Allergies, allergies, allergies.

That’s all I’ll say about that.

The wood floor in the Beacon Hill living room  is kicking my  butt.

It’s almost done. I worked on it yesterday morning and later in the afternoon; in between, I had a final coaching session with Kate. I am pretty painstaking about this process, but boy, it seemed to take FOREVER.  I got stain and glue all over my hands. At one point, I got glue in my hair. And, because I was snacking on some apple pie, I got some apple pie filling in my hair as well.

Someone send help!

I have to finish this today so I can move on to the baseboards. That involves mitre cuts and I have to look up how to do those again, because I haven’t done it since Dove Cottage.

This morning, I ran upstairs to take the photo of the floor and I grabbed some shots of what looks like an abandoned house:

Do you see that second opening on the left? There’s the doorway and then there’s this closet like area. How the heck am I going to to get my hands back there and create anything? I won’t be able to see what I’m doing!

I also want to show you a piece I won on eBay. I don’t know how old it is, but it’s lovely.

Isn’t it pretty?

I’m not sure where it will end up. It looks perfect in the living room, but I don’t want that room to be too matchy-matchy. Maybe the bedroom? Or in what will be the den/library? We’ll have to see.

I have to mow the front lawn today and my allergies are objecting. But the grass is very long and it’s going to rain tonight, which will just make it all worse. So, it must be done.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

I had a coaching session yesterday and then I went outside to rake the leaves out of the big garden bed. I managed to get rid of a lot of them, but I usually have to rake it twice. I raked them onto a tarp and lugged it up to the pile.

Then I ate lunch and took a nap.

Today, I’m headed to the nursery as soon as I finish writing this post. I have a list of plants for the porch and the barrels, etc. Hopefully, more will have come in since I was there on Tuesday. Fingers crossed!

On the far side of the front yard, just beyond the lilac bush, the flowering quince has burst into bloom.

My favorite little crabapple, which sits just under the maple on the far side of the house. The larger crabapple just beyond this one has very few blooms. I think the unexpected frost had an impact. Darn!

Deep pink, soft pink and a pinkish white. So lovely!

So far, we’ve mowed the largest section of the front lawn and the corral, which Don mowed yesterday while I was raking out the bed. The back forty is okay for now as is the lilac side of the front lawn. Everything is so green! The maples have leaves, the shag hickory has buds, the ash has started to leaf out – the only trees not looking green at the moment are the catalpas and they are always the last to develop leaves. I guess they like to show off – after all, those heart-shaped leaves are huge!

Alas, my allergies have gone haywire with all the pollen in the air. So have Don’s, though he refuses to admit he has them. He does – they’re just not as insane as mine.

Okay, I’m going to throw on some old clothes and head to the nursery.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

We have two kinds of crabapple trees on the property. My favorites are on the far side of the house. They’re the same kind as the crabapple that was cut down a few years ago by an overzealous county employee. I still miss that tree, but I am heartened that I discovered two more like it.

I noticed it was blooming because we decided to mow the main part of the front lawn on Saturday. The grass was quite tall and we knew it was going to rain all day on Sunday.

While we were finishing up on the far side of the house, I saw the pink blooms of the crabapple. There’s a larger tree just beyond it but there were no visible buds yet. I’ll check it out today.

All this green, and after three days of temps in the high 80s, so many perennials have shot out of the ground. And what do we have tonight? A low of 27 degrees and frost. I feel a scream coming on. Since it’s impossible to cover our garden beds, I just have to hope that my well-established perennials can handle it. They are decades old and fairly hardy, so my fingers are crossed.

But it’s worrisome.

I still haven’t raked those beds, so I hope the leaves provide some protection. It went down to about 33 degrees last night. After tonight, we should get back to normal. I plan to buy some more porch plants tomorrow and start potting them.

This spring, just like the winter, has been crazy.

Don has to go to the doctor this morning for a shot in his eye. Thankfully, he only has to do this about every 3 months.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.