Sunday Snapshot: Making It Official

Our dogs wear ID on their collars at all times.  It's a happy occasion when a new dog's tag comes in the mail ... Petal's arrived yesterday afternoon.

Till now, Petal has been wearing a blue collar with my cell phone number written on it in Sharpie marker.  It is from the stash of collars that I have on hand to use whenever we volunteer to help transport dogs.  It did the job, but blue isn't really Petal's color.

Now, Petal has her own collar ... bought especially for her, in a lovely shade of rose pink.  See her new tag?

The noise of jingling tags on collars makes me nuts, but I am mindful of the importance of keeping ID on my dogs in addition to their microchips, so we use flat tags from Boomerang Tags.  For $11.95, they provide up to five lines of information, super fast service, total peace of mind, and no jingling!  (even Winnie had a Boomerang Tag on her tiny kitten-sized collar.)  I received no compensation for this ... I'm just a very satisfied customer.

Today is Day 18 with Petal.  Dorothy is finally becoming more comfortable with Petal and isn't spending her days hiding upstairs anymore. 

Our routine is well on its way to being normal again.  I am very happy!

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Sunday Snapshots are posts devoted to moments in time that represent glimpses into everyday life in Hartwood, or wherever else I happen to be at the time. 

I'm Still Here ... Just Not as Often Lately

Oh, my ... has it really been a full month since I posted here?  Where does the time go?

Spent some time away from home doing fun stuff ... a long weekend visiting my brother and sister-in-law at their place in SW Virginia ...

Photo of a very happy couple, during a visit to Bear Tree Lake.

... and another long weekend at a greyhound event in Wheeling, West Virginia.

These are nine-month-old pups who really wanted to snuggle.

These yearlings are the same pups that I met last year when they were four-days old.

(Photo with a puppy from last year)

Ruby and Winnie stayed with my parents while we were out of town ... it was their version of a summer vacation.

The cats ... they have been doing what cats do.

Dorothy loves her new cat basket, in the sunshine on the dining room windowsill.

I have been spending most of my early mornings in the garden.  The roses are recovering nicely from the annual onslaught of Japanese Beetles.  Their season appears to be over and the nasty critters are mostly gone now, thank goodness.

Mine Road Noisette

Indoor time has been spent doing things like canning quart after quart of farmers market tomatoes ...

... and in the basement workshop with projects.  This is a door from an antique corner cupboard that I am stripping to repaint.  I work on this a little at a time, when schedule permits.

I have mostly been concentrating on being home, decluttering and downsizing, and organizing what's left.  The pay off for this effort is a much lighter mental load, and a house that's getting a whole lot tidier.

This is a view of our family room from one morning last week, as seen from the dining room.  It's an angle that I don't think I have shown you before.

I have stopped posting to the Hartwood Roses Facebook page, and have switched to Instagram.  I'm getting the hang of it, with the hash-tags and stuff, and I find that I like the spontaneity of it.  It's fun to instantly share whatever I come across in the garden or am working on at the time, without some logarithm that limits who sees what.  Come on over and follow along, if you're inclined.

As you see, life is pretty much the same as it has always been ... I just haven't made time to write blog posts about it.  I still have lots of stuff to share, I just need to take the time to do it.  

Desperately Seeking Sunshine

The weatherman on TV says that we have had fifteen straight days with measurable rain.  Today makes sixteen.  It's so damp ... I feel as if I'm going to mildew.

In order to do what I can to make it through this till the sun returns, and to soothe those of you who are suffering along with me, I will share some recent images of sunshine.  At the very least, it will help me remember what sunshine actually looks like.

Our house faces east, so the rising sun lights our family room.

Looking the other direction, we have sunrise as seen through the windows of the family room bay.

As the sun rises, it illuminates our barn and the trees in the distance, slowly, spreading from top to bottom.

Our critters are accustomed to the sunshine patterns, and they know exactly where to nap to get the best sun.  One of the leather chairs in our family room is a favorite spot ... the following photos were all taken on the same morning, as each cat took their turn in the chair.

