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We and Cindy have both had a couple of birds of prey up close and personal with our houses recently. Cindy's neighbor said hers was a Red Tailed Hawk. It found an insecure screen panel on her screen porch and busted through. It only took a few minutes for it to find its way out.
Later the same week (this morning), one appeared perched on the top of our bluebird house.
I thought it was a Cooper's Hawk. Whatever it was, it appears to be saying, "They said that this was a good breakfast bar." Durelle recently cleaned out the birdhouse, so there has not been much activity there, nor will there be with that fellow sitting there.
On a separate note, and, as you know, Bettsy has recently joined our household. Today Durelle took a picture of her sharing a rocker with Addie, an American Girl doll that Cindy gave to her Mom many moons ago because Durelle's Mom was named Addie.
Go Pats!
The previous post hurried to "meet deadline", and I went to press without Jurgen's pictures. I have since received a dozen and a half good pictures from him, so I will use them to build an addendum to the blog about their visit.
Just for the record, here's where we are, and here's the opening view.
Here are four successive views as you move toward that massive trunk. There's an interesting side story about the big live oaks. In 1989 the US Navy was in the midst of a major overhaul of the USS Constitution..."Old Ironsides". Among many other repairs, several of the curved ribs of that old ship needed to be replaced. Building those curved ribs out of straight timbers would have required some serious joinery. Finding curved limbs would give the restorers two major advantages: hundreds of hours of work would be eliminated, and the single-piece rib would be stronger. Well, along came a gift from the heavens. Hurricane Hugo did major damage to the live oaks in South Carolina. Through some unforeseen connection between the arborist, clean-up crews and the ship restorers the clean-up resulted in many flatbed trucks loaded with large curved timbers heading north to Boston. As a result there is a lot of South Carolina oak in Old Ironsides.
Woodworkers are happy to find a burl to work with because of the swirling grain. They generally range in size from a cantaloupe to a basketball. Here's one the size of a desk or a large coffee table.
The initial suggestion to, "Let's go look at a tree." did not evoke great excitement, But when they saw it, they were truly impressed.
There is another link that ties the two families together over the last forty years. I had purchased a fine, Yamaha, upright, piano for Cindy in 1969 in Colorado. Ten years later she graduated from high school in NH and left for the University of Oklahoma. Mark did not have the interest or talent to inherit the piano, so we looked for a place to sell it. Susan Gobien was (and is) active in the leadership of church music and really needed a piano. So, one icy February day in NH Jurgen and I wrestled that piano out of the house, up the driveway and into a rental trailer for a winter drive to Rome, NY. The first thing Susan did was to call a piano tuner to appease all of the insults the piano received on the trip. We were all relieved and pleased when the tuner said, "I barely had to do a thing. That's a wonderful piano." The piano now resides in the home of the Gobien's son, Andrew where it is in active use today.
It was a wonderful visit.
We are most fortunate to have occasional visitors. I'm surprised that Durelle and I are such an attraction, but perhaps some of Charleston's other attributes contribute. This time it was Jurgen and Susan Gobien. (Susan had a conference :-) ). Jurgen and I go back forty years. If a friend is a person who "has your back", Jurgen and I fit the definition. We were nurturing a young but potentially major program through the military--industrial complex without all of the organizational support we would have liked. We defended ourselves and each other, and often compared notes over a glass (or two) of Guinness.
Some things never change.
We were nurturing a young but potentially large program to fundamentally change the tactical voice network used by fighter pilots attacking ground targets. As you can imagine, there were many factions involved. There was no shortage of oxen to be gored. We succeeded against significant odds and our friendship has endured.
I was a half generation ahead of Jurgen. So, when Cindy was leaving us and we no longer had a use for our Yamaha Spinet piano, I sold it to Jurgen, It is in good hands as Jurgen's grandson is making great use of the piano.
When visitors have not seen the Angel Oak, we subject them to a trip through John"s Island to see it. Fortunately, today was a good day to see it. Normally the idea of a Live Oak with Spanish Moss does not inspire excitement. This tree is a Charleston icon, and the normal reaction is, "Oh, Wow". The tree is over 400 years old and shades 18,000 square feet. The circumference of the trunk is thirty feet.
