(or if not, thanks to Photoshop, I will make it so.)
While sitting outside the other day, lulled by the ambient buzz of crickets, chainsaws, and ride-on mowers, my attention was drawn to the ride-on piece of machinery of our own that's parked in our yard.
Some people have pink flamingos or lawn jockeys for yard ornaments but as we live in the sticks country, such sissified urbane decorations would be, at worst, inappropriate or, at best, lost in the weeds wildflowers and grasses, so we have opted for a large piece of rusted farm equipment instead.
Tasha enjoys the cat toy/scratching post we have provided for her feline curiosity.
It's equipped with a one-size-fits-all asses seat if anyone would like to give it a go.
It makes a swell perch to sit on and admire the view...or would, if we could just get it turned around to face in the opposite direction.
It ain't exactly John Deereish, but does have a rather "rust"ic charm about it and Tasha must think it's the "cat's meow".
ReplyDelete"Cat's meow" is an old English saying and means
ReplyDeletesomething especially good.
Shirl,
ReplyDelete"Rust"ic indeed! Seems to be a theme around these parts. Don't say "Deere" too loudly as hoofprints have recently been seen in the vegetable garden.
Shirl,
ReplyDeleteI am relieved that you chose to use that particular version of the old English expression rather than the one that references the end of the cat opposite from whence its meow might be heard to emanate. As Tasha is almost mute, it is quite literally true that she tends to think that things are the cat's meow rather than utter it.
Your photo shopping is a delight, always.
ReplyDeleteYour comment on the abandoned house I wrote about sounded a bit ominous....
Love your rusting 'shabby-chic' tractor.
Aren't we romantic mooning about in the ruins...
the 500 year old house we had in Morocco just got pulled down to be completely rebuilt (not by us!) ominous creakings there too......
My father, a most practical man, always valued function over form, and, in my old age, I'm at last getting to understand where he was coming from......
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteLovely to get your encouragement
of my Photoshopping ways!
While I love the photos of the abandonned greenhouse you posted, the thought of having to deal with it, plus the house, make me cringe, after having once lived in an abandonned house without electricity or running water (we did have a pump, at least)...and bats! We also own an abandonned house next to us, and once had Big Dreams about what we would do to fix it up. Time and money didn't cooperate and now we wish we could just burn it down but the village won't permit controlled burns any more.
I wonder how it makes you feel that your former home in Morocco is being torn down. 500 years old! Ours, the one we live in, is a mere babe at 150--but this is Canada.
My father was also a practical sort when it came to dwellings. My mother and I dreamed of having an old house with lots of character and he insisted on building new. After experiencing several house renovations of my own in my adult life I, too, now better understand that point of view of function over form--or practicality over romance. But truly, the grass is always greener...an apartment in a big city seems pretty appealing to me these days. Oh--and shabby chic? That's me all over...not necessarily by choice.
Green, green grass of home. Seen from this "urban dschungle", a relief indeed. Please have a good start into the new week.
ReplyDelete"Cat's meow"= :)
ReplyDeleteThe softness of the photos seems so like summer too...very evocative
I think everyone should asspire to have one of those in their yard ! Even the kitties want one. Funny, while still living in the states long ago I dragged a big rusy piece of farm equipment back from a ramble in the countryside, it decorated a yard for quite some time. But I couldn't very well bring it to France, so it was abandoned to its fate. Sigh... And now la grenouille objects to me wanting to fill the current yard here with rusting hulks of old automobiles and plows and refrigerators with bullet holes in them and so forth. Sometimes I think she thinks there's something not quite right in my head. But we know otherwise, eh ! Happy plowing up on the back 40 today...
ReplyDeleteerrr, lost a "t" in rusty there, must be getting rusty meself...
ReplyDeleteRobert,
ReplyDeleteThank you for introducing me to the German word for "jungle." Dschungle! The word sounds and looks so very dense, very green, very lush. I love it.
Art,
ReplyDelete"Cat's meow" is a very fine term employed by art critics throughout the world! I expect I'll be seeing it in your writing a lot more in future critiques.
:-)
Owen,
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you didn't try riding the rusty equipment across the ocean. I suggest you just start installing a few things in your yard, starting small, placing them discreetly, letting La Grenouille gradually get used to one or two small objects at a time, then working your way up to bigger and more. It's part of your American heritage and, thus, your daughters' as well. Surely you cannot be denied that? Really, you missed your chance this summer to install a whole dschungle of rusted schtuff while the cat...er...grenouille...was away.
