Life inside and outside...

03-14-18

Today I got the new carpet installed.  Another disappointment!  And a bad idea to make a rushed decision when you must wait!  Never never make a haste decision…

Because ordering another carpet was going to take me two weeks of exposed nails and bare floors, I decided to pick whatever carpet Home Depot had in stock.  Which wasn’t a good idea at all!  But, as it is with everything in life, I’ve learned my lesson.

In the store, and probably on my photographs the carpet looks gray, but in the real light in my house it’s blue, it looks terribly outdated and it wasn’t a good match at all. 

Why?  What I have learned through this experience is that the hardwood floors adjacent to the room where you are adding carpet, play a huge role when deciding what color to choose.  Our kitchen cabinets, backsplash and island are all gray, or have gray undertones, and the same applies to the stones on our fireplace.  Consequently, I thought that grey was the perfect choice for my carpet.  But it wasn’t so.  It actually clashes with our blond hardwood floors, and it changed the whole atmosphere of the living room.  What before used to be an elegant, contemporary room, it instantly became a space proper of the 80’s.  Lesson learned:  When choosing a carpet, you really have to pay attention to the rest of your floors more than anything else.  Especially on an open layout – or open concept kitchen-living spaces with flow, like ours. 

So what now?  The blue carpet has to go!  It just has to!  And this time I will wait the two-week period it takes to order a new carpet! 

03-16-18

Cold cold extra cold!  And the wind is an aggressor of the soul.  Yes, around here, the month of March is a teaser—a spoiler of all enthusiasm and all good feelings.  One day you could wake up already tasting the flavor of spring on the tip of our tongue, and then the next is back again to ground zero with freezing temperatures and atrociously cold winds.  I had forgotten all about it.  Had forgotten how the wind howls and laugh at you here, and how the earth sits and waits… it waits for Cupid's arrow, and it dreams of marble statues lining ancient castle gardens, and crimson rose petals scattered across a wildflower meadow.  It waits, and it dreams of the faint sounds of a cello carried softly across a summer's breeze, lemon Maranta, green ivy lotus and a full moon under a June sky.  Is it really the earth who dreams?  Or is it more my heart?

03-19-18

I worked again in the garden.  The wheelbarrow got broken in the move, and thus the full 10 bags of soil had to be carried by hand and distributed around the roses, which had already gotten their first fertilizing after years of surviving on their own.  What a pathetic bunch they are thus far.  But I have big hopes. 

Then it was time to tackle the Virginia Creeper vine that had busted its support and it had to be cut down to the ground and the wire support fixed and put back into place.  The flowerbeds had to be cleaned off of unwanted grasses and fragments again, and the Oriental spruce got a significant pruning too, so more branches and debris had to be collected again and put into the trash bins.  But what amazing difference I can already see in this leafless-plant-less garden thus far!     

The Virginia Creeper’s thick branches had been resting against this tree long before we moved here… Now everything is in its place again.  

This used to be a lovely tree, but something must had happened to it while we were away.  Somehow, it got broken when the renters were living here and it looked terrible as you can see on this picture.  Oh can you see the weeds?  

It had to be removed, but I like the trunk so much, I decided to keep at least part of it, and embellish it with birds (real and not so real) and birdhouses… you can see the branches of the Virginia Creeper on the back, before I pruned it to the ground.

All eyes are watching… to see how everything unfurls!  Yes, these trees have eyes!... the first time I discovered them among all the leaves, I almost fainted ;)  I was sure the tree was watching me!

Today, I also worked on mom’s little dried creek garden; the one she and I started many years ago, and now I’m dedicating it to her memory.  

I added more stones on one side and will be adding smaller stones and pebbles in the center, to make it look more like a little dry creek, and around it I have planted many of the Iris bulbs I dugout from another parts of the garden.  I’m also planting there an assortment of shade bulbs that I’m hoping will thrive under the pine tree. 

Trees are putting forth buds, tulips are growing by the day, daylilies and phlox are popping out little heads and the red-thumb-like heads of the peonies are showing everywhere.  The purple iris flowers are always the first to welcome me to the spring garden! I love them... for their faithfulness!

A posy of iris for you my friend!