Mornings such as this.

Checking the weather channel it seems that we’ve turned a corner and while certainly not warm, it will do, I hope, to get a few of these early growers into the ground.   The entire area around the house is (still) in construction mode as the deck gets started, the screen porch finished up and the foundation is screaming for some landscaping.  I have to be careful not to overflow into these areas to avoid plants trampled by well-meaning work boots in a couple of weeks.  I am excited for the deck to be sure but struggle to stay away from moving that dirt around by the house ~ I’ve got a four foot wide walkway coming soon to these very spots, and gutters and downspouts yet to be installed.

I did go on a bit of a greenhouse visit with my little shopping buddy, our niece, soon-to-be-neighbor, and tried to hold back on flowers to purchase, but did pick up a few.   We were disappointed at one spot and hit the jackpot in another.   We have another favorite place to visit if we can get there, and of course, there’s the grocery stores and discount centers to pick up a filler or a new pot.  I never have done much yellow, except daffodils, always sticking closer to reds and pinks against my tan house, but to make this area a bit different I purchased two big yellow pots for the new porch steps, my house now a deep greenish grey.  I am excited about filling these two with the red, purple and pink impatiens, with spikes and ivy…just wait, I tell myself, be patient with your impatiens.  I also picked up a beautiful all white columbine and a peachy white foxglove for the moon garden area.  I am excited about these two although I admit I have not been very successful with columbine in other areas.  This morning I am concentrating on the path to the moon garden, moving some stepping stones and digging out small maples, keeping on with the raking and wood chips from a couple days ago.  Esmerelda still looks good, even though she wintered out there on her stump instead of the shed like I planned.

 

Those maple trees.  They are something else.  In a conversation with an acquaintance over the weekend he mentioned getting some trees for his yard and was on his way to pick up a maple and a dogwood.  I literally shuddered, may have gasped,  even though I knew he was talking about a beautiful red maple shade tree…not these parasitic maples I have sprouting throughout the woods. I cleared most of the maples out of the area of the moon garden last year so this spring is an easier go, but, two feet outside of the clearing is probably 200 of those little devils.  While that does sound like a lot, having held 50 in my hands at one time I know it is a fair guess. 

This is a beautiful time in the wooded areas of our place.  The flowers that come out in the spring aren’t here long, but while they are, they are sure enjoyed.  This was a fast season for the many daffodils that dot our property, with all the rain and I mostly missed them ~ however, the redbuds and dogwoods have been pretty spectacular.  I was out early this morning, just around sunrise, thinking about what project I might tackle there today.  I need to turn some attention to inside the house as well but oh, how it calls me.  

Out with the old, and in with the old.

There are times when I feel like I am totally modern, totally contemporary and “with it”.  I may be kidding myself, but, I do try to keep up a bit, you know? I don’t want to be one of those ladies stuck in the late 90s, with my personal style or even the style in my home.  I don’t need to be trendy, but, I don’t mind a bit of “Oh, that’s a nice, on-trend choice” every once in a while.

Decorating the house as the interior part of the renovation comes to a close has been a real dilemma at times.  I’d like to have all new furnishings, but, that would be crazy.  I have good furnishings now.  I’d like to have all new plates and bowls and glasses.  But, what do I do with all these plates, bowls and glasses I have now?

Never was this more apparent than when I took down the plate rail and emptied the china cabinet before painting the foyer.  All the cut glass items that my mom and aunt and mother-in-law had lovingly passed on to me.  Some with great family history, some with a garage sale price tag still visible on the bottom as it was just something they saw and “picked up, thought you would like it”.  When I was much younger I was in to pitchers, and I have some great ones…but, I also have a few not so great, and some very user unfriendly creamers and sugars.  Really?

Trying to decide what to do with some of these items has been heart-wrenching and a great release, too.  I have a box of things already priced for an upcoming garage sale and a box of things that will go back in to a display of sorts and another box that will, well, go up in the attic I guess.

The china cabinet is gone now and the old, golden oak plate rail was laying in the middle of the floor.  We stood in the foyer and reminisced about picking up the plate rail, a gift from hubs to me on an early anniversary…before kids even.  It was a special order from an Amish cabinet maker and my first trip to Amish country, and it was cold and rainy.  When my husband was loading it into the car and told me to hang on to one end he successfully dropped it on my head.  It became an often referred to inside joke…about him trying to kill me to collect my insurance, of which I had none, and escape to an island or something.  He has accidentally hit me in my head many times over the years…with a ladder, or a limb, or a board.  I am often the only one around to help on a project and I’m so much shorter than he is, which I think he doesn’t consider, and ker-plunk, followed by “Oh, I’m sorry, honey”, leaving me to murmur “uh huh” for the hundredth time. 

So we stood there and looked at all the little, old-fashioned spindles, recently carried around and called “people” by our two-year-old granddaughter, and thought about our early days.  I said “What the heck. I know its old-fashioned, but I like that plate rail” and back up on the wall it went, me holding it, waiting for it, or the level, to fall on my head while husband screwed it back into place.  I have a new fridge, dishwasher and oven.  I have a fancy big screen TV and am “on trend” in the choice of my cool grey walls.  I can manage a bit of old-fashioned.