Soon. They’re getting bigger and plumper.
I ended up hacking away at the brambles yesterday. There is no way I can take them all on, or even 1/16 of them. And, though they’re a pain, when they bloom they’re gorgeous – because they’re actually wild roses. But they have a tenacious quality that requires trimming them before they take over everything.
I started over by the now dead shag hickory where the crabapple I discovered two years ago is about to bloom. Thinking in practical blogger terms, I knew I couldn’t get close to it to take a picture unless I pruned a lot of the brambles. So I did.
Then I moseyed over to the other crabapple that I discovered a couple of days ago and decided to hack through that to clear a path to the tree. There was already the beginning of one, it just needed my pruners, as those pesky branches were trying to reach across the opening and block my access.
Two hours later, I was exhausted and there’s still a pile of cut branches that I need to move.
Another day. As today is rainy, so I have the perfect excuse to ignore them.
I tried to take a picture but it’s hard to see the tree among all the other trees.
It’s clear there was a rock boundary along the area where the path begins. You can’t see it here, but it’s there. So I’m going to try to keep pruning this area so it doesn’t get more out of control than it already is. I remember when we first moved in our neighbor told us that the previous owner tried to keep the brambles under control to no avail.
I hear you, former owner.
I took my second shower of the day after this adventure and treated myself to homemade “cloud biscuits” for dinner.
Any day now, the leaves on the maples will be providing beautiful shade. I can’t wait until there are green canopies everywhere.
Barnaby – side view. Equally adorable.
Several people have suggested making the bunny egg cozies and selling them on Etsy. Here’s why I’m not doing that: first, it’s a pattern that was created by another blogger, which she sells on Ravelry. Though I purchased it, of course, I don’t feel right about selling a creation that I am able to knit only because of her wonderful idea. The scarves that I sold were from a pattern that was all over the internet, sort of in the general domain, with no one credited specifically with the design. So I felt that was okay.
And, the last time I made a slew of scarves to sell on Etsy, I had a holiday deadline and I made so many of them that my right wrist suffered. It’s much better now, but I have to be careful how long I hand quilt or knit or crochet. Too much of any one of them is not good.
So…no selling on Etsy. But thank you for the compliment of wanting one! I really appreciate that.
If you ever get any bounce back emails saying your comment wasn’t accepted (I don’t know if you get them, but I do, both when I leave a comment on another blog or when I receive emails about your comments on this blog) ignore them. The comment always goes through. It has to do with AOL, in my case, not always ‘accepting’ those notifications. I called my host about it yesterday and they said if that happens, they just ping the comment again and it goes through. In fact, in every case where I receive an email saying something wasn’t ‘accepted,’ I get another email at the same time saying it was. I’ve noticed this phenomenon for some time when I leave comments on Blogger blogs. Same thing. It says my comment wasn’t accepted, even though I can see it right there on the blog post!
Hope that made sense.
Happy Friday.
I admire you for all that yard work you are getting done! Its such a pretty place you live in. Oh Barnaby is cute but I can’t imagine all that work to then sell one. Just take care of yourself. Started another Karin Slaughter book and now have my Mom reading her books! Still coughing but feeling better??? hugs!
I love Karin Slaughter – such a good writer!
Take it easy and do as little as possible so you can finally kick this!
Your woods-in-the-spring shots have me missing my woods and hoping my lilacs won’t bloom before I get there. Yours are generally several weeks before mine, so we may make it before they’re through. Wish I had your love of garden work! I enjoy gardens after someone else does all the heavy lifting (and worm/snake dodging!)…and usually from behind a window. I’m not proud of it, but that’s the truth. Shame on me!
I had no interest in gardening (except for houseplants) until I reached my early forties. Then it took off and, when we finally were no longer renting, I could indulge my gardening love as much as I wanted to.
I can see the beginnings of a beautiful tree in the clearing. Is it possible to cut brambles back far enough, to lay some mulch on the path? You can tell I know nothing about brambles. Yard work is on the calendar for the next 4 days…no rain predicted. And, if I take it slow enough….I won’t hurt myself! Always a plus! Enjoy your day! ;)
Oh, I can lay mulch. But the branches will arch over the path. That’s what they do. I’ll just have to keep pruning!
Glad you were able to hack away at some of the brambles. How do you get rid of the cuttings? Do you have a green bin pick-up or do you have to haul them somewhere? I’m going to a couple of nurseries today to buy large pots. I hope I don’t get tempted by plants, as I’m running out of room to put them in the ground.
