wheels, flowers, puzzle, dove

8.29.21 ~ Harkness Memorial State Park
Waterford, Connecticut

Last weekend I went with Tim to the Connecticut MG Club’s ‘British by the Sea’ Gathering. I liked the blue MGB GT (above), the color, knowing nothing of cars… Tim, however, was hoping to see a Triumph Herald, his first set of wheels, but came away disappointed.

He did enjoy looking at the 1947 MG (above). I couldn’t help wondering if he has a thing for red vehicles from 1947! (Take a peek at the 1947 Ford Pickup he was admiring a couple of months ago in this post: with fields of lavender)

This tiny Wolseley Hornet Mk III (above) caught Tim’s eye because he said he had never heard of Wolseley Motors before…

I was amused by the sticker placed on one of its windows, indicating the auto was actually its actual size. 🤣

The above buggy was made in 1937 and had only three wheels.

After we browsed for a while I noticed some flowers peeping over the hedge surrounding the nearby cutting garden. We took a little detour to get a few end-of-summer snapshots!


Back at home…

“Tall Sea Tale” by Charles Wysocki

… on Monday I started and finished the above 300-piece puzzle in one afternoon. With all the practice I’ve been getting during the pandemic it seems I’m getting faster and am developing a marked preference for Charles Wysocki jigsaw puzzles.


On Wednesday the remnants of Hurricane Ida arrived, and by the time she left Thursday morning, had dumped 5 inches of rain on us. When I looked out the window early Wednesday afternoon I spotted a mourning dove hunkering down for the storm in one of the arborvitaes.

Each time I looked over the next several hours he was still sitting there in the same place and position. Finally, just before dark, he was gone. We heard some thunder rumbling in the night but thankfully no tornadoes or flash flooding in our neck of the woods.

14 thoughts on “wheels, flowers, puzzle, dove”

  1. I enjoyed this array of MGs, summer flowers, mourning doves and the Wysocki puzzle, Barbara. Coincidentally, I have the same Wysocki puzzle, only 1000-pc, waiting to be opened for the long weekend ahead. Wysockis are my favorite kind of jigsaw puzzle. I hope the hurricane settles down soon, and am glad you are safe.

    1. Jet, it’s so nice to know I have a Wysocki puzzle fan among my blogging friends! 🙂 I’ve done a couple of 500-piece Wysockis and have been thinking of graduating to 1000 pieces soon. I hope you’re having a good time working on yours this weekend. We’re getting a kick out of some lovely weather and yesterday, a long-awaited walk in the woods.

  2. Oh, I, too, love those old cars — such personality, not like the tiny boxes we have today that masquerade as vehicles! Glad Ida didn’t wreak too much aggravation for you, though 5 inches of rain on already-rain-soaked ground can be frightening. Looks like the dove had the right idea, getting to high ground!

    1. The old cars are fun to look at and to imagine driving around in. Whenever we encounter one on the road Tim rolls down his window so he listen to their engines running. 🙂 I guess we’re on high enough ground here as we’ve never had flooding in our basement and the storm drains on the nearby roads have handled all deluges — so far, anyway…

  3. Old cars are so attractive I think. I love the mechanics of them, all those metal forms.I also admire your puzzle-genius – I would love to sit down with that one too. BUT I have discovered a puzzle-page with 1000s of puzzle to choose from- what is great with online-puzzles is, I THINK, that all the pieces are right way up – is that correct to say? and that it makes a sweet little CLICK sound when they fall into place. If interested, I’ll send a link 🙂

    1. The old cars are fun to look at, color and shape, even if I’m not interested in all the statistics about them that Tim keeps in his head. 🙂 Please do send me the puzzle link! At the beginning of the pandemic I was doing some jigsaw puzzles online and I liked that little click telling me I had the piece in the right place. But the site got buggy and didn’t always work properly so I finally gave up. I imagined too many people in quarantine were using it…

  4. Something that you enjoyed together and tickled both your fancies. How nice to enjoy yourself after such a hot and humid Summer. I’m glad you escaped the wrath of Hurricane Ida but sorry you had to deal with the remnants. My late mom loved doing jigsaw puzzles and Charles Wysocki’s prints were her all-time favorites. I think your Jay and Mourning Dove were both commiserating with you on the weather woes. Poor thing, all bunched up like that in the bush. He would have liked to come inside for tea and a respite from the rain.

    The car show looked interesting and the three-wheeled car especially. Years ago we had a neighbor in Canada who had a three-wheeled car named an Isetta. He would take all us kids for rides in it. I went to a celebration of the Model A cars a few years ago and really enjoyed myself. The owners were more than happy to chat about their automobiles, some which had been refurbished and were modern looking and one vehicle had its original paint job. Here is my post if you want to see the photos of those cars.
    https://lindaschaubblog.net/2018/08/11/i-brought-my-a-game-to-todays-excursion/

    1. Apparently Charles Wysocki has many fans! There is a Facebook group where people post pictures of the Wysocki puzzles they’ve completed and number them, the same way people count their life bird sightings. I had no idea there were so many different ones out there! I know your mom must have enjoyed her time spent doing thoses puzzles. 🙂

      The mourning dove made me think of when I wake up feeling cold in the middle of the night. I don’t want to move to get another blanket because I will get even colder in the process! I think the dove didn’t want to move or he knew he would get colder…

      That must have been fun riding in Isetta! (Tim used to name our cars, too…) Off to look at your post…

      1. Yes, I’ve saved some of my mom’s puzzles to do when I’m retired … I had no idea they had a Facebook page too. She had a lot of them made by Milton Bradley and we used to get them at Toys R Us, who used to have a great selection and we had to write down the number and name as they often would look alike at a glance.

        Yes, the dove looked miserable. Reminded me of myself waiting on the bus, my coat hood flipped up and out in the elements.

        The Isetta was an actual car and made by an Italian auto company. He was an interesting neighbor who had this three-wheeled car and drove us kids around in it. He also had a large fish tank of piranhas and we’d go over to watch him feed them hamburger. He had two boys who were similar in age to me. We had about eight kids in the neighborhood, all around the same age, so we were inseparable during the Summer months, walking to/from school. Those fun days of yesteryear.

        1. Ah, I googled Isetta to see what it looked like, very cute. 🙂 Your neighbor must have given you kids rides one at a time! We rented a Smart Car once for a day. We didn’t like it. It was so uncomfortable and we felt like we were driving around in a little tin can…

          I bet you’ll enjoy doing those puzzles when you retire!

          1. Yes, he must have done our ride like that when you saw how small it was. It does look like a Smart Car missing a wheel and I would be like you and feel unsafe riding around in it. My mom used to have a big Styrofoam board that she worked her puzzles on. I brought it home from work when we got a new telephone system and they had it packed well with Styrofoam. She used that for years, so she could move it down the hall with ease when it was time to make dinner, or she needed the table to do something. She did love her puzzles and I believe I’ll enjoy them too.

          2. It’s fun going down memory lane with you, Linda. 🙂 Tim got me a puzzle board but I haven’t used it yet since we don’t need the table for company and dinner since the pandemic began. I might start using it when we start having company again. Your styrofoam board idea was ingenious!

  5. Oh, I love that red 1947 MG, always liked that style car, and red being my favorite color too! So happy to hear your report on your dove hunkering down, they do seem to know when they need to find shelter when bad weather is headed their way, and when it is safe to continue their journey in life!

    1. I’ve never tried sitting in that style car but being short I can’t imagine myself being able to see over the hood enough to drive one! 🙂 The mourning dove was good company during the tempest, he was there for hours, biding his time, and his presence was comforting and reassuring.

A box for your thoughts...

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.