Sad Spring and Sad Summer

My mother and I came down with pneumonia around St. Patrick's Day.  I was sicker than she; I missed about 2 1/2 weeks of work.  It was a disaster going back; who knew I was that essential?

In April while sick we watched as two icy snowstorms hit our area.  It ruined the roses, azaleas, hydrangeas and possibly butterfly bushes.  So depressing because we wait all year for our lovely spring and summer, only to have our hopes dashed.  Now the drought is ruining plants; it's just too difficult to water everything every day.

I had to put down my beautiful baby girl Lucy two weeks ago.  The full impact is just hitting me because I am so very sad now.  Last week I went on vacation to Maine so this pain was slightly delayed.  She was 16 on April 19th and had just started to slow down this spring.  She was my great hunter and outdoorswoman, but she stopped wanting to go out and hadn't killed anything in awhile.  I think that's why I have so many chipmunks now.

Lucy was named for Lucille Ball, being that she was a redhead and all.  She was such a beautiful, affectionate, loving little girl.  She liked to sleep on my head or near my face and loved, nay, demanded, to be petted.  I'm pretty sure she had a really good life with me.  I got her when she was three from a no-kill shelter in North Haven.  I hadn't wanted another kitty after my previous little guy had been put down.  But two years later I decided I wanted an orange tabby girl.  I think it was because I was hanging out with people who loved cats, one of whom had seven.  My friend looked all over Connecticut for me.  We went to the shelter and saw Lucy (previously Jupiter), with her sister Carly (previously Snickers).  She was so affectionate, as was her chubby sister.  There was subtle pressure to not split them up, but I didn't want two kitties.  However, they won me over by their loving attention, even when I accidentally dropped Carly taking her out of the cage (I misjudged her girth; her weight has been harder to control than my own).  I brought them into my tiny condo and they promptly hid under my bed - for two days.  I remember telling my friend that my cats hated me!  Finally Lucy came out to see me in the living room.

Lucy was a scaredy-cat.  She would hide when people came over, except when she was super hungry.  I remember when I first moved to my house, my sister opened the front door, scared her and she went flying onto the deck and lept off two stories (she wasn't hurt)!  I was afraid at first to let them outside so I would only let them on the deck.  Well  . . . Miss Lucy figured out a way to climb down the side on the posts and would escape regularly.  They enjoyed being outside so much I relented and let them out.  The girls pretty much stayed in the yard and were terrified of people and cars so they would hide when either would approach.

Lucy liked her privacy more than Carly, who rarely leaves my side.  Lucy liked to sleep on cold days in one of two baskets I lined with quilts and placed near the radiator.  Sometimes she would lie on top of the radiator, I guess to warm her belly.  She loved to sleep and slept very deeply.

Now I'm so paranoid about Carly.  She cries all night.  I don't think she's in pain, maybe it's just dementia.  I'm taking her to the vet's tomorrow.

Lucy loved to garden - and ruin my catmint.

All tuckered out after hunting.

Always very fastidious, if not ladylike.

Taking a nap on the road!

The sisters.

Such a beautiful little face.

Always on the lookout for prey.

The girls hanging out in the front.

Streeeetching out on the front porch.

Guarding the backyard atop the stone wall.

OK, I'll stop boring you with my pretty kitty pictures. Our pets are so near and dear to us, aren't they? They really don't ask for much, and give so much in return. I try not to anthropomorphize them, but it's hard, you know? I don't have children so they definitely fulfill some of that for me. Do you think we will see pets in heaven? I know it's not biblical but just wonder sometimes.

Back Garden Renovation

We're in a drought, since spring.  Minimal snow in the winter didn't help.  It's made life difficult because I decided to renovate the back garden, my very first garden.

My initial idea ten years ago was to have roses for bouquets and hydrangeas for beautiful blue color.  There was no design or thought given to the overall landscape.  I am now obsessed with landscape design, although still find it extremely difficult to execute well.  There are so many elements to consider - color, shape, soil type, light conditions, availability and appropriateness of plant material.

