on a personal note...

[leashedForLife]

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we joined the widespread community of "Ppl without Power" overnight, when our electricity abruptly cut-off around 10:30-pm. [This time, there was no emergency generator in the backyard...]
thankfully, i was getting ready for bed at the time, & aside from stubbing my toe on the bedstead in the darkness, i was fine.

I wasn't sure if our furnace needed electricity to operate, but just in case, i draped my down-coat over me, atop the sheet & comforter, for extra insulation, before i fell asleep - while reading with my mobile-phone as a flashlight.

I was awakened at 9-AM when my humidifier signaled a shut-down, & the table lamp at the foot of the bed switched on - the power was back!
The radiator was stone-cold & the room was chilly, but we were back in civilization, at least.

The snow last night was a very-quick switch from rain to sloppy goose-feather snow of clustered wet flakes, an inch or more across - it fell thick & fast, so that in 15-mins, there was over an inch on the ground, altho the roadway under the bus had 2 clear paths from passing wheels.
By the time i debarked, 2-inches covered the sidewalks, & it was still falling fast & heavy, so I opened my umbrella to keep my down-coat from getting soggy, as it was very wet snow. // Over 4-inches accumulated overnite, & it's still snowing, fine powder sifting down steadily & lightly.

I'll get some good photos today, to share... I love snow, & we have many beautiful or different houses in the neighborhood, with architecture that spans over 200 years of style & materials.
I'm also going to take a train-trip north, to my fave charity-shop - i need some long-sleeved shirts, of cotton, linen, silk, or rayon, & a couple of sleeveless vests would be nice. // The views from the train should be wonderful.

Hoping everyone is snug, safe, & warm, in a lighted house,
- terry

 

[Josie]

@leashedForLife was the electricity cut off on purpose or just a power cut??

The whole of our town had one last week at around 6pm. I was in the middle of preparing dinner and had things cooking in the oven. It was so strange seeing the whole road in darkness! Thank goodness we have a big candle store!

 

[leashedForLife]

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Weather damage - we were in the midst of another Nor-easter, & either wind [a branch, a pole going down, etc] or the sheer wt of snow & ice on lines, took a connecting line out.

The incredible damage on one street in Watertown to the local power grid on Friday of last week, during a separate storm, was phenomenal - about 2-dozen power poles were felled by high winds, falling into a major artery [Arsenal st], & hanging suspended over the roadway!
In another area, live-lines draped across the street, & of course, the fact that the poles fell INTo the street was actually a blessing - had they fallen onto the houses & businesses "behind" them, multiple fires could have broken out, & fire-crews would have been unable to reach entire blocks of buildings. // That would have been catastrophic, not only in property damage, but possibly many lives lost, as well.

here are some local pix of Arsenal after the poles crashed -

Last Friday at 10:30-pm, when i went to bed, 300K ppl were without power.
By Sat at noon, the total in MA alone had grown to 490K, as transformers, lines, & poles failed.

I was lucky to avoid the mess in Watertown, i'd already left & was in Somerville when it happened - then later that afternoon, when the power failed while i was at work in Melrose, my client [who depends on a power-chair & an inflatable-mattress, electric hospital bed] has an emergency generator in their backyard, & it ran the whole house for over an hour, while our neighbors had no power whatever.
Twice lucky! - in one day. I had to reset 5 clocks in the house, & the cable-box had to reload all its data - otherwise, we had no problems.

Meanwhile, across the street, 2 houses had minor flooding in their basements, when their sump-pumps died during the power failure.

Losing power overnite was nothing compared to the heartbreak in some areas - entire neighborhoods are evacuated, & some will be uninhabitable for months, per the State govt. Oceanside flooding & serious damage to many homes, & power won't be restored for weeks.

I'll be going to Seaport for the annual flower-show next week - i hope there are no transit or power issues, there.
I missed it last year, & don't want to miss it again.
- terry

various storm damage - mostly along the coast, some interior:

 

[leashedForLife]

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the view from the kitchen, this morning -

 

[leashedForLife]

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the [massively-overpriced!] flowers i bought last night, after work -
spider-mums & mini-sunflowers, with baby's-breath & a stem of heather.

 

[Josie]

Wow such damage - it’s scary to see!

What lovely colourful houses

Flowers brighten everything up - I like to have daphodiles in the house. It reminds me that spring is coming

 

[leashedForLife]

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Flowers brighten everything up - I like to have daffodils in the house. It reminds me that spring is coming.

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I love fresh flowers, but that small bouquet [7 stems - 3 mum, 2 sunnies, 1 each of baby's-breath & heather] cost me over $24 + tax.
I bought them primarily to share with my 81-YO "landlady" [who isn't, really - but she lives there, while the man i pay my weekly rent to, does not. His very-elderly G'mom owns the house, & she lives in the Philippines].

The day after Valentine's, after seeing my PCP for my much-delayed annual appt, i saw a gorgeous florist's shop & bought a ginormous bouquet of daisy-flowered mums - half white, half yellow, with Xmas ferns & a few deep-green tree branches, with glossy pointed-oval leaves.
2 dozen stems of mums, plus about 8 stems of greens - he gave me a wholesale discount, & i paid about $40.

Then i bought myself a single mauve rose to wear as a boutonniere, to remind myself *NOT* to pick up my backpack with my right arm [where the tech drew blood for testing - CBC, neutrophils, fasting-glucose, LDL/HDL, etc].
The boutonniere alone, which i made myself with the shop's paper floral tape, plus a corsage-pin, cost me $4.

