Catch Up!!

 

So much to catch up about! First- and most importantly- it's Robin the Good's Birthday! Hooray for Robin; yes, the bestest doggo on the whole, entire planet.I can't believe she's 10! She looks great and acts like she's still a teenager... even the vet was impressed when he saw her last week (for routine shots). Let's hope to share our world with Robin for many more years!

And as if to celebrate Robin's birthday, nature gave us the first snow of the year. Kind of a heavy, wet snow and the wind is supposed to pick up this afternoon, but it was a charming surprise this morning. Neko's hiding in the barn; my horse definitely hails from a warmer, sunnier climate originally!

Another first! My first headcold (*1) since pre-COVID! I've been gasping and honking and my nose has been sheeding copious amounts of phlegm. I had forgotten just how stupid and unpleasant an old-fashioned rhinovirus is! (*2) 

And finally... I am sure that many things have gotten in the way and prohibited me from posting but let's be honest: The outcome of the last election threw me (and plenty of other sane, reaonable and intelligent human beings) for a big ol' loop. I mean really?!?!!?!?!? And as we count down the days until the orange menace assumes the throne for the second time, I guess we should take stock of all that is important to us- including this illusive thing we call "democracy". Fully one half of our country saw fit to send him back into office (despite all the awful things he's responsible for- like COVID deaths and a dreadful January 6th insurrection (and too many others to mention here!!) because of "the economy" and "the price of eggs". Just you wait; those things will pale in comparison to the disaster about to happen. Ugh.

*1). I tested myself as Bob had been sick a few days previous to my falling ill- although his symptoms were different. We've actually never had COVID! Let's keep it that way!!

*2) But you've gotta love Bob! He saw me photographing my old kleenex in the bathroom waste paper basket and never once questioned why I'd be doing such a thing. Artists understand...

Scary Story!

 

This little weasel (aka Robin the (sometimes) Good) gave us quite the scare yesterday and we're not entirely out of the woods yet. As is typical, Robin ate, I fed Neko (with Robin's help) and then we retire upstairs to join Bob and look at the news on the Internet. Robin always get a Kong (*1). So we're drinking coffee and looking at the idiotic things that rethuglicans are puling on about when I turn to Bob and say, "Where's Robin?" She had obviously finished the Kong and had debarked to other parts.

I walked downstairs and Lo!! The muffins I had placed on the counter to thaw for breakfast has mysteriously disappeared. Robin was looking guilty and sort of slunk off into the living room, I took three more muffins out of the freezer. (In all fairness, she had left us one muffin) 

About twenty minutes later, it occurred to me that these were bran muffins... with RAISINS which we all know are poisonous to dogs. I took out my phone and gooogled just how toxic are they... turns out VERY!! Like 1 raisin for ten pounds of dog! Like I know Robin consumed more than 6 raisins!!

So I call our vet and they advise to give her a teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide 3% every 15 minutes until she throws up. Anyone want to guess how hard that is? I think I managed to get like a drop of peroxide in her mouth and a bunch all over my face and hands (She wasn't having it). So off to the vet's we went; me hoping that Robin would simply puke in the car as she hates car rides anyway but no go.

I wind up waiting at the vet's for over two hours as they try (unsucessfully) induce vomiting. (*2) I sat with Robin, thinking maybe seeing me would help her hurl in unfamiliar surroundings. Still nothing. So the vet then takes Robin back into an exam room and they stuff her full of charcoal, which apparently helps absorb any toxins, which she will then throw up. They instruct me that when she throws up, it will be a big, fat, nasty, gooey, black mess.

Which it was because three minutes after returning home, Robin hurled copiously all over the living room rug. Personally? I was simply glad she had expelled the offending food (*3). I examined it (yes, that's what dog owners do!) and it looked pretty undigested so I'm at least mostly sure she got rid of everything in her.

Today, she seems fine. She ate with gusto (nothing off our counter), ran around outside, pooped an "interesting" black turd (more charcoal!) and seems fine. She is due to return for a follow-up exam on Saturday to check her blood for abnormal readings. I told her today that those were the world's most expensive muffins: $300 for three muffins!!!

(*1) A large-ish rubber thing that looks like some sort of sex toy that you fill with broken up dog biscuits and peanut butter. Robin is a serious fan of her morning Kong!! Keeps her "busy" for about three minutes...