So now I feel like I did everything wrong.  It's an odd space, with the main garden atop a stone wall that gets higher as you head farther back.  I might have planted a row of arborvitae in that "alleyway" to block the neighbors and provide a backdrop for the garden.  I don't know.  That might have messed with light conditions and seemed too dark and closed in.  Instead I made it a shrub border using plants from my mother's former cottage garden.  Here it is with the spirea and hydrangea in bloom.  Ignore the plastic bags filled with leaves, please.  And the neighbor's dog cage, which they don't use.

So I've planted four Winter Gem boxwood behind the row of roses to the right of the clematis tuteur.  (Who knew what a tuteur was until Martha Stewart?)

They're soooo tiny. 

Then I decided that the back garden didn't have enough all-season interest so I transplanted beebalm and phlox and relocated some daisies to the end of the boxwood row near the pink azalea.  That necessitated moving hostas and a peach daylily.  That worked out well because (1) I'm determined to get all my poor hostas out of the blazing sun and (2) the peach daylily is an odd color that doesn't really go with my predominant color scheme of purple, pink and bright yellow.  I put it near the bright orange butterfly weed and it looks great.

I also thought I should repeat the yellow coreopsis on the other side of the garden for balance.  And I moved the dark pink peony to be near the other ones because I suspect it doesn't get enough sun (it gets much fewer blooms than the others).  Unfortunately I mangled it in the process and it may take awhile for it to recover.

The color issue really befuddled me for quite awhile.  I thought the pale pink Fairy rose clashed with the marigold yellow Stella D'Oro daylily.  I bought a red beebalm for stronger color to coordinate with the dark purple butterfly bush.  I thought I'd work with the marigold yellow heliopsis that I had in that area, but apparently I got sick of the aphids that attacked it nearly every year and must have ripped it out.  Oh well, no aphids.  Instead I bought an extremely fragrant Hansa rugosa rose.  It will produce large hips for fall interest as well.

I've wanted to proceed with one of my last dream projects for awhile - stairs for the back deck.  However I've come to realize that (1) decks are usually ugly, (2) two-story stairs are particularly ugly, and (3) they would take up a lot of real estate in the backyard.

So I'm toying with the idea of hiring a landscape company whose work I admire to give me some ideas.  I could no longer stand the overgrown, 12-foot barberry that grew next to the deck so I cut it down.  It self-seeds everywhere.  This monstrosity was really five bushes in one.

Started cutting on the left but a catbird was roosting in a nest.

Underneath all that mass of branches was a cute area with a stone wall next to the patio.  I'm envisioning a small ornamental tree at the top with perennials underneath.  The existing hostas and pachysandra are already starting to fry in the sun.


There's a shed under the deck, with lattice I found in the shed, and a thermometer.

I still have to shuffle plants around - some hostas that are getting burnt, a baptisia not getting enough sun, maybe move some daisies to the new planting area.  I'd like to transplant two wisteria seedlings from the front somewhere.  I had to kill the two large wisteria due to the front porch rebuild but found a couple seedlings.

I've gone a little hosta-crazy.  I bought Jimmy Crack Corn, Old Glory, Francee, Frances Williams, and Dream Weaver.  I've started landscaping the wooded area with hostas.  Next year I'll get a Little Honey oakleaf hydrangea and maybe some other larger ones.  Plus I have more "baby" hydrangeas to cut off the mother plant.  Gardening is so darn much fun!

I finally reinstalled the arbor from the front.  It's been two years!  I think I procrastinated thinking it was a big deal.  I had to reattach all the vertical and horizontal slats, none of which had been lost, miraculously.  I did this during the awful heat of the July 4th weekend.  I called my brother-in-law at the last minute because I was unable to balance the arbor over the holes and straighten it at the same time.  It took him practically no time to pour the concrete, which is good because he was called into work during the process.  He told me I didn't have enough bags of concrete (thanks, Home Depot) and filled it in with some rocks.  Then he simply dumped out the bags and poured water in it.  Voila!

It's a little crooked from having the wisteria on it, but like my brother-in-law said, I'll have so much stuff on it no one will notice.

One last thing - this beauty showed up without being planted!

Also, I got rid of all the iris except some by the butterfly weed and right side of the arbor.  I miss it but it's high maintenance.

