Well. Yesterday was a strange day. It was abnormally warm  – in the eighties – and in the afternoon it got windy. It was noticeably windy but not anything I would have been overly worried about. At one point, I was sitting in the den and I heard what I thought was stuff moving around on the porch. So I went outside to make sure the plants were secure and there was a huge limb on the ground. It was from the big maple tree next to the house, a tree we love and a tree that has already lost several large limbs over the twenty years we’ve lived here.

I was shocked. The winds hadn’t been all that intense. I called Don and we carried it to the pile on the side of the property. It was a significant loss. Shortly after that, another  limb went down from a maple near the secret garden.

All of this was very upsetting and I’m in mourning today. I love our trees. I love all trees. The whole thing was so unexpected. The only thing I can come up with is that the winds (coming from the SSW) were in the ‘perfect’ position to cause damage, if only for a specific pocket of time – almost like that time we had that microburst.

It’s about 20 degrees cooler today and it’s going to rain.

What else?

My hair has been driving me crazy. It’s baby fine and I have been dealing with breakage. Consequently, it is many different lengths and unless I blow dry it, it looks terrible! I had been talking to Don about cutting my hair again (he loves to do that) and I decided the only thing to do was to cut it so that it matched the shorter breakage area around my face.

Five inches gone! This is the shortest my hair has been in years. It already looks healthier. Don thinks I look younger. I’m not so sure about that, but I like it. And it will be cooler for the summer.

No work on the dollhouse yesterday. I took a break to ponder what room I’ll tackle next.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

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.