Day Brightener

Tomato

I have a ripe tomato from my garden.

That is all.

Albus Dumbledore

Meet Albus.

Albus is an English Angora bunny. But he thinks he's a cat.

He sleeps with the cats, refuses to be locked in his cage, and is
completely litter trained. He's rather cuter and less destructive than the cats.
Really bunnies are better.

Bunny?! There's a bunny on the porch?!

Plus Albus can provide me with beautiful fiber to spin. Here is some
of his baby fiber spun and N-plied. I got around 45 yards of the plied yarn.

You can't beat a cute, sweet,
adorable, funny, fuzzy critter who provides you with the best compost for
the garden AND beautiful warm yarn.

Coming Up Roses

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Deck is painted, actually two of them. I need to paint the one
in the other yard. I like the finish product, not so crazy about
the painting. MN peeps - see those pansies? Those should last through
the fall. We'll see how long I can coax them to bloom.

My clearance roses are blooming. This one is one of 3 climbing roses.

This line of 4 is going nuts.

Not bad for 3.00 clearance roses planted in late June.

Neptune rose in the front is blooming quite a bit too.

So are the dahlias

And the salvia

Finally, we did buy a swing (70% off!) so once in awhile we can sit and enjoy it..

Projections

As not highlighted in the last post, clearly there has been a steep learning curve with building things. I knew how to use a drill, but did not know how to use a saw well. I don't take great measurements, and there's the fact I SUCK at math. Math is occasionally critical. I was insanely proud when my bunny run turned out, but hanging shelves can put me into tears of frustration. There's a lot of measuring, and stud finding, not to mention drilling at funky angles and holding a heavy shelf at a funky height.

But still, shelves had to go up. For one thing, I wanted to place a fish tank in my house. After the horrors of the cats at the last house, I wanted a shelf above it to eliminate them jumping on top. Smart right?

Except after 16 holes looking for the studs, it became clear that the wall I was placing the tank on, was a false wall without studs placed except where they had dry walled. So, my shelf wouldn't fit.

Undeterred by the holes, I went back, and bought an 8 foot shelf and installed it. Ha! Solved that.

In the next couple days, I hung a mirror and did some other projects, but the fact I had an extra shelf rather nagged me. After some discussion, we decided to hang it in the guest room. Somewhat an expert now, I quickly located the studs on one side, and then we used anchors on the other side. Super fast install, it looked great and off I went to play outside in the gardens.

That night, my mom called me over to show me the door to the guest room. It's a pocket door, that slides into the wall. It had been a long day, and I was tired. I was more than a little annoyed when she showed me it was stuck. "How did you break THIS?" I asked. She just told me to look again.

I did.

I, being the shelf expert I was, had found a great stud. In the form of the pocket door. Yes, our guest room door is now stuck 2/3 open. With 3 inch screws. I rock.

Evidently I need to install another shelf. After I take it down and putty the huge holes in the door, and remeasure it all. Sigh.

I Have a Little Project...

From 1987 - 2004 the Seattle Mariners had a great, awesome, should be in the Hall of Fame but isn't yet because he was mostly known as a designated hitter player named Edgar Martinez. Edgar, along with being an amazing hitter, who could shoot doubles out like it was batting practice, (Seriously, .312 batting average career, .418 OBP!) also happened to be cute, sweet, and had an ADORABLE accent. Just to be clear here, I am not one of those annoying females who watches baseball for the cute guys. I hate that. I recently attended a game with someone who did that. Drive. Me. Nuts. Hello, they are athletes and I respect them. But I will say, Edgar is adorable.

Anyway, Eagle Hardware, a local chain, hired Edgar to be their spokesperson. And did some incredible commercials. Here is proof:

Wanna see him bat? Amazing form! Oh how I miss these guys!

Anyway. After these Eagle commercials, everytime I start to think of doing something around the house I say (in a really bad accent) I have a little Pro-yect...

Moving into a new house means you have pro-yects. Big pro-yects, little pro-yects, necessary pro-yects, optional pro-yects. Wanna see some of my Pro-yects? I mean projects?

Ok, I had a lot of help with this one - not from Edgar unfortunately.
It's our new screened n porch.

The kitties are now allowed outside into the porch. They LOVE it!

Flowers! I have been going crazy in the garden.

I built the bunnies a bunny tractor. I didn't have much help.
It's sturdy, secure, and made almost entirely out of recycled items I had
around the house already.

The buns LOVE it!

I painted and trimmed the door on the boathouse. Next is to paint
the trim and upper boards. But first I have to get that tree fixed up.

Painted the front door purple, and also the porch white. It just looks so perky!

I also have done some raised beds, but I'll have to take pictures of those 'pro-yects' later.

Farmers Market Salads

We've become regular visits to the farmers market here, and each week I try to think up ways to use their ingredients in our meals.

Today was no different, except for the first time all year the temperature had crept over 75 (yes, over 75) and people were complaining over the heat and leaving early. Now, I know this is nothing compared to most of the country, but for here, the few days over 75 a year, are dreaded by most of the locals. I have a hunch most people live on the coast because it doesn't get warm.

To combat the heat, I made our market finds today into salads, one hot, one cold.

The first salad is a dill potato salad. Unfortunately I couldn't find fresh dill this week,
so I used dill from the store, but the results were still great.

I used baby yukon gold potatoes, boiled them till tender and mixed
olive oil, dill, and dijon mustard together in a bowl.

Drain and toss the still hot potatoes in the dressing and serve. SO GOOD! So fast, and easy!

 

 

The next salad I took pear tomatoes and cherry tomatoes and halved them.
I drained and rinsed a can of black beans, and dumped that in a bowl with
about 2 cups of frozen corn. Added the tomatoes, some balsamic, a little olive oil,
and salt and pepper. I added some fresh basil and chives and served. Easy, refreshing and colorful.

Tomorrow we're supposed to be cooler. Good thing cause Ramses wants to go to the beach.

July Recap?

It's nice outside I think I'll play,
too many things to do today.

I can't stay inside, where's the fun in that?
We live at the beach now, where's my hat?

Into the sunshine I will go,
to build things in the sand and soil.

Out of wood cat houses and gardens will come,
Each a work in progress, rustic say some.

I'll dig and I'll toil and in my spare time,
I'll play with the kids and dogs, this will be fine.

Sleep isn't necessary or any good,
cause I need to build things out of this huge stack of free wood.

Afterall, it's summer and too soon it will go,
Wait a minute, this isn't Minnesota, there won't be any snow!

Now that the Tour de Fleece is over, and the kids have tearfully left town,
August will make time slow a little bit down.

But knowing me probably not,
right now I seem to be painting a lot.

A scheme is developing for the old boat house,
which involves lots of flowers, and yellow paint to douse.

Not to mention the garden building galore,
and somewhere in the mix I fit knitting and spinning once more.

But it's all great fun, too you see.
As everything is perfect, when you move to the Sea.