I know how to use it. Or maybe I have ORD (Obsessive Repurposing Disorder)? Either way, I saved all of it from going straight to the landfill so in the end no harm, no foul. I do take requests.

POV Sunday

Someone can take away your dignity, your car, maybe your pain, certainly your trash, but what they can never take away is your point of view. In this post there are several: the blogger's, dear reader's, a married couple together and individually, a fugitive, police officers, EMT's, a K-9 dog, a helicopter pilot, one or two dispatchers I would imagine and, finally, some concerned family members. And they all came together one night last week for less than an hour. This isn't about saying what you would you do, it's about what you do when life just happens.

A woman knocks on our front door in the early evening and a three-way conversation ensues. It's still light out. I observe her while we all stand on our front porch and I can see she is in some sort of quiet distress as she uses our phone to call and then wait on a Yellow Cab. She has no purse or backpack, just the clothes she's wearing and she stands with her back against the wall. I go back inside to finish fixing supper and to think but my husband waits with her which makes me increasingly uncomfortable. Before too long he tells me a helicopter is flying overhead and a K-9 dog is searching the woods behind our home. I go back outside to find our quiet corner of the world is slowly morphing into an Op Center. Our visitor is in plain sight but time passes and confusion and uncertainty increases as more vehicles, people, and police cars gather on our street. An ambulance arrives. There's a lot of activity going on but nothing is happening. It's dark now and family members are with her. Eventually, she is definitely the focus of everyone's attention at which point she becomes distraught but isn't arrested or detained - not that we saw. We watch for a time and eventually the crowd dissipates. Before we head inside her family thanks us, but for what we don't know.

(click to enlarge)

I can tell you that I heard her first name and figured out her last name and managed to find some mug shots of her online but none, so far, for this moment in her life. How you can search for someone when she's in your line of sight I can't say. Whatever she did to bring so much attention to herself, I'm sure some people pay publicists good money for that.