The butterfly bush has started blooming.
I spent time yesterday walking around the garden beds. Camera in hand, I wanted to record just what is blooming right now. And then I saw a Monarch butterfly.
I’m always so thrilled when I see them – usually around this time of year, and, I assume, emerging from our milkweed plants that are scattered around the property.
Anyway, that butterfly wasn’t about to sit still long enough for me to take a picture. He sensed my approach, even if I was far off. Not to be deterred, I kept up the ‘stalking’ while trying to water the porch plants at the same time. I finally captured a couple of pictures when he landed on the coneflowers on the far side of the house.
Then a second Monarch appeared and the two of them chased each other around the property. This one kept flitting around the area in front of the porch, never landing on anything for long, as if unsure where to go to get the nectar she needed. I found myself wondering if she had just emerged. It seemed that way – as if there might be a learning curve until she landed on a proper source of nourishment.
She landed on one of my hanging plants and, as I was trying to get a picture, she took off. This strangely wonderful photo emerged from that moment.
I’m completely fascinated by it. Her wings are beating furiously and I can see her body. Amazing!
I stopped off at Noble and Tina’s house to give them a little gift for watering my plants and we had a nice chat in their beautiful garden. Petey (their little dog) slept on my lap for a long time. He’s adorable.
And we officially paid our 40% deposit on the O’Keefe & Merritt stove. Huzzah!
We’re so excited about the stove but it will take a while until we get it. A bit more work needs to be done on it, then Antique Stove Heaven will crate it, then we have to call a shipper (recommended by them) and arrange pickup and delivery. In the meantime, our local plumbing and heating guy, Gino, will figure out where to put in a line for propane and get that ready. I also need him to trim some of the metal covering on our baseboard heating so that it doesn’t interfere with the placement of the stove.
Oh, and now we’re thinking of painting the kitchen a pale yellow. All of this came out of my suggestion that we paint the section of the wall behind the stove before it arrives so that we don’t have to move that heavy stove later. There’s lots to do and I only have less than two weeks here before I have to go to Hartford. Some of those days will be taken up with doing prep work on the text. Yikes.
We’re probably going to paint the kitchen a section at a time. Over time. So it may look like a crazy quilt for a while.
Happy Saturday.
Your butterflies are so lovely! I had a yellow swallowtail flying around me a few weeks ago. Congratulations on your stove. Can’t wait for the pictures of it in your kitchen and pictures of you two cooking on it.
I haven’t seen a yellow swallowtail yet this season and I usually see them all the time – but I was gone for a while so maybe that’s why.
I’m excited you’re getting the stove! I also have one that my grandma bought in the ’50s and has been in her house that was left to me in 1994. I love it! And you know Susan Branch also has a similar one.
Lucky you, Carol! I’m glad to hear you enjoy your vintage stove!
Lovely photos of the butterflies! I found one I took several years ago when I had butterfly bushes, I need to plant some here. So excited about the stove and good idea to paint the kitchen before moving the stove in place. Enjoy your Saturday!
Yes. The stove has – as often happens – triggered all sorts of other things that need to be done!
I am still so excited over your “new stove”! I think yellow will be perfect..I always thought that was a beautiful color for a kitchen. Such a happy color! I’ve seen a couple of Monarchs already this season…but my phone is never that close. My friend in Milwaukee, “raises” monarchs….quite the process, it’s just fascinating. You’ve got quite a bit on your plate over the next two weeks. But, if you are like me….you work better under pressure. Enjoy your day! ;)
I do work best under pressure and I’m beginning to feel the pressure!
So happy for your new addition to the cottage. I understand your excitement. We haven’t seen a Monarch this year, so I envy your sighting a bit. They are so beautiful! The shot of the one in flight is quite magical, too.
I think that your idea to paint the kitchen a bit at a time is brilliant! The worst part of painting, I think, is all of the prep work and moving stuff around, then having to live in chaos until you finish. I always seem to paint a little at a time, as I get in the mood. I even prefer a little can of paint and a little brush, because it’s so easy to paint and quit when I’m no longer in the mood.
Yes, I think that’s the best idea. Things need to be moved around, yet you’re still having to use the kitchen every day. This will be the best way – plus, I think it will keep us actively painting because we’ll want to see the whole thing done!
love the photo of the butterfly in flight!
sounds like you will be extra-busy for a while, but you and don will get it done and enjoy your new-old stove. i am happy for you!
kathy in iowa
Thank you so much, Kathy!