They just go in a pile on the edge of the property. We don’t have any sort of pick up around here. I don’t even haul them anywhere!
just came in for a coffee and to peek at computer- I’m planting lily bulbs today. Like you, I have to do everything in stages or I suffer. Then again that forces me to get outside each day to do a little. I do not envy your brambles. If it were me and I could afford I think I’d hire some dude with a machine to clear out some of those areas. Or rent one. The landscaper guys I just hired had small machines I had never seen before, even motorized wheelbarrows. It made quick work of the mess.
My brother had the same issues you have at the edge of his property in PA and he had it all dug out and cleared. Now if anything tries creeping back he can make quick work of it.
oh and yes it was costa mesa for country loft- I forget to answer you :D Years ago there was a group here and we would do parts of CA in a day leaving here at 4 am and returning late at night. That trio was great but my favorite will always be Cheri Saffiote’s old place Cheri Payne now. My heart would race as we would sit in the parking lot waiting for her to open. I subscribe to her free pattern feed and hope to get going on her latest series.
We have too much of it – we live on a couple of acres and it’s on all the borders of the property and on the edges of the woods. Too hard and too time consuming. Besides, when they bloom, they’re gorgeous and they smell heavenly. It’s life in the county, I guess.
Sad that Country Loft is gone. We’ve been gone from SD for 16 years now, so I shouldn’t be surprised that some things have changed!
Rainy days do afford us a day of rest which is so necessary at this time of year. A bad knee as well as age also remind me…. sigh.
Wrangling the brambles. Job well done! I know what you mean about a canopy of leaves. We live in an older part of town, and when we drive down our street, it is a canopy which is formed by the trees. I just love it. The same street looks so strikingly different in winter time.
Enjoy the remainder of your Friday. Good day to read and have some coffee and rest up for more yard work ahead. That is work that never ends!
I ran some errands and then came home and made a long overdue call to an old friend. That was very nice.
That first pic is stunningly beautiful. Eleven years ago, my husband dug up everything in our backyard – everything – and turned the whole space into a garden. Got a plan from a landscape architect and followed it religiously. When truckload after truckload of stuff came from the nursery and I inquired as to how much this was costing, his reply was, “You don’t want to know.” I never did find out but, all these years later, I enjoy each spring watching the plants sprout and life beginning anew again and again. The trumpet vine over the pergola he built almost totally covers it now but, oh, the humming birds love it so! I guess I can say it wasn’t until my fifties that I discovered how good for your mental health it is to “commune with nature” on a daily basis.
It sounds beautiful! Trumpet vines are so lovely!
Our property is too big to do that, and since deer and groundhogs and rabbis live here, too, we like to keep part of it wild and open so they can travel their usual paths.
You sure are ambitious. I have a lot of yard work that has to be done. The problem is getting out there and doing it once and for all. Have a great week end.
Marilyn
I’m so happy that it’s spring and I get to do that stuff that it isn’t hard to motivate me!
Wow, your garden is so far ahead of mine, and that lilac, oh my gosh!!! My lilacs are just starting to show the hint of flowers forming and I can’t wait, I’m so excited to see them bloom this year!
You’re at a higher elevation, aren’t you? Give them a week and they’ll look like mine!
This yard work is a huge undertaking for you. I hope you don’t get a tick latching on to you.
Here in SoCalif, due to dense vegetation from all the welcome rain over the past months, we’ve gotten very buggy, very early. I have itchy bites on me right now from watering the yard yesterday evening, early sundown, in anticipation of today’s nasty Santa Ana winds (it is SO hot right now; ‘way too early for this, too; 95 degrees {f} at 2:45 pm PST). Although the vegetation is great for bees and butterflies, this is what they say is happening (good article in yesterday’s local newspaper about it): Certain bugs go for the wild mustard growing so prolifically in our hills right now; when the mustard is gone, bugs are still there, so they go for the next thing, which is YOUR YARD. More animals survived in the wild…water and food with all the rain and new plant growth…so more babies have been born, and with more wild animals in the environment, this brings on more ticks and fleas; and, horrifying for me, because they go for me (I’m ‘sweet’ according to the doctors), MOSQUITOES are going to be this year’s big issue (Zika virus and all bad stuff).
We’re going to have to be very, very careful around here; mosquitoes sometimes come in with the dog after we’ve let her out. I realize today that I just can’t go out at dusk now, or in the very early morning either. Again, it’s ‘way early for this; I usually battle bugs more in June … although in these recent drought years, we just did not have swarming bugs here in spring/summer, which I enjoyed, although no one enjoyed drought.
