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and probably on my photographs the carpet looks gray, but in the real light in my house it’s blue, it looks terribly outdated and it wasn’t a good match at all.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

This week

3-11-18

Today I started painting the patio furniture.  This time, they will be all in black.  

Black paint offers a better coverage, and to me, it always speaks of elegance.  New cushions will add the color they need. 

The fence got a new staining too.  
I worked on the chairs while the Fisherman worked on the fence!

A little bit darker than what we originally had there, 

...and I like it so much better!
Can't hardly wait to see those trees covered in green!

03-12-18

We were supposed to have our new carpet installed in our living room today, but it didn’t happen.  We got all the way to the padding part and when the carpet was finally unrolled, what a total disappointment it was.  This carpet was supposed to be one of the finest, but the Home Depot guys never told me how thin it was, or that because of the way it is weaved, how the seams were going to be shown, no matter where they cut it.  All in all, it wasn’t what I’d expected it to be, and thus it had to be returned. 

Walter was such a nice guy... very polite and such a professional.  He's been installing carpet for 42 years.  Can you imagine!  

Now my floors are bare and fill with exposed nails.  Until I can order a new carpet.

03-13-18

The wind—that awful wind of the North. And it was so despicably windy today that I wasn’t able to go outside for much, even when the temperatures were in the high 40s. What I did was work on my other garden chairs… those same ones which sits I covered using a pretty summer dress. Remember them?

The idea of covering those chair with an old summer dress sounded fantastic at that time.  And they looked so pretty too, but what a total failure that was… because the fabric was so thin and because the chairs were exposed to outside environment and temperatures fluctuation, it just didn’t work.  The fabric faded pretty quickly, and by the end of that summer, they were looking pretty bad. 

So, this time I decided to try something else… to begin with, I chose a magenta paint color instead of black.  I wanted something livelier, and happier for these smaller chairs, so this hot pink is looking pretty cool to me!

For the sits I wanted to use something I already had at home, plus I didn’t want to buy expensive fabric for this project anyways.  So, I decided to use an old patio tablecloth this time and see what happens! 😉 Made for outside, and easy-to-clean fabric.  I’ll give it a month or two! Oh, but it looks so pretty!

It was such a cold mid March day today.  Tomorrow we are bound for more snow again, and all those delphinium seeds and shade bulbs I bought will have to wait some more before they can be planted.  I'm seeing some bare root roses being sold at some stores already, and that makes me so very happy!

      

Spring anticipation...

I’ve worked my fingers to the bones in the garden these last few weeks, my hands are calloused, my skin dried and my body ache, but my little heart is singing the songs of spring and summer, and my lips have regained the sign of joy.

All those iris bulbs I’d dug out are now replanted in some other parts of the garden—around the swing, a massive showing of them will be blooming this summer.  That old swing, which I am eager to use this year.  To use it a lot, I hope… finally, because now I won’t be afraid of snakes or any other unknown creature coming out of the woods behind me to attack, just as I used to think back when we lived in our little white cottage.   But of course, you can see why!

On Saturday I was finally able to tackled the entrance of the garden, and I have cleaned and prepared all flowerbeds there.  I also removed every pugnacious weed that was growing among the pea pebbles.  I can hardly wait now to shop for plants, bulbs and flowers to fill this space with; a space that had always been one of my favorite, if not my favorite of all parts of the garden here at the house in the roses. 

There’s a ‘Don Juan’ climbing rose growing on the side of the wall, and there’s also a grapevine, and one or two Knockout roses.  And by the fence, on the other side on that same space, there’s a Virginia creeper vine that has grown abundantly, and now is covering part of the fence, just as I’d trained it to do so many years ago.  There’s also a miniature rose growing there too.  Grasses, and black-eyed Susans used to grow there.  I can't hardly wait to see what will be coming out of the earth in this space… what flowers and roses, what leaf and whatnots, just to amaze me, and gift me with wings under my breath. 