You can see the impressive nature of the tree. Here's another shot of the tree with the four of us...thanx, Cindy.
If you are interested you can check the following link. Angel Oak
Although some traditions remain, Christmas for the Cloutiers is changing. The tree is smaller and the decorations, simpler. There are fewer presents and participants. It is quieter, slower moving and does NOT start at sunup! Fortunately, Cindy is still here to share it. Otherwise we would probably lose almost all the flavor of a celebration.
Before we get to Christmas, I am happy to report that Durelle's GRWS (Golden Retriever Withdrawal Symptoms) are no longer evident.
Christmas Eve has, for a long time, meant a dish of lasagna with salad and garlic bread and this year was no exception.
Our tree is no longer one that would be suitable for the town square. Thankfully, the cat has decided to leave it alone.
Although they weren't here,I thought I'd include recent pictures of our two youngest great-grandkids: Madeleine and Anthony.
I hope all you kind folks out in the blogosphere had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to a healthy and prosperous new year.
This past weekend, from Friday to Monday, we hosted David (32) and Kevin (30) as they were in town to run in the half-marathon on Kiawah Island. If they are not "great" grandsons, there aren't any. They enjoyed the use of the Corvette, but on race day the rain and the alternate parking caused them to return and switch to the Jeep. I noticed today that the Corvette had a full gas tank. I have not yet checked the Jeep. They ran together until the last couple of miles before the finish when Kevin out-legged his "big" brother. They both finished and were happy with their times. I didn't ask what they were.
Since I have neither the mobility nor stamina to position myself at the finish line of such an event, I have resorted to using images provided by Dave that are for sale by a vendor who does.
The following morning (Sunday) they teamed up to make a generous breakfast for the five of us. Can you tell that they are brothers?
The race determined a couple of meals. They night before was a big bowl of spaghetti. Carbohydrate loading is a common pre-race tactic. The pre-race breakfast was just energy bars. Saturday night I grilled some pound and a half ribeyes. I expected them to consume more beer than they did, so I'm going to have enough Yuengling to last me a while. It was a most pleasant weekend, and we could not have asked for a couple of more enjoyable guests.
On another front; our "dip your toe in the water" start of a search for an assisted living facility has stalled out. I'm mentally more ready than Durelle. While I'd like to make the commitment while we are still healthy enough to enjoy the new lifestyle, Durelle is not yet ready to embrace a change of that magnitude. We'll work it out together, eventually.
As mentioned in the last post, Durelle is having some serious Golden Retriever withdrawal issues. Assuming she eventually succumbs to the persuasiveness of my arguments and agrees to move into a unit of independent/assisted living, only small pets are permitted. Seventy five pounds does not qualify. The compromise was a cat
So, Friday, Durelle and Cindy went the Animal Society to find a cat. There were very few adult cats to choose from. They came back with a little (71/2 pound), scrawny, flea-bitten, black short-haired thing whose only redeeming virtue was that he came over and climbed up into Durelle's lap. The pick of the litter she was not. Durelle named her, "Bettsy", and the spelling is intentional.
She made herself at home with no fuss. She quickly found and uses her litter box and bed. She eats as if she were recently starved, and we think she was. It appears that her coat is cleaning up and filling out nicely. She is well on her way toward being a good looking, well behaved house cat. She's not a golden, but she's just as affectionate. Now all we have to do is get her leash trained so Durelle can take her for a walk.
For decades we have enjoyed sitting outside the front of the house dispensing normally scarce confections to hordes of artfully disguised urchins. Luckily, we live in a neighborhood where it is safe for pre-teens to be walking around after sundown, albeit with a parent lurking in the background. Durelle managed the candy bowl while I handled the camera. Here's a few.
In addition to these creatures of the night, we had a real apparition (oxymoron?😕) visit us. Durelle now uses her many old golf towels as dish towels. Recently she draped one of them over the lid of the clothes hamper to dry a bit before relegating it to the hamper. When she looked at it the next morning she saw the face of a golden retriever. Granted, she still dreams of goldens, but even a sceptic with a bit of imagination could find the face in the dirty towel.
What do you think?