Owen,
ReplyDeleteCan't cross your "t's" if you forget to put them in. But I must be crossing my eyes because I didn't even notice the missing t-set until you mentioned it.
I am weary.
PS. Owen
ReplyDeleteI'm really losing it--just now noticed your use of "asspire". I'm ASSuming it was intentional?
The missing piece on the seat sorta, kinda looks like a heart. I like that.
ReplyDeleteThe "asspire" was entirely intentional... as you said one size fits all Asses... and for the ass to end all asses, just head back over to Stickup's page.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're right, the time is ripe, la Grenouille and tadpoles are still out in Brittany until Friday. Maybe I still have time to drag a few old carcasses of cars into the yard while they're away...
That rusty seat is a beauty though.
And I'll bet that if you rigged one of those camera "traps" used by magazine photographers to catch wild animals at night, you would probably find that your plow or reaping device or whatever it is, is serving as a fabulous jungle gym for a whole posse of racoons out there in the wee hours of the morning, after they're finished raiding the rubbish bins in the neighborhood...
aw, that kitty cat is super cute!
ReplyDeleteI love what you've done with photo shop on that photo. Now then, I've fixed us a little something to swig while we sit on that tractor seat, it looks like it'll hold us both....
Driftwood,
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice that until you pointed it out, you sweetheart, you! Sending you love and hugs. xo
BrOwen,
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of asses, as we are wont to do, I must mention that there's a delightful white one that we pass on a cattle farm when we drive to town. No really, I'm talking donkey here, burro, the real hee-haw deal. It's always such a treat to catch sight of him. And if we drive past at night, we see a white ass glowing in the moonlight.
:-D
Glad to have inspired you to get some lawn ornaments in place before the womenfolk get home. What a lovely surprise it will be for them! Maybe next time they won't go away and leave you alone for so long.
I can hear those raccoons howling and chitter-chattering away out there in the night. I think they're learning to drive that big old rake. Maybe they'll get it turned around so I can park my ass in the seat and admire the tidal bore rolling in along the Petitcodiac River. Actually, I think the Sagittarian is planning to join me. Why don't you bring along a rusted lawnchair and join us?
Saj,
ReplyDeleteDon't let the kitty's diminutive demure mien fool you. She's a Great Hunter, known to take down bunnies and leave their heads in the herb patch as offerings to her people. Nice of her to flavour them like that.
I'll just "nip" over to your place to fill my bucket and then we can come back here and we can take turns sitting in the tractor seat. Big enough for both of us? hahahaha! Obviously you haven't seen me from the rear.
wonderful, i am lost in dreams now, i want to touch that rust, lie down in that (indeed a marvelous green) grass (after all, we all perceive colours differently and we "make" the world through our perception, so it doesn't matter where the green comes from!)
ReplyDeleteand i also loved your self-definition, "shabby chic", that would be the modern version of the Japanese "wabi-sabi" :-)
Roxana,
ReplyDeleteWhat a treat to find you lying in my vivid green grass. I like what you say about how we each make the world through our perceptions. So true, so true. I forget that sometimes, even though that is exactly what I do through my art, and art reflects life. Actually, I do make a conscious effort to colour my waking time in pleasing ways...not always successfully.
Maybe I could better define my personal style as wabi-shabby.
:-)
I hope you are well in your new abode.
I like art. I actually like it enough to collect it on occasion. I could quite happily sit and gaze at these wonderful pictures for hours. No particular reason other than they make me feel happy.
ReplyDeleteI like being happy. I like it a lot.
(came over via the warden files)
ReplyDeletelovely photos, sugar! i like the softness. here in the south, it's more an over ripeness right now - too lush, bordering on decay. xox
Warden Files,
ReplyDeleteI am happy that you are happy and that my photos here have contributed to that happiness.
I like a man in uniform who appreciates art. Or a woman in uniform who appreciates art. Or even if they're not wearing uniforms but appreciate art. In fact, I don't particularly like uniforms.
savannah,
ReplyDeleteHow lovely that you mosied on over here via the Warden Files, after having first come all that way from the lush south. Almost as good as time travel. Probably a lot cleaner, too. "Over ripeness"...what an evocative phrase!