An aside, nothing to do with anything here but thinking of your precious cottage and my previous one, along with my current digs, where eclectic remains the mood: I read a little squib from ELLE Decor today which talked about trends from the 80s, 90s, earlier 2000s…which need to go; say goodbye (if you are inclined to be ‘updated’). Some were obvious; several references were made to the shabby chic look being now a no-no, like ruffled bedskirts, soft pastels such as the baby blues and pale pinks; white wicker furniture indoors. (Sorry, I have an entire bedroom of that, and I’m not letting go of it even if I’m sorta tired of it; cost too much money!)
But I liked this from the mag article, since I cannot stand granite anything: “GRANITE OVERLOAD. In the early 2000s, we witnessed a single-material overload, often appearing in the mass application of dark granite in kitchens. Today…lighter materials are often preferred…the focus is on creating a light, airy place to cook…” Yay.
I walked into an Open House last week (a ‘recently-remodeled’ house from the 70s for sale), and when I saw all that new granite in the kitchen AND the bathrooms’ countertops, I just said, “Enough with the granite; get me outta here.” I’m always looking at the real estate pages; homes for sale (not new ones) hold interest for me. But every single remodel of late, is just a duplicate of another. We had a recent conversation on your blog about it, Claudia. You can recite it: Recessed lighting in the ceiling, stainless steel sink, stainless steel appliances, granite counters, wood floors, ensuite master, storage-storage-storage, mirrored closet doors. Blech. Except for the wood floors and good storage, sing a new tune!
It seems a majority of younger, first-time home buyers seem to really want to follow ‘trends’. A young cousin who doesn’t live trendy and has a sort of unremarkable yet comfortable older home (like 60s era) has told me about this, how she feels she can’t compete with some of her friends’ houses and that it makes her feel bad sometimes, although she loves her vintage finds. Me? I rarely ever followed trends. To each his own, I guess.
(Although I did buy a pair of fashion boots in my 20s; dark leather, knee boots. And I went for the natural, basket-y, macrame, plants galore, wood bowls, earthy pottery, subdued paisley fabrics [no bright or saturated colors], boho/hippie/gypsy look for my brand-spank’in-new apartment around that time, too. It was my first place; that’s the kind of stuff that was selling in the stores and in all the magazines, and I don’t think I was quite sure how to decorate. I was indeed young; I wanted to do it up ‘right’. I seemed to forget that it would be okay to be more ‘original’ but I didn’t know any better; didn’t have any other guides. I did get a bit into the Rachel Ashwell thing in the early 2000s because the look was so ‘right’ for my 1923 “English” cottage; I loved the cheaper line of her stuff at Target in those years. Now, here I am, ready to finally-finally get my aunt’s huge, Country French sofa reupholstered [I waffle on this, but I think it’s probably from the 1950s; it’s gonna take 15 yards of fabric {guestimate}; it’s taken ‘forever’ to save up enough money for this project slated for May/June], and my husband goes on and on about it last weekend [out of the blue!], saying it’s too big, too wide, too long, too uncomfortable for him, looks too dated [and that we could go buy something more UPdated for far less money…and he even showed me photos on the web of sofas he would actually prefer]. So, now what. [He generally doesn’t get into this sort of thing! I was somewhat shocked.] A sofa is an important piece of furniture. We both need to like it and feel comfortable on it. Of course, the upholsterer maintains that most sofas around today in stores are pieces of junk, compared to sofas made in previous eras, which he maintains have impeccable construction with quality woods, etc. He’s also got a job to protect. But, I believe him.)
I’m betting that sofa is much more well made and sturdier than today’s sofas. As is much of the furniture we call ‘vintage.’
Oh, the granite thing. Enough already. And HGTV clearly urges their home buying subjects on all the shows to ask for granite. I was watching a Tiny House show the other day and can you believe it? Even in a tiny home the woman was demanding granite countertops.
Gosh, and don’t they try to keep it light on the weight load in those tiny homes (the ones on wheels or a trailer)? Wouldn’t granite be heavier material?!! A friend of mine bought an upscale new home in the mid-90s with the dark-dark granite kitchen countertops (she hates it) and says granite’s not the end-all-to-beat-all; it has a certain porosity and you still have to be careful what you set on it (heatwise/stainwise).
Exactly. Sometimes I think the ‘buyers’ are prodded by HGTV to demand these things.