Icicles, Icicles, everywhere you look!

It is great to go for rides in the spring and summer to check out all the gardens and landscaping.

It is great to go leaf peeping in the fall.

Everyone drives around to enjoy the Christmas lights in December.

I have been enjoying driving around and looking at the icicles lately. Have you seen them??? They are huge, mammoth, gargantuan, amazon! Some are bigger than me - from head to toe and all the way around! 

This house is on my road, and sits up on a bit of an incline. Today the icicles were sparkling away at me as I drove by. This is nothing compared to others I have seen. (Coincidentally this is the same house that has wild blackberries that I pillage every morning on my jog during that much warmer and greener season. I always come home with red fingers on those days)! Today I enjoyed these and many other icicles.

So hop in the car with your kids, your best bud, or your sweetie pie, and go see how many icicles you can find!

I am a Putnamaniac since there are such great icicles on display right now!

Crabtree & Evelyn, right down the road and worldwide!

As I just used some of the "Gardeners Hand Therapy" lotion (LUSCIOUS) that my neighbors bought me at the end of last summer, it made me think of the successful businesses in our area - large and small.

Crabtree & Evelyn have their headquarters just about 2 miles from where I live, on a nice little back road, near the Woodstock Fair Ground. It is a great place to jog past in the hot summer months, since the road is shaded by trees, and a babbling river flows along beside you. Such solitude! (Just don't jog when a shift change is occurring, then it is not quite so peaceful).

Crabtree & Evelyn has stores everywhere, including one right here in Putnam, as well as throughout our nation and even in many international locations! Of course they are in the modern age as well, so you can order online, too. How cool is that?

Every business has to start somewhere, and I am so impressed by all the local businesses we have here right in Putnam (and just over the line in Woodstock, Thompson, Killingly, and so on).  Yankee industriousness surrounds me!

I am a Putnamaniac thanks to great businesses like Crabtree & Evelyn located so close to me!

Somehow I am enjoying this beautiful, snowy winter....

Somehow I am enjoying this beautiful, snowy winter....
Since I am not a fan of winter after about one week of it has passed, I am not sure how or why I am enjoying it, but I am not questioning it. I am simply enjoying it for the first time in ages. 

Perhaps it is because although my job situation is quite bleak and unfulfilling, it is only about 3 miles away from home. No hairy, scary 45-60 minute white knuckled drives for me this winter.

Perhaps it is because this season has been so breathtakingly beautiful.

I took a little drive tonight and came home the opposite way than I usually do. I stopped in the middle of the road and took this picture:

After I shoveled, I took a few pictures of the condo. It is just very pretty and picturesque everywhere you look. I guess that is why I am enjoying this winter!

Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I am a Putnamaniac because this town is beautiful in the snow!

Need a Crane? It is an uplifting experience, and I "know a guy"

Since I grew up in a small town in RI, where my dad was a town police officer, my mom worked for the town school department, and my uncles worked for the highway department, everybody knew everybody.

My uncle is still a great "go to" guy. If you need "a cesspool guy" or a "cement guy" or a "tree guy", give my uncle a call. If he does not know one personally, he will find someone who knows "a guy".

Well, guess what? I think I have my uncle beat. I know a "crane guy" - in fact I know two great crane guys! You wonder what people need a crane for, let me fill you in!
Cranes can be used for these things and more:
*Lifting those heavy duty air conditioning and/or heating units onto roof tops
*Lifting and placing roof trusses up when building a new place, or adding an addition
*Lifting and setting the pieces of a modular home
*Removing and replacing the masts on the big old sail boats (like the ones in Mystic Seaport)

If you are in need of a crane and the best operators available in and around Northeast CT, call Scott and Earl Gancarz at CCI, which is based right here in Putnam.  (860) 963-8902. You will find them uplifting. They won't let you down.

I am a Putnamaniac because I know some uplifting crane guys!

Today we have snow "For Rent" in Putnam!

Last week a fellow Putnamaniac used his humor and creativity to offer "Free Snow" on his sidewalk to any takers. (Check out my previous "Free Snow" blog).  That made me laugh!

This morning I saw this sign sticking out of the snow...This guy just wants to Rent his snow!

Actually the rest of the sign that is buried under the snow is advertising a 2nd Floor Apartment... I saw it when it was not buried! However, it gave me a chuckle, and it really looks like he has snow for rent!

I am a Putnamaniac because it brings out the humor in a winter hater like me!

Ode to the Snow frog in my Renegade Garden

A fan of winter, I am not.
I prefer to sweat and be quite hot.

Winter months don't have enough sunlight & these early evenings I really hate.
Like a bear, I wear my coat inside and out, and I just want to hibernate.

But as I look out to my Renegade Garden full of snow,
I picture the upcoming beauty that will be there, I just know.

My cute little decorative frog, sitting on his post, was left out there all winter for decoration,
He peeks out of the snow once in a while - a great cause for celebration!


Sometimes I see just the top of his head, and sometimes I glimpse his nose.
I'll rejoice when the snow has melted right down to his toes.

And just when I think I will see some more of Mr. Froggie O'Green,
We get socked with more snow falling, leaving us covered by a white fluffy sheen. 

So I will enjoy my snow frog for now,
To enjoy each moment, every day is my vow.

I will wait for spring, summer, and fall to produce flowers galore,
When working in my Renegade Garden is never a bore.

I am a Putnamaniac since these snowy winter days spent watching Mr. Froggie O'Green let me appreciate my Renegade Garden in all seasons! (P.S - Poor Froggie is completely under snow right now)!

Turn on the Green Lights for the Last Green Valley!

The Last Green Valley is a great organization here in Northeast CT.

A quote from their website's homepage states: The Last Green Valley is two things - it's the 35-town National Heritage Corridor where you live, and it's also your member-supported non-profit organization working locally to preserve the irreplaceable land, water, and cultural resources of the region. 

TLGV is fund-raising. They can't exist without fund-raising. To bring attention to their organization and fund-raising efforts, TLGV is having a Green Light Campaign. Residents are urged to join their neighbors in support of TLGV during its week-long Green Light Celebration, January 23 – 29, 2011, by changing out at least one exterior bulb to a green-colored bulb for the entire week.

I am still contemplating how to slip in the green bulb at my condo, without bringing the wrath of the "condo police" down on me.  Perhaps a flyer on every condo owner's doorstep will explain my outrageous behavior and encourage them to all join in. Wish me luck, and support local organizations in your area that do good and are worth it!

I am a Putnamaniac thanks to fund-raisers like the Green Light Campaign of The Last Green Valley!