(*2) Interesting fact: I noticed Robin's eyes were really red and the vet explained the vomit-inducing medication is administered through eye drops! Who would think this?!!?!? It apparently gets absorbed really quickly through the conjunctiva! Weird!

(*3) Lots of it! Breakfast! A Kong! Three muffins!! The dog is NOT starving!!

Doing Something Right!

 

Here's a view of our Long Border. I admit to yanking a few deceased annuals from its ranks and I think Bob chopped down a couple of Eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed) stalks that had fallen over, but it's pretty much left to it's own devices until next early spring. I always allowed for a certain gardening laziness that creeps over me by late summer. Early September finds me shrugging and suggesting it's too late to prop things up or edit and reorganize. 

Yup! That's me casting a long shadow on a kind of unsightly aster clump (the cultivar "Purple Dome" a half tall variety.) And while I admit to an unwillingness to walk back to the house and get pruners to remove the desiccated remains I also suspected that the seeds were possibly good food for birds. And I was right!

I just read an article in The Connecticut Gardener (#1) that confirmed my thoughts and applauded my laziness. The authors of the article in question averred that insects (hopefully beneficial) nest in the hollow stems and birds do indeed feed on seeds left behind. 

(This grass (Miscanthus sinensis) makes me look tiny; it IS tall and the inflorescenses look good all winter- until an ice storm beats them down!) So I've been vindicated in my waiting 'til next spring to clean up. Yes, sometimes when we get a warm February day, Robin the Good and I get out and start cutting down things that look particulary rough. Some plants don't age gracefully!

Here's another very poofy grass; I think this is one looks rather nice with the late day sunlight hitting the tufts. So... lesson learned: don't be in such a big fat rush to tidy up. There's plenty of time ahead to do that and the birds and bees will thank you!

(*1) The Connecticut Gardener is a really good resouce for all manner of garden information. Please consider subscribing! And I don't just say that becasue I write the occasional column for it!!

Leaves and Other Things That Fall From the Sky

Yup. That's a whole lotta leaves! And they're not in the woods; they're in the horse field so they need removal as they simply pile up and kill whatever grass is underneath. Additionally, they're really slippery if I chose to ride my intrepid steed in the lower field. Here is Neko- my leaf colored horse:

Neko isn't concerned with much of anything besides eating, but she can't eat oak leaves, so rake them I will! I make numerous piles like this:

Put them on a tarp and then haul 'em away to the woods. I cannot even count how many piles I've hauled away so far but I figure if I drag four or five piles a day, I should be done by next year. Endless!!

Robin supervises. She thinks autumn leaves are awesome and enjoys chasing the leaves as they blow around the yard. (She also enjoys chasing shadows of birds which is pretty funny because she's running around, nose to ground, as the birds fly overhead.) 

The other thing that falls from the sky is meteorites! Last week Thursday, there was apaprenly a meteorite that traversed southern New England, passed over Long Island and landed in the Atlantic. Sorry to have missed that! 

(That is an actual photo that someone took.) We were coming back, oblivious on the train from New York, tired from our lovely trip to Tribeca and overloading on art viewing. We saw all kinds of wonderful, thought-provoking thing but nt that danged meteorite. Maybe next time!

 

So Much Excitement

 

I went to New York yesterday with two artist friends to enjoy a lovely afternoon of gallery hopping and dishing on various art scandals plaguing our local non-profit scene. We had a splendid time! As we were sitting on the train to go back home, I thought to text Bob to tell him I was on my way.

I sent my message and prepared to receive a brief text back from Bob, saying something innocuous like, "See you in a while!" or "Hope you had fun!". Instead I got a message that read- alarmingly- "Where's Neko's (the horse) halter? She's in our backyard freaking out and running around. There was a bear in her pasture. She jumped the fence." Uh... not exactly reassuring or calming as so many questions came to mind.

There was another text: "Got Neko back in her field; lured her with food". Well good for Bob for perfecting his horse wrangling skills and good for Neko for not killing herself or Bob or Robin the Good. Of course that led me to wonder nervously, where was Robin in all the excitement?

(Recycled bear pictures from last year's almost encounter as Bob was way to busy to run in the house and grab his phone or camera.) I dashed off several quick texts to Bob, asking "Is everyone okay?!??!!" There was an tense period where I'm checking my phone every three seconds, hoping for a bear disaster update and... nothing.

