Hello, beautiful daffodil! There will be more blooms opening today. I love the fluffy petals of this particular daffodil – I take no credit for it as it has been on the property for years, well before our time here.
Today, we’re headed to the nursery to get a few things. I’m feeling the need to plant some pansies in my urns. I do that every year. Since they like cold weather, I can plant them early. We’re also going to get some grass seed. There are a lot of bare patches in the back forty from all the truck action when we had the trees taken down.
Then, it will be work outside. I’m not sure what yet, but I’ve got a whole list of chores to do, so there’s plenty of options.
I am so happy that spring has finally come to our property.
I finished the puzzle yesterday afternoon. This one was rather difficult, but quite satisfying.
I started another one yesterday, though I briefly considered not doing another one as I’ll be outside more. However, I think I have one more in me and so it’s begun.
I’m really enjoying The Shell Seekers. Pilcher is such a delicious writer. Her descriptions of interiors and gardens alone are worth it, but there’s so much more.
Okay. I know this is brief, but we’re going to get going early.
Stay safe.
Happy Tuesday.
Lovely puzzle! Have a great day, Claudia.
Thank you, April!
Stay safe!
Love the puzzle. Have fun buying some sweet pansies! Hugs!
Thank you, Linda!
Stay safe!
Great puzzle! Have fun with your pansies. It’s gorgeous here today as well…windows wide open. Have a great day in the garden! ;)
This weather is a balm for the soul!
Stay safe, Donna.
I know what you mean about pansies. They’re the first flower I get each year because they can handle the cold.
Love the puzzle. I can see why it was a challenge! I had a heartstopping moment with mine. I saved it from a little one two-and 9 months, but I almost lost it to a 9 year-old cat! It would have been ugly. I’m making progress, slow but sure — but sure could use your instinctive puzzle touch!
Have a wonderful day! Sunny and 70s here in Michigan!
So glad that disaster was averted!!
Stay safe, Jeanie.
Some consider September by Rosamunde Pilcher a sequel to Shell Seekers. It is not a continuation but some of the same characters appear. You’d like it too.
Yes, I’m aware of that. I think September will be next on my list. I’ve already read her earliest books, as well as Winter Solstice, so I’ve got September and Coming Home on my TBR list.
Thanks, Joyce.
Stay safe!
Oh, Claudia, the puzzle is absolutely beautiful. Just breathtaking. It is my favorite of all of the ones you have completed. I would have a hard time deconstructing it!!!! (Of course I never would have attempted to construct it!!)
The Shell Seekers…….. sigh. I’m sure I mentioned I read it about 25 or more years ago and did love it, but re-read it last year and it was a completely new book to me. I think where we are in our life when we read any book makes a difference in how we enjoy it. How I read it and enjoyed it at 45 was quite different as to how I cherished and loved it at 70. So beautiful. As Joyce in Kansas mentioned, September is good as well, with some carryonver from TSS. I do love Rosamunde Pilcher and how she tells a story.
Hope you found some pansies!! It is 79* and sunny today. Windows all open. Hubs is working the polls all day. Slow day he said when he called at lunch time. Enjoy your time in the yard. Remember, there is always tomorrow, and the things to be done will still be there! Take your time and enjoy it. We deserve that after the long winter. Take care.
I love her, too. I like I can relax and know I’m in good hands!
We’re taking our time for sure. Bought the pansies and I’ll plant them today.
Stay safe, Chris.
The puzzle is so rich in color and content. Love it!
Your pretty daffy reminds me to go outside and see some nature. I need a pick-me-up; something to make me feel better. I just read the entire written appraisal on our property (for the loan/mortgage refi) with scads of accompanying photos of basically every square inch of our house and yards, and I feel melancholy because it’s hard to read somebody else’s/a professional’s (negative/honest) view of your home. She didn’t write down anything we didn’t know but, man, she sure was thorough and put us under a magnifying glass. I feel ‘wounded’. Especially since we worked our behinds off, for weeks, to get ready to be inspected/photographed. Give us a break; we’re a work-in-progress/in-process on this old house.
