A Walk Around the Yard

Let's take a walk around the yard and enjoy the beauty that is June.  We can start with the garden by the door, now blooming with many white flowers, including a Mexican geranium and some salvia.  

If we walk counterclockwise and out into the street we get a good view of the north side with its long perennial bed and backdrop of large dogwood shrubs.  

During the twelve years this house was rented out the gardens were sorely neglected and we've spent the seven years that we've lived here uncovering them and figuring out what we have.  It was only a couple of years ago that we found two really lovely roses in the back of the bed and last year I found a pretty plant that I think is a foxglove.  But I think we've found everything now!

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Near the driveway is a big rose bush that we inherited from our friend Paula's mother a couple of years ago.  We had a few blooms last year, but look at it now!  All that rain we got in May really gave the rose, peonies, poppies, and iris a boost.  That crimson flower in the front is a peony, also from Paula's mom.  

On the other side of the driveway are other roses, most of which we planted since we moved here.

And past that is a lawn and then the shed which is sorely in need of repairs which are scheduled for sometime soon.  A carpenter is going to fix various problems with the framing and then reside it to match the house.  Should look great, yes?  The garden to the street side of the shed is an overgrown mess and the irrigation there isn't working anymore, so that will be something to tackle after the shed work is done.  It'll be tricky since we don't want to fix the irrigation problem.  For the moment, I'm just glad it's green, since without water it will soon be brown and crispy again. 

To the right of the shed is a nice bed with some ornamental grasses, a couple of day lilies and a lovely delphinium.   Then we go through the gate and into the backyard which contains two raised beds where we're growing some veggies and some annuals.  Ben had the good idea to replace the old beat up railroad ties with stone, which turned out very well.   Oops, looks like I need to stake the delphiniums!

Here's a view of the stone raised beds which replaced the old wooden ones. 

Those tall white things are stakes to hold up the six dahlias when they get big.  Right now they are only inches tall, but just wait.  They'll be two to four feet tall in another month or two. 

And here you can see the backyard itself which is Turbo's domain.  All those white round things in the grass are Turbo's balls.  

Bit by bit we're giving attention to the plants around the sides of the backyard. About half of the green stuff you see are "junk trees" and shrubs, but last year we did plant a clematis and a Nine Bark shrub which are both doing great this season, and for the first time the two rose climbing rose bushes are blooming; yippee!  You can see one here. 

As we come around the back we approach the patio which covers the space between our house and our next door neighbor.  This photo is taken looking towards the backyard.  We have several nice bushes and plants that the landscape company planted.  Much to my surprise they all are thriving.   

And we have added several pots, some with flowers and some with herbs. 

The little pots on the wall are holding mint.  Gotta have mint!

Well, as you can tell we have plenty of garden to keep us busy.  And you might think that it takes us a lot of time to keep it looking ship shape, but really it doesn't, even without hiring any help.   

Ben manages the grass, including growing and cutting it.  He's also ready to do any digging needed to put in new plants and any whacking needed to get rid of dead ones.  And he is a great pruner. 

I'm the procurer of all small plants and we team up when it's time to buy big or expensive ones.  I do most of the planning and I do the unsung but vital job of keeping the grass dog-waste free.  

We've learned over the years not to grow things where you can't see them easily or can't water them easily, and those lessons have saved us a lot of time and disappointment.  

But most importantly, we stop gardening when it "feels too much like work,"  knocking off for the day before we are too tired out.  When it stops being fun we put the tools away, get cleaned up, and take a break.  After all, you have to stop and smell the roses!

A Transformation

This is the basement "bonus room" back in early 2014, just after we bought our house.  Along with the tiny bathroom next door, it made a perfect bedroom for Paul.  He set it up so one end was the gaming zone and the other was the bedroom, and we painted two of the four walls green, which was still Paul's favorite color at the time. 

When he moved out in early September I decided to claim the space for me and Ben.  I had visions of an area where several people could watch TV on a big screen, where there would be a nice rug to stretch out on when the mood to exercise hit, and where a bed would be all ready to hold Paul or guests or even me or Ben if the need arose.   Our upstairs guest/TV/office room only held two people comfortably, it always took a while to set the pull out sofa bed up, and we had no floor space open anywhere in the house for stretching or doing pilates or yoga poses.   

Having established the goals for the redesign of the bonus room space, the first decision was what color to repaint it.  After trying several samples on the walls I began to realize that I was a bit reluctant to paint over Paul's green.  Somehow losing that green was symbolic of losing my little boy.  Once I worked through that little issue I quickly decided that the new color would be Benjamin Moore's Steel Blue, a lovely blue grey that made me smile as soon as I saw it.     

Another big decision was what to put down for flooring.  The old carpet had to go since we'd had two small floods at one end of the room which resulted in about a third of the carpet being ripped up a year or so ago.   With the help of our interior designer friend, Lotus, we chose waterproof luxury vinyl in a deep walnut finish.   (We believe we've licked the water problem, but you never know.) 

