Strange Bedfellows

Yesterday afternoon, I walked into our dining room and found this little scene ...

The cats have taken to using this little dog bed as a napping spot from time to time.  Looks to me like Maggie was already there and Winnie decided that there was room enough in that upper corner to share.  It's Winnie's bed, after all.

Winnie seems to be fine with the situation ... but that look on Maggie's face and the set of her ears tell us that she's thinking something entirely different.

If Looks Could Kill

Ruby uses the dining room window as her spot from which to view the world.  (She is up there doing that right now, as a matter of fact.)  She perches with her back feet on the church pew below the window, her elbows on the windowsill, and she looks for bunnies and groundhogs and all other types of intruders.  

For the past few days, Maggie has been enjoying the same windowsill for afternoon sunbathing.  

I was fortunate to be sitting here with my iPad, so I could capture what happened yesterday while Maggie was snoozing in the sun and Ruby charged up there, thinking that she heard something in 'her' yard.

Maggie:  What do you think you're doing?  This is MY window now.

Ruby:  We can share.  I think there's a groundhog out there.

Ruby:  (snuffle, snuffle, snuffle)

Maggie:  (looks disgusted)

Ruby:  back to guard duty.

Maggie:  Stupid dog.

A Typical Scene Around Here

We don't eat at the dining table very often anymore.  Because of this, we tend to use the table as a place to set things ... and the items promptly become invisible and they can stay there unnoticed for days.  The humans don't pay attention to the stuff.  Dorothy and Alice think that it makes a great place to nap.

That is Dorothy on my computer bag, and Alice on the tote that held my goodie bag loot from last weekend's HRF conference.

When you look at this scene from the opposite side, you see that Dorothy is also sleeping on top of Ruby's Santa hat.

At least someone in this house has a use for the hat.  Ruby certainly doesn't.

Applied Physics, Hartwood Style

According to one of Newton's Laws of Motion, "To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction."  Yesterday for me was a clear demonstration of this theory in real life.  After two weeks or so of almost constant motion, going nonstop from project to project, I hit the proverbial wall and came to a sudden stop.

Day after day, I have weeded, and mulched, and potted, and pruned, and cleaned, and cooked, and painted ... until yesterday.  My body and my mind had had enough, and I spent the whole day doing a whole lot of nothing.

You all understand me well enough to know that my version of 'nothing' isn't really nothing.  No major accomplishments, though.  I cooked and froze a big batch of vegetable hash with zucchini and peppers and onions that were given to us by a friend ... did a crossword puzzle ... read the newspaper and a bunch of blogs and caught up with friends on Facebook ... went to the store to get milk, lunchmeat, and coffee creamer ... and a few other insignificant things that I can't recall right now.

Giving myself permission to be a bum for a day felt really good.  I was pretty energized when I woke up this morning, after taking my mental and physical day off.  The weather is a factor, no doubt, as our heat from the weekend is gone and today was pleasantly warm with a bright blue sky and very low humidity.

I eased back into my routine today, spending a few hours working in the roses, enjoying the sunshine. 

This evening, after dinner of sautéed shrimp and vegetable hash, Ruby and I are spending some quality time on the glider on our back porch ... listening to birds and watching the sun set.

It doesn't get any better than this!

The View from Up Here

My goal for yesterday was to get our outdoor Christmas lights up.  The only place we put lights is on the eaves and roof of the porch, and I can walk right out onto the porch roof to do this ... no need for a ladder.

As I was sitting up there cross-legged on the roof, working to untangle and straighten out the icicle lights, I realized that you would probably like to see what it looks like from up there.  A few quick iPad photos later, and this is what we have ... going from left to right. 

Our house faces east.  This is the view toward the north.  The leaves are almost all off the trees now, but there are still a surprising number of roses in the Hybrid Tea Garden.  Look in the background and you can see the round hay bales that Hartwood Winery next door uses for their fall decoration. 

 

 

When I tell folks that I live next door to a winery, some of them can't comprehend that I REALLY mean next door ... in country road terms, that is.  (Our pasture separates the two driveways)  This photo also shows a peek at our across-the-street neighbors' house.  It's a lovely early 20th Century farmhouse, which was built when one of the granddaughters of our home's original owner married into the Courtney family down the road.

 

 

 

Our front yard needs a BIG renovation next year.  It's vast and empty, and we HAVE to do something about it.  The only feature the storms have left us is this large Southern Magnolia tree.  Losing our big trees has opened up the whole yard to sunshine, so we have lots of landscaping choices to make ... have to repair the fence, too.