Anyway, it’s a real letdown, the whole shebang, although we got the highest appraised value we’ve ever had due to current market conditions; I’m still very tired from the physical work of prepping for this inspection, though; and my husband’s back is killing him because he did too much lifting (he’s made a medical appointment about it, finally; I have to drag him kicking & screaming to any appointment with a doctor, but I think he needs a temporary painkiller regimen under doctor’s supervision along with some physical therapy or chiropractic treatment).
We are two seniors in a fixer-upper; I know we have a lot of work to do, including overhauling the kitchen and bathrooms, we’re doing things as we can afford to do them, and when my husband feels like doing the hard, physical labor of home improvements; I know we have a lot of stuff boxed up in back rooms while we do our work on the other parts of the house, but it’s just hard to have your flaws pointed out to you. I know I’m taking it too personally. It’s my parents’ house and I feel like I’m disappointing them, but I have to remember that they’d been unable financially in their very-old age to do much to the house before I ever bought it, so my husband and I were always starting with a deficit.
The fact is, we have an old house; yes, it needs work. But; ouch. I do envy people who have the money to keep up their homes in an ongoing pristine condition; we have a couple of neighbors who are in those circumstances and one of those homes is up for sale right now; it is listed for $60,000 over our appraised value, but it has add-on square footage and the woman was left well off from two dead husbands (I think she had the thing of when the first guy died, the house was then paid off in entirety, so she hasn’t had a mortgage payment since she was in her 40s and now she’s in her 90s and she has never spared one dime on her home, to her credit); anything the house needed, it got, year after year (including a once-per-week housekeeping team); so, of COURSE it’s turnkey and totally upgraded with new-new-new, the showplace of the 50-house neighborhood, and in a move-right-in condition. Those, however, are not our circumstances.
I do think, for us, the appraiser was quite fair; I feel we have more like $100,000 worth of improvements (interiors) still to do (rather than $60,000). We’ve spent so much initial money to secure and improve the EXTERIORS but the appraiser, even after I pointed it out, really didn’t take any of it into consideration (complete re-landscaping of front/back/hillside, drip irrigation, concrete work/pavers/around-the-house sidewalks, a build-on covered and enclosed porch/mudroom, a major amount of 6′-tall wood fencing, hillside stairway, retaining wall for the hill/slope; was a mega investment for us, the work ongoing at the time [some half-dozen years ago] with a landscaping specialist/company and licensed handyman-sort-of guy for five full months; but it’s as if none of that counts toward your appraised home value; they only seem to care about the actual structure of the home/dwelling).
I swear it would be easier to just move. SoCalif real estate has skyrocketed once again, even in this bad economy (low inventory, desirable interest rates); the homes in my neighborhood have never been valued as high as they are right now, and they’re 65 years old, so it’s really quite remarkable because they’re nothing special; just little ticky-tacky houses all in a row, nothing cool or vintage-y about them (except maybe my mid-century pink bathtub!). This may push my husband back to the we-need-to-move-to-Wisconsin effort (where we could buy a newer home in that beautiful, gorgeous state and have a much-lower mortgage payment each month, if any at all; my husband fell in love with Wisconsin and has studied real estate values/locales there for over a year). In the meantime, I just wonder if I’ll ever, at this late age, feel settled into a place I can call home that’s the final home, where I don’t have to worry about home improvements and/or moving. And the minute I say that or write it down, I feel guilty because I know how fortunate I am to even HAVE a home.
So, yes, to the outdoors. It does lift the mood, Claudia; I can sense it in you, too.
John Muir, Scot-American naturalist, 1838-1914; he died here in SoCalif: “Keep close to Nature’s heart and break clear away once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”
I can’t go climb a mountain, but I can go look at my lovely geraniums in their terracotta pots; the roses, so forgiving, growing ever-reliably with never the full care I should be giving them; our wildflower patch with every variety to discover (and each color of the rainbow), attracting the bees and butterflies. Before my neighbor switches on her clothes dryer in the garage, using those highly-perfumey/chemical fabric softener sheets (the dryer vents itself directly toward my home, like within four feet of the property line, with a long hose pointed right at us [thank you very much], the objectionable/artificial smell permeating my entire property, front and back, like a cloud of cheap cologne; aggravates my asthma, we have to close our windows; and she washes/dries clothes every day, seemingly all day long, because she has three kids, two of whom are babies; we always have wind and/or breeze in this valley, and it blows the smell away from her and directly to us; ah, neighbors, and I know she means no harm); but yes, before ‘civilization’ intrudes, I can go out early in the morning and smell the untarnished sweet spring air. Feel the sun on my face before it gets too hot. See the mountains greened up. And the birds are still in song mode. Much for which to be grateful; always!
hej, vicki …
i’ve never been through a mortgage re-finance inspection such as you described so i’m obviously no expert (just a friend you haven’t met yet) … but i am sorry you are feeling let-down and frustrated after that inspection. i bet your parents are proud of (not disappointed in) you and how you’ve carried on with their-now-your lovely home … and i think you should be proud of yourself, too. look, please, at that long list of accomplishments you told us about … those things alone are a lot of hard work, time and money! and i’m sure there are other accomplishments for which you should feel duly pleased. including creating a loving home, no matter what that inspector focused on. i know they don’t focus on love and good feelings, coziness and comfort … but i do. structural safety is important, but that’s not what makes a house a home!
also, can you appeal the results?
good luck with the neighbor’s laundry detergent.
take good care of yourself. i hope you and your husband’s back feel better soon.
stay safe!
kathy in iowa
ps … i’m not saying your home has no structural safety (that’s just part of an inspector’s list) …
:)
kathy in iowa
…well, kathy, I’m hoping we don’t HAVE to appeal the results and that we ‘pass’ so that the loan can go thru; believe me, if it doesn’t, they’re gonna get an earful from me about the appraiser; I think she was unnecessarily derogatory, as if to insinuate we’re a couple of ‘losers’, husband and myself (like how could anybody live in such a rundown house; thing is, we’re not THAT rundown; she valued our old, plain, small house at $530,000 but that’s just pricey SoCalif real estate, anywhere, since land is at such a premium and there’s too many people and not enough places to live here; believe me, that value is lower-end real estate here, definitely fixer-upper category); like she made a big deal about our bathtub not having a ‘shower surround’; well, I don’t WANT a shower surround on that tub and I have no intention of putting one in … but, enough of this(!!), because my husband is saying I’m indeed taking things ‘way too personally; however, it’s like getting a bad performance review on a job, where the employer only points out your flaws and none of your accomplishments; or like not being athletic in school, trying your best, even taking on extra-credit ‘routines’ as in gymnastics (all of which I did) and still only getting a grade of “C” which brought down my whole GPA (with a report card which, in everything else, was all “A’s”) … I think we got off to a wrong start with this appraiser person because she showed up unannounced a week before she was due, my husband saying to her, “Aren’t you supposed to be here March 29; today is March 22!” and then she kind of hemhawed around like she was wishing maybe we’d say, ‘okay then, since you’re here, you can go ahead with the inspection’ (but we didn’t say that, because we weren’t ready for her yet); so, she clearly made the trip out for nothing from another town, but that certainly wasn’t my husband’s fault or mine … anyway, you are your usual wonderful self, kathy, to weigh in and try to make me feel better and I appreciate your insight and thoughts; you stay safe too, m’dear …
what was that inspector thinking, to show up a week early?!? glad to hear that you and your husband made her stick with the original meeting time.
hope the inspector goes only by what the law requires of homeowners and not her personal taste (such as for having a shower surround by a bathtub) and that there’s no need to appeal.
hope things look/are/feel brighter today.
kathy in iowa
It’s hard not to take it personally, but it sounds like she’s watched too much HGTV. I suppose she’s been trained to look at a house in a certain way. Reminds me of theater critics, or dance, or art, or design – they usually have no idea, nor do they care, how much heart and soul have gone into a creation and their criticism reflects that glaring lack of awareness. Same with the appraiser. All the heart and soul and memories that comprise your home are of no interest to her. But that’s her job.
