Looking Up

This oak tree has been hunched over like a question mark for longer than I've been breathing in and out, and I just noticed it today as I was taking my afternoon break in the form of a short walk around capital square.

Looking Down

It looks like an ash leaf, but I didn't see any ash trees on the square, so I'm not sure which tree's leaf was immortalized in the sidewalk on Mifflin Street.

Looking Up Again

These terra cotta faces look out across the square from the upper story of the building at 7 Pickney Street. Looks a bit like the Green Man, doesn't it?

Out on the Stoop

Of the many wonderful places in Our Humble O-Bode, this back stoop is a great place to take your cup of coffee and set a spell. Barb and the cats loves to watch the yard through the many windows; on warmer days, she swings the door open to give her an even better view through the screen. Her basil plant is doing very well in the sun at the far corner of the room, too.

And what does she watch through her binoculars?

We've got rabbits living in a warren under a rotting stump out by the lilac bushes. So far we've counted at least two adults and three youngsters, and when they're out on the lawn to get their morning silfay, Bonkers will jump from window to window, jockeying for the best view, and Barb will squeal, "Bunnies!" and call everybody into the room to watch.

Birds! Our neighborhood has had about fifty years to establish a thick cover of trees, and many of the yards have gardens, attracting grackles, cowbirds, cardinals, jays, nigers and sparrows — lots and lots of sparrows.

I can't think of a place I've been in Wisconsin where I haven't heard a mourning dove, and our yard is no exception. Even in a cold rain, this dove showed up for the morning shift to sing her song.

The yard has not a few flowers all around. The back yard is bounded on all three sides by lilac bushes, and they're in full flower this month.

Next month I'll be out there with a pruning shears and brush saw to trim the dead wood and overgrowth. heavy sigh

Even on a rainy day, the back stoop is a favorite place to sit and watch the reflections off the sheen across the deck and the ripples in the puddles that collect here and there.