Anniversary, one day late.

Eleven years ago yesterday I took ownership of my home.  It was a Tuesday and brutally hot and humid.  My sister and brother helped me move.  We loaded the U-Haul I had rented.  It was easy to back it right up to the porch, but dragging stuff up the narrow stairway was not fun.  My sister was right on when she told me it's the little things that are such a pain on moving day - the lamps, etc.  I think it took me another two days to bring all that junk out of my condo.  Fortunately I moved only two miles away, into the next town.  It brought me that much closer to my sister's house, even though we were now no longer in the same town.

My dad had been diagnosed with thrombocytopenia the previous October and was dying.  That Friday night he really went downhill, and died three days later.  I think I started obsessing about looking for a house that winter in order to distract me from the incredible sadness in watching him suffer and slip away.

He was too weak to see the house, but I showed him pictures from the real estate listing.  I told him my concern was there was no bathroom upstairs.  He said he'd get me a chamber pot.  He was a very funny guy.  His main concern was whether my brother-in-law had checked it out.  He had, and liked it.

I got my love of old houses, and history, from my dad.  His dream had always been to find an old colonial (18th century) to renovate.  The only good grade I got in art was in seventh grade when I sketched a house he had seriously thought about buying in Chester, Massachusetts.  Somewhere along the way I decided I preferred Victorians.  Maybe it's the high ceilings and porches.  They're more romantic than colonials.

When I was younger (and had so much more energy and good nights' sleep) I used to walk for an hour in the morning before work.  I would walk all around the beautiful village of Rockville, which was a bustling, modern mill town in the late 19th century.  I remember looking up at some of the grand houses, one street over from where I live now, and being in complete awe.  Who lived in these houses?  I don't remember being on the street where I now live, probably because I didn't want to climb the huge hill!

And now, eleven years later I have learned so very much.  I had such dreams for my first house.  I wanted to someday take off the asbestos siding, restore the railings on the porch, and build stairs off the back deck.  In 2008 I started, one side a year, removing the shingles and repairing, scraping, priming and painting the clapboards underneath.  It went very well.  There was a bit of rot on the western side, which I replaced.

Last year I hired someone to repair the front porch.  The railings really add a lot to the look.  I haven't built stairs off the deck and am not sure I will.  It might encroach on my garden and I'm not sure I could bear that.

Speaking of the garden, who knew back then that I would have done so much landscaping?  I waited a year to buy any permanent plants and then indulged my love of roses.  I didn't think about design or aesthetics; I just wanted pretty roses to bring inside the house.  Now I am in the midst of some major rearranging of that original garden.  I'm pretty satisfied with the front yard, however; just a few tweaks are needed.

It had been such a desire of my heart to own a home and have a little garden.  God blessed me beyond my expectations and I am truly grateful.  I have no plans to go live anywhere else.  Sure, sometimes I dream about a bigger, fancier house, or a yard with no hills and more area, but I'm truly satisfied with what I have in the end.

The only project inside I'd like to work on is a bathroom upstairs.  That'll be quite expensive so I have to save up for that.  I got a new kitchen in 2010 after my oven and dishwasher died.  Right now I'm gradually repainting the rooms.  When I moved in I wanted bright pastels for a cottage-y look but now I think that palette is really for a warmer part of the country, or a place on the water.

I do like the new look of the living room.  My new couch arrived in April.



Now there's room for my great-aunt's piecrust table.

Beautiful peonies from the garden.

Don't worry; I've taken down the Christmas wreath!  I came down with a nasty case of pneumonia around St. Patrick's Day and it really set me back with spring preparations.  Now I've gone slightly nuts buying plants because I've paid off the porch.  I'll be back soon with pretty garden pictures, but spring has been so delayed here.  In fact, I'm wearing a coat inside the house tonight typing this because it turned freezing cold.  I've had a lot of damage to hydrangeas, roses, azaleas, etc. due to the two spring snowstorms in April.