Until half an hour later, Bob says everyone is fine, although Bob related that Neko is still pretty disturbed, looking over her shoulder towards the woods, wondering where Mr. Bear is going to appear next. From Bob's description later on, the bear was simply ambling through the field looking pretty nonchalant. Bob's voice was hoarse from screaming at it and clapping his hands in an effort to scare it away.

When I arrived home, Bob filled in all the exciting details of his heroic defense of our homeland. He described Neko's galloping around our entire backyard, miraculously not damaging herself or our gardens (which of course, we're preparing for this Saturday's party!) She did stop to graze selectively from our lawn, probably thinking the terror of the bear was outweighed by her all-consuming love of eating. Bob had had the foresight to put Robin in the house when he spied Neko frantically running around. Ironically, Bob said that Robin was apparently so stunned by the bear she didn't even bark. (This is a dog who barks at the suggestion of anything even slightly out of the ordinary.)

Maybe it is time to have a serious discussion of how we live together with large unruly animals. Despite several friend's opinions to the contrary, I have very little desire to encounter more bears. Yes, this week, we had a few really nice wildlife sightings: two turtles canoodling by the peach tree, two foxes cavorting across the lawn, several turkeys looking for delicious horse poop, and lots of blue birds... but bears? Nope! Not interested! But what can we do: the bears are increasingly acclimated to living among us, stealing our cupcakes (on several occasions!), carrying small dogs and cats off , destroying bird feeders and breaking into houses through screen doors. Am I the only one thinking that soon enough, a small child or hiker is going to be attacked? (*1)

(*1) Yes, I keep hearing the argument that "they're more afraid of us than we are of them", but there have been a few very close calls. I would love to go trail riding but seriously do not want to be on Neko when we encounter a bear! 

A Good Night's Sleep

 

We all recognize that a good night's sleep is important. And that goes double for someone who is sick... like me. Yes! After successfully avoiding getting sick for three full years, thanks to vaccines and boosts and masks and hand washing (and wringing) and learning not to touch my face, I came down with a "common cold". I'm not sure where or from whom this unwelcome rhinovirus originated (A lab? The "fresh market"?) but I'm pretty sure it's the garden variety of head cold. (*1)

But despite illness and snow, one still needs to perform the farm chores. There's Neko- smart horse! enjoying breakfast in her barn- and yes, that's hay hanging out of her mouth. So now that we've all eaten and been watered, I can repair back to bed. Because, as I introduced this post, a good night's sleep is advised.

So last night I fell asleep almost immediately after watching Part 1 of The 1619 Project (enthralling) and missed all of Bob's night time story, apparently about a motorcycle gang. But I woke up at about 12:15 and just could not get back to sleep. This probably had something to do that I awoke unable to breath and gasping for air with my mouth open like a fish. Additionally, my eyes were watering so heavily I felt as if I were crying. As a bonus, the whole of my face hurt (*2) probably because of the pressure of my sinuses. Such fun! Then I lay there, unable to return to dream land- or at least unconsciousness. 

(A stock photo of our beloved Robin the Good as she refused to be photographed for this blog and I'm not sure why as she's very pretty and very photogenic!) Anyway Robin is the star of the next episode of my Very Unpleasant Night as about 2:30 (yes, I was still awake!) Robin commenced making a quite impressive range of canine vocalizations signaling that she needed something. In this case, I correctly surmised that despite it being 2:30 in the morning and there being a miserable mixture of snow and rain falling, she needed to go outside to relive herself.

As I turned over to rouse myself from bed and dress appropriate to the hour and the inclement weather, I proceeded to knock my full glass of bedside water over, where it landed on Robin's bed. I attempted- in the dark and quietly so as not to wake Bob up- to mop up the water with a towel from the laundry basket. There was a lot of it and Robin's bed was soaked. Robin was displaying her impatience to go outside so I finished dressing hurriedly and we threw ourselves down the stairs and out the door into winter wonderland. At this point, all I could do was laugh with a bit of hysteria thrown in. 

Robin completed her outdoor mission and we returned to the bedroom where Robin was offended to find her bed had been wet down and messed up. I had to make her a temporary bedding with a couple of flannel sheets and a towel which I am certain she viewed as inferior to her usual bed and worthy of a display similar to the Princess and the Pea. (*3)

Robin was soon snoring, Bob was asleep and I was still wide awake, attempting to doze propped up on pillows, hurting and exhausted. I finally did nod off at like 4:30. Which is why I'm going back to bed right now. Good night!!

