Stories from the the BlogTrain !

I'm having way too much fun with the mini camera each day. The pictures aren't any great shakes but you get the idea. The other day I took this one as I left the station. The shadowy figure is sweeping the stairs and doing a grand job, but from this angle he looks a bit sinister. I suppose the green lighting isn't helping too much either. A lot of clean-up goes on inside the station. Outside there is some garbage removal but its not that frequent.

Quite a few months back I was on the blogtrain and witnessed a fight. It was very violent and shocking. Noone got arrested. I was stunned for a few days after the event. It stayed with me and I ended up writing about it.Anyway the reason I mention it today is that I was on the train as usual and I am sure the woman involved in the fight was on the train too. Her hair was longer but I recognized her face as she sat in my carriage. The journey was uneventful. Occasionally I glanced her way, mainly to reassure myself it was the same woman.

I was tempted to get off at the same stop, and somehow engage her in conversation. "So I saw you in that fight last year, how are you doing?" but it might have earned me a wallop on the chin. Also sometimes you convince yourself that you recognize someone. It makes me think that people asked to identify a face in a police line up must often have a very hard time picking out that person, likely many months after an incident. So this woman today, was she in the fight? I'm ninety percent certain, your honour. And no, I thought of taking her picture for about five seconds but concern about personal safety took over in a hurry. I guess I'll never be a crime reporter.

Its been very cold the last few days. I got totally taken in by the hot weather the previous weekend, trotted outside and planted "seeds that attract hummingbirds." I know, I'm an idiot. Anyway since then the planter has been buffeted by near hurricane winds, drenched by torrential rain, and please excuse the pun, it'll be a blooming miracle if the flowers grow. So I am not sure FredaHummer is going to have any flowers to flit about.


Even more ridiculous I actually put the hummingbird feeder out already and here it is, flapping forlornly in the wind. I'm still hopeful that the little critters will visit, but friends say it will be May at the earliest.

As I approached home this afternoon, passing Joseph P's resume which was still lying on the ground from the weekend, BlondeOlivia from the house on the corner, called out to me from the balcony. Dressed in a light blue house coat, she held an enormous glass of wine at a slightly precarious angle. Its spring break, just after four fifteen in the afternoon and she was partying with a vengeance. I'm thinking one afternoon I'll join BlondeO with a bottle of decent wine and get to know all the goings on in the neighbourhood, past and present. She seems like a barrel of fun. Today we sympathized with each other about the current cold spell. Olivia's been duped before by the fickle weather but told me she only plants when neighbour Georgio starts working in his garden. So now I know and will pay attention to Georgio's exterior activities, so to speak. As I passed his place, I looked over the fence and checked for recent signs of gardening. Not a sausage. Martha, put your trowel and potting compost back in the shed for a few weeks yet.

Thanks to those who have responded to my litter poll. If you haven't done so, could you give it a whirl. It makes me feel like someone is reading. Multi gracias. Its odd though, there have been over a thousand hits on this site in about a month. What is going on? I don't believe for one second that a thousand people have come to the site. I suspect that there are web search engines that check if the site has changed and also there are programs that trawl for e-mail addresses. But any alternate theories are welcome - maybe I have got the attention of the National Movement for Litter Removal. All I can say is, welcome on board, folks.