Living Room Re-Do

This spring I finally repainted the living room - Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray.  I also patched the walls and ceiling (painted the same white as the kitchen and bathroom).  I wanted to go more neutral and calmer.  I like taupe, sage green and a blue-green like Benjamin Moore Wythe Blue (which is in the bathroom).  I decided to use coral as an accent, but not super-bright.  I tried to go with those bright pops of color so popular now, but it just didn't look right.  The large picture is one my best friend gave me, which I've been afraid to hang on the plaster walls because it's so heavy.

I also rearranged the furniture to the only way it really fits.  This room has a large opening to the "hallway"/stairs and dining room, two windows, a front door, and an arch to the adjacent parlor.

I still have to reglaze the windows, which is why the curtains are closed.

Have to remove the door, strip and repaint.

 

I just bought a new couch from Ethan Allen, the Oxford:

I ordered the 76-inch-wide one because the space is so tight in this room. The fabric is brushed velvet in Kent Surf:

I'm going for a more sophisticated look. Here's the before:

Early Valentine's Day Dinner, Bluebloods Edition

My lovely sister got a brand-new kitchen right before Thanksgiving and decided that, starting in January, we would take turns hosting Sunday dinners a la Blueboods.  Today was my turn; I made Martha Stewart's mother's meatloaf, salad, Italian bread (Big Y), a macaroni and cheese recipe from Martha's website (my niece has decided to go vegetarian again), and chocolate mousse cake.  Since I'm competitive and knew I couldn't top my sister's delicious spread last week, I focused on the table setting - pink and white.  The pale pink tablecloth was my paternal (and beloved) grandmother's.  I unearthed it while decluttering my mother's dining room and she gave it to me.

Can you believe I've never made meatloaf and mac and cheese?  I like to entertain but don't do it often.  It was about 60 degees today, unbelievably beautiful.

This room gets great light this time of year.

The china is a bone china set my maternal grandmother bought for me when I was little.  Remember when grocery stores would sell sets piece by piece?  It's pink and grey and Japanese looking.
 
The stainless steel cutlery is a rose pattern given by my grand aunt.

They're on Etsy. You can find anything on the internet.

2015 Year in Review

At first I didn't think I accomplished much, but that's not really true.

I spent many weeks working on my mother's dark turquoise living room (during last year's Christmas vacation) - cleaning up paint and candle wax spills, scraping walls and woodwork (paint drips, more wax spills, peeling paint), caulking, and painting.  I chose Martha Stewart's Malted because she likes gold.  I found this beautiful pale yellowy-gold color through a favorite blog, My Messy, Thrilling Life.  I cleared the room of its clutter (which unfortunately has crept back in) and "staged" it.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, as I often do.  I also had an antique lamp rewired and a picture framed.  Can you believe I still have to caulk and repaint portions of the window?  Ice dams caused damage after it was done.  I also want to try to scrape off some of the previous painters' paint spills, and re-frame a cross-stitch Serenity Prayer my mother sewed.  I love this room so much I want to use that paint in my house somewhere.  Maybe the hallway?  Technically most of the work was done in December 2014.

The next room to be painted for Christmas (this year) was my mother's ugly, sickly muted fuschia dining room, which is covered in cheap 1960's faux wood paneling.  It involved scraping paint drips, cleaning previous painters' spills, caulking, priming, and painting it Benjamin Moore Sea Haze.  It's a beautiful medium gray with a green undertone, that sometimes looks slightly blue depending on the light.  It looks great with turquoise or red accents.  I saw this paint in the barn room on the blog, For the Love of a House.  I also painted the baseboard, and primed over the many paint splotches on the ceiling.  My mother, after prompting from me, decided to remove one of the two buffets due to space limitations.  I cleaned both buffets (one was relocated to the living room) and "staged" them, removing ugly extraneous things.

I finally got around to touching up the last side of the house which had been painted three years ago. Scraped and re-painted the house above the deck where it took a beating from our brutal winter.

Installed the new deck light (well, I couldn't get the old fixture screw loosened, so I had to call my brother-in-law to the rescue).

Installed the new porch light (see above; I was befuddled by an apparent lack of a grounding wire and electricity scares me).

I love a schoolhouse style light.