I was really glad that we didn't do the installation when I saw how hard the two-man crew worked and what a great job they did.  

Ta da!  After a day's hard work the floor was down!  Ben is resting on the bed which the workmen kindly moved into its new position.  We were tired out from searching area consignment shops for some new-to-us pieces of furniture and getting rid of old things we didn't need anymore in this space.  I'm glad we live in a town where it's easy enough to find good used furniture and glad that we bought Ben's new old truck just in time to use in moving things in and out. 

Then we spent about a week prepping and then painting the ceiling and walls.  That was a lot of work!  We were too busy to take photos, but I'm sure you can imagine the chaos.  

But, finally it was over and now we have lovely space to watch our new 65" TCL screen, which Paul helped us pick out and get set up.   Check out the cool TV stand that Ben found online at Onkron.  It's on rollers so if you want to watch it while laying in the bed, you can roll it forward.  It also doesn't take as much space as the old style entertainment centers, and since we're just streaming nowadays we don't need shelves for components such as DVD players.  We moved the rug down from the old TV/guest room, the tail end of a sequence of moves involving rugs.     

In this photo you can see the bed area.  We moved the big ottoman from the small TV/guest room upstairs and it fits much better down here while providing another place to sit and a place to hold blankets to cuddle up in on our new-to-us chairs.  Can you tell when chair is "mine" and which is Ben's? 

And here you get an idea of how the rug offers an incentive to get down on the floor for some stretching.  The little ottoman (from Target!) is easy to move and the closet holds various straps and props used for stretching in front of the big mirror.   

So, it's all done now and we're very happy with the result.  We watched an action-packed movie down there last night and it was great, with lots of space and an open but still cozy feel. 

And in case you're wondering, this lovely swivel chair is "mine."   

The Last Days of Summer

Our long spell of hot and smoky days ended Sunday when a cold front moved through in a big rush, causing a twenty degree drop in temperature.  Yesterday was cool and cloudy and windy, the kind of raw fall day that finds you making pancakes for breakfast, which we did!  Today dawned bright and clear. 

As we thought, the arrival of students back at CU has resulted in a spike in our COVID numbers.   It is alarming, but it helps to see a visual chart like the one below where the light blue denotes the cases that are from CU students and the dark blue denotes the county residents.  It seems clear where the problem lays.  

As a result, the City of Boulder declared that CU students aged 18-22 years old could no longer "gather," and actually quarantined several fraternity and sorority houses that had hosted large parties as the school year began.   A "gathering" was first defined as "more than one person," but today the ruling was redefined to mean "more than two people," so at least two students can walk across campus together, or two roommates could go grocery shopping. 

 I do feel a bit sorry for all these lonely students, but then I feel a bit sorry for all us oldsters who simply want to get through this pandemic without getting sick or worse.  As you might imagine, the new ruling doesn't sit well with many students.  Notice the "Where is my money?" included on this sign. 

We've been doing a lot of painting down in the basement in preparation for new floors being installed tomorrow.  Paul's old green walls are going to end up a "Steel Blue," which should look great with all the bright white woodwork on the windows and closets.  But that painting happens after the floor goes in, since the baseboards will all be taken out as the new floor is laid over the old, and when they go back in they will be a bit higher than they are now.  So it's better to paint the walls after the floor is in.  

But meanwhile we painted the ceiling in Paul's old room and over most of the yellow walls in the adjacent utility area.  We also reworked the little alcove where the little fridge has been living for a few years now, giving it some different storage containers.  

Here is a "before" photo....

...And here is an "after." 

Although the alcove is now Steel Blue, the stairway and walls near the door are all now grey.  Goodbye sunny yellow and hello soothing grey! 

I don't think I ever wrote about how I finished the leaf quilt that I last mentioned way back on August 5th.  

I quilted it very heavily, which I enjoyed doing very much. 

Here's a detail of the back showing some of the dense quilting.   I really enjoyed creating this quilt and look forward to hanging it in the living room for the fall season.  Thanks again to quilt artist Rian Ammerman for posting her tutorial on the process she's worked out for creating this type of piece. 

Ben has been busy with his own creative project, the updating of a 2000 Ford Ranger XL, which he bought two hours after the owner, our neighbor, put a "For Sale" sign in its front and rear windows.  Talk about an quick sale!  Well, Ben has wanted a truck for some time and this one was easy to buy at a great price.  Not only will it be great for schlepping things -- we've already schlepped a used dresser from the thrift store to Paul's new digs -- but it will be a great vehicle for Paul to use when he learns to drive.  When Paul first sat in the truck his comment was, "Do you think Dad will let me buy this from him?"  Well, probably, but first you need to get a driver's license!  Ah, well, all things in their time. 