I don’t even want to begin to think what an appraiser would say about the cottage! I guess, being in the theater, I’ve had to find a way to ignore critics (it isn’t always easy) and to stick to what I know in my heart. They are not objective in their work, but subjective. So is your appraiser.
Stay safe, Vicki.
Claudia, I appreciate your take, which is usually spot on. Thank you for helping me understand the ‘critic’ angle. Thank you for letting me talk it out. I will tell you for sure, though, as you’d once recently said to me so I know you agree, I am NEVER going thru another refi. We are DONE. It started out easy enough, but then it got too complicated. And if anything in this stage/age of life, we need to simplify and have less stress!
I can’t seem to bounce back from the fatigue of getting ready for that inspection. My hands are killing me; my husband’s back, as I said, is killing HIM. Also, I feel like I have a cold but I know it’s asthma from my environment (the neighborhood). My wheezy lungs/airways are always worse when I’m tired. So, naturally when a person feels ‘weaker’, the coping isn’t as easy.
Also, I really just can’t believe this, but I’ve lost three of my closer high school friends in less than 90 days (not Covid). Our high school class website (small graduating class; small school; small town) is VERY active, so we are all in touch frequently. I had just, a week before getting ready for our appraisal, been writing back and forth to a woman who’d I’d admired so much in our high school years; she had always been so nice to me. From a wealthy, pioneering family of our area (since the 1800s) but, when we were kids, I had no idea (kids don’t care about that kind of stuff!) and she was as down to earth as anybody; just a regular kid who lived out on a fruit ranch.
I was back on the site a couple of days ago to catch up and answer somebody else who’d written to me, saw an ‘In Memory’ posting, and it was Ann; I was so shocked; she had never indicated she was ill. Apparently when living for many years (as an artist) in Europe, she’d been treated for breast cancer; but, as cancer too often does, it came back with a vengeance somewhat recently and got to her lungs.
This hit me so hard because I was already feeling blue. She has two adult children who are age 30 (twins) and are, to my knowledge, still single; their father has also passed; is so hard to lose the anchor of your parents at yet an early age. And in the natural order of things, you hope to not outlive your children, but her mother is 90 and I feel so badly for her to have lost her daughter.
But, see? Another reason to pull myself out of my slump, because it’s so important to make each day count and be happy. Truly live each day with substance. Each day a gift.
We’re humid and 80 degrees with no sun as the 3pm hour approaches, but I’m gonna go out and pick another rosebud, which will make me think of beautiful Ann, may she rest in peace. We’re going to the beach tomorrow and I want to say a prayer for her at water’s edge. I remember when she was an exchange student in Ireland; a photo of her in the yearbook standing in bare feet on a windswept Irish shore. Beautiful place; beautiful girl.
I’m so sorry to hear of the loss of your friends, Vicki. It’s always so shocking to lose a contemporary.
I’m thinking of you, my friend.
xo
hooray for you … pansies to buy, plant and tend, those beautiful yellow daffodils to enjoy and another puzzle to work on! have fun!
it was 79 degrees here today. too hot too soon, but still lovely … and i spent all of it indoors. tomorrow it’s supposed to rain. hope to be outside then. that is something fun to me.
hope you’re having a nice night.
kathy in iowa
ps … i’d probably have to frame that botanicals puzzle.
Not framing it! There are a lot of prints out there that show the same images so if I wanted to frame something, I would frame a print.
It’s lovely here, too, though not as hot as it is in the Midwest!
Stay safe, Kathy.
haha … that wasn’t a hint to frame the puzzle … just something i’d be tempted to do … even though i have three boxes of art in storage and not enough wall space to display them. :)
kathy in iowa
xoxo