At Home and Around the Neighborhood

Today is Monday when I like to think about books. Unfortunately my mind is somewhere else at the moment.

Three houses have more or less burned down in my neighborhood this year. The most recent was three houses down from me in the week hours of Sunday morning. About six months ago one around the corner, four houses down from the one that burned on Sunday burned due to a garage fire. The first was during the summer. It was around the corner. I could see the flames from my house. The owner died.

Three houses in a year. Everyone around here is saying, “WTF?”

So we’ve checked our fire alarms and kept all items clear of the hot water heater, and won’t be putting hot coals in our garbage cans anytime soon.

Everyone reading this please promise me you’ll check your alarms and make sure you have smoke alarms in your attic and garage. Please. Even Vampires – remember that fire is nobody’s friend.

Today I’ve also been out in my front yard putting out landscaping bark over old landscaping bark. Due to the drought nobody around here has lawns, which is fine by me. With the bark I can keep putting in my exotic daylilies. Daylilies aren’t always considered exotic, especially since they’re used on so many commercial landscaping projects, but I collect the more unusual ones. Here, I’ll show you my new ones.

I already have a large collection of pinks, ruffled peach, coral colors, huge yellows, maroon, red, and stripes of all kinds. I’m hooked. I’m also hooked on bearded iris, and growing any kind of spring bulb, including huge amaryllis bulbs with giant flowers that have all of the neighbors coming around to see them. Yes, I promise photos of the 2022 Spring Explosion in my front yard.

This morning I heard the hawks in my back yard. Down the street the bald eagles have started to build their nest. I took my dog Alice out for a stroll to check it out. The nest is coming along nicely but we just saw a bit of the eagles as they flew off either for a snack or more supplies.

Nobody has called this morning so I’m off the hook for crawling underneath houses looking for ghouls, solving the World’s problems, or looking for things that other family members need. Later this week I’ll be visiting Eleora and Tellias, and going to the art museum, all post worthy adventures I’ll be sure to fill you in on.

In the meantime stay safe. Wear a mask. Discover new music. Hug your dog. Pet your cats. Talk to your kids. Check in on those who are ancient, need extra help, or are alone. Be kind. Don’t be a dick. And kiss a Vampire (you’ll thank me for it later.)

~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman