Monday

Hydrangea's last white bloom
but these flowers turn green and are still pretty

Let's start and end with blooms since that's what this blog wants to do.  I tried all blooms at end, but blog's not cooperating, so I am going with the flow!

Not flowering, but grapes turning purple

Phlox continue to welcome the morning

Watermelon and Cantelope flowering all over;
only a few fruit

Well thought they would never leave, but they finally finished the bathroom. Here's the final views (blinds are temporary). Much brighter and we have electric plugs and no extension cords!

So what next? Well now we have a problem in the kitchen - water on the floor from washing machine suddenly appeared on the other side of the kitchen.  Today maybe I'll just put my head in the sand and not use the washer. Company is coming and I have much to much else to do.

Goldenrod, weeping willow, hellenium,
and garden viewed from hillside

Let's smell the Roses again.  Took a walk-about and here are some of the things still blooming. There are many new weeds with pretty flowers but have to spend some time with my books to identify those so will save for another day.

Anemones just starting

Spider Flowers (next to
Peppers that just won't change color)

These peppers came from seeds I took from little yellow, red and orange peppers that were yummy. There are lots of little green peppers here, but show no sign of being the pretty colors I expected. 

My Aunt used to call these summer lilies  but they are Hostas. Nelson planted these Dahlias- and they've flourished even though the bugs are loving the leaves.

Hostas and Dahlias

Doggy Love

Well today requires two blog postings. Max's "girlfriend" came to visit today. They had a wonderful time chasing squirrels and each other around our yard.  Baby has such focus - tree-ed a squirrel and then stayed there with incredible single focus looking up at it! Max had little interest in the squirrel, but lots of interest in Baby. Neither one of them even noticed the 8 ft (my guess; didn't measure it) black snake that was near them. They jumped over it as though it was just a raised root, of which there are many in that area, as they ran around the yard.  Snake is at top of the picture of the dogs. Black Rat Snakes when startled,  may freeze and wrinkle themselves into a series of kinks. That's what this guy was doing.  N called it "playing possum"; snake didn't move; I called it a warning to me - "stay away." It's supposed to be good to have these around as they eat mice, rats, and other little critters. The wrap themselves around them and squeeze them prior to eating. Not sure if the dogs are considered "little" by the snake, and hope not to find out. Baby would give it a good fight; Max would just think it was "loving him."

Black Snake

Hey, whatcha looking at? See snake behind them- at very top of the picture?

 

Last Day of Workman for a while

Only a couple days until company comes and since all the sanding makes a mess, plan was for today to be last day I'm having workmen in the house..  Upstairs work is done for now (l could spend days with work up there, but that's all for this year). The darkening of the hall woodwork didn't come out as well as we hoped, but I think looks  a little better.  The bedroom looks a whole lot better.

So then the question became what can I have them do in 1 1/2 days. The downstairs bathroom seemed possible so that's where we went next. The bathroom had vanity light bar and two lights on either side of the mirror - all turned on with pull chains. We really only used the two lights and the vanity light bar was awful looking (my opinion).  The side lights had plugs in the bottom of them to plug in a hair dryer, shaver, or the fan (see the cord?).  I'm using the same "cream-in-my-coffee" color that I used upstairs. We took out all the lights and replaced with one light bar, putting in a GFI recepticle, switch for the light, and recepticle near the fan. That one is raised as it's an outside wall and didn't want to open it up, so will put a small piece of electrical channel on wall.  First problem was that the connection for the 36" light bar was about where the second light (from left) resided.  At Lowes, the only place anywhere nearby to get light fixtures, there weren't a lot of choices that would work (all uglier that what was already there) unless you wanted silver color which would not have gone well with the vanity mirror. The contractors had an idea though that we decided would work. So I bought a 4-light bronze-colored light bar. Long story short, they found a method to connect a light bar in the center over the mirror.  Next problem, the hot wire that powers all the lights was behind the light on the left of the mirror. We had already decided the switch and GFI should be on the right since the door opens onto the wall on the left and would need to jump off this for the outlight by the window. Also when they disconnected the power for the left light in the bathroom, it disconnected power to the garage, side porch, the hallway lights, the TV, the desk (computers), and probably more that we don't even know about. Aren't old houses wonderful?  "No problem," they said- and they worked it out.  So 1/2 day was done and the electrical was ready; still needed to install light, close up the holes, and paint (hm turns out it's a problem to paint same day as putting up new plaster, so they are coming back Monday morning to finish that up)  I'd never seen the inside of the wall, and it was interesting- see picture.  No this isn't the new light bar; waiting on painting foe install of that.