Dorothy

Maggie

Alice

Maggie is especially adept at seeking out and enjoying the warmth of a sunshine spot.

Morning sun on the family room rug.

Mid-day sun on a south-facing windowsill.

I often find Alice in the foyer like this.

As the day progresses, and the sun comes over the house, the dining room becomes THE place to be.  One afternoon, I walked in and saw this scene.

"They consulted counsel about it and found a loophole," said a friend when she saw this photo.

Whether it's sunny or cloudy, I often find Ruby at this window watching critters in the backyard.

Judging by the direction of her gaze, I suspect that she is watching a groundhog.

This wet, cold weather pattern MAY break over the weekend.  I hope it does ... not that I'm complaining, you understand.  All this rain has its advantages.  My garden is enjoying the grey skies and rain, and the grass ... oh my lord, you should see the grass.  It's very, VERY tall, and WAY too wet to mow.  I have roses to plant, but I need to wait to do that till the soil dries out a bit.  On the plus side, the saturated soil makes it really easy to pull weeds in my rose and perennial beds.  I have been getting out to do just that whenever it's not actively raining.  Not ideal, but I gotta do what I can to feed my need to be outside and get as much of my spring clean-up finished before rose season ... which will be here soon, whether I'm ready or not.  I'm okay with that.

A Sure Sign of Spring

House Finches are trying to build a nest in the wreath on our front door.  Alice and Dorothy brought this to my attention earlier this morning.

I will be taking down the wreath today.  It isn't the cozy nesting spot that the birds think it is.

What I Did Last Week

According to the calendar, spring is near.  Weather-wise last week, spring was very evident ... temperatures far above average, with light breezes, some cloudy days and some sunny days.  You will not be surprised when I tell you that I spent a good part of the week doing things outdoors.

1.  At this time of year, my main focus is on my responsibilities as the manager of the rose collection at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.  (Our rose volunteer day is March 19, six days from today.)  In February and early March, I use whatever nice days we have to go to the cemetery to visit all of the roses to assess their condition and to note make notes about what work they need.  As of now, all of the roses have been evaluated, and their location is verified on the cemetery map.  All that's left to do is to type up my notes and turn them into instructions for each volunteer team next Saturday.

Dorothy was helping me work on the map.

2.  Last weekend, I attended the American Rose Society Colonial District Pre-Spring Meeting.  I love having the opportunity to get away to be with my rose peeps, to listen and learn at the presentations, and to catch up with friends.  During one of the breaks, I was approached by the District Director and asked if he could appoint me to be the Old Garden Rose Chair for the District.  I agreed ... the appointment was made ... and now we'll see exactly what this position entails.  I'm pretty excited about it.

3.  On the way home from the rose meeting, I stopped by one of my favorite stores, Old Covesville Store on Route 29 south of Charlottesville.  There are always amazing and wonderful things in there for sale.  On this trip, I spotted a large Steiff tiger that is similar to a smaller one that I had when I was a child.  No hesitation ... I scooped that tiger up and happily brought him home with me.

Here he was in the store.

and on the seat of my car.

4.  I have known for a while that the windows of my greenhouse needed some work.  The glazing compound in most of them is dry and cracked, and largely missing on some of the windows.  (This can be the downside of using salvaged windows for a project.)  This winter, as some of the window panes began to fall out, I knew that the job of reglazing the windows needed to be pushed to the top of my list.  Turns out, when these windows were made in the 1960s, the manufacturer only used glazing compound to hold in the glass ... without glazing points to mechanically pin the panes into place.  

The only way to finish a project is to get started, and I did just that on Wednesday.  It takes me about an hour to do one window ... to scrape out the old glazing compound, reset the glass, and put down the new glazing compound.  This is a project that I will work on a little at a time.  Hopefully, by the end of summer, I will have most of the 46 windows done.  (My REAL dream is to finally have the greenhouse glazed, sided and trimmed, and painted by fall.)