(*1) It followed my "classic" development of a cold: sore throat upon awakening, then a progression to stuffed up nose and the impossibility of breathing. Nothing exotic but if I get really enthusiastic later maybe I'll stick a swab up my nose and see if COVID finally came to call!

(*2) Mommy used to describe this as neuralgia, a nerve pain upside the head. It abated after a dose of ibuprofen but it truly was insult to injury.

(*3) In which the princess proves herself to be a Princess by claiming to have not slept at all and is covered in bruises because she felt a single pea placed under a 100 mattresses or so. My little princess...

Yowzah Weather

 

A balmy -6 degrees!! And in order to verify that this is happening at our home, I scraped the ice from our window to access our thermometer...

Yup!

Actually, this was a few minutes later and it had risen to -5!! Oh joy! At least it's not windy, like yesterday... It was so cold outside that I blanketed poor Neko (*1). Neko also was excused from her diet as in cold weather, outdoor animals require lots more fuel to keep up body temperature. 

It was so cold yesterday (do I need to remind you?!?) that poor Robin the Good neglected to poop at her usual time and so decided that she need to go outside after we'd all gotten tucked into our nice cozy bed. Great! I had to bundle up and venture outside at 12:00 midnight to howling gale force gusts of wind and sub-zero temperatures; I've never seen a dog poop so fast! She wanted back in.

But despite the deep freeze, some part of my stultified brain was working, as I got yesterday's Wordle on the second guess! I tried to save my astonishing triumph but my phone refused to cooperate. I tried photographing my "stats" and this is all I got:

"Tasty" was the word, by the way. So I guess being a smarty pants still weather-proof. (*2)(*3) It was just about all I accomplished yesterday as we literally spent most of Friday hunkered down under flannel sheets, reading and watching the giant screen TV.  Saturday looks to be the same. But tomorrow is supposed to be in the 40's!!!! Here's my response:

(*1) Neko, as you may remember, lost "blanketing privileges" last winter as she managed to push her way through the electric fence as the blanket prevented her from feeling the shock. She actually managed to sneak back in, too. Smart horsey... don't ask how she did this.

(*2) I assume most of us have "favorite" first words on Wordle? I do... seems to work! but no one ever wants to share their stats with me. I have tried asking on Facebook and never get a reply. A bit of Wordle Insecur-itle anyone?

(*3) Another note on my Wordle stats. At one point, I was doing Wordle on the computer. then I switched to doing it on my phone, apres yoga and pre-dinner. I lost a bunch of my earlier stats as the phone and computer don't seem to speak to one another. Have I said how much I can hate technology? Don't even get me started on how hard I tried to sync my phone so I could do a blog post from there! All because I tried to send great photographs shot on my phone to the desk top and that doesn't seem to want to happen. So stayed tuned; you may get the blog I was attempting to post yet!!

Farewell Maggie!

 Farewell sweet Maggie! She had a long and- hopefully!- happy life. She was a good friend, a funny, opinionated mare, a nice companion to Neko (who loved telling Maggie what to do and when to do it...) We all loved Maggie (aka "The Magster", "Magatini" and so many other nicknames!); Robin the Good especially had a lovely friendship with Maggie. They'd touch noses through the fence and lick each other's noses. Maggie was so gentle with Robin when she was a puppy. Maggie had obviously had foals and knew what a baby animal was- they forged a deep bond.

But as you could see in that picture above, Maggie was very old and very tired. She knew what was coming. I often saw her standing with her head low, soaking up the morning sun as if the weight of her own head was too great. 

Here's the two of them last week- always hungry! They hear the back door open and are at the fence like, "Hey! Isn't it meal time?!!?!?" (Maggie wasn't really a small as she appears above; somehow my perspective made her look so tiny, like a pony!) 

Maggie was a real character. Due to her chronic lameness, I only was able to ride her for a couple of years after she arrived here.  But that was fine: she was a delightful member of our herd. She loved to pick her food dish up when it was empty and shake it around and the toss it as if to say, "Fill this thing up again, dammit!". She often had a mischievous twinkle in her eye and liked to try and bite me, especially when I attempted to put one of her blankets on her. The funny part of that was she had few teeth and made a weird clacking noise. She also had no sense of personal space and enjoyed walking directly into you. (And her eyes were fine, believe me!) 

Here's Maggie busy at another one of her "hobbies". She was really good at getting super dirty. She rarely used the barn and stood outside in whatever kind of inclement weather. Maggie loved to get down on the ground and roll- which was fine when she was younger (in the picture above) and could right herself easily. In the last few years, however, she would get down to roll and was frequently unable to get herself back up. Imagine attempting to lift a piano; she was that heavy. We called upon friends to come and assist in righting her but the danger was in her hurting herself (or us trying to help her). 

Here's on of my favorite pictures of Maggie. What could be better than a horse and sculpture?! We used to let her graze on the lawn in the backyard. Look at that nice round butt! Anyone who has seen Maggie in the last couple of years will remark on just how skinny she'd become! It was her time...

Her departure to the Great Pasture in the Sky was peaceful and dignified. She is missed; Neko is very sad and missing her pasture mate. I know we'll get through this but we're all mourning our beloved Maggie.

The Bear Went Over the Mountain

 

Or at least across the driveway! Our neighbor Meagan shot this image of a "large"(her word, but is there any other kind??!!?) black bear, spotted ambling across her yard directly to our yard. Yikes! 

I had just come back in from riding Neko when Bob came down the stairs expressing just how glad he was that I was inside as Meagan had called to warn of the above bear. I'm very pleased that I did not encounter this mid-morning visitor while riding. Neko is a brave and level-headed horse, but I wouldn't want to test her on a bear!

Another shot of our friend, taking his time, out for a stroll while terrorizing the neighborhood. All day long when having to go outside for anything, I was apprehensive and worse, Robin the Good kept sniffing the air sensing something or someone unusual about.

Meagan sent over three shots of the monster. He looks fat and sassy! I am hoping that he was simply on his way from here to there and not thinking, "Gee! What a lovely area! Perfect place to raise a family!" I know they're around but this was a bit too close and in broad day light!! Move along my friend!!

April Fools!

 

Yes, a few days early for the first of April, but there was snow this week- after having sunny, sixty degree days. Gotta love the weather.

Today may be April Fool's Day but I think I accidentally celebrated yesterday. Maybe I started off on the wrong foot, thinking it was April 1st and thinking to be oh-so-clever, I pranked our poor doggie Robin the Good by putting only a single piece of dog kibble in her bowl for breakfast. She looked at me with a truly withering "oh you're SO funny" look; I hastily replenished her bowl! I then discovered that it was actually March 31st, so the "joke" was on me.

(Above, long-suffering dog who tolerates my sometimes not very funny antics. She must wonder how she wound up in a household like this!)

So the bigger joke of the day was that Mr. Coffee had "shit the bed" so to speak, and was refusing to produce caffeinated brown water to fuel our day. Bob resorted to making coffee with a Melittta filter that we had but we both realized we needed a new machine. We researched on line and were surprised to see that plain old non-electronically equipped Mr. Coffee makers were surprisingly hard to come by. We could order one, but then we'd have to wait a week or so for delivery. (I'm assuming it's the old "supply chain" excuse is to blame.) But then I thought to try our brand new, giant TrueValue hardware store. On line it announced they did indeed have what we wanted, and we even had a $5 off coupon. 

Additionally, my car key somehow had become bent (still usable, but it had a weird cant to the left) Bob had been urging me to take his key and get a copy made. I thought I was so smart: I'd get two things done at one place. I gathered my bag and sunglasses and Bob's key and went out to the car. I even remembered the coupon!

As I entered the car, bending over to place my handbag on the passenger seat, I heard a quiet- but distinct- tink! The sound of something falling and hitting something metal... Bob's key! It had escaped from my hand and landed somewhere in the center of the car. I will not strain your patience with how- for the next twenty minutes- I reached beneath every crevasse between the seats, under the carpets; I looked everywhere. I finally gave up, knowing the key was somewhere in the car but mysteriously hidden. 

 I made it safely to the hardware store where a nice young man looked fruitlessly through several thousand blank keys only to inform me that they really were having trouble getting old blanks for Hondas, Toyotas and Accuras. He came up empty handed but helpfully offered to straighten my key out. Having not succeeded at one task, I then inquired where they kept the coffee makers. Of course, there were no simple white Mr. Coffee machines. Only elaborate, expensive, technologically-driven contraptions with all the bells and whistles were in stock. I ordered one; it's supposed to come next Monday but do we believe this?

I then proceeded to another hardware store(where I sometimes buy horse food) and they also looked dubious when I presented my key. Apparently, Trusty the Accord really is an antique (1997) and key blanks of ancient times are had to come by. Fortunately, the "gentleman" (*1) who waited on me was able to find a blank similar enough to make me not one but two!! new keys. I tried them, they worked so all's well that ends well. 

I tried two other local stores... do you think anyone would have a simple 12 cup coffee maker? Nooo! But at least I had three car keys, and a Mr. Coffee on order. When I arrived home and told Bob of my morning frustrations, he went out to the car and it took him all of three seconds to determine that his key had fallen into the tiny slit by the side of the emergency brake. We now have no coffee maker and four car keys...

(*1) The particular employee at this hardware store is not one I'm ever happy to have wait on me. He is a religious-maniac, gun-toting weirdo. He once harangued Bob and I for a good twenty minutes in the parking lot as to why the 2nd Amendment is next to godliness or some such quackery. I try to avoid him since this encounter even though he tries to be especially deferential and helpful- probably becasue we could have complained to his boss about his unwelcome proselytizing and gotten him fired.

First Blood

 

It was going to happen some day; Robin actually caught- and killed!- an animal. Robin chases everything: squirrels, birds, leaves, shadows... seemingly she is a born hunter. (*1) But despite many heroic attempts at catching anything, it has taken Robin almost six years to achieve the status of Official Hunter.

She had been pursuing the above rodent (a shrew.. similar to mice and moles and voles) for several days. It apparently lived in the patch of lirope beneath the Tiger Eye Sumac. Certainly, it attracted her attention whenever she was in the vicinity. 

She finally nailed it one day last week and proceeded to "play" with it and one last toss in the air dispatched it to the Great Shew Beyond. (*2) However, once it was dead, a look of anguish seemed to cross her face. She sat and stared at it and all I can say is she seemed to experience some sort of existential remorse. Bob noticed this, too. (*3) Robin was no doubt analyzing the impermanence of life and considering what happens "afterwards". It affected her profoundly!

This is how Robin typically hunts. She up ends her toy box- which need frequent replacement as she chews the box apart as sport- and selects one toy to terrorize. (By the way, she totally ignores that pink camouflage alien in the front of the picture. Not sure why) She then shakes it and tosses it and eviscerates it.

Look at that face! You would never know that I had just spent twenty minutes performing surgery on this poor thing. Robin promptly pulled it's nose off, stuffing every where! I don't think she experiences and remorse about "killing" stuffed animals. I'm sure she knows the difference.

Although who knows? Maybe now that our little angel has tasted blood, and contemplated the loss of life, she'll reconsider her approach to hunting artificial game. She does look a bit contrite in the picture above...

(*1) And you would expect this as both her parents were field hunting dogs. You will perhaps recall that her mother, Chloe, was a Long Haired Weimaraner and her father, Gunnar, was a Llewellyn English Setter. 

(*2) I'm really glad she killed it as our previous dog Ricky used catch things but never figured out how to kill them. I followed her around with a shovel, finishing off what she had started. It was not the most fun I've ever had!

(*3) Yes, I know: many will find it anthropomorphizing and "inappropriate" to assign "human" emotions to dogs, but believe me, Robin the Good seemed bummed and confused.

Kitchen Make Over!

 

Anyone who has visited us in the past few years will attest that something needed to be done. Yes, "we" (*1) replaced some cabinets and the sink but our walls and cabinets were getting heavily used and showing it. I have been threatening to repaint the kitchen for... oh, maybe a year or two now. And Bob has been complaining about the stupid drawer pulls for quite a while. (*2) 

Annoyingly, when you used said little round knobs, you couldn't help but wear the paint off underneath in a dirty circular pattern. Nothing cute about that!

                                      

So in what seemed a spontaneous mutual eruption of  "Hey! Let's paint the kitchen today!" was actually several years in the making. First, Bob drilled holes to fit the new handles. Simple, clean, modern-looking metal pulls that work easily (and will hopefully eliminate the weird wear pattern) that we had purchased a month or so ago for just such a day as this. Then we had to remove all the handles and Bob sanded down all the handle areas where something like three or four layers of paint had worn away. Then he washed the cabinets. I busied myself with cleaning the louvered door leading into the utility room. There was a prodigious amount of dust and aerial-borne dander adhered to each slat. Cleaning done, we moved onto painting.