- terry

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[leashedForLife]

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on Sunday Feb-25th, these snowdrops were blooming in the yard down the street...

 

[leashedForLife]

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some more local pix, as promised -
the view from my 2nd-floor sun porch
[It's a poorly-insulated space that's hot in summer & cold in winter, but bright & inviting, & i try to moderate the temps - in summer, a fan blows AC-air in from my bedroom thru the connecting window, as this was once outside space; I lower the blinds, too, & i'll B adding room-darkening / noise-damping curtains, bought on clearance; in winter, i bought a small Vortex ceramic heater with a fan-only setting, for added heat or for circulating what heat is there].

Note the house in the upper right, with the odd roofline? - more of that one...

 

[leashedForLife]

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that house was originally T-shaped, with the stem at the street, & the crossbar at the back.
There was a veranda to each side; the steep dormers to each side of the main entry are the addition, which is 2-story with an attic space [the tiny windows].

I love the small multi-pane windows to each side of the main door, in the foyer - originally, they'd have been stained glass, but they're still beautiful, i think.
- terry

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[leashedForLife]

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a Mediterranean-inspired house, tucked behind arbor vitae that almost entirely hide it -
notice the splendid dogwood in the right foreground.

 

[leashedForLife]

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a brick house, with a columned entry, hand-wrought iron banister, & a hand-built cobble wall to support the yard, which is above street level -

The entry door & sidelights are circa 1890 - the windows have been removed & replaced with modern ones, i wish they'd kept the arched upper panes in the new, better-insulated double-pane sashes.

- t

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[leashedForLife]

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eyebrow windows are a nice architectural detail -
also notice the original mansard roof, the dormers to each side are additions to raise the ceilings upstairs & make the bedrooms more spacious. // Also, another hand-built stone retaining wall.

 

[leashedForLife]

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their next-door neighbor's retaining wall - an amateur job, not well done, but interesting.
[It's not going to last a century, tho - look at the cracks.]

When constructing a stone wall, the BIGGEST heaviest rocks form the top course -
that makes the entire wall move up & down vertically, as a unit, when frost inevitably thrusts it upward. They hold the smaller pieces under them stable, & the wall becomes a single mass. // The big stones at the bottom allows the smaller rocks above to move up, back, sideways, or to the front - where they can fall out & become missing teeth, weakening the entire wall & slowly causing it to crumble.

I built 3 drystone retaining-walls over 25-years ago for Habitat for Humanity, along with a patio beneath their street-level deck on the floor above, on a single property in Bellefonte, PA - on an alley, with a very steep slope from street-level to backyard. I'd love to know how my work is holding up.

- terry

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[Violet Turner]

can you not contact the council? i would.

 

[leashedForLife]

can you not contact the council? i would.

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No "councils" here, @Violet Turner - I wish!
& my closest friends in the Bellefonte area have both died [my ob-gyn & dear friend of many years, Corene Johnston, was predeceased by her 2nd hubby, John Haag - poet emeritus of Penn State].

I'd have to travel there myself to see it. :shrug: There's no one i can think of that i could ask to stop by, especially as i don't know the street address. // I know how to get there on foot, LOL... maybe i can figure it out via Google Maps - it depends upon whether they have street-view of the surrounding streets, or even the alley.

- t

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[leashedForLife]

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I think the house was on Hale Alley, but the closest i can get via street-view is High st & Ridge.

Bellefonte has a lovely skyline & many gorgeous Edwardian & Victorian homes, plus an old hotel, classic courthouse, century-old storefronts, etc. // Wealthy folks built their mansions with patterned roofs of 2 to 4 colors of slate, as a visible brag - each color came from a different quarry, & was transported separately.

the 2nd-floor walk-up here is another Habitat house that i worked on - when it rained, water ran THRU their living-room, from that steep slope! It was a rental, & the landlord wouldn't fix the many problems, the tenant did not have $$$ to take it to court.

 

[leashedForLife]

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this is the old hotel, which is apparently razed - there's an empty lot where it once stood, full of gravel & heavy equipment, on the street-view Google by the park, beside the creek.
We used to borrow their upstairs rooms to rehearse for community theatre performances, then eat pizza downstairs.

 

[leashedForLife]

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some random shots of my favorite Bellefonte homes - plus the park below the Big Spring.
The town is home to the largest all-year artesian spring east of the Mississippi, & Lafayette named it 'belle fonte!' after taking a drink, & admiring the endless flow. // hence the town name.

the horse-drawn hack carried passengers who arrived at the train station in Bellefonte, over to State College, PA - home of "the Farmer's High School", Abe Lincoln's land-grant agriculture school, which became Penn State - my alma mater.

- t

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[leashedForLife]

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the old State Theatre in State College, which has a proscenium upstairs in a disused room - another wonderful [if small!] rehearsal space for the Bellefonte Community Theatre.

a scenic engraved / printed postcard of Bellefonte as seen from Half-moon Hill -

the pedestrian bridge near the old Match Factory, Bellefonte -

the Bellefonte RR station -

a 2nd Empire mansion in Bellefonte -

I used to pass this house late at night, after closing the Elks Club on High St [I was the bartender].
It's a bit spooky at 2-am on a moonlit night, but even-more beautiful when it's eerie.

- t

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