The hostas are blooming.

Not long after I ran outside to take this picture I was in the bathroom and saw a tick on my arm. Don came in and removed it. It had just started attaching itself to my body and I’m pretty sure it was a wood tick – too large for a deer tick. But come on! I walked outside, bent over to take these pictures and bam! A tick!

Later in the day, Don was stung by a bee.

And I mistakenly touched some poison ivy. Fingers crossed I don’t get it. I’ve already dealt with it once this summer.

What the heck???

It is absolutely gorgeous in the gardens right now. It may be the peak time for flowers. I have to drink this in. I spent a lot of time weeding the beds on the far side of the house yesterday, as I’d been ignoring them. I also cleared the beds in front of the shed. I’m late with a lot of the cleanup I’ve been doing over the past week because of  “The Crazy Summer Weather of 2026.” It’s been much nicer for the past few days, so I’ve tried to take advantage of it.

We have rain coming tonight and tomorrow and maybe the next day, so I’m trying to decide whether I should mow the front lawn or just wait until this stretch of rain passes and do it then.

I bit the bullet and removed the exterior of that fireplace on the 3rd floor of the Beacon Hill. Decision made. Now, I’ll fill it in with some foam board so I can wallpaper over it. And I’ll spackle the holes left behind from the removal of the mantel. I repainted the yellow buffet, but today I’m not so sure I like it. I’ll rethink it today.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Early morning light.

It’s Saturday and I’m waking up very slowly. Still drinking my first cup of coffee. I have a brief review session with a client at noon, but other than that, I’m mostly going to hang out with my husband. A bit of work on the dollhouse might be on the agenda.

So far:

I currently have the dollhouse facing the exterior windows in the studio.

I remain on the fence about the built in fireplace on the third floor. I’m very tempted to close it off and wallpaper over it. Frankly, it has bothered me from the beginning. I spent a bit of time yesterday searching for this dollhouse on IG just to see what others had done with it. A lot of people got rid of it. I’m headed in that direction.

I need some kind of wardrobe for the bedroom and bedside tables. And bedding.

I have my eye on an easy chair for the living room. It’s really beautiful but a bit pricey. A refrigerator for the kitchen remains an open question. And I need more than  just the piano in that top floor room.

Why am I not independently wealthy???

Ah well.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

This has been the strangest summer. We’ve had two rounds of dangerous heat – both several days long. We’ve had and continue to have smoke from the wildfires in Canada. Yesterday, we had thunderstorms all day long, big thunderstorms with lots of lightning and thunder, along with massive downpours that looked like solid sheets of water. And we’ve had long stretches of drought-like conditions.

It’s been exhausting. It’s also been maddening because everything out there is overgrown and very wild looking and I haven’t really been able to tackle it because of all of the above. I’m going to start pruning and cutting and cleaning it out today. Both Don and I feel like we haven’t been able to spend as much time outside as we normally do.

I’m taking a little break from the dollhouse renovations. I’ll eventually work on the floor for the second floor stairs/hallway. After that, I’m not sure. I have a very limited budget, as you know, so this will be slow going.

One good thing, I’m reading a lot again, which is lovely. I’m currently reading Ironwood  by Michael Connelly, the second book in a new series for him that takes place on Catalina Island off the coast of southern California.

We watched Oppenheimer  last night, something we’d put off because its SO LONG! We ate dinner a bit earlier so we could watch it and still not be up too late. It was quite well done and the acting was terrific. There were sound issues, which seems to happen a lot these days. The balance between the soundtrack and dialogue was really off and I spent the first hour constantly turning it down and then having to turn it up again. It’s really annoying and inexcusable, really. So we missed some of the dialogue. Something is or is not happening in the mixing process. Cillian Murphy was wonderful in the title role and Robert Downey Jr. was absolutely pitch perfect.

But it was too long and would have benefitted from some cuts.

That’s it for today.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.