flowers — Page 50

Friday

August 20, 2021 at 9:14 am by Claudia

We made a quick stop at Trader Joe’s on our way back from Pennsylvania. Don wanted to grab a few things and I jumped at the chance to buy some inexpensive flowers.

It’s been a very tiring week. Very. Lots going on. I’m really looking forward to kicking back a bit. Though I do have to grab a few rain-free hours this morning to do some mowing. It rained yesterday and was incredibly humid. It’s going to rain and storm this afternoon, tomorrow, and Sunday – due, in part, to the hurricane moving up the east coast. Oh, joy. Another hurricane.

Anyway, I’m tired. Don is tired. We just need to hang out for a couple of days and I guess that’s guaranteed given the weather headed our way.

I didn’t do anything more with the Beacon Hill yesterday. Still trying to fix some things or at least, figure out how to fix them. I’ve looked at a lot of other finished Beacon Hills and realize that the foundation under the bay windows and kitchen windows is missing. So I’ve downloaded the instructions and I’m going to try to figure out the directions for those areas of the house and see if I can duplicate them with some wood or board. Then there’s the porch, which is glued in so well that I’m afraid I’ll break something if I try to take it apart. That’s something I’ll start to address this weekend. And I just might go to Lowe’s and buy some primer. Slapping on some paint will be very therapeutic.

How can it be almost the end of August? I swear, time moves so quickly!

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

A Driveway Bouquet

August 16, 2021 at 9:13 am by Claudia

We mowed the front lawn yesterday and I weed whacked, as well. With so much way-too-hot and humid weather in the past 10 days, we were behind. We’re still behind; the corral and back forty have to be mowed, as well, but at least the front of the house is looking neater.

In the middle of our driveway was this little bouquet which sprung up from the gravel:

It’s in the middle, so we don’t drive over it. Almost as if it knew the perfect place to be.

So, we’re tired today. Don is running some errands. I’m blogging. And then we’re going to take it easy as we’re driving to Pennsylvania tomorrow; actually, a town right outside Philadelphia, my old stomping grounds. The dollhouse seller and I have communicated and have come up with a plan to do this exchange safely. And the dollhouse will be on the porch, so we won’t have to go inside.

Yikes. A big old dollhouse is coming to the studio! I’ve already cleared a space on the work table. Dove Cottage has been moved to the sewing table where it used to be before Don gave me the worktable as a birthday present. Eventually, I’ll have to figure out where Dove Cottage will live, but we’re not quite there yet.

I’ll share pics of the Beacon Hill with you. It’s painted a rather bright yellow, the porch seems to be on crookedly, so that will have to be fixed, the shutters need to be repositioned, and the rooms are all painted dark colors and not very well painted, at that. I think I’m going to have to do what I did with Hummingbird Cottage – paint it all white, inside and out. That will be a base coat and then I’ll go from there, choosing wallpaper and a color for the outside. We won’t get back until late in the day, but hopefully, I can get some pictures as the sun floods that room in the afternoon.

Anyway…an adventure tomorrow. Bless my husband for being willing to do this. We have to use the Pilot, which I’ve never driven, and I wouldn’t want to do this alone. So my big, tall, strong husband will be at my side and we’ll take lots of quilts to cushion the dollhouse for its journey to our little cottage.

Am I crazy? Yes. But then, you knew that.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Morning Glories and A Dollhouse Question

August 8, 2021 at 9:50 am by Claudia

I don’t remember choosing purple morning glory seeds, but here we are! I’ve only had a few blooms so far. I love morning glories, no matter what color, so welcome! It’s been very hard to train them to grow on the fence this year. For some reason, the seeds I carefully planted in a furrow right next to the fence have emerged further away from the fence and they’re curling around everything but the chicken wire. Also, in one section of the chicken wire fence garden, nothing came up – no zinnias, no morning glories – which leads me to believe that the birds got all the seeds. Ah well. It’s always a bit of a crap shoot, isn’t it?

I cleaned like a madwoman yesterday, yet another spurt where I ended up doing too much. But the dreaded bathrooms are sparkly clean, the house has been vacuumed, the towels have been washed, and the houseplants have been watered. This morning I will water all the porch plants and some of the garden, as it’s been hot and humid here lately.

I wrote a post on Instagram yesterday about the Beacon Hill dollhouse. You might remember that I bought the kit last December. Needless to say, I haven’t started it yet, partly because I want to finish Dove Cottage before I take on something new, but also because of real qualms about having enough space in which to build it. It’s huge. It has a lot of parts. It needs sanding. And the only space I have is our shared office/studio that not only has my things, but also has all of Don’s guitars and other musical instruments. The more I think about it, the more I realize that it’s just not practical for me to attempt to build it in this small cottage. Also: no habitable basement, no attic, no garage.

So, I’ve been thinking about trying to find one already built that I could rehab. You know I love doing that sort of thing to a dollhouse. In fact, except for Don’s mini studio, which I built, every house has been a rehab. I’ve been checking Facebook Marketplace and Craig’s List in my general area, but the only one that came up was one that a guy was asking $1200 for! My IG post asked everyone to keep an eye out for a finished Beacon Hill within sane driving distance from the Hudson Valley. If you could do that, too, I’d so appreciate it. One reader shared a listing from West Chester, PA and the house looks pretty good. West Chester is near Philadelphia, my old stomping grounds, but it’s about a 3 hour drive from here, which begs the question: do I want to drive that far and/or can I talk Don into driving that far? Because we’d need his car. I’ve had no experience with FB Marketplace. Have any of you? What are your thoughts? I’m itching for a new project as I’m about to wind down work on Dove Cottage. I’d then sell my kit at a discount.

After a year’s drought of any bunnies, we’ve seen this one twice lately:

It’s blurry because he was taking off, but hurrah! We’ve really missed bunnies around here. Don hasn’t done any heavy duty work on the trails this year, so maybe they feel safer here now. Last year, he was constantly up in the woods, hoeing, shoveling, carving out spaces, and probably scaring bunnies off.

Okay.

Happy Sunday.

Stay safe.

Friday

A Driveway Bouquet

Morning Glories and A Dollhouse Question

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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