State of bathroom until Monday

Inside the Bathroom wall

Day 3 of painting

The TV is reconnected and so now we have heard about the hurricane coming to the Bahamas and east coast of the US and the earthquakes that rocked the US in the east and west. We did not feel the earthquake at all here in Rural Retreat.

Yesterday I tried some new things with tomatoes - roasted some (have good flavor, but not sure I will use that recipe again and made tomato basil soup which I have not yet tasted.  Nelson finished coating/re-sealing the driveway and garage floor - it's been a several day project. Spent the evening and this morning putting things back in the TV room. Still need to have the bookshelves (normally behind the door which hold my cookbooks and other books (which as Nelson says, no one looks at) put back up. He promises to do it, but is off playing golf right now.

The workman are going to do the upstairs back bedroom today. Once we moved all the furniture from the walls, I was kind of shocked to see what bad condition the walls are in.  Can't really get a picture to show you, but the lathe actually can be seen behind the plaster in a lot of places. Also many cracks in the plaster and there was some old water damage (see picture) where paint peeled and ceiling was stained. Interestingly to me, when they took the peeling paint off, behind the pink there is greenish yellow (celery maybe?) and behind that a dark grey-blue. Definitely a long time since it was painted. Like downstairs, the window sill has little paint left on it. The rest of the woodwork in here (except for some paneling) is all stained walnut. They are going to try to make the paneling look more walnut color, we'll see how that works. We have same idea for the woodwork in the upstairs hallway that is also a light color so doesn't even remotely match the other woodwork. They caulked the cracks and then sanded; hope that works. Don't want to ruin the "ambience" and historic value of the house by correcting the entire situation. - really don't want to spend the amount of money that redoing the walls entirely would entail. J

 Before pictures:

Paneling in pink bedroom

Pink bedroom

Hallway closet

Water damaged wall and ceiling

Afterwards, it's no longer pink, now "Cream in my coffee" - can still see the lathe but not the cracks ;  haven't put everything back yet but will before my sister arrives next week.  They still need to finish the woodwork by the window. The other woodwork isn't darkening very well;  we'll discuss if worth doing any more work on that tommorrow.

ceiling and walls completed

Redecorating

Not related to redecoratiung but a  cantelope was picked - but it was partially green inside - so much for the "tendril clue" - will need to find another clue for picking.. but may be a while. Hopefully our nights, which are getting a little too cool, won't hurt the rest of our garden.

Window after panelling

Well the redecorating of first room is almost done. You've seen this picture before, but I'm showing it again to have all on same page. This is my brother-in-law in the TV room writing down the things he needs to get before his brother arrives and they begin the transformation. This lovely wallpaper is actually on paneling which came pre-papered, called Abitibi - this is the Late Summer pattern. Appropriate time to change it, don't you think?  On the outside wall behind this paneling, there are sheets of foam insulation,  The window sill had virtually no paint on it any more and the rest of the trim wasn't much better, The ceiling was also lowered when this lovely  Late Summer pattern was installed time and acoustical ceiling tiles put in with insualtion above it. This room actually has a pretty pattern (Golden veil) and since painting it would destroy the acoustical properties of, I am leaving it alone. The guys put the new panelling up right over the Abitibi paneling which is pretty much the only way to do it, unless you want the whole house to fall down   J. They put crown molding up at the top and added some trim around the window (to hide the edges of the new paneling). After all this time of thinking there is a metal strip between the Abitibi paneling boards, we found it's plastic. They used a knife to cut it off the strip on the outside of the paneling. One wall had wood paneling on it already and we left that. You can see it on the pictures below. 

