Just jotting down a few brief notes to share
before the week gets away from me completely!
 |
| Pliny ~ leftclick to embiggen! (BL, Harley 2677 f.1) |
1) Did you notice the new badge at the top of the sidebar? I'll be participating in the third annual Grow Your Blog Party, hosted by lovely Vicki of Two Bags Full. The first Party prompted me to start Comptonia, so this will mark my second Blogiversary as well! I will have another little giveaway, open to all, so I do hope all my regular readers will visit and leave a comment on the 25th :)
2) In other sidebar news, I've added a countdown for Tsuga's possible due date. If she's pregnant, that is.
Fingers crossed, please, everyone!
Just think: we may have kid pictures in only 98 more days!
3) The carpenters came back today to begin the interior finish work; the picky stuff that takes time and Must Look Right.
All the window and door jambs were begun and finished today, and I'm very pleased. Tomorrow: sills, brackets and high shelf, possibly some trim. The carpentry work is very nearly finished!
4) Also re: the porch project, I finally admitted (to myself; no one was arguing with me) that I cannot hold a paintbrush long enough to polyurethane the walls. The painter I hoped to hire for the ceiling visited today and I asked him to add the walls to his estimate.
He's hired.
5) It's Real Winter now, no two ways about it. Frequent snow, biting cold, cutting wind. Fortunately, I've discovered the best cheerer-upper ever:
Turns out there's a huge advantage to putting up a tree on Christmas Eve: it stays green and aromatic well into the bitter throes of January, when - I don't know about you other Northern Hemisphere folk - I really appreciate a mood-elevator. During evening chores when I'm hauling buckets of water across the snow-crusted ground, or distributing hay in icy paddocks, or feeling my fingers beginning to ache with cold inside my gloves...whenever I happen to glance toward the house, the glorious sight of those tree lights reflected in the porch windows makes me feel happy, truly happy, every time.
Every.Single.Time.
I don't know how much longer the tree will be here.
But it's not coming down tonight, that's for sure.
~~~
And that's it for the Comptonia update!
How's things in your neck of the woods?
~~~~~
98 more days!!!! How exciting! (I don't see the countdown in the sidebar but that could be my selective blindness!).
ReplyDeleteThe finishing touches on your new porch-room look SO beautiful. It's been fun watching that project move forward, despite the tough setbacks you faced early on!
The countdown box is waaaay down, just above the blog archive list. I made it so I could stop counting on my fingers every other day, then I thought others might like to keep track too. So I hope I'm not the only one who can see it! ;)
DeleteI think Tsunga has that motherly smile. Hoping she does for a reason.
ReplyDeleteYour idea to keep the tree up is wonderful. I can see one lit up at night not far from here, and I agree it does lift the spirits.
Are you going to have a porch warming party!?
Glad I'm not the only person enjoying a lighted tree on these winter nights :)
DeleteProbably not a party, because the plan is that this will be my bedroom, so as soon as the interior finishing is done (last step should be sanding and finishing the floor), I hope to move my bed in there right away. But friends who come by for any reason have been getting a tour of the WIP!
Can't wait to see the finished porch pics :)
ReplyDeletejust the lightest of dustings here today, on high ground. Down in the town, there was just a little sleet.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are staying snug in your home.
the new room is looking beautiful; you're going to enjoy it so very much. heck, leave the tree up until Valentine day...it's your tree - lol.
ReplyDeletejust finished watching Hugo...what a delight! highly recommended.
I'll have to move it outside when the painter comes - maybe early next week - and I think that's when the needles will really begin to drop because it will be too cold for the tree to take up more water. Of course the "up" side is, the goats will be thrilled to have balsam branches to devour.
DeleteGood to know that work on your new room is coming along smoothly. Hopefully you will have a finished new room soon. One stupid question, how and when do you know for sure that Tsunga is pregnant?
ReplyDeleteNot a stupid question at all, and I'm glad you asked! Goats can keep you guessing right up to their due date - or sometimes a few days beyond!
DeleteA few years ago, one of my big does fooled everyone but me - she even got really heavy in the last few weeks of her "pregnancy" but was not pregnant at all. (I was skeptical all along, but it was still disappointing.) Usually, a bred doe will start to "bag up" or swell a little in her udder a few days before kidding, but not always. This is why I really like to know exactly when my does were bred - at least I know when they MIGHT give birth, so I can be keeping an eye on them.
Very interesting., and thought there might be pregnancy test or something, lol. That means you will find out one way or the other in about 96 days :) . Hopefully, she is pregnant.
ReplyDeleteI love the look of that tree ... lights in the dark calling you home to the hearth.
ReplyDelete