 Got a new porch, finally!  Demolition was Halloween 2014, and construction was finished on August 20, 2015.  It's the project that will not end.  I still have some touch-up painting and caulking to do.  Also, the lattice is pressure-treated and I want to wait till spring to paint it.

August 19, 2015

Re-painted the porch ceiling, which was necessary due to damage from ice dams.  Except there are stains still bleeding through after multiple coats of primer and stain-blocker.

Painted the ceiling, walls (Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray), and trim in the living room.  This was painful, with multiple layers of paint scraped off the trim, which includes a large arch.  There were also many cracks on the walls and ceiling to patch.  Still have to re-glaze the two windows.  And paint the front door, but that will have to wait for warmer weather.

Scraped, primed and re-painted loose paint on the front of the house, again due to our brutal winter.  It was originally painted in 2009 and has held up rather well.

Touched up paint messed up by contractor who re-roofed the porch roof three years ago.

Installed house numbers on porch post.

Do they look crooked to you?

Had office western storm window repaired.  Old one took a swan dive down two stories to the patio in Summer 2005, shortly after I moved in.  My excellent repairer hacked a piece from another window that someone had donated.

Had dining room storm window repaired, which Mitchell the Snow Removal Kid, broke while climbing onto deck upon my request.  The back door wouldn't open due to ice build-up.  I don't remember what I asked him to do, but I think it may have had something to do with bird feeders.  I think that was 2010 Brutal Winter.

Hung Christmas wreath on front of house.

Does it look too small?

Finally, after six years, put a second coat of paint on the porch trim.

Washed and touched up wall paint on the porch.

Figured out a way to fix the hole on the porch wall on which there was a doorbell.  Far be it from me to leave something alone.  I had unscrewed a metal plate which covered the hole, then couldn't figure out how to fix it because it was oddly shaped (like a doorbell).  While working on patching cracks in the living room, I had an idea to jam inside the hole, a fat piece of wood I found on the patio, and spackle over it.  It turned out really great and I painted over it.

Finally figured out a place for a beautiful painting given to me by my best friend.  It goes great in the living room, with the other coral accents.

Rearranged the living room furniture and things on the walls.  As much as I like to move things around, there's really only one way to arrange this room.  It's small, with two windows, a front door, a large opening to the hallway and dining room, a radiator, and an arch leading into the adjacent parlor.  It also has an old stovepipe with a cover over it, which I've left for historical purposes.

Filled gaps in the house exterior with insulation foam.

Goals for 2016

Finish guest room.  I have more confidence now that I've completed the living room.  I have to figure out the paint color, also.  I had planned on Benjamin Moore Silver Mist but now am thinking maybe soft aqua or turquoise, a grayed down version. I have no idea which ones.  Sigh.  Color is so hard.

Install tiny triangle of siding at top of front of house.  I've already painted it (I went to install it but realized I needed my 40-foot ladder and just wasn't up to dragging it out).

Get new gutters for porch and back of house.  I get so much water on my brand-new porch it's ridiculous.  I think my contractor didn't slant it enough, even though I told him to.

Finish last small spot of painting in awkward area above the deck.  This has to be done before the gutters go up so I don't ruin them while painting.

Finish touch-ups on northern side of house.

Figure out how to fix broken step on side of house.  The metal strap thingy has rusted and broken.

Devise a landscape plan for in front of the porch.  It's a clean slate but I can't make up my mind what I want to do.  A dwarf ornamental tree?  A fountain with boxwood surrounding it?  Hydrangeas?  Roses?  Perennial garden?  I have to be able to use a ladder in this area for ice dams on the porch and painting and such.

Finally re-install arbor in back garden.  This was taken down in the summer of 2014 for the porch renovation.

Affix trellises to shed. I like to say "affix." It's one of Martha Stewart's oft-used words.

Figure out what to plant on top of the stone walls.

Make sure to plant many, many spring bulbs.

And, finally, as always - have perfectly groomed, weed-free, watered, mulched, fertilized, deadheaded gardens at all times.

2015 Garden Review

Just as I think my gardening obsession is waning, it starts up again.  As soon as the garden starts dying in September, I long for spring again.  I'm reading my fifth gardening book since this fall.

