avablog

It was a bit windy all day yesterday, which made two things more difficult than usual: Biking (west) and getting clean macro shots. There was a lot of nice light in the sky last evening as we were getting Ava ready for bed, so I took the opportunity to get out in the yard and […]

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Last evening was only my second grilling event of the season. I know people who grill out all through the winter, but that’s not my idea of grilling. I like to be able to stand in my driveway with my flipflops on and watch the bees buzz around the iris shoots in my flower bed. […]

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My mother has generously provided for a new Burley for Ava to ride around in once she gets a helmet. Today I put it together and got it hooked up to my recumbent in preparation for the biking season ( I’ve been a bad biker and haven’t been on my Volae all winter). This is […]

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Thick fog lay between the houses and in the branches of the bushes and trees on our block this morning. The air is heavy with the aroma of budding leaves, and thin twigs grow slightly less-thin as sap runs under their delicate bark. The daffodils that grow in clumps at the border of the back […]

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It’s getting pretty exciting around here. Today’s gorgeous sun and warm temperatures were just too much for this daffodil to take, so it started to spring open. There are a couple others nearby, as well as some fern peony shoots and a bunch of thick, hearty tulip leaves that have little nibble marks all up […]

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So say the tulips and daffodils pushing up through the weathered mulch in our flower beds.  And the three male Cardinals whose songs we wake up to each morning as they try to impress the lady Cardinals in the neighborhood.  And the mosquito that landed on Ava’s lapel last weekend when we walked to the […]

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…”I’m on my hands and knees, kissing the driveway.” As we drove into Grand Island under a steady drizzle night before last, I thought to myself, “Man, if it were a couple degrees cooler, this would be a real mess.” Guess what?  Yesterday we woke up and pulled the shades back in our tidy Holiday […]

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We’re having a great time up here in the mountains. There’s been lots of snow. Kevin is off snowboarding for a half day at Mary Jane right now, as a matter of fact. He and I went snowmobiling for a bit the day we got here, which was a lot of fun (except for the […]

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If I could just sit inside today and look out the window I might be able to delude myself into thinking that it was a gorgeous day.  And it is sunny.  But the thermometer is reading 1°F outside right now. Yesterday two of the four cars we have here this weekend started, one because it […]

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I awoke at six this morning to a tremendous flash of white light that radiated straight through the two sets of shades on the bedroom windows and made the bed look like it was sitting on the end of the runway during the finale of John Galliano’s Fashion Week show. Well, anyway, it was bright.  […]

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So far this year I’ve cleaned snow off our walks and driveway more times than I did all last winter. The glass-is-half-empty person in me says that stinks. The glass-is-half-full person says it’s not so bad; shoveling is good exercise. I’ve had access to a new snowblower this year, but I haven’t used it. I’ve […]

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Got up late because little Ava was tossing and turning most of the night with what Leah thinks is croup. Looked out the window to discover three to four inches of snow on the ground, so I threw on some clothes and stumbled outside. I gave the electric starter on the snowblower a shot, but […]

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Well, it’s not sticking to the ground. In fact there are hardly any flakes at all; the sky is filled mostly with rain. But every now and then you can see a small streak of white go by. I wonder how Ava’s going to like the snow this year. She was a bit small to […]

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Fall in Iowa is hard to beat. Actually, the entire upper Midwest is a visual wonderland in October. Even on those occasional gray, soggy days when the clouds seem 10 feet off the ground, the dull browns and golds of the farm fields spread out for miles like richly hued wool rugs. Bright, sunny days […]

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I try to get in at least one long-ish bike ride every year. Last summer I rode a 100-mile loop down to Wapello and back. It was fun, but I ran into some bad weather on the way home and got pretty soaked. It was sunny and warm by the time I got home, though. […]

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So I take Friday off and spend the last three days working in the yard. Weeding. Digging. Moving wire plant baskets. Carrying bucket after bucket of river rock and sand. Laying dozens of feet of bed edging. And of course it’s not until I’m all done and Leah asks for a breast pad do I […]

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Must’ve been that 80-degree day and all the sun yesterday that convinced these daffodils it was time to make an appearance. I’ve been watching my flower bed every day as these leaves sprang up from the ground and grew taller and taller. As of last evening the stems had started to bend over just a […]

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Yesterday was a pretty exciting day. Well, the small span between arriving home from work and preparing dinner, at least. I grabbed the yard waste bin from the garage and started removing all the dried Oak leaves that I’d spread over our flower beds before this last cold snap. There was lots to see. One […]

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