Renovation, Phase #394.75 - COMPLETE!

Woo hoo! In the midst of all the cockatiel-egg-laying distraction, we were (not so) quietly getting carpet!

That would be "carpet" as in: "our formerly-gutted upstairs now has walls, insulation, plumbing, electricity, hardwood flooring around the stairwell, and ditto handrails, and that all of that has been scraped, sanded, primed painted, polyurethaned, and completed to the point that carpeting is possible"! And, may I point out, a whole lot of the aforementioned stuff has been single-handedly completed by none other than Tom.

Another Woo HOO from me, for my dear spouse and his incredibly tenacious work ethic. (He hasn't had much fun for a long, long time.)

But tonight it was champagne on the second floor (honest, Mom, we really don't drink that much!), while we wiggled bare toes and watched the sun set over the back yard. From way up high. And Cousin Pat popped by to bring us a carpet-warming-gift which was (guess what?) - a couple dried arrangements of, um, eggs in nests. How appropriate is that?!? Love it LOVE it!


Okay, the pictures... (some of them not quite so good.)

Gotta love guys that work with a sense of humor.

"Hey, how do you install carpet?"

Um, the fuzzy side goes UP.

(Seriously, they were just great! Would recommend them & Sam Kinnaird's to anyone.)



Didn't take any pics in progress, because I don't like to disturb contractors while they're working. Even when they're really nice (these guys were) and can speak the same language I do (these guys did).

Here's a somewhat-dark shot of the hardwood landing at the top of the steps, with new handrail and (of course) carpet! These windows look out over the back yard, and this will be a prime sitting-TV-reading area. (The dark shapes on the floor to the left are our shoes...)




Not-so-great shot of carpet
in the bedroom.







Little bit better shot
of Tom enjoying the
carpet in the bedroom.
(Had to make him go
downstairs to get
ready for bedtime.)




And there you have it. We have had a busy, busy little day here!

Woodstock Lucille - Surprise (again)!

Well. One minute the little darling was flying around the room while I was getting ready to change her cage, landing for a snuggle and a head-scritch, and not five minutes later...

I heard little hisses like a slow air leak from somewhere - I turned around to look at the bird, and she's busy laying an EGG! And now we have a hissing, foot-shifting, tail-spreading MESS of maternal defensiveness! Psycho Mommie-Bird. To her credit, though, she only mock-bites at my hand if I put it in the cage, and she will come out and sit on my shoulder (acting like her usual self). The vet says there could be another one in 48 hours, although we'll be trying to prevent it by keeping her cage covered for all but 8 hours a day. We're to leave the egg in the cage, and call the vet Thursday to report.

Meantime, Woody has a new center to her universe. (It's no longer Yours Truly, *sigh*.)

Would you look at this Mess of Mom-ness... she's actually crouching & shifting from foot to foot, tail all spread out, wings a little open, fluffed up, top-knot slicked back, and hissing.




I'm Big, Bad, and Dangerous. Don't even THINK about messing with me. (says the Ninety-Gram Wonder...)

(This pic was taken without a flash, BTW, so as to agitate her as little as possible!)

Okra!!!!!

5:12pm


So here's one of the reasons I'm loving Okra...

(veggie soup is a close second)

Valor

“Weep!” says Lucille,
the brave cockatiel,
Watching the world from her swing.
But just let her out –
there’s danger about!
And she can’t wait to hurry back in(g). ;-)

Then “weep!” sounds again
From our valorous friend;
She’s up for another encounter.
She ventures outside –
Oh, no! Run and hide!
Sometimes it’s all such a downer.

But it’s hard to stand tall
Ninety grams - that’s just small.
And the wide world is all so much bigger!
She’s “hard-wired” to fly
When danger comes by –
God's given those wings a hair trigger.

(With apologies to Woody, who really is quite brave for a cockatiel, and to anyone who chances to read this. Sometimes you just gotta get silly.........)

The Zen of Watering

10:38am
Yesterday was a "work" day (as in "work at the greenhouses rather than at home"), and I'll have to admit that I was less than enthused when I left the house in the morning. Without going into any specific detail, let's just say there has been a little (totally senseless) workplace drama going on lately that has been upsetting my tummy. Happens everywhere. Eventually blows over. 'Nuff said.

Anyway. I was actually dreading going in. By the time I got there, I was almost in an anxious fit. Why can't people just show a little respect for one another? Why do two or three people always manage to spoil things for the rest of us? Why can't they just GO AWAY?

Well. For this one day, they did. They stayed away. Didn't see a whisker of any of them. And it was another gorgeous day - cool-ish, low humidity, sunshine. Hummingbird watching as I watered the hydrangeas. Mockingbird singing himself silly on the light post. Pumpkin the orange kitty wandering through, crying and heart breaking because no one was petting her right now. A few customers, each of them relaxed and "just looking" and enjoying the day, buying enough to pay for our being there today. Topped off with a good, productive meeting with Peggy (my boss) and co-worker Lynda. New classes scheduled for the summer.

But for most of the day, it was watering. There can be a certain "zen" experience in hand-watering, whether at the nursery or at home. Within the reach of each hose there's a pattern, a path to follow so that every plant is covered with the least amount of time and effort. Over the seasons, you get to know the needs of each type of plant: this one roots out and dries out quicker, this type only needs every-other-day water. This one needs a gentler spray so you don't "car wash" the dirt out of the pot. But as you move from plant to plant, your own little zen water-world kicks in and you're a million miles away with your thoughts. At work, we learn to speak to each other from a distance as we're walking up - I've been startled out of my skin more than once by a customer suddenly speaking at my elbow!

Lovely day. Finished it out by pulling some weeds out of "my" bed in our display herb garden (if you go, it's the first one on the left, with the lavender & chamomile). Peggy had been doing some champion work with the weedeater, and it's all starting to look really spiffy again. It's a shame that the only time we have the time to get the place looking this good is when there aren't many customers around to see it! (Did that make any grammatical sense at all?)

Anyway. Presently I'm looking out the widow at another crystal-blue, not-July sky and wondering why in the world I'm still inside! I think I'll grab the camera and take some flower pictures... I've been taking an oil painting class with Laura (my dear sweet sister!) for the past year-and-a-half, and it's about time I start painting from my own photos. (Unless you take your own photograph, your painting is considered a "copy" and not an "original"!) If I wind up with anything good, maybe I'll try posting a photo here.

And then its got to be bookkeeping time. And press-release-for-new-classes time. And mailing-list-maintenance-that-you've-been-procrastinating-over time. *sigh*.

VINE PATROL!

6:25pm
I was sitting at the computer this morning, starting to work on a plan for a class that I'm going to be giving at Campbell's Gourmet Cottage in August... and after that, I was going to get into some bookkeeping and filling out Finch House's state sales tax for second quarter. Went to get a glass of water, opened the back door, sniffed the breeze, and that was it. So much for "desk day".

What an absolutely terrific day to be outside!! Sunshine, not too hot, low humidity, nice breeze! Nothing even remotely like July - time to fix a lemonade, sit on the porch, and enjoy.

Heh. Yehright. From our back porch, all looked lush and green. But I knew differently. The lushest, greenest, most lovely plant in my garden is called Bindweed. Gardeners know it - it's a vine related to morning glories, has heart-shaped leaves and pretty, trumpet-shaped white blooms. The blooms form long, milkweed-like pods that turn silvery-gray and split, releasing downy little fluffy things that we kids used to call "fairies". Each one carries a little brown seed. Each seed turns into a vine whose roots travel for yards and whose stem will reach out, grab onto, and wrap around anything it can find. Tight. It is without a doubt the nastiest, most pernicious, hardest to get rid of ... (Stop the description there. Mom might be reading this post.) Kudzu has nothing on this nasty little beast - our yard is one big bindweed topiary.

So, there is a tradition in our house that we call "Vine Patrol". Involves a large trash can, clippers, garden gloves, and more patience than I can usually summon up since bindweed needs to be carefully unwound from any plant worth keeping. If you "grip and rip", all the good stuff comes with it. I keep telling myself that if I can just do a little bit, a couple of times a week, it'll stay under control - but I don't. So it doesn't.

Six hours in the garden today. Six. Hours. Two trash cans full. And it was all over the chain link fence (ych) and into every rosebush it could find (can you say "blood donation").

But boy, does it feel great - everything looks so light and spacious now - and what a nice day to do it!

So now, it's a nice evening. Tom, who's been upstairs sanding hardwood floor before the final coat of poly, is out on the front porch - and not with lemonade. He said he'd meet me out there, and oh by the way, there's a frozen margarita waiting on the counter for me. woo hooo. Love love love that man.

(And my sweet Mother, should you be reading this: Don't worry. We really don't drink every night. Just now and then, when we've really earned it!)
;-)

More harvesting...

9:35pm
...and a great big bunch of about two dozen 'Becky' daisies! This has got to be one of the nicest plants ever. I planted three plants last year, and now they've all quadrupled in size and are covered with waist-high (or taller) daisies. I can't even see my bird bath any more! Need to move the front clump back to the fence, or something.

These and the OKRA are my New Favorite Things this year.

And dinner was a little ratatouille - sauteed some mushrooms with garlic & onion, added sliced eggplant & let it go for awhile, then added a can of diced tomatoes. Oh, and thyme/oregano/basil and a couple of splashes of red wine. Let it simmer till the eggplant was soft; put on a pot of spaghetti. Dredged a couple of flattened chicken breasts in plain breadcrumbs, sauteed those in olive oil/margarine till browned on both sides. Added a splash of chicken broth, covered, simmered for about 10 min.

Sketti on plate, ratatouille on sketti, parmesan on top, chicken beside. Cold Franziskaner beer. Simple, pretty quick, reasonably healthy. (And Tom approved!)

Happy Saturday night!

The Harvest Begins!

4:47pm

First of all, the time stamp on this site looks to be waaaay off... It says that I entered yesterday's post at 6:37am or some such - as if night-owl here would even be conscious at such an hour! (It was more like 9:45am.) So, I'm going to start each post with the real time.

Second of all, I had originally typed a huge novel of a post about veggies I'm growing, how they're doing, and what I picked today. I'm thinking twice about posting all that, because what it all really comes down to is this: I love growing things that I can harvest. Whether vegetable or herb or flower, it's so immensely satisfying to walk out the back door, pick something, and either eat it for supper, dry it to use over the winter, throw it in the bath, or enjoy looking at it in a vase.

I picked just a handful of veggies today: one really nice purple eggplant, some sweet frying peppers, jalapenos, a little bit of okra. Oh, and two cherry tomatoes, two strawberries. Not yet a feast, but enough for a little ratatouille stir-fry for supper... and maybe something on the grill.

Farmer Jules is a happy happy girl tonight! Best get cooking.

Starting out...

To anyone who comes to read, Hi hi and welcome! I've been wanting to start a blog for a long time, and when I found out that this service is free... magic word! No more excuses! It'll probably take awhile to learn all the ins & outs of doing this, so please bear with. I'm hoping that this blog will be full of sunshine, new plants, and random thoughts on getting along in the world. But, we'll see...