Not perfect, but good enough.  I will scrape and prime the windows once the glazing compound cures.

I saw this reflection as I was working.

5.  My other outside project is the reclamation of the Rambler Fence.  It's the same situation as the rest of my gardens, where weeds sprouted in unnatural concentrations and took over in what seemed like the blink of an eye.  With the Ramblers, there was the added complication of their rampant growth ... and they became hay stacks on the fence while my attention was elsewhere for the past couple of years.

Little by little, I have been cutting back the Ramblers and training what remains onto their wires on the fence.  They are small and kind of pitiful right now.  I have also dug out a couple of duplicate Ramblers, and one that had Rose Rosette Disease last year, and replaced them with ones from my stock pile of pots.

When I originally designed this garden in 2007, I planted Tea roses between and in front of the Ramblers.  Some Tea roses can be a bit winter tender ... the winters of 2013 and 2014 were brutal and losses to these roses were catastrophic.  Instead of lamenting their loss, I see this as an opportunity and space to plant eight new roses in the empty spots.

Ramblers cut back, dead Tea roses dug up, and the beginnings of landscape fabric laid in this part of the garden.

Yesterday, I finished the landscape fabric and laid mulch around the roses themselves.  I have to get more mulch in order to finish ... which should happen over the course of the next week.

6.  With nice weather comes convertible season!  I was out in my Mustang twice last week, practicing with its new stick shift.  I'm getting much better at it ... and I almost don't panic if I have to stop and then pull out on an incline.

I have been using the uphill part of our long driveway to practice.

All in all, it was a VERY good week.  How about you ... what have you been up to?

Friday Photo Dump

I have some photos in my blog file on this computer that I have been holding onto, waiting to find inspiration to work them into blog posts ... inspiration has been elusive.  I just got the idea to lump them all together into one post.  No rhyme or reason, just little slices of life and images that I was fortunate to catch in the moment.

1.  Last month, I saw a link to the Sotheby's web site with the online catalog for the estate auction of the Duchess of Devonshire.  I was so impressed by the first few pages of the catalog on my iPad that I clicked over to their online store and ordered a hard copy to savor and to have forever.  The auction was on March 2.  Click HERE for a gallery of items and results.

The portrait of the Duchess on the cover of the catalog tells me that she must have been a very unique person.  Carefully staged with ancestral portraits, sculpture, formal gown, jeweled tiara ... and flopped-out sleeping dogs.  Love it!

2.  Here is an example of what water can do when it freezes.  This antique soft-fired brick (or what's left of it) is laying near the outlet for our rain gutter, so it was saturated.  Repeated cycles of winter weather freezing and thawing completely blew it apart.  This is the power of science in action.

3.  Early in the morning, I regularly run out to the front porch with my camera or phone or iPad to try to capture colorful sunrises when I see them.  This was one of the prettiest, and I was lucky that my photo captured it nicely.

4.  I snapped this photo of Ruby the other day.  I was reading, and she was in a sunshine spot at the other end of the sofa, sound asleep.

Yes, she was snoring.

5.  While Ruby was snoozing, Dorothy was behind me on her rug in the windowsill watching birds.

6.  This is my most recent awesome thrift store purchase.  Our grandson and I went to Salvation Army last week with a load of stuff to donate, and we cruised through the store to see what we could find.  At $3, this cordless electric wine opener was worth taking a chance on.  Plugged it in and charged it overnight, and found that it works perfectly!

7.  In winter, this girl's attention turns to boots.  These are my newest.  An ad for them popped up on someone's sidebar last week, and I loved them instantly.  I went to the Country Outfitter site, the boots were on sale with free shipping, saw overwhelming favorable reviews ... add to cart ... click!  They arrived yesterday, just in time to bring them along with me to this weekend's American Rose Society Colonial District Spring Meeting.  I love them even more in person, and they are really, really comfy.

