A Week's Worth of Posts, All At Once

How can it be Saturday already?  Where did the week go?

I spent part of each day in my basement workshop.  Some of the rose cuttings in the north window are starting to show roots!  This is the roadside rose that I rustled last month ... I showed it to you in THIS post.

 

 

Most of my workshop time was spent painting the cabinet doors and drawer fronts from my brother's kitchen.  There are a lot of them, and the finish I want requires that each of them be painted multiple coats of two colors, both front and back, so it's going to take a while.  The top color is a custom mix of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, that I showed you in THIS post.  This kