tuesday tidbits

During the recent week of rain, the amazing epimedium continued to produce masses of tiny gem-like flowers:

 The flowers are passing, but look at what the leaves are doing!

~~~

In other perennial news, the little wild ginger plant I added last summer was one of the first plants to return this year. It's leaves looked exceptionally lush against a palette of Forest Floor:

Charming, isn't it? 

One day I made a little line drawing:

~~~

Several readers have asked about Project Windowbox.

Thanks for asking! Here's an update.

The design decisions were easy, thanks to all the good advice I received here. I am very grateful! This is the kind of thing that can hang fire for years while I hem and haw. The choices made:

1) sturdy white plastic boxes

2) continuous wooden supports built across the long walls

After a long and fruitless online search, I found boxes locally - a nice surprise. I also ordered gallons of a cedar-oil-based wood preservative, because the exterior walls of the porch needed to be protected before installing the boxes.

No big deal.

My occasional hired helper and I could work together and get it done, lickety-split.

On the right:
product applied but not yet absorbed.

Then...for nearly three weeks my occasional hired helper and I experienced a baffling series of miscommunications. By the time it was straightened out, the rainy season (it really has felt like an actual season, with soup and tea and a barn coat that never quite dried out before I had to put it on again) had begun.

So, for the past two weeks we've been working as often as weather and schedules permit. Working on several now-overdue tasks.
Working hard.

Current status: most of the porch now has two coats. The gable peak has one. A third overall coat may be needed; we'll see. Either way, fingers crossed the painting will be finished by next week. We finally had a sunny day yesterday, and another today, but my helper has not been available...so, no progress yet this week. Yes, I could crawl up that ladder and do the gable myself, but moving and setting the higher ladder is hard for me to do. So I'll wait.

Meanwhile, one more piece fell into place on Saturday, when I found a source for the potting soil recommended to me by a blogger who gardens like I can only dream of gardening. I've never been so excited about the opportunity to buy dirt. I'm really pushing the boat out on this project! 

Soon...I'll keep you posted!

~~~

P.S.

I'm sure LeShodu would like to thank you for your kind birthday greetings, and especially the suggestion of "special carrots."

"'Special' is a unit of measurement, right?
Is it equivalent to a pound?
Or is it one carrot for each of my 12 years?"

~~~~~

opinions invited

Your input is requested on my next project.

As you may recall, there are windows on the west and south walls of the porch. Three windows on the west wall; four on the south. Even as I was measuring for these windows, I was planning to put up windowboxes beneath them. Because they will get SUN!

Please pardon the parallax in this distorted snap - it's the best I could find at the minute. If it wasn't dark right now, I'd step outside and get a better picture.

Last Spring, the windowboxes had to be postponed. This Spring, I am very determined to Make It Happen. And now is the time, before the gardens can be worked. It's going to take time and effort and trips to buy materials and...well, as slow as I am, I had better get cracking.

Will you please help with the planning?

All along I've been picturing individual white-painted wooden boxes filled with soil, each box supported by brackets attached directly to the walls. Sweet peas growing up! Nasturtiums dangling down! Herbs in the middle! Soooo pretty!

But now that it's time to get to work, I'm - of course - thinking of other options. For example, I've been told plastic is by far the best material for gardening containers because it maintains more moisture for the plants. The non-rotting feature of plastic could be pretty useful too, considering all the water that goes into windowboxes.

Expense? Well, no matter what plastic boxes would cost, it would probably have to be cheaper than building wooden boxes and then painting them, probably with multiple coats of...I don't know, some kind of enamel, or marine paint? I haven't researched the paint yet.

(Sidenote: I have a terrible record as far as painting wood goes. Every time something is built of wood here (by me or by real carpenters) I think, "This time I will paint it. Some cheerful color. It will be so pretty!" And every single time, when the item is built, I look at it and think, "Wood is so beautiful." And I don't want to paint it. So I don't. I honestly cannot remember the last time I applied paint to unfinished wood.)

So, the first question is, the material for the boxes:
Wood?
Plastic?
Other?

Next, do I really want seven individual boxes on wooden brackets attached to the house? There are good alternatives. For example, I could build a shelf or slatted rack the length of each wall below the windows, and put the boxes - or even pots - on the shelves. Flexible for future arrangements.
Or, I could build a tall, freestanding bench in front of each wall, and use the benches to hold the boxes. The only advantage I can think of, is that this option puts space between boxes and walls, which might prevent staining of the porch walls from rainwater splashing or draining from the boxes. The most difficult aspect would be leveling the benches at the start (leveling a lawn chair takes effort here), and annual adjustment after frost heaves.