Ben has already given the truck a good cleaning, upgraded the seats, and replaced the rear latch.  Next up, new door handles.  

And the other big news around here is that we bought a gas fire table from Costco, just perfect for warming up the cool nights outside.  Add a few faux fur blankets and we may be able to do some "social distanced" visiting on the patio this winter.  

For soon enough our Indian Summer will be gone and the darker, colder fall and winter months will be here.  

Already the colors are changing, and if Ben and I don't get up to the high country soon to see the golden Aspens, they'll have turned without us enjoying their display.    

One Week to Christmas!

It's just one week to Christmas, which in my mind means it's time to par down the "to do" list and simplify!

A while back we got a few snowflake lights hung, just in time for the big Thanksgiving snow.  We added a wreath and that's it for this year.  It's not much but it makes me smile when I come home.

Last weekend we made a quick trip down to McGuckins, our local hardware store, and with very little fuss found a suitable tree.  We weren't sure how the tree would be received by our puppy and Sheeba, the rescue cat that came to live with us in the spring, so we let it sit in the living room a few days without any decorations.  They both seemed remarkably uninterested in it so we added lights.   But we only put on about half the usual ornaments, and you know what?  It's just fine. 

After all, we have so many great holiday lights and decorations to enjoy in downtown Boulder.

I spent about two weeks doing some holiday sewing and decorated the living room with a newly made wall hanging and a table runner.

The wall hanging was a kit, meaning that I bought a package created by Maywood Studio called "Most Wonderful Time Projects" and it came with all the instructions and fabric for the wall hanging.   I usually don't buy kits or even patterns, but I fell in love with the luscious thick flannel supplied with this one.   I liked it so much that I bought some extra fabric to make two more projects, a table runner for me and one for my wonderful sister, Jean.

Here's the wall hanging.

I did a lot of free motion quilting around the various motifs, which was just plain fun. 

For my runner I did some straight stitching with a cool variegated threat, which I loved on the black flannel. 

I didn't use a pattern for the runners but just put left over fabric pieces together.  The panel on Jean's runner was included in the kit, but I had to figure out how to border it so it would be the right size for her table.   

I had a lot of fun making these pieces and still have scraps leftover.  Yesterday I saw them and thought "It's not too late to make a little runner or mug rug."  But then I remembered it's only a week to Christmas and it is too late!  I'm not going to stress out this year, but just sit back and relax the next few days.  Well, and think about food.  We are making Christmas dinner and then doing a special meal on New Year's day.     

One reason I feel like we've done enough already and are ready for a calm week is that we had 13 new windows installed last week.  Our windows were thirty years old and not in good shape so it was time to replace them.  It was a slow process for the workmen since we had installed our new Hardiboard siding and trim last year and the trim had to be uninstalled, the windows carefully taken out, new windows put in and then the trim reinstalled once the windows were in.  Of course this meant nothing could be in front of the windows while the work was being done, so it wasn't a good time to get the tree or otherwise decorate.  But it's done now and the new windows are great.  Our workmen were nice and competent, but I was glad when we got our house back! 

Here's a before...    

And an after.  The double hung windows are gone, replaced with lovely casements which provide an unbroken expanse of glass and big openings which will be so great in the summers, since we have no a.c.  

Well, I'm almost done but I have to give a brief Turbo report. 

He is 5 1/2 months old now and is acting more grown up.   I'm already nostalgic for my little puppy, but I'm not missing that puppy biting!  

Here he is with his new friend Milo, sitting "like a proper dog," as Paul says.  It looks like Milo taught him, doesn't it?

He loves most other dogs and all people.  If we're walking and someone comes towards us on the sidewalk, Turbo wiggles all over with the anticipation of meeting a new friend.  If the person doesn't want to meet Turbo, he is one disappointed pup!

Here he is on a puppy play date with Delta, who lives up the street.  They mostly box and bite and roll around and have a great time; this was one brief moment of quiet.

Don't tell, but Turbo is getting a new dog bed for Christmas, having just about outgrown his little round one.

I'm all done Christmas shopping and am now ready to just enjoy the holiday lights, food, music, and, of course, seeing people I love.

I also like my annual hunt for a really good Christmas book.  Over the years I think I've read all the classics, but I keep trying to find something new that's good.  My latest try was Wrapped up in Christmas which read like a Hallmark movie, which made sense when I realized it was published by Hallmark.  I liked it for a while but lost interest and skipped ahead to the end.  Guess what? She got her man and he got his woman.  A quilt was involved which is why I read it in the first place, and it was okay, but not really good.  Nice cover, though!

Maybe I'll have better luck with Nancy Thayer's Nantucket Christmas.  If nothing else, it will be fun to read about Christmas in charming Nantucket!

Wishing everyone a relaxing and joyful holiday!

Linking to my friend LeeAnna's "I Like Thursdays" at Not Afraid of Color