flowers — Page 120

Little Scamps

April 18, 2019 at 10:16 am by Claudia

I worked outside for several hours yesterday. I used muscles I haven’t used in a while.

Oh my.

I managed to finish a first pass at clearing nearly all the garden beds. I’ll go back and do more in a week or so – which is fortunate, since we have a lot of rain in the forecast.

Sedum, hostas, daylilies, the very beginnings of all the coneflowers – they’re all there. The hydrangeas have green buds on them. Suddenly, all the surrounding vegetation – the brambles/wild roses, some of the smaller trees – are green. Oh, how lovely!

The first daffodils:

These are the daffodils that are right on the edge of the woods. In fact, I have a story to tell you. I stopped in the middle of loading tarps with leaves and debris when I saw the splash of yellow. Of course, I took the obligatory picture and while I as standing there, I noticed what looked like trash in the woods. Thinking it was a random plastic bag that had been blown there during one of our many “wind events” I headed up there to get it. Much to my surprise, there was not only the plastic bag, but all sorts of trash scattered about from one of our kitchen trash bags.

Then it came to me. About a week and half ago, some raccoons tipped over our trash can and there was debris strewed on the ground near the can. Don cleaned it up, took everything to be recycled, and that was that.

These little scamps grabbed a bag and took it up into the woods!

I went in the house, got a trash bag, and picked everything up.

Then I stood up, ready to head back to the trash can, and I saw another bag several feet away. More trash to pick up.

Then – far off in the woods – I saw ANOTHER bag. These guys had dragged three bags up to the woods. After cleaning it all up, I couldn’t help but laugh. Don and I were wishing we had some sort of infrared outdoor camera to record these hijinks!

I’m grateful the woods is still relatively bare because I could get to everything. It would be much harder to get in there come summertime.

Raccoons mess with our trash rarely and I’m hoping it stays that way.

Yesterday’s theme: Pairs.

On the left, morning glory egg cups found in a Paris flea market. Then the egg cups we found at Abbey Road Studios in London. Then, two beautiful bluebird egg cups from Germany. And finally, two wooden egg cups.

There’s a few more egg cup posts to share with you as we head toward Easter.

Besides the happiness at sharing these little beauties with you, I really enjoy seeing them all again.

Happy Thursday.

Garden Cleanup, Egg Cups & A Gift

April 17, 2019 at 8:10 am by Claudia

Now that the endless wind has died down, I’m going to work outside today and tomorrow. Rain is coming on Friday and throughout the weekend, so I have to grab some time while I can.

Meanwhile, in the yet uncovered big garden bed:

The hyacinths are blooming.

I’m tackling that bed today. Wish me luck.

Egg cups for today: Four double egg cups in the Harlequin pattern by Homer Laughlin. (Apparently, I forgot to remove the price tag on one of them!)

I received a lovely package in the mail from Kate, a reader of this blog. Kate asked me if she could send me two egg cups that she had in her home. Of course, I said yes. When the package arrived there were additional surprises!

First of all, two lovely lustreware egg cups.

Then two beautiful knives – my grandparents had a set of flatware like this.

And 4 cups/saucers made by Arabia in Finland. Are they demitasse? They’re on the small side. And this photo isn’t capturing the color, which leans a bit more toward green/yellow. They’re lovely – such simple and beautiful design. (I’ll try to capture the color in a future photo.)

Thank you so much, Kate! I’ve already made room in the kitchen china cabinet for the cups and saucers! The egg cups are in the cubby cabinet. And the knives have joined my stash of bakelite.

I’m blessed.

The winner of a copy of The Eighth Sister is Marilyn! Marilyn, I’ve already sent you an email. Just send me your mailing address and I’ll forward it on to the publisher.

Happy Wednesday.

April

April 1, 2019 at 9:06 am by Claudia

A very cold, but sunny morning. The temps were back down to the 20s last night.

Spring: You are crazy.

This cold weather will continue for the next couple of days and then the temps will gradually rise. I’m ready for full-on Spring, thank you very much.

We both woke up ridiculously early this morning. I won’t say what time. But we’re determined to be positive and sail through the day with flying colors. Wish us luck!

I did some minor faffing to the original dollhouse yesterday. Over time, changes of temperature cause things to fall off walls, or be jostled in some way or another. I rehung some pictures, a mirror, and a platter. Straightened up the sofas. Dusted the floors (with a paintbrush.) Usually, the dollhouse exterior is facing me when I’m sitting in the den, but I turned it recently – it inspires me for the work that must be done on the rescued dollhouse. It helps to remember all the steps it took to get to the finished product. So, when I turned it and looked closely, I realized some minor adjustments needed to be made.

I also painted a base coat of white on the exterior of my current project. I didn’t want any blue showing when I started the long process of attaching the ‘stones’ to the exterior. My plans yesterday for doing some work up in my office didn’t come to fruition. I did nothing but hang around with my husband, cuddle, and read. That was it. But it was awfully nice.

Someone asked the other day about sources for dollhouse furniture and tips for rehabbing a dollhouse, so it’s time to remind everyone that I have a heck of a lot of posts about Hummingbird Cottage and Don’s Studio under the Dollhouses/Minis tab on my navigation bar. There’s also a Source List, which I just happened to update last week. There’s lots of information for you there.

Okay. It’s Monday. It’s April. It’s sunny.

I’ll take it.

Happy Monday.

Little Scamps

Garden Cleanup, Egg Cups & A Gift

April

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Archives