garden — Page 174

The Defiant Ones

October 10, 2015 at 9:43 am by Claudia

Throughout the garden there are signs of the inevitable decline that comes at this time of year. Flowers have stopped blooming; in many cases, there are dried up stems where once there were beautiful, green plants. I’ve been looking at all of it through the camera’s lens for the past couple of days.

There are, hidden among the fallen leaves and debris, a few defiant ones – flowers that still bloom despite the disarray around them.

All of the purple coneflowers look like this:

10-10 dried up coneflowers

But, almost hidden away in the side garden, I saw this:

10-10 coneflower

The last man standing. So beautiful.

10-10 brown-eyed susans

A few defiant brown-eyed susans.

10-10 rose

The last of the roses.

10-10 butterfly bush

A bloom hidden deep within the butterfly bush.

10-10 catmint

There are some catmint flowers here and there.

10-10 spirea

The spirea is giving us one last burst of flowers.

10-10 phlox

And the phlox isn’t giving up without a fight.

My goodness, there is such a beauty in this decline, these flashes of color amid the fading greens and browns of the Autumn garden. It’s easy to focus on what was, instead of what is. And what is, is completely gorgeous in its own right.

Oh, I saw a Monarch Butterfly the other day! I didn’t have my camera and it was flying quickly around the property. It was gorgeous. Sadly, I don’t see them much anymore, so when I do, I stop and watch it until it fades out of sight.

Today is another beautiful, sunny fall day. I’m lapping all of this up. Tomorrow, I head into the city again to watch a run-through of the show.

I stopped by the library the other day.

10-10 library haul

I’m pretty sure the Sue Grafton books I’ve missed reading are S through V. Fortunately, my little local library had them on the shelf. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Ace Atkins but have yet to read any of his books. This one was on display, so I grabbed it. I had been in the queue for All the Light We Cannot See and it finally came in.

Just as it did when I was a little girl going to the bookmobile every week, a stack of library books makes me very, very happy.

Happy Saturday.

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Chatty on Wednesday

October 7, 2015 at 8:56 am by Claudia

10-7 mini rainbow

• Early yesterday evening I was outside with Scout. I looked up and saw this.

The sun was to the right (out of picture range) and was it the moon glowing under that cloud? I’m not sure, but that little rainbow-like slash of light appeared. Since my eyes are very sensitive to light, I thought maybe I was seeing something that wasn’t there.

But the camera saw it, too.

A lovely little moment in time.

• We bit the bullet yesterday and ordered heating oil. Gas prices are pretty low at the moment, so we thought this would be a good time to do it and sure enough, our oil guy told us that now was the time because prices were soon going up. High or low, heating oil is expensive.

The heavy gold quilt is covering the bed once again. I’m wearing my flannel pajamas.

I’m pretty sure it’s Autumn.

10-7 zinnia with web

Meanwhile, the zinnias just keep on blooming.

10-7 orange zinnia

• Design Sponge, one of my favorite sites, did a Guide to Ulster County, NY yesterday. That’s where we live. You might find it interesting. Grace Bonney, the founder of Design Sponge, recently moved up here – she’s not all that far from us – and has fallen in love with this beautiful area, just as we have.

We’ve got it all here. And this time of the year? Simply glorious.

• Housekeeping: If you’ve noticed the Cookie pop-up at the bottom of the blog, let me explain why it’s there. The European Union has a law that requires websites to indicate if cookies are being used on their site. Cookies, in case you’re not familiar with that term, are:

‘small pieces of data sent by a website and stored in the user’s web browser while the user is browsing that website…Cookies were designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to remember information (such as items in a shopping cart) or to record the user’s browsing activity (including clicking particular buttons, logging in, or recording which pages were visited by the user as far back as months or years ago.” Wikipedia.

Every website uses cookies. Ads use cookies. The EU thinks anyone viewing a website should be alerted to that fact. And Google is now enforcing that law. So, any of us who have potential visitors from the EU have to have a ‘cookie warning.’

Blogger blogs already have one. The rest of us have to take care of it ourselves, hence the plug-in I added yesterday (on both my blogs.)

Oy. It’s a bit of a pain in the tush, since anyone who goes on the web for even a minute encounters cookies. You can set your web browser to not allow cookies, if it’s of any great concern to you.

But we do what we have to do, right? I’ve tried to make it as unobtrusive as possible. So, there you go.

I spent a chunk of time yesterday diddling around with all of this and it’s time I’ll never get back. Sigh.

• Book review of X by Sue Grafton on Just Let Me Finish This Page today. Click here.

• Whoops! Forgot to add that The Poisoner’s Handbook (starring Don Sparks) is now showing on Netflix! We saw it listed last night and Genevieve, one of my readers, also wrote me to let me know about it.

Happy Wednesday.

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Baseboards and Zinnias

September 27, 2015 at 9:38 am by Claudia

9-27 zinnia bud

The zinnias are putting on an early autumn show. They just keep blooming. Along with the morning glories, they provide lots of beautiful flowery color even as the leaves turn yellow and the morning temperatures turn very cool.

9-27 red zinnia

They make me smile.

Yesterday, I once again seized on a window of Don-free time to do some work on the Top Secret Project.

Don: You know the drill.

Baseboards in hand, it was time for me to try a mitered corner.

I didn’t use mitered corners in Hummingbird Cottage, though now, after having done it, I wish I had.

9-27 mitre box

I used this aluminum miter box that comes with a blade and handle. I’d ordered it a few months back from HBS/miniatures.com

I admit to getting confused about which angle goes where in a mitered corner, so I googled the whole thing and found this wonderful tutorial, ‘Mitering 101’ from Miniature Designs. It made the whole process easy as pie. Thank you!

By the way, I made a cover for that sharp blade.

9-27 blade cover

I used a cardboard express mail envelope.

9-27 baseboard

Baseboard.

9-27 mitred corner

Mitered corner.

9-27 mitred corner with dog

Baseboard with table and dog.

It looks so nice!

When I put furniture in this room, I realize that it’s quite a big space. That’s why, I’m sure, some of the miniaturists working on the Creatin’ Contest are creating rooms within the space. I thought about doing that; for example, adding a bathroom. But I think I’m going to keep it open and studio-like. If mini Don has to go to the bathroom, he can hike up to the house.

I do have lots of ideas for the space, including a counter-high refrigerator and a counter top with a coffeemaker, a lounging area with the Eames chair, a coffee table and a sofa, a stereo and lots of record albums, an area with recording equipment, speakers, a computer screen, stools, musical instruments, maybe an electronic keyboard and/or an upright piano and a floor microphone. There would be a rug or two on the floor for acoustic purposes. There will be framed posters and artwork.

And a retro fireplace like the ones you see in older A-frame and mid-century modern homes. I’ve found a tutorial for it and that is my next project.

I’ll try to make a floor plan in the next few days, so you can see what I have in mind – though I’m not really sure what will go where.

So far…I’ve got the Eames chair and the baseball cards and record album Barbara sent to me.

Oh, what fun it will be!

I’ve just finished Pop Goes the Weasel by M. J. Arlidge (who wrote Eeny Meeny, a book I reviewed previously) and there is a review on Just Let Me Finish This Page today.

Now I’ve started A Song of Shadows, John Connolly’s newest Charlie Parker mystery, which is being published on Tuesday. He’s a wonderful writer and I’ve now read every book in the series, except for this one.

I’ve read nine books this month. My new early morning reading regimen is paying off!

Happy Sunday.

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The Defiant Ones

Chatty on Wednesday

Baseboards and Zinnias

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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