ceiling and crown molding

Pre primer - old paneling

All is primed

After much discussion with the painters we agreed on a course of action for the older woodwork. I believe latex paint was put on the stained woodwork with no prep work, so there were lots of cracks in the paint, and places it was peeling off.  So they sanded it, cleaned it, and then put oil based primer on it.  They also primed the older paneling so it could be painted. It had some stain marks on it that had been hidden by pictures and a wall lamp;  not sure what made the stains but looks much better painted.  I thought as long as we were adding a new color to the room, I'd have them paint the old white bookcase and the awful black TV table (which looks dusty again about two seconds after it's dusted) the same color as the old paneling. After first day here's there's a view with primer on the paneling and then the final pictures before putting TV, books and furniture back.. Doors didn't turn out as well as I hoped, but they were in pretty bad shape.  Now workmen they are upstairs.   Whole new set of problems for another day's blog.

Painted furniture

Door to kitchen shows both panelling

August Gardening

Harvesting food is very rewarding until you see it all piled up and think, "what in the world shall I do with all this?" It's a simple solution - Can, cook, and eat; can cook and eat, ditto, ditto.  Soooooooo... more tomatoes, more pickles, more relish, more zucchini bread, more zucchini quiche, and a new dessert (thanks to my Tampa friend) -zucchini/lemon squares (tastes sprisingly like apples) .  Then there are the things we are still anxiously awaiting being ready to pick - we've been hoping the internet contributors are right about how to tell if they are ripe. A couple are close - we think. Haven't got the ear for when thumping will tell me anything, so resorting to other clues, like the tendril near the watermelon dying, etc.

Cantelope

Watermelon - almost ready we think

Watermlon wannabes- can vine support?

Hostas

The purple grapes are starting to turn color- another few weeks for them and they'll be ready for juice/jelly making.  Hostas are in bloom and still have phlox, bittersweet nightshade, and lots of huge daisy like weeds and goldenrod.  Life is good!


What I did today!

Doesn't look like much; I am amazed at how many tomatoes I had to peel and seed to get this sauce. The pickles were a snap in comparison. Also took guests to airport, walked the dog and picked paint colors for painting project for next week.

Spaghetti Sauce

Dill Pickles

Back in Va

Left Florida and high 90's weather and am back in Va.   Got off the plane and it was very cold to me - 67 or so.. It was a cool welcome home with some rain all day.  My family had been busy while I was gone. TV room looks totally different and many improvements and repairs since I left! Still more to do - woodwork needs to be painted and will paint the old panelling with coordinated color. Stay tuned!

TV Room Before

TV Room after panelling - pre paint

So what's growing? Still have zuchinni; cucumbers and peppers are increasing; lots and lots of tomatoes; limas (very sweet), and some green beans. And flowers around the house include Hosta, spirea, and butterfly push plus lots  of flowering wild flowers (or weeds depending on your viewpoint):

Mini-peppers

Hosras

Think this is Hydrangea tree

Been Busy

At Hungry Mother Park

We are eating - a favorite pasttime

Haven't updated the blog in a while so thought I'd get caught up. Grandkids, Lynley and Jonathan, and Nelson's sister, Luci, and her husband, Butch, came and we had a fun time together! The boys are very handsome (I think) and were full of energy. We hiked, swam, kayaked, went shooting, played games and ate a lot!


The day they left I went back to Fl for the Sectionals 3.5 USTA tennis championships. Our team had won the local level and then at the regional level and so we went to Daytona Beach for the Florida Region Championship. We didn't win but had a great time and made a good showing, We lost the first two matches 2-3 with many of the courts losing in close tiebreakers! Today we won wue match 4-1 but didn't make much difference in standings. But no matter -  We had a ball.

Out to Dinner

Kelly Hansen & Ginny winning

The Sunday Players- won 4-1