How lovely.  How very lovely spring is in these parts of the world.  When you really miss something, the anticipation of seeing it coming back to you is like a miracle of sorts.  And you wait for it to be revealed onto your soul in a million desires, and it is the most precious, glorious thing on earth ever.  I don’t use to miss or marveled about the coming of spring when we lived in the South, and I guess it was because I never had to miss it.  Really miss it.  It was never robbed from us in its entirety.  We always had it with us.  In a way.

Birds, and doves have finally found the birdfeeders, and I cannot express well enough or beautiful enough how very happy they make me.  I miss my cardinals of the south, but what true joy the mourning doves are—like a pure jewel in the color of clouds.     

 Squirrels too! 

The other day I received a most interesting email… It was from the girl who bought our little white cottage.  And with the nicest message too… she reads my blog she said, and wanted to tell me how the gardens at the little white cottage are doing and how she found a green buffet just like the one I had in the kitchen, so that part of the house remains the same.  “And this is what the cottage looks like in the snow. And the garden is already starting to come back to life with the spring coming this way. I’ve been working hard getting weeds pulled and things pruned back. The hydrangeas are already starting to get green leaves on them. And the vines over the railing on the back patio have beautiful yellow flowers on them. I know how much you enjoyed this garden and how you made it so beautiful I want to continue its beauty. I’ve been reading your blogs on the new house and you’re going to have such a beautiful garden there :) I can’t wait to see pictures when its finished and all bloomed”. 

Wasn’t that extra nice of her!  I even got some pics to remind me of how lovely spring was at the little white cottage.  Thank YOU, my friend!

Saturday

The geranium I brought with me from our sunny gardens at the little white cottage is doing splendidly. It is full, and happy, it has produced big, dark green leaves, and its red flowers are a jewel in my winter days.

On Thursday I dug out some of the Phlox outside the kitchen window and transplanted them on that path along the entrance of the garden.  I did some more cleaning on that other side of the garden as well, and started opening all those boxes containing all of my little garden friends and such, and which have been parked on the back porch since the day the movers arrived, back in November of this past year.  

Finally, the days are warm enough and sunshiny enough for me to be able to do that.  I was surprised to find such an array of things contained in those boxes… all of my little garden friends, statues and embellishment enough to adorn two more gardens.  What would I do with so much?  I might have to get rid of some, because, oh I know… the Fisherman!  He won’t like it! 

I remember how displeased he used to be back when we lived here about my little friends scattered around my garden.  You see, they were fine hiding amidst hostas and hydrangeas and bushes of all sorts that kept their charm even during our mild southern winters, back at the little white cottage, but because this garden is so bare during the winter months, all of my little friends are very obvious, and I have to agree—they are not an elegant sight. 

Some of you had suggested on a few posts back, I use chicken scraps to feed my birds and doves.   And so, I went to Zamzows and got a huge bag.  I was told this is also good for attracting quails.  But thus far, I haven’t seen a single bird.  Where are they?

The other day, I tried to find a better, or a more obvious place to place Jennelle, because where I had her I don’t get to see her that much, but thus far I haven’t decided yet where she should live.  

Then, the most strange of things happened.  I took her back to that room where I originally had her, and this morning when I entered that room she was on the floor and everything I had on top of that little orange dresser where she sat, knocked down and scattered around.

I was very surprised and a bit upset too, and decided to place her on that wall going up the stairs, where I have other paintings as well.  But I don't know if I want to keep her any more.  Should I keep her?  Should I not?   

I only wish I could grab some paint and brushes and cover all those not so pretty spots on her neck and dripping paint.  But I’m sure I will ruin the painting if I do so.  Wish some of you artistic souls out there could come by and help! ;)  

On Monday, the Home Depot guys will be here to change the carpet in our family room.  I have chosen a tufted pattern in golden that I think is going to look awesome with all the metallic accents I have there.  I can hardly wait! 

See you soon my friends!  It is a beautiful sunny day here.  Enjoy your day, wherever you are!