We decided to do a little renovating to fix the freezing cold back room and possibly stop the north wind from entering our kitchen. In February we called an insulation company. In March, they dropped by and gave an estimate. In April, they booked a date for a “two-day” job. We spent last weekend preparing the room. Last Monday the workers arrived… I’ll let you know when it’s finished.
Last fall I took a closer look at the white spots on one of the trees out front. The problem turned out to be worse than I thought: nasty critters called ‘scale’.
Given that:
I decided to get rid of the whole tree. Today.
Gardening is all I think and read about lately and the witch hazel tree was one of my early fall obsessions. I spent weeks reading about the 5 different species and 100s of varieties, only to find that none of the local nurseries had any in stock. Finally, I found a place that would order me one and I select the small, vase-shaped, bright red flowering Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Diane’.
I then spend a week building “structures” in the backyard to model how ‘Diane’ will look full grown and decide where to place it. When I get a call from the nursery I force Eric to immediately drop everything and drive out to help me fetch my baby tree.
The nursery staff notice my excitement, but nonchalantly mention they couldn’t get ‘Diane’. They substituted.
Jelena, I think– orange would be fine. Or Arnold Promise— more common, and yellow is not bad. But no.
They’d chosen a different species altogether. They’d ordered me a Hamamelis vernalis with no name. My heart sunk (I hadn’t researched this species at all), but I took it home anyway. Though it will be a different shape and colour, it has redeeming factors: it’s native to Missouri (just like Eric), more cold hardy (unlike Eric), and should do better in my clay soil…
Fingers crossed it doesn’t die before it’s supposed to bloom: late winter / early spring.
Eric, tired of feeling like he was immersed in the ocean, decided on Sunday to paint his office on Sunday. We’d found green paint in the basement and had some leftover painters tape, so what else did we need? Get to work!
After putting one coat on the bottom half of the room, we went out and bought an 8-foot ladder and some extra rollers. He also picked up some specialty paint to create a chalkboard wall. Here’s how:
Since we moved in, only one thing about the new house really bothered me– the thing in the living room. It may have once been a normal corner cabinet, but at some point a person with a handsaw decided to make it into a TV stand. Or maybe they had a pet beaver.
This is what it looked like before, sneakily disguised by houseplants. And here is the removal process:
I added some cheap “flare” to the downstairs bathroom by sewing some curtains myself. They’re mostly hemmed… got a bit too tired to sew the sides of the long ones. Anyway, they work!