So, the second question is the overall design:
Seven traditional boxes on wall brackets?
Two long shelves on wall brackets, holding boxes?
Two long freestanding benches, ditto?
Other?

Please feel free to weigh in on these questions! Most if not all of you have much more experience than I do with successfully growing plants. And I'll bet many if not most of you grow plants in windowboxes or planters or containers of some kind, and I'll bet they look fabulous. Please share your wisdom and ideas! Thanks!

Sambucus would like to see windowboxes on the barns.
"Just about chin-height, please!"

~~~~~

as it happened

Thank you all so much for your good wishes regarding my foolish injury - much appreciated! Update: my thumb no longer aches all the time, so that is good progress! I hope to get back to outdoor projects (beyond the minimum daily requirement of chores) in another day or two. This blog post will be the most typing I've done in a week!

One small achievement: after not knitting at all for a few days, I did manage to finish my hap, in a series of many, many, very short stints of knitting.

Washed:

 and blocked, using roughly one million pins:

and finally, posted on my ravelry project page

two days before the hap-a-long deadline.

Photographed at sun-up:

I wish you could feel this - it's so light.
It's not even weighing down the ferns.

Not quite as light as cashmere, but then, not much is.

I'm well pleased with it!

It will make a cozily warm - but light! - neckerchief/scarf.

I will very likely knit another.

Hap construction is interesting, and apparently addictive:

many hap-a-long knitters made more than one,

and most of them were shawl-sized, or even blankets!

~~~

In other news, it's been raining. A lot.

When not actually raining, it's been very hot and muggy.

We had one pleasant day last week; it was very hot but not as muggy.

That day, Campion (my Champion) was not feeling well.

He's FINE now.

So I spent six anxious hours on a chaise in the paddock,

keeping an eye on him.

Apart from anxiety, it was nice to be outside and not getting rained on.

You probably can't tell, but in the picture below,

the rain was coming down in sheets.

I've been spending a lot of time on the porch.

If you come visit, you can spend time on the porch, too.

I highly recommend it.

~~~~~

friday follow-ups

Just a few brief notes about
things that have been happening here this week.

Azalea and Campion had their first birthday!

Azalea is maturing very nicely:

And Campion is now taller than his mama!

Remember when they were born?

I sure do!

Azalea and Campion, one year ago.
~~~

The porch floor:

it's finished - five coats - and looks good.

Really good.

Now a thorough cleaning is needed, to get rid of the sawdust lingering in every nook and cranny of the porch.

And all the windows must be washed.

This will be an opportunity(!) to try

the extreme-housework-with-audiobook system.

So far, I have:

1) found the 5-foot stepladder, and

2) lugged it from the workshop to the house.

It's a start!

But I'm going to save this task until it's too hot to work outside.

Other than Quite Small Tasks, 

everything happens on a Priority basis around here

and most of my priorities are outside.

~~~

In the Quite Small Task category:

my unstained cherry table gets an occasional application of oil.

I took the opportunity of doing it outdoors this week.

This is a genuinely enjoyable task.

Then I put the little table on the porch.

The room immediately shrank before my eyes!

It will be difficult to decide what goes on the porch.

I'm thinking beloved and happymaking items only.

The cherry table probably stays.

~~~

In other cherry-related news:

I've started a bucket of black cherry soaking for dye. 

Prunus serotina

I've never used cherry before, but Annie Cholewa recently blogged about her experiences with it. I don't know what species Annie used, but probably not the one I'm using.

An interesting experiment anyway.

And in my ongoing efforts to avoid using mordants (which improve the colors but alter the fiber) either to pretreat fiber or as part of the dyebath, I've poked around online and found a mordant-free method involving two separate cherry dyebaths at different pH extremes.

Well worth a try!

~~~

And now, I'm heading back outside to shift some fence panels.

Have a lovely Friday, everyone!

~~~~~

underway

The porch floor work was mysteriously delayed for two days.

I don't know why. That's the mysterious part.

  

But today, the gentlemen arrived on time and got busy right away. They left at 5PM, after sanding the floor thoroughly and putting down the first finish coat of a probable three.
Fingers crossed it will be done by the weekend.

