When A Squirrel Takes A Fancy To Your House, This Can Happen

July 31, 2013February 24, 2015 / Ally Bean / 27 Comments

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He might decide one morning to catch a few rays on the deck.

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I’M NOT GOING TO bother to tell you ALL the back story of The Squirrel Wars that go on here in this subdivision. Suffice to say, in the past, we had to hire someone, with humane traps, to remove all the little chirpy baby squirrels and their parents from our attic/roof. Then we had to get someone else to repair our roof. This kind-hearted approach succeeded in keeping the squirrels away from our property until this year.

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He might decide one evening to dine al fresco leaving the remains of his dinner for a fly.

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ON THE OTHER HAND our former next door neighbor, a retired Army colonel, decided on a more aggressive way to deal with the squirrels. He hired someone to put spring-loaded traps in the gutters where the squirrels liked to nest. Then when a squirrel stepped on the trap, the squirrel was speared through the heart, thrown over the edge of the gutter and left to dangle to death under the gutter from a rope attached to the base of the trap.

It was gruesome– and ultimately not so effective. The squirrels immediately took revenge on the colonel’s house, bird feeders and tree branches causing him more trouble than you can imagine. While I’m not a fan of squirrels, I did think the colonel’s approach was a bit [shall we say?] extreme and will admit that I enjoyed watching him lose to a bunch of squirrels.

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He might decide one afternoon to take a siesta in the pot behind the zinnias.

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BUT THAT WAS THEN and this is now. Which is to say that over the last month one lone squirrel has taken a fancy to our house. I’m not thrilled by it, but as we are past breeding season and there is no indication of a wife and family anywhere in the house, I’m trying to live in peaceful harmony with this sun-loving, tomato-eating, pot-snoozing, gutter-lounging squirrel who insists on calling our house his home.

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He might decide on a stormy afternoon to lounge in a gutter daydreaming of sunny days.

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Me, The Morning Star & The Muse Of Practicality

July 25, 2013July 25, 2013 / Ally Bean / 12 Comments

“Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.”

~ Henry David Thoreau, the end of Walden Pond

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The other morning I woke up at 5:30 a.m. This is much too early by my standards, but there I was AWAKE, not worrying about a thing. So I got up, made a pot of coffee, poured myself a mug, grabbed my camera and went out on the deck to sit, waiting for the sun to come up.

It didn’t take long for the first rays of sunlight to sneak across the lawn heading for the wooded ravine behind our home.

Nor did it take long for me to become bewitched by the path of the glittery sunlight, following it with my camera into the darkest parts of the woods.

At this point I’d love to tell you that my early morning photo shoot was some sort of transcendental awakening. That the course of my life was permanently altered because of my experience watching the morning light illuminate the woods.

But there wasn’t anything spiritual about my early morning on the deck. It was all very practical. A way for me to learn about using my camera in various light. And the opportunity to ponder why it is that I can remember the last line of Walden Pond– but, for the life of me, can’t think of the first one!

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I’m Beginning To Think That I Like Pink

June 18, 2013February 3, 2015 / Ally Bean / 21 Comments

If you were to ask me if I liked pink, I’d tell you that I did not.

However, the other day when Greg, the landscaper, was here chatting with me about our next big project, he started talking about color. He was taking notes about my vague ideas about what I wanted him to do next in the flower beds out front along the sidewalk leading up to the front door.

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He asked me what colors I wanted to see along there. I told him no pink.

Being the polite sort of man that he is, he merely raised one eyebrow and tilted his head in about five different directions. My eyes followed where he was subtly pointing.

And what did I see? Oh pots & pots of pink flowers and many pink rose bushes. All over the property. Uh huh.

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After I stopped laughing at myself, I looked over at him. He said nothing but held up his pad of paper on which he’d written one word. In very large letters. And the word was: PINK. The color that we’ll be seeing along the front sidewalk.

The color that, apparently, I like.

Scattered

May 31, 2013May 31, 2013 / Ally Bean / 26 Comments

“Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”

~ Benjamin Franklin

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My energy this week has been scattered. Some moments I’ve been focused + productive. But other moments (most moments) I’ve been angsty + worried. Then add in the fact that this is a 4-day work week– and I don’t know what I’m all about.

While it is true that I am more comfortable than most with the vagaries of life, this week I’ve felt out of sorts about my lack of progress or connection or accomplishment or whatever. Scattered, I tell you.

So yesterday afternoon I decided that the best thing for me to do was to see what I could see outside around the house. I thought that a distraction would be good. Naturally I took my camera with me.

It was a hazy sunny day which meant that most of my photos weren’t clear– just kind of a fuzzy, glare-y mess. Rather like my week. And with the sun in my eyes, those photos that were clear tended to have lousy composition– off-kilter or scattered. Still a few of them turned out okay.

And so on that positive note, I’m off to enjoy a summer weekend where being scattered is a plus. On the agenda we have a walk in a county park [on the other side of town]; a meal at an English pub [in another part of town]; an art show [in an entirely different direction]; and a cocktail hour on the terrace next to the woods [out the back door]. Life may be scattered for me now, but it is good. Happy Weekend everyone!