It was an extremely dry, often hot, summer.  I pretty much gave up watering.  My excuse will be the porch renovation.  I got off to an extremely late start due to the delay in finishing my living room.  That was delayed due to working on my mother's living room.  Anyway, I pruned the roses too late.  I also decided to prune the Pinky Winky hydrangea to the ground to see if I could rid it of the Roundup damage it suffered in 2008.  It's somewhat distorted, shriveled and droopy.  It was way too late to do that, so consequently it only had two blooms this year.  Last year it had quite a lot for the first time since the unfortunate incident.

The Bloomless Wonder is behind the Stella de Oro daylily.

My mother always tells me I need groundcovers but I need to hear it from a professional to really believe it.  I read the excellent book, The Weekend Garden Guide, by Susan A. Roth, who says groundcovers are your friend.  And that's good, because I have a lot of them.  In the back garden I have thyme from my mother, plumbago, ivy from the birds and myrtle, which I think came from beside the steps to the patio (I didn't plant it intentionally).

A view from the deck of many groundcovers.

Myrtle (Periwinkle)

The beautiful white rose never bloomed and my two new (last year) ones were especially sparse.  In fact, the only ones that performed well were my favorite roses (except Dr. Huey).  I'm going to blame the Brutal Winter.

On the other hand, the phlox and hydrangeas were spectacular.  No powdery mildew on phlox or beebalm because of the drought, just burned foliage.

I did have success transplanting three offshoots of the Lovely Fairy rose and two offshoots of Mom's blue macrophylla hydrangeas.  I also was able to transplant a small piece of deutzia that self-seeded in the front border (apparently I left a piece from my last disastrous attempt).  I think I also moved a couple of hostas.  I really need to document this better.

Started using leaf mold as mulch in the shrub border.  It's just too hard to carry mulch all the way from the front by hand (there's no access to the backyard, even by wheelbarrow).  I just put the leaves in an old plastic garbage can and shoved my weedwacker inside.  It takes a long time because the leaves really compress.

Reorganized front right bed by moving a daylily away from the rose, removing ribbon grass, and transplanting a cranesbill from the Heritage Garden.  My mother bought me an Honorine Jobert anemone, my dream plant, which I planted here.

I really, really love the shade garden.  Is it because it's new?  I'm just in love with those plants.  I love the viburnum, Blue Billow hydrangea, Stained Glass hosta, Krossa Regal hosta and June hosta.  I'm wondering, though, if the viburnum should be fuller.  Does it need to be in more sun?  I bought it in fall 2013.

Here it is this past November.

 

I truly love pachysandra.

Next year I need to be vigilant about weeds here (well actually, everywhere).  I transplanted some pachysandra but I think it spreads slowly.  Also,  I need to buy netting to put on the oakleaf hydrangea so I can actually see it bloom for the first time.  I'm assuming the deer have been helping themselves to it.

The front yard is very lush, such that I really don't need pots or hanging plants since there's continual color.

Carly loves mulch.

So next year I have to figure out the area to the left, above, in front of the porch.  After paying all that money for the new porch, I don't want to hide it with plants.

This year I'd also like to plant out the tops of the stone walls near the shed in the backyard.  My mom still has plenty of daylilies I could transplant, as well as phlox.  I could use them to fill out the shrub border as well.  She also has a Scotch broom shrub I can squeeze into the border.  I'd also like to take a piece of my friend Sharon's Annabelle hydrangea.  They grow so quickly.  I think the white would look nice next to my pink one.

Again due to the Brutal Winter, the Purple Majesty and Preziosa hydrangeas didn't bloom.  Also, my mom's pink lacecap hydrangea didn't have many blooms, even though the one next to it was covered with flowers.  This may be a "grocery store" variety that's not meant to be hardy.  I'll give it one more chance before I throw it out.

Invincibelle Spirit - a pink hydrangea

The transplanted (from my mom's abandoned garden) Pee Gee hydrangea tree bloomed really well, considering last year I got nothing.

It has many more blooms than when I transplanted it.

It turned beautiful colors this fall.

The Tardiva hydrangea's blooms were disappointing, as it should be prolific.  Maybe I should have pruned it?

May spring come early this year!