I didn't take a wide shot of the entire floor before they began sanding, but here's a fairly representative section of floor - this is the area in front of the slider, looking south - taken on the day when I insulated the kneewalls:

And here is a detail of the floor in front of the slider

after the sanding was done today:

It was fun seeing the original colors reappear.

(It was especially fun since I was not the one

on my hands and knees, sanding.)
The wood has been darkening naturally since 1997.

I remembered finding the mahogany at two lumberyards,

laying out every single stick,

and choosing the ones I wanted.

This is not behavior that typically endears a person

to the lumberyard staff, by the way.

(This doesn't worry me. I mention it as general information.)

There is a lot of variation in this mahogany,

and I remember deciding how to arrange the colors.

Now those colors are more than coming back;
the wood is taking on new depth

as the clear finish goes on.

In this picture, the upper section has one coat of finish:

I suddenly remembered having a load of this lumber

tied to the roof racks of Brownie, my old wagon,

when I stopped at a dog show in NH

where a good friend was showing her Irish Wolfhounds.

She is gone now.
As are her Wolfhounds.

As are my Wolfhounds.

It was another lifetime.

But it's all there somehow, in the wood.

~~~~~

repeated handling, no wheels

Yesterday I pulled the big tarp off the pile of construction debris left by the carpenters who worked on the porch,
and began picking away at it.

It's a task, alright.

Many years ago, I worked for a while in a stockroom.

Heavy boxes. Lots of them. Receiving, distributing.

At the time, I relished heavy physical labor.

Two tips I learned from the stockroom manager,

which have served me well over the years:

1) Move it once.

2) Put it on wheels.

Unfortunately, neither of these tips is applicable
to the debris pile situation.

.

It's a matter of picking up each piece,
brushing off dirt and sawdust,

determining potential usefulness,

removing all nails and hardware,

and adding it to one of several smaller piles.

After one hour, the original pile looked like this:

And there are now five smaller piles/stacks

that look more like this:

It looks like progress!

It also looks like the same mess

spread out over a larger area.

If When I get to the bottom of the big pile,

each smaller pile of salvaged material will need to be

sorted, organized, and carried, piece by piece,

to one of the sheds for storage.

Likely much of it will reappear in a future project.

(Stay tuned!)

I have to pace myself on a task like this.

Well, on any task, if I'm honest.

I can spend an hour or so working,

then must stop and rest my bones.

Repeat.

And repeat.

The work periods get shorter,

and the rest periods get longer.

As the physical toll becomes cumulative and 

the resting becomes less effective,

it becomes more and more difficult 

to pry myself out of a "zero-gravity" position

and force my body back into action

for even fifteen minutes.

I'm a long, long way from those stockroom days.

But.

I often remind myself: it is not important

how long it takes me to do something

or how difficult/exhausting/painful the simplest task.

What is important is that I can do it at all.

And that I do.

I believe this, but must remind myself. Daily.

Because in my mind I hear, "lazy." Also, "whiner."

Sometimes even, "Lazy whiner!"

It's certainly true I postpone/avoid some chores.

Many of my routine tasks come with an obvious reward.

Carrying water buckets to the goats, for example.

Brushing Piper. Emptying the dishwasher.

Disproportional fatigue and aching joints, but:

healthy goats, happy Piper, a harvest of sparkling dishes!

Tackling a chore like the pile of construction debris

is less satisfying. It's much more like housework, which is also an awful grind and rarely gives me a feeling of satisfaction.

Possibly because I am so bad at it.

Or maybe that's a chicken-and-egg situation.

Here's what I'm thinking:

I need to adjust my attitude;

learn to find the satisfaction - the inherent reward -

in all these tasks.

Any advice?

Thanks

:)

~~~~~

way back in April

Only five days ago, waaaay back in April,

the daffodils were just beginning to appear.

Not the flowers, but the leaves.

And the vinca was just beginning to bloom.

Now, only five days into May,

we've had several days of high 70s.

Yesterday and today went over 80F.

It's like summer.

But...

the trees have not yet leafed out.

So...

instant summer heat, but no summer shade.

Whew.

The goats aren't complaining, but they're quiet.

Spring came so slowly, most of them are still wearing

remnants of their winter coats.

(Not the babies, of course.)