Here are our new handles, patiently waiting being screwed back on, after the paint job is complete. I wish I had photographed the stupid, round knobs before Bob removed them! But there's always a scary place that you forgot about... how about the area above the refrigerator. Noooooooooooooooo!!!!

Yeech! Look at that grime! And the worst thing is I had to make Bob clean and paint that as even on the ladder, my arm wasn't long enough to get the back wall. Bob dropped something he was cleaning with down behind the refrigerator, but we won't mention that!

But look! All that hard work paid off as a day and a half later, we have clean, fresh, white cabinets with new modern-looking handles! That are easy to use! No more scraping the paint off every time you open a cupboard. Yay!

And even Robin the Good's food corner is nice and clean. This corner was particularly awful with baked-on dog slobber (sorry Robin!) and some odd semi-domesticated spiders and just plain old accumulated dirt. Now I have to make Robin a new place mat...

The window sill demanded special treatment in the form of some advanced spackling and sanding, which Bob heroically executed, and then he even took the Venetian blinds down and laundered them outside. Now they, too, look almost new. Well done!!

Hard to capture in these pictures but the kitchen is now a wonderful room that you want to spend time in. Or even eat in! I am glad we had visitors last night, and are expecting my family this weekend as someone has to witness the magnificence of our new kitchen! (*3)

(*1) "I" had nothing to do with the sink and cabinet replacement except clean up. Bob and our good friend Joe executed all the construction and installation. I'm giving credit where it's very much due!

(*2) Stupid drawer pulls in question were "cute" little white balls. They did look quirky but after 11 years of fingers slipping and trying to get a grip on them, they weren't so cute after all. 

(*3) But unfortunately, inevitably, all that new freshness only reflects how dirty the paint and walls are in all the other parts of the house...

The "Famous" Blue Garden

 

 

If I do say so myself, The Blue Garden (or "The Booze Garden" lovingly dubbed thusly because of all those delightful blue beer and wine bottles) is really looking good this year. When I am feeling overwhelmed by the amount of planting/edging/weeding/maintenance that the totality of our horticultural empire requires, I visit The Blue Garden and feel at peace. It's filled in, it has texture and color (blue) and flowers and foliage and it looks pretty great!

It's hard to convey just how blue things really are. There's tall Delphinium (here in the center but hard to see!) that are the same light blue as the sky (guess that's why this cultivar is named "Summer Skies".) and a nifty blue bird's nest spruce that looks spectacular this year (thank you Beatrice and John! a birthday gift a few years back) and my Blue Atlas Cedar- nicknamed "The Etch-A-Sketch Tree" as it's very narrow...

 

That's a detail of the Bird's Nest. And you can sorta see the truly brilliant blue of the Veronica directly above it (if you squint!) Blue is a notoriously hard color to photograph as it's recessive and tends to disappear... don't I know!

Slightly (?) better photo of the "Summer Skies" Delphinium and  the Blue Atlas Cedar (It's the ratty looking thing just to the left of the bushy Chamaecyparis in the center. I LIKE those spindly odd-ball trees!!) And of course, blue bottles in buckets and on stalks and edging the walkway...

And yes, that's the lovely Robin the Good photobombing on the mosaic walk way! She's very reticent about letting me actually photograph her; I'm lucky I got her tail end! (But she's never far away.)

Ooops! I shot this picture before I mulched the Agave with white quartz rocks; it looks even more dramatic now! But this sucker is mighty impressive! I had to wear leather gloves when I transferred it from the container I purchased him to this metal urn. Did I mention that I like spindly, spiky plants? I guess I also like chunky, spiky plants! And it really is a great metallic blue. 

I know in past years of posting, I have featured The Blue Garden but it really has matured. And I do keep having fun seeking out those elusive blue flowers. Still to come are Heavenly Blue Morning Glories and hopefully, some Bachelor's Buttons. Somehow I lost the seeds for my Forget-Me-Nots (Cynoglossum "firmament"): not sure if I threw them away or some crazy bird stole the packet but poof! they were gone!