 

 

 

This is where you can REALLY see the devastation.  There used to be two huge oak trees, where there are now just piles of wood chips (from the stump grinder).  The stack of wood that we saved from the one tree is still sitting in the yard under that brown tarp.  Each piece huge and heavy, and we will soon put together a work crew with strong young men, a trailer and a couple of tractors to get it moved to the barn so it can dry.

 

 

 

Here is our view to the south.  The white fence holds my Van Fleet Ramblers, and the brown fence is the beginning of the Barbier Rambler Fence.  You also get a good look at the top of the bay window in our family room.  The 4-sided, 2-story bays are very distinctive feature of our house.

 

 

 

It didn't take very long for me to put up the Christmas lights.  This evening, once the sun goes down, I will take a photo and show you what they look like.

 

Through My Kitchen Window

A person's kitchen window can tell you a lot about who they are.  Mine definitely does.

 

 

No fancy styling here ... this is exactly what you would see if you were standing at my kitchen sink ... which you sort of are, in a virtual blog-type way.  Because our home's windowsills are so deep, I have to work really hard to keep this one from filling up with all sorts of stuff (the walls of this old brick house of ours are over a foot thick).  

 

On the windowsill right now you see: 

1.  A jar with two paintbrushes (washed out and drying from Chalk Paint projects)

2.  A tiny vase with a sprig of Rosemary that I plan to try to root

3.  A square jar filled with rocks from our trip to Alaska this summer

4.  A baby Saguaro Cactus I got years ago at the botanical garden in Phoenix, Arizona

5.  An empty pot that used to hold an African Violet

 

Outside:

1.  The big green building with the grey roof is our 4-car detached garage.

2.  The white building is our future guest house/studio/workshop.

3.  My greenhouse is all buttoned up for winter.

4.  The area between the house and the greenhouse, surrounded by picket fence, is our dogs' backyard.

 

The view this morning was frosty with a light fog ... sparkly and beautiful.

 

What do you see when you stand at YOUR kitchen window?  I would love to put together a post filled with kitchen windows from all over the world, so we can all visit each other's views.  If you want to participate, email your photo to connie@hartwoodroses.com.  Please include your location, and a short description ... what does your kitchen window say about YOU?

 

 You have a week to send your photo ... I'll put up the post with everyone's photos on  November 30.

 

Are you in?

 

Walking the Dogs

When the weather is nice, I love to grab the leashes and take Daniel and Ruby for a walk around the property.  We have 9 acres, and access to Hartwood Winery's acreage next door, so the dogs and I can take a really nice walk in the country ... without leaving home.

On this particular day, there was a light breeze, and a beautiful blue sky with cottony white clouds.  Come along with us, and I will show you around.

In the corner of our pasture, we have an ancient apple tree.  I like to think that it's the last survivor of the orchard that I know was here in the 1890s.  (We have a copy of an advertisement from when our house was sold at auction at that time, and it specifically mentions an orchard.)  The tree bloomed better this year than it has in a while.

As I was looking at the apple tree, Ruby was distracted by something ... it was a pile of some sort of small animal poop.  Fortunately, I noticed what she was doing before she rolled in it.  (Remember last year when I found the bear poop?)

The ramblers on the back fence of the Rose Field are really big now ... too big, to be honest.  This year's early spring cut into my window of opportunity to prune these before they leafed out.  On the bright side ... there will be a whole lot more flowers on them like this ... I can't wait!

That's "Peggy Martin" in the foreground, and 'Erinnerung an Brod' farther down the fence.

This is my view from the back of our property toward Hartwood Winery's vineyard.  (There's something on my lens in these photos, and I didn't notice it until I was processing the photos for this post.)

The grape vines are all pruned and ready to grow and produce the grapes that will be this year's wine.  It was an early spring here, too, and the winery's crew of two raced to finish pruning as the vines broke bud and began to grow.

Here is the view of our barn from the vineyard.  The neighbors have the BEST view.

My back neighbors have a horse farm ... which is still for sale, if you or someone you know know wants a great horse operation.  As I stood at their fence talking to these two guys, I heard a low growl beside me.

It was Ruby ... hackles up, tail at attention, growling under her breath.  It's the first time I have heard her growl at anything!  I guess she doesn't care for horses.

While we are back here, let's head toward the barn.  See that little yellow building on the left?