It's easy to capture little moments as they happen, with a camera phone in my purse or pocket, or an iPad at arm's length most of the time.  I get the feeling that the Photo Dump, as an easy way to share, may become a regular theme around here.

Sunday Snapshot: An Indoor Winter Scene

When it's cold outside, our cats can often be found napping on radiators.  Dorothy is the only one who will sleep on a naked radiator, like you see below.  I usually keep a small oriental rug on each of the radiators, to make their 'sauna' more comfortable.  

Dorothy was perfectly comfortable ... I don't see how.  I guess it's a cat thing.

Off topic:  This is the radiator in the living room, the room where we removed the plaster ceiling over Christmas.  The paint samples show my attempts to choose a paint color.  The final choice (as of now) is the small darker one ... Greyhound, by Benjamin Moore.  Bluish, greenish grey, and I think it's perfect!

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Sunday Snapshots are posts devoted to moments in time that represent glimpses into everyday life in Hartwood, or wherever else I happen to be at the time. 

If You Give a Cat Your iPad ...

Dorothy is a very visual cat, and she loves to play with my iPad.  She has two games on there, Cat Fishing 2 and Mouse for Cats,

and now she's learning to take selfies.

Sunday Snapshot: A Normal Sunday Morning

I'm sitting here in my favorite red leather chair, early on this drizzly, cool Sunday morning.  The scene around me is typical ... Ruby and Winnie sacked out on opposite ends of the sofa, and Dorothy snuggled beside me.

Reminds me of this cartoon that I see on line from time to time:

Surgery to restore the hearing in my left ear was ten days ago, and I'm almost 100% back to my usual active, ridiculously positive, self.  My impaired equilibrium , which was a result of the surgery, is almost completely normal, thank goodness.  Soon, I hope to put words to my experience (so far) of my brain's relearning how to process what I now can hear.  For a person who's as curious as I am, it's been VERY enlightening.

Happy Sunday, Everyone!!

Sunday Snapshot ... Home.

Good morning!

I'm not supposed to be home this morning, but I am.  I should be finishing up an overnight stay in a hotel somewhere near Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Real life, unstaged view of this sunny Sunday morning.  Dorothy in my lap ...

When my husband and I made plans to travel to attend Doug's funeral yesterday, we decided to spend last night at a hotel and head toward home in the morning.  (It's a four-and-a-half hour drive from here to there.  Doing it all in one day didn't seem to be a wise idea.)  We figured that there would be no problem finding a hotel room for the night after we finished for the day ... we figured wrong.

Winnie snuggled under her down throw, with Ruby lounging on the other side of the sofa.

For some mysterious reason, every hotel we called was completely booked.  We started calling hotels near where we were in Allentown, then we progressed to calling hotels along our route toward home ... Reading, Lancaster, York ... nothing.  The clerks we spoke to were very helpful, and most could report the status of other hotels near them, but there was nothing else they could do for us.

So .... we drew in our breath, squinted our eyes with determination, and kept going.  When we reached Maryland, we were tired, but it seemed silly to attempt to stop with only two more hours to go.  In Virginia, road work on I-95 added an extra half hour to the trip.  We stopped a couple of times along the way, to stretch and walk around and work out the kinks that had developed from a total of 10+ hours in the car during the day.  Finally, at 12:45am, we pulled into our own driveway.

Now you see her, then you don't.  Having poked her head out to check on things, Winnie burrowed back into her 'cave'.

I have to admit, despite the grueling car trip, it was really nice to fall sleep and wake up in my own bed.  Yesterday was a whirlwind ... visitation, funeral, graveside, wake, and a stop at Doug's house to pick up plants ... but it was a good day.  Sharing memories and grief with dear friends lightens the load ... thank you very, very much for your concern ... we are all fine.

Since I'm not traveling today, I plan to be outside in the sunshine, working in the garden, listening to football ...  sounds like a perfect day!

Happy Sunday, Everyone!!