The domino effect!
xo
I stumbled across your Instagram account…my husband is a Parrot Head from waaayyy back :) I showed him your pieces on the play…wish we could have gone down to see it.
We live in Southern California (Rolling Hills Estates)…realized you were just 5 minutes away at Antique Stove Heaven looking at your stove…
Can’t wait to see it in your home!
So nice to meet you, Debbie! Thanks so much for commenting! I’m sorry you didn’t get to see Escape to Margaritaville – I bet your husband would have loved it.
The pictures are beautiful! I am so excited about you and Don getting the stove! And I love the idea of a yellow kitchen! So cheerful! Can’t wait to see it in place with you two enjoying it! It will be well worth the wait!
Thank you so much, Dottie!
Those Monarchs are beautiful as are all the flowers.
Marilyn
They look like stained glass, Marilyn!
So happy that you said “yes” to the stove. It will look perfect in your cottage and you will be smiling as you cook! I live in a neighborhood of bungalows built between 1905 -1925 and many have stoves that look as if they have flown here from Stove Heaven! Our house is a two-family and my daughter downstairs has a green and cream Wedgewood on legs that is from my son-in-law’s great grandmother’s home. I,on the other hand , have just a stove! Thanks for the lovely photos and narrative of your trip across the country. I lived in Santa Barbara for 26 years before moving North so the CA photos were very nostalgic. xo Annette in Northern CA
I think there are a lot of homes and apartments in California where those stoves have been maintained and treasured.
Santa Barbara is so gorgeous! (I would secretly love to live there!)
Love the pictures of the Monarchs. I haven’t seen one yet this year. Do you have fireflies / lightening bugs there? We have been amazed this year at the number we see every nightfall.
Yellow will be so pretty in your kitchen! What fun.
Have you told us what production you will be working on when you go to Hartford and how long you will be gone? If you did, I’m afraid I have forgotten. Will Don be home to ‘man the fort’ while you are away? Busy times ahead, which is a good thing. Hope you enjoy the remainder of your Saturday!
Yes, we have fireflies. I really love them! The very first day we moved East in 2001 was in early July and as we took the dogs outside to take care of business, they started running around in a circle, joyously chasing each other, as fireflies blinked on and off above us. It was magical.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’ve done it a lot – not one of my favorites – but I’m sure Darko will do something brilliant with it. I’ll be gone the usual amount of time, five weeks. Don should be home and I’ll get home as often as I can.
You sound like me and my husband; how paying jobs away from home are getting in the way of our life, which seems too busy. It’s like something is telling us he needs to retire…that it’s time…but, nope, it can’t be, not quite yet…gotta hang in there for awhile.
Actually, I recently saw photos of my high school class reunion (I didn’t go this summer; just not up to it, health-wise/physically, and it was held outdoors, up at a ranch in the hills, inland, where the weather is even hotter; no thanks!) and some of the guys/men…I’d say a majority…who retired early? They look like a bunch of old duffers. Probably sitting around, watching too much TV and not getting enough activity after being engaged in a work routine all their adult lives. They don’t look healthy; I was more surprised at that than the factor of simply our advancing ages. But maybe they’re quite content!
I so loved seeing you excellent photo of the monarch. What a thing of beauty; look at his perfect coloring and the intricate ‘design’ of his wings. Nature is a wonder; an artist! It’s been so, so long since I’ve seen a monarch here in SoCalif.
Painting the kitchen a pale yellow would be so warm and pretty for wintery dark days, wouldn’t it! I’ve said it before but I go ‘way back to that horrible winter when Don was I think in Boston and you and Scout were inundated with snow and ice; was a very hard time for you…and your readers rallied to come up with things to cheer you, like sitting to breakfast with yellow plates and dishes; I’ve never forgotten the consistent theme of yellow being cheery since that post! Pale yellow, to me, is also sort of vintage-y; perfect for your set-up; the white of the stove would pop nicely against the yellow, sunny background.
Speaking of ‘sunny’, ugh, I’ve had enough of the sun. I just can’t go outside today. Every day is the same; it’s just one, long, never-ending string of 90 degrees every single darn day; just too hot for doing chores and running errands and keeping appointments. I’m weary of running around in a hot car in hot weather. My garden is wilted and I’m saying goodbye now to the cucumbers. We planted early, so even the last of my tomatoes are suffering in the heat now. I picked what I could yesterday evening, getting eaten alive by biting bugs. Tonight, even though it’ll heat up the kitchen, I’ll roast a couple of sheet pans full of tomatoes and squash. Mostly tomatoes. I use them in everything that way…folded into a tortilla or (I’m still eating eggs) in a veggie omelet; even mixed in with a bit of pasta (I often eat it all cold!) or as a great base for a simple soup I make (but who wants hot soup on a hot day, not me). I’m the non-cook who has to keep trying to learn to cook, because I have to eat, and as clean as I can!
