Debra LaValley's Blog

Can you believe that it is May already? Last week, it was very windy and chilly here in NH – this weekend it is like July! It may hit 90 today! I don’t think that I will need my heat on tonight!

Yesterday, I walked by Horseshoe Pond in hopes of getting some Tree Sparrow shots. They are fast little guys! I got lucky and got a handful of decent shots. I used my Photomatix HDR program to tweek a few of them. I think they came out pretty well. Check out my flickr photostream for more.

I just came back from volunteering 10-1 at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discover Center’s Aerospace Day. It was starting to get to hot – so I am glad that I only volunteered for 3 hours. I spent an hour and a half guarding the back door.

Happy Spring, Everyone!

I was looking around the apartment and decided to take a photo of some of my “toys” aka collection. Pictured is a vinyl troll house and various Wishniks (aka trolls). My favorite toys that I can remember receiving were Wishniks and the vinyl troll house that I got for Christmas one year. That is the same year that I got a Polly Pocket Doll too. I used to play for hours and hours with my Wishniks, the little Polly Pocket doll and my vinyl Tiki Troll house. A couple years ago – I found a vinyl troll house on ebay and purchased it along with the two-headed trolls in the photo. I remember having a two-headed troll (black and red hair) that I purchased at the Giant Store with a dollar that I found. I don’t know whatever happened to my original trolls/Wishniks, but I can tell you that the originals made by Uneeda in the 60s are collector’s items. About 10-15 years ago – the stores were filled with troll/Wishnik remakes which were never as good as the originals. I remember buying Wishnik clothes and having a scuba outfit for one. Seeing my collection again – brings back many wonderful memories of creative play.

Above are some itemes that I purchased on ebay a couple years ago. These are all vintage as well – but not items that I remember seeing. There is a “Wishnik/Uneeda” cow, two Goon/Alien Martian type creatures – I think these are fairly hard to come by, and a Wishnik pony.

I certainly enjoyed my Wishniks. I have two on top of my printer’s box that holds various nik-naks in my living room. When I look at them – I have very fond memories.

What was your favorite toy growing up?

Me in my Bug Jacket

I recently had a nasty encounter with a deer tick and had to go to Urgent Care to have it extracted. I am pretty phobic about ticks – even more now. Growing up, we never cared about or saw ticks of any kind. I spent most of my childhood in the woods and tall grass and never saw one. Maybe it is another thing to blame on global warming – I don’t know – but I HATE TICKS! This time of year – I start wearing my bug jacket (I have matching bug pants too) to protect me from the vile ticks and disease carrying mosquitoes! No – I am not too paranoid … twitch twitch! I can handle the mosquitoes – but anything that burrows its head into you etc. is GROSSER than Gross. 🙂 Have a nice day!

What a glorious day! 85 degrees in Concord! I had to dig out the shorts – it was like summer! A bit too warm for my liking -but no complaints for April 3rd. I can’t believe tomorrow is Easter – it seems like Christmas was only yesterday. I did my laundry and hung my sheets and towels out on the line. Nothings smells as good as sheets etc. hung out side! My mother and the neighbor were amused at my clothesline technique. It seems that I hung my sheets upside down – who knew?!

FYI – on Friday, I was on Jewett Road and passed Equinox Farms. They have alpacas. They are the cutest things!

Have a wonderful Easter everyone!

Today was Earth Hour – around the world individuals and cities turned off the lights at 8:30 pm local time for one hour. I decided to do it – tv junkie that I am. I succeeded. I did use a headlamp so I could fold my laundry and put it away. I also realized that when your in the dark and have a headlamp on – cobwebs come out of the woodwork! There were TONS that I had never seen. I spend a good amount of time cleaning them.

Earlier in the day – I took a long walk. I decided to walk by the river to see how high it has been after all the rain we have had. The river was really high and powerful. It was a little chilly today – but the walk warmed me up so I decided to walk to Hannah Dustin. I am glad that I did. When I left the island and was starting back down the road – out of the corner of my eye I caught the sight of a crow chasing a large bird. It wasn’t a turkey vulture and was flying like an eagle though I could not see any white head or tail. I snapped away with my camera and it flew closer. It was an immature bald eagle. The white patches on its underside resembled a Halloween skeleton costume to me 😉 Really . . .I thought the eagles had left time. I am glad at least one has stayed longer. I watched it for 4-5 minutes before it flew down river. (You can see a couple of the photos on my Flickr photostream.)

It was a good day! Enjoy!

Alba Mary Mastroianni Ross

Happy 100th Birthday, Nana! Alba was born in Hardwick, Vermont on 3/13/1910. We have about 100 friends and family attending the big bash this afternoon. More photos to come.

100 years – WOW! She still lives at home too and is active.

Spring Solitude

We have been blessed with spring weather the past few days. It has been lovely. You know that it has been a cold winter when temperatures in the 40s and low 50s have people in shorts and short sleeves. I haven’t gone that far, but I have replaced my bulky winter jacket with my wind breaker. It has been glorious. It may be short-lived, but we will enjoy it while we can. There is virtually little to no snow around. Mud is appearing – the ground thawing. The black flies and the mosquitoes are not out yet – so you can enjoy the outdoors without covering yourself with DEET. Unfortunately – the ticks will be appearing — I HATE TICKS!

My dad and I walked an old railroad bed to a secluded cove near Crete’s Farm in Boscawen and came upon the mute swan that has been in the Penacook/Boscawen area. It was pretty far away and was keeping company with a flock of Canada geese. It was a fairly monotone-gray photo so I got creative in my HDR software and also did some tone mapping. It gave the shot new life.

Enjoy the nice weather – the weatherman said we are in for about 3 days of rain starting this Friday. It is too bad because the big 100th Birthday Celebration for Nana is on Saturday. Hopefully, it will only be light rain and not a deluge!

Sign of Spring Today: I heard a red-wing blackbird trilling this afternoon! They have returned. 🙂

Merrimack River - Penacook, NH

February has sped by! I can’t believe that March is tomorrow! It has been a cold and cloudy weekend. I was a volunteer for the Audubon Late Winter Bald Eagle Survey yesterday and saw no eagles 😦 It was cold and snowy. Today, I went out for a little while and did see one of the sub-adult eagles.

Many folks are still out of power after the bad wind storm we had in the state last week. My brother Ken and his family got theirs back today – but MaryBeth is still without power.

I have been playing around with HDR photography. I have only done a few – it is neat. The above is an example. It is actually 3 bracketed shots combined and then doing tone mapping adjustments. It took a very blah and gray photo and gave it a bit of life. I can’t wait until the weather improves so I can experiment more.

13 more days and then the 100th birthday party for Nana. Family and friends are coming from all over the country. It will be fun! More later!

Mute Swan

It was a beautiful day today – even though with the wind blowing it was a bit chilly. I spent most of the day with my dad. He wanted to see an eagle. I have been seeing them for over a month – wouldn’t you know that we would not see any eagles today. A cousin did give me a tip that there was a swan on the river on Eel Street in Boscawen. My dad and I swung by and sure enough. It is highly unusual to see a swan around here – they are a rarer sight than a bald eagle.

Tonight – I am going to veg and watch the Winter Olympics. I really enjoy watching them.