porch — Page 11

Pots and the Porch

May 19, 2018 at 10:17 am by Claudia

Getting a bit of a late start on this post as I just finished watching the Royal Wedding. I cried, of course. It was simply lovely and the perfect way to start a rainy Saturday. (I used to sing at weddings when I was a young thing and I always cried. Didn’t have to know the bride or the groom. Nope. I cried anyway.)

I had an idea for the vintage English pots I purchased the other day. Since I’ve given up on doing anything, for the time being, with the bed I wanted to create in the area behind the kitchen, my thoughts turned to the pots as a way to add some prettiness. So I trotted off to our local nursery and, after much deliberation, chose some pretty plants.

I filled them with coleus, lobularia, and silver leaf licorice plant. All three will trail and look even better with time, though I think they’re looking pretty good now. I love the deep red of the coleus.

Another shot:

They sit on cinder blocks that I found on the property long ago and lugged, one-by-one, to this area last summer. (Don lectured me afterwards about my back. But he was in California, so what was I going to do?)

Not the best time of day to take this picture, but you get the idea. It’s a sort of secret area behind the kitchen. I added those stepping stones to the left a few years back. They lead up to the back forty. Honestly, I’m thinking of getting two more pots. So there would be one further down toward the stepping stones and one more to the right.

I’m happy to say that I finished most everything yesterday, so except for ongoing weeding and maintenance (plus occasional additions because I want to fill my garden beds) I’m done with all the big spring cleanup.

Here are some pictures of the porch, taken yesterday.

The dove is here for the moment. I like to look at her/him when I’m sitting on the glider.

Rick came over for a while yesterday to talk about the garden and get ideas for their place. (I highly recommended purple coneflowers.) Anyway, we had a lovely chat, while sitting on the glider. It was a beautiful, sunny day.

Today is rainy. But that’s okay as I have to clean my neglected house. And I have no food, so there’s that.

By the way, some changes are happening on blogs and websites because of a new European Union policy on privacy and data collection, the GDPR. If a site is read by anyone in the European Union, a privacy statement about cookies and the way data is collected has to be written. Frankly, it’s daunting. I have no idea what to write or what I should write. But I’m researching it. The first thing you may notice in this newest version of WordPress is in the comment section. Those of you who comment frequently are used to your name and email address being ‘remembered’ after leaving your first comment. Today, if you want to be remembered instead of filling in the required info each and every time you comment, you have to check a box at the bottom of the form. Then it should be taken care of for the future. If you don’t want that, then don’t check the box.

Happy Saturday.

Porching and Henry

April 22, 2018 at 9:46 am by Claudia

After a long winter, the last two sunny and warmish days have been most welcome! In the early evening, I sat on the glider with the warmth of the sun on my back and it was heaven. There are no potted plants yet, no hanging plants, no leaves on the trees. But I’ve got my porch back.

I continued to work on cleaning up the porch, sweeping every corner, cleaning off the ‘greenhouse’ sign, cleaning the former kitchen island, which is now…what? potting bench? porch dresser? I’m not sure.

It was already very chippy when we brought it outside, and we covered it with a tarp for the winter, but it’s definitely much chippier than it was. I don’t mind; you know I like that look. At some point, when it gets to be too much, I will probably repaint it with something more durable like porch paint.

I also made some more ‘cleanup’ inroads on the big garden bed. I have yet to clean up the memorial garden bed or the garden beds on the far side of the house, but this week will offer plenty of time to tackle that.

For today, I’ll take it easy. Don is arriving this evening and I don’t want to feel as tired as I have the past two nights when I pick him up at the bus station. Luckily, the weather is supposed to be lovely tomorrow, so he can really enjoy his time here.

I saw a bunny outside the kitchen window this morning. And last night, I ran and grabbed my telephoto lens so I could get a picture of someone dining way over on the other side of the driveway, under the lilac. (Taken from inside the living room or he would have run away.)

That’s our boy!

Happy Sunday.

Scrubbing, Cleaning: Time for Spring

April 21, 2018 at 8:53 am by Claudia

Well, that was a resounding success, don’t you think? The conversation is still going on as I write this new post and I couldn’t be happier! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading about where you are from, about your individual journeys. And I have loved seeing the dialogue that has taken over the comment page. I figured I would just sit back and enjoy.

Connection. We all need to connect.

Thank you, Judy, for the idea, and thank you all for taking part. Much love to all of you.

And now to the mundane.

I worked like the dickens yesterday, if I do say so myself!

I cleaned the porch railing and the individual spindles and everything. Since our outside hose connection is not working at the moment, this involved hauling buckets of water from the kitchen to the porch. Over and over. But it looks so much better!

This is a chore that is not on my favorites list, which is why I ignored it for a few years.

Then I started to clean up the porch – still in progress as I write this – sorting through the accumulation of crap that built up over the autumn and winter. I drove the now 17 year old CR-V to the storage facility, retrieved the adirondack chairs and a few other things. Then I cleaned the glider and the chairs. I stopped for the day around 4 pm, so I haven’t added the cushions to the furniture. That will happen today.

It just felt good to start making the porch into our extra room for the spring and summer and fall. No potted plants yet – too early – but that will come. Today it will be sunny and reach 60 degrees, so I’ll be out there again working on the porch and the garden beds.

It’s slowly getting there. Slowly.

Don informed me that he wants to come home for his day off. He’s homesick. So I won’t go in, obviously. I’m just as happy to have him here. And it will be sunny – no rain! I’ll go in next week as we have tickets to listen to one the guys in the cast perform at a club on Sunday evening. By the way, Don signed up for access to a community garden around the block from the apartment. It looks lovely. There are benches to sit on, flowers blooming, birds singing, plants thriving. I’ll be sure to take photos when I see it next weekend.

Happy Saturday.

Pots and the Porch

Porching and Henry

Scrubbing, Cleaning: Time for Spring

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Archives