I noticed the leaves are slightly turning on our maple tree so I’m wondering if we’ll have early Fall around here (I could use a nice, cool, rainy day…it’s been awhile now, again, since we’ve seen any rain in SoCalif; it seems too dusty and dry for as humid as we feel). And I have this weird but wonderful, heat-loving African succulent which I got 19 years ago…currently planted in a large (ancient!) galvanized metal wash tub…which sometimes doesn’t bloom til late August or early September, but it’s already blooming its delightful red flower with yellow centers, in July, which has never happened before that I can recall, so it’s kinda curious…
I’m in ongoing physical therapy three times a week for my neck/back since the car accident on Memorial Day and I’m about ready to cry ‘Uncle’. I’m sick of pain. (It’s also so inconvenient; the therapist is in another town on a dangerous highway I don’t like to use [but the alternate route isn’t any safer and also takes double the time]. Driving is challenging for me right now anyway; I’m not enjoying it since getting hit hard from behind; I’m white-knuckling and trying to overcome, but this has been traumatic and sometimes I feel like I’m going to get hit again when I’m in fierce traffic. I’m even doing it as a passenger, where I’ll involuntarily exclaim, which startles the driver-husband, or I’ll grab the dash; I can’t help myself, looking in the rear view or side view and seeing cars speeding right up to me, thinking [crying aloud all too often], “Don’t hit me; don’t hit me!” Many people now have told me that my reaction is temporary and not uncommon after the kind of accident I found myself in but I hope I don’t have to seek an additional kind of therapy, a la mental health; I think it’s more that I just have to keep getting on the horse til I get over this, so I do, and I drive but I’m hyper-vigilant right now.)
I’ve decided to do my own physical therapy, so to speak, and go to the plunge in a nearby town (on a road I’m more comfortable with!) after school starts in a couple of weeks and the pool is less crowded. Maybe it’ll hurt less to have some gentle water exercise! That auto accident was exactly two months ago today and has sure played havoc with my time and activity. The police were never able to arrest the guy who hit me; maybe he disappeared. He has no clue what damage he wrought on my life and my husband’s but, of course, he wouldn’t care or he would have never hit and run in the first place. I just lament the lost time; at our age, we can’t really make up it up, and every day counts. I’ve tried to not let that guy totally steal it from me, the days and the time; even when I haven’t felt well, we’re out doing things and living…and that’s also what I just keep reminding myself, “It could have been worse; be glad you’re alive.”
Thank you for updating me on your condition a few months after the accident. I’m so sorry that this is ongoing, that there is still pain and therapy and that it has left its mark on you when you venture out to drive. I’m sure this hesitation and fear is normal, given what happened, and that with time, it will ease. Much love being sent your way.
Thanks, Claudia.
xo
Yellow is so cheerful…it would be very pretty in the kitchen!
We think so, too!
That is an amazing capture of the monarch., Claudia. I haven’t seen any yet this summer in spite of the milkweed that’s eating my house. I feel like I’d be struck down by lightening if I dared pull any of these out! I did see a huge yellow butterfly in my flower garden today. It had spots of some sort and was flying away so I didn’t get an up close. Things like this and my bird feeder sightings make me pretty darn happy, and I find that a bit scary.
The stove sounds very cool-I’ll back track. I really hate to paint, so maybe small steps is the way to go. I tend to stop and start and then I found a good tip– instead of washing your paintbrush, put it in a ziplock bag with the handle sticking out. Zip as much as you can. Literally, the brush and paint on it will not dry and you are good to go the next day (or two) later.
Jane
I feel the same way about the milkweed! If it grows somewhere, I let it grow there! Can’t destroy their habitat!
Oh gosh, I hate to paint, as well. I have no patience for it, but I certainly can’t afford to hire painters, so it must be done. That’s a great tip! Thank you for sharing it, Jane.
I had a strong feeling you would buy the stove…it’s wonderful and exactly the one I would have chosen! Our tastes are very similar. So now I am officially envious and expect plenty of before and afters. I love before and afters!
You’ll get as many as I can give you given the fact I’m probably going to be away when it’s delivered!