Freezes and the Roombox

Every year. Every October, we have one day where the temps go down below freezing. Then, everything goes back to normal. It drives me crazy, especially because my morning glories are just developing tiny flower buds and the freeze will kill them.

Tomorrow is that day. I have an idea as to how to protect them.

Why oh why does this happen?

It’s been in the low 80s, but it’s raining today and the general temperature will drop 20 degrees, hence the freeze tomorrow. As I said, I’ve got an idea for the protection of the morning glories, but I have no idea if it will work. This has been some year – deer have chomped on virtually everything, including bushes and plants they’ve never touched before. We’ve had huge extremes in the temperatures. We are still in a drought.

So we’ll haul all the porch plants inside. Don and I will rig up a cover for the morning glories. And everything else will die.

It’s depressing. November? Yes. I can take that. But early October? No.

Okay. Enough complaining.

We were up on the roof again yesterday, clearing out gutters in anticipation of today’s rain. Well, Don was up on the roof. I was assisting from the ground. I also continued picking up all the black walnuts that have fallen on the property. There’s a black walnut tree right next to the kitchen and it’s grown very quickly. We keep hearing the thump of walnuts falling on the roof. I think I’ve filled 8 huge baskets with black walnuts from the various trees on the property. I actually want that tree by the kitchen taken down next year. It’s too close to the house and the branches are extending over the roof. Anyway, we did a lot of outdoor chores yesterday and we were tuckered out at the end of the day.

Roombox update. I added some photos to the wall. They are actually photo stickers of my friend Gwen’s Blythes. She sent them to me a couple of months ago. I’ve decided they are cousins to my girls. I painted the walls on either side of the box in a cream color. There is also a window on the right side of the wallpapered wall, but I covered it up. And now, I rather like the different patterns and colors. It suits a playful house.

The Lori Loft was available at Target many years ago – I got it when I was away working in Hartford, so it’s at least 13 or 14 years ago. It was $40. I thought it would be fun to experiment with a modern dollhouse design.

But the loft wasn’t practical and the stairs took up a lot of space, so I never really found a way to make it work. It came with plastic furniture.

I never planned on using that furniture. I donated it to Goodwill. So when I started collecting Blythes, I realized that it was the perfect height for a roombox, but to make it work I had to remove the stairs and the loft. And I did. It remained that way until recently. (At times, it stood in a corner of our bedroom and I stashed my handbags inside it…) It’s only very recently that I decided to make it work for the girls.

I really like it now. Oh, and I painted the door the same cream color so that it blends in with the wall. The door is far too small for the girls.

Okay.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.