It has the worst of the damage from last year's earthquake ... which, fortunately, isn't really all that bad.  I can fix it.

The two new gardens by the barn are still empty.  The Labyrinth is still staked out, awaiting paths and edging and plants.

The Miniature Garden is in the same condition ... but with the underlayment on the paths in place.

The English Garden is doing great!  These roses were planted a year and a half ago, and most of them are thriving.  A few are struggling, and I plan to replace them as soon as I can with others that I already have on hand.  That's what I was doing when I found the cannonball earlier this week ... right where the arrow is.

The weeds you see have already been shot with herbicide  and they're beginning to look a little sickly.

The bottle trees at the entrance to the English Garden didn't stand up to the winds this winter.  They're still firmly anchored in the ground, it's the metal 'trunk' that bent over like that.  Fortunately, none of the bottles broke.  I need to run next door, get some empty wine case boxes, and store the bottles until I can straighten and reinforce the trees.

The figs I planted on the south side of the barn are looking really good.  This bed is an experiment ... planted with eight different varieties to see which does best without irrigation or winter protection.  These two are thriving, but I don't know which ones they are because the tags are lost.

At this point, it was getting late and it was time to turn for home and give the dogs their dinner.  I don't think I've shown you this view of the back of our house before.  The green building is our detached garage ... the dormer is a storage attic.  The little white building to the left will eventually be a studio/workshop/I-would-love-to-put-an-antique-shop-in-there-one-day.  It's a dream to work toward.

As I predicted, the cool weather of the past few days has pretty much stopped the progression of bloom in the garden.  This is a good thing, because I don't want everything to be TOO early, and I'm definitely not at the point where I can open the nursery and garden to visitors quite yet.  It's getting close, though.

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I remembered that I have a photo of a 'view from space' of our property that I used in a post in 2010 (which was about burning the brush pile, which is why the brush pile is noted on the photo).  With a couple of modifications to highlight landmarks mentioned in this post, this should help you get your bearings.  Pretend the red property lines are straight.  :)

I am Thankful

This is the view I see as I stand outside on the deck in the morning while the dogs are in the backyard doing their thing. 

(I tweaked the photo a little bit using PicMonkey.  Have you tried it yet?)

It is a seasonal view.  When the bare trees you see leaf out in a few weeks, the barn will disappear.  In the meantime, I am thankful for cool, misty mornings and sunshine, to get my day off to a beautiful start.

If you're looking for me this morning, I will be in the bottom left corner of this photo ... continuing to reclaim my Rose Field from last year's weeds and neglect.  I am also thankful for the lovely weather this week, which makes working outside so delightful.

Slowly but surely, I'm making progress.

A Sunny Hartwood Morning

As I opened the front door and stepped out onto our front porch first thing in the morning (to feed and check on Kimba, our elderly outdoor cat), I realized that I should take a few photos to show you the view from there.  The sun was shining through the trees, illuminating the last of the fall color ... and fallen leaves litter our lawn, and driveway, and rose beds.  I have shown you the view from our back porch many times, but I don't think I have ever shown you the front.  

Our porch faces East. These photos show our front yard, from left to right ... and they would probably make a panorama if stitched together.

There are still a few roses in the Hybrid Tea Garden, and the dogwood tree still has a few of its burgundy leaves left.

The circular driveway in front of our house has four vehicles in it ... though there are only three of us who live here.  That big truck is supposed to be parked at the detached garage.

There's the magnolia tree.  I showed you its seed pods in a post last week.

That picnic table was here when we bought this place in 2002.  It's a great place to sit and enjoy the shade of our oak trees.

Lots of leaves ... and Jeeps.

That house is our closest neighbor ... and it's not really all that close.  I see the roses on the Rambler Fence (the dark fence on the right) are also losing their leaves.

I worked on the greenhouse again yesterday afternoon, but it was slow going.  All the up/down, squatting and bending, hammering/screwing/cutting/sanding, has made my legs and hands pretty sore.  If I weren't racing Old Man Winter like I am, I would take a few days to rest and work on other things.  This nice weather won't last forever, and I must do what I can to take advantage of it ... even working at a slower pace accomplishes something ... so more work is planned for my afternoon.

Here is where things stood as of yesterday evening.

The sheathing on the north wall is finished, and I have the first piece of trim installed underneath the center windows.  Today's goal ... get the bottom part of the south wall framed, and maybe some sheathing there, too.

It's a beautiful day!