I'm taking fresh water to all paddocks several times daily,

and today I added electrolytes to some buckets.

Can't hurt.

And besides, goats like a choice.

All goats.

Even baby goats.

Success! That single, perfect blade of grass!

~~~

Brief newsflash:

the last big interior task on the porch renovation

is now scheduled for next week!

The gentlemen who urethaned the walls

are coming back to do the floor.

It's going to be exciting to really "move in" at last.

~~~

And finally, one special treat to share

from our walk yesterday:

a Great Blue Heron.

And companion.

They are getting ready to move in, too.

I was very close before I saw the herons,

so Piper and I quickly moved on,

leaving them to consider potential nest sites in peace.

Fingers crossed they'll choose to build where 

I'll catch a glimpse now and then.

Such fantastic birds.

~~~~~

FO friday

Lately I've noticed a lot of "Finished Object Friday" blog posts,

and since I happen to have a finished object,

and since I remembered that it is Friday...

Please note: this is not a giant hat. 

This is a normal hat on a small styrofoam head.

I made it for the Revive A Vintage challenge being hosted by raveler knitsbyjenn in the Roving Crafters group. It's the 1898 Hat by Kristine Byrnes; a free pattern available along with many others from the Seamen's Church Institute - Christmas at Sea website. I won't donate this one to SCI because they specifically ask for darker/brighter colors, but I will very likely be knitting another in deep blue, which should be perfect to send. 

In fact, this hat is so much fun to knit, it may become my go-to pattern for any single skein of worsted that surfaces in my stash.

Here's a link to my project page on ravelry,

with full knittery details.

~~~

P.S.

on the theme of "finishing"...

I don't usually plan my knitting time;

it's more of a response to insomnia or restlessness.

But I really wanted to finish the 1898 Hat because I have

another project waiting in the wings.

So this past week - when we had two snowstorms

but also a lot of sunshine -

I "scheduled" a couple of afternoons of knitting

and audiobooks, out on the porch.

It looked like this:

You can't see Piper, because she had dragged her cushy bed

right under the legrest of the recliner.

But trust me: she was there.

Despite fresh snowfalls,

overall, the snow is gradually disappearing.

There is still plenty, I hasten to add. Ice, too.

But I am hoping that by the end of April

I will be able to tackle the construction debris

both on and off the porch.

It got "snowed in" months ago,

and there was simply no way to remove it.

But soon.

After a clean-up, the final big step will be

sanding and finishing the porch floor.

Then the interior will be finished.

Huzzah!

~~~~~

january slipped away

...and here's a little update on the week past.

The Porch Project is back on track!

After a considerable delay and two reschedules - once due to a snowstorm - the painters came last week. Three days, three hours of preliminary sanding, followed by three coats of satin-finish polyurethane on the pine walls and ceiling.

The results look quite nice, I think.

(Disclaimer: these photographs exclude an unsightly heap of residual construction material and debris. Removal is proceeding slowly, somewhat hampered by snow.)

Even the color difference between

all the fresh new pine

and the darker 17-year-old pine wall

(to the right in the snap above)

appears as a pleasing design element, rather than a distraction.

Serendipitous!

Have you seen the shelf beneath the gable window?

It was one of the final items on the carpentry list.

The shelf runs the full length of the 14' south wall.
I planned it as a place to neatly store things
that I need to access only occasionally.

The Last Interior Frontier (Fronterior?) will be the floor:

lightly sanding - possibly staining - 

and then polyurethaning

the original mahogany floorboards.

Soon, I hope.

Because when the floor is done,

I can "move in."
Huzzah!

~~~

Snow:

we've got it.

I've lost track of the snowstorms.

We've had plenty of snow.

Still do.

Every time I can get out of the driveway,

I go fetch a few bales of hay before the next storm.

In fact, I went for hay yesterday.
And the snow began again last night.
Still falling now.

Cold:
we've got that, too.

One morning it was still -5F (-21C) at midday.

Brisk.

Which reminds me...

 the fireworks picture at the top of this post

celebrating the latest porch progress,

is actually a screenshot from Up Helly Aa 2015.

As always, it was powerful stuff:

My feelings about life and death, creation and destruction,
have been revisited and revitalized for another year. 

Well done, People of Lerwick.

Thank you for sharing!

~~~

P.S.

If you are looking for the giveaway, it's here.

Entries open until 14 February.

Good luck!

~~~~~