Fixing Doors

This weekend we fixed THREE doors!  Two aren't really worth showing here.  Our laundry room door has been sticking badly since we moved in.  This wet summer we assumed it was just an old door swelling and we might have to replace it.  Luckily, before we did that, I actually looked at the door as I was struggling to close it and realized that the top hinge was practically off the wall.  Tightening the screws did the trick - now you can shut that door with one finger.  Seriously, it was so bad we were using the other door most of the time.  Wish I had looked up a little sooner!

Then Mr. Sycamore banged on the kitchen door with a hammer, and now it shuts perfectly too. 
I don't know what he did but it really worked.


So here is door number three.  This is the before picture - you will notice, there isn't even a door!  Just an ugly window from the 80s in our serviceable shed.  This is the view when you park in the driveway.  Nothing, but nothing, to look at, unless you count the empty gas can I am supposed to remember to go get filled.

So we took it into our heads to turn 1/3 of the shed into a music studio for playing and recording.  We built a partition wall last summer, and we had two free windows stored in the shed when we moved in.  We bought a door and put up the framing.

And last weekend, fueled by caffeine and some nice weather, we got it all up!  There will be a small deck attached in front, and the whole shed will get board and batten siding which you can see half started around the door.  I can't tell you how it feels to have this big project in place - I know there is a lot to go - the deck, interior walls, insulation, a/c, paint, landscaping, etc.  But all that seems routine now that we figured out how to put this crazy wall together right!

Two thirds of the shed now is mine.  For gardening stuff, tools, projects, painting furniture - once I get  all the junk piled up on the "shed" side cleaned up and organized.

 Check out my ideas on Pinterest and wish me luck!

But Wait, How Are the Bees?

 Doing great!

Spring Gardening

 My mom brought me this Trillium from her garden last year - and it seems to like where we planted it. 

 I'm told by Wikipedia that you must use a reputable garden store if you plan to buy Trillium and that in several states it is illegal to pick the flowers on public land and in parks - because it damages the plant and may kill it.  It is not illegal to have them in your garden, in fact it will help preserve these fascinating plants.

A Virginia blue bell in our back border.  I was told by a neighbor that before our house was flipped (several times) the front yard had a large patch of blue bells that were replaced by sod at some time during the transition.  She sounded still very upset about it.  I would have liked to see a blanket of blue bells - will have to help my few remaining ones along as I can. 

 You can learn all kinds of facts from Wikipedia!  For example, bumblebees can pollinate blue bells, but are not very good at it, as it forces them to hover for longer than they would like (they are too heavy to land on the flowers).  So the best pollinators are butterflies, because they are lighter and have longer tongues.  Poor bumblebees.

Garden Party

l
A look at summer flowers as the weather turns chilly. Dahlia Festival at Wollam Gardens

Summer Abundance and Tomato Soup Recipe

My favorite creamy tomato soup - very easy, freezes well, and PERFECT with grilled cheese.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pure-Cream-of-Tomato-Soup-40044

Melt 5T butter in a soup pot. Add 1/2 cup diced onion and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the onion is softened but not browned. Sprinkle 4 T flour over the butter mixture and continue to stir and cook for 30 sec or so. Slowly add 4 cups room temperature milk, 1 small bay leaf, 1 1/2 tsp sugar, and 1 1/2 tsp salt and continue to cook and stir until slightly thickened. Stir the 1/2 tsp baking soda into 3 cups diced tomatoes. Add the tomatoes to the milk, and bring just to a simmer. Remove from the heat and put through a strainer or blender. Taste and correct seasonings. Reheat before serving.

Lavender

A lovely outing to a local lavender farm. Our closets are smelling really really good.

Garden Bounty

This was the first tomato! Tons of basil, and a neighbor's gifted onions = yummy summer pasta sauce.

Last of the Lettuce

Its hot. Like, a million degrees hot. The lettuce battled bravely then began to turn bitter. Who could blame it? On the plus side, we have a teeny tiny watermelon who LOVES the sun who is well underway.

This thrifted sheet set makes me think of summer. Found at a garage sale a couple of weekends ago, destined for a little girl bed.

Happy Easter!

I did find time for the crafty not candy Easter basket on Modern Parents Messy Kids. Sponge ball, stickers, matching game (downloaded) bunny nose, and two tiny robin egg chocolates.

Spring Greens II

A lovely Luna moth on a pine tree in our yard, fluffing her wings to fly. Love those feathery antennae. And what luscious color.



A project to keep my hands busy - crocheted bowls for no real purpose, just to have fun with a single ball of cotton yarn.

First Spring Flowers

Is there anything sweeter?

Flower Arranging

When I first started taking J to a Montessori preschool for playtime, I saw the director patiently helping the children - eight 18 month to 3 year olds - cut flower stems and place single flowers in teeny tiny vases for their table for snack. I thought - how nice to have the time to do something like that. Somewhere I also thought - why spend time on something like that when there are snacks to make, stuff to clean up, laundry to do, etc.. and somewhere also in my mind I think I questioned doing something so fussy and so fraught with opportunity for messes with such little little kids. Shouldn't you wait until they were a bit more coordinated, and would really appreciate cut flowers on tables?

Then I read a whole lot more about Montessori methods and theory (and J started in the toddler program full time, not just for playtime) and I started to "get" the concept - all Montessori activities are building skills, and especially at the toddler age, when they are so clumsy (but so so eager to get it right) practicing balance, grace, and appreciation for beauty are really important. If not more important than later, since you are building their perception of their world - and if you want them to see beauty, the things around them should be beautiful. Seems simple now.

So yesterday on an unexpected day home due to car-puke (yuck!) I chased everyone out for a brief walk in the rain - rain that I felt confining us - it was a day when nothing was going as planned and everyone was getting cranky. J spotted our cosmos falling over by the fence and asked very nicely could we please do flower arranging? And you know, it was really fun. Mommy was the stem holder, J the cutter and Sweet P the arranger/putter in the vase person. J also assisted with the photos for this post. Eating our lunch we had something lovely to look at and the soft rain to listen to, and even though no one took naps the afternoon was a lot more .. gentle than I had foreseen, with quiet coloring and cutting out shapes with scissors.

Beautiful.

Bounty

Chilis from our neighbor.

Our. Own. Pumpkins.

Wow.

Gardening Abundance

There has been some making and many WIPs for a birthday this week. Will show you after.

Our first corn, with our second or third million cherry tomatoes, in a new to us yard sale find - an old wooden tray that went for a buck.

Big tomatoes waiting to be put up.

Our first watermelon, evah. Very sweet but fairly pale inside. And seedy. Will try a seedless kind next summer.

I can not get over how much fun the garden is, and how much I'm learning, and how much I wish I had a bigger freezer. I feel I'm going to have to adjust our eating habits to include more preserves.. there's lots more space on the cellar shelves than in the kitchen.

Fix-it Friday - Hanging a Mirror At Last

Ok, I'm not sure this should actually count as something fixed, but at this point I'm just so happy to have the mirror up. We bought this dresser to use in the linen-closet-less bathroom a year ago. A year ago. The mirror has been sitting behind it on the floor this whole time. Hanging it has changed the whole bathroom - it's amazing! Yes, it only took about 20 minutes. Yes, I'd love to hang a plant in here. Yes, now I look around at the other bare walls and think about getting the rest of our pictures in frames out of their boxes...

In other news, this was our black-eyed-pea crop, entirely. Not because the bunny got them (he only liked the green beans) but because that was all I planted. I figured the first year, start small and see what we like and what we would eat. The black-eyed-pea pods are the prettiest color and the peas are tiny and perfect. I'm saving them for new years.

Luckily I only planted two cherry tomato plants because even so we eat them almost every meal.

Orange Cosmos seeds from along the fence by the front yard. Hopefully most will self-seed but if they don't hopefully these aren't the terminator kind and we can have more next year.

Happy Friday everyone!

Raspberries

Are our favorite. Thanks Grammy and Gramp! May they take over everything and give us lots and lots for years to come.

A Very Green Post

Check out the pumpkin! I swear it looks like this vine grows a couple of feet a day and has taken over its patch by the house. Saw a three foot black snake last week - but that's good, right? Fewer rodents? Right?

Okra is cool! Seriously, we love gumbo here, and growing up northern I only discovered okra as an adult. Yum.

What is that hiding? This watermelon also seems to grow several feet a day - in several directions.

I can see we need more official stakes than just rotten branches jammed in the ground and groaning under the tomato load. They sure do love hot weather.