I’ve been working outside the last couple of days and it’s been wonderful but tiring. The fresh air, working for hours….I’m not used to it! Yesterday I cleared some of the saplings that sprout up around this property and are usually too close to already established trees. Then I started on the dreaded battle with the brambles/wild roses that take over our property, sometimes strangling the small trees that I do want to flourish.

My hands are full of wounds from the prickers (thorns.) We always called them prickers when I was a kid. Anyway, I’m going to have to continue this battle over the next few days. Yikes.

Then Don and I worked on the trail that we established several years ago in our woods. In the past few years, we let it languish. No more. We cleared branches, brambles, edged the paths with limbs that we found here and there on the floor of the forest. We love taking walks there, especially when the canopy of trees in full leaf creates a quiet getaway. We’re going to mark the trail and add some little touches that make it ours.

Lots of work. Exhausted. But happy.

Now, onto my potting shed in the dollhouse:

Notice anything new?

Yes! I’ve added a skylight.

A potting shed needs a source of natural light, don’t you think?

I came up with the idea a couple of weeks ago and then I ordered the window, along with the pots and potting soil. It sat here for several days until I made the decision to go for it. Since the walls of the dollhouse are MDF, they are a little tricky to work with. The only other time I used a keyhole saw on the dollhouse was when I enlarged the opening for the front door. And it wasn’t easy!

But I was determined to do it. The window came with a template for the opening, so I used a pencil to trace the template on the roof of the shed. I grabbed my drill and made a couple of holes that eventually gave me an opening in which to insert the saw. Don braced the house for a bit and kept asking me if I wanted him to help with the sawing, but stubborn girl that I am, I said no. I quickly realized I needed to move the dollhouse to the floor where I could work more easily. Then Don left me to it as he took Scout for a walk.

I wondered if I was making a mistake but my gut told me it would work. So I kept sawing. And finally, there was a square opening for the window. Would it fit? Yes, and with no adjustments necessary!

Ah. Much more conducive to creative work in the shed!

I am very excited about this modification. In fact, I have a skylight in my studio upstairs, so it seemed only fair to install one in the potting shed. (And the owner asked me to. Very nicely.)

Oh, wait until I get to work on the roof garden!

I also added some flowering bushes to the urns by the front door.

Love.

I hope you’re enjoying the fact that Spring has sprung and that you’re able to spend some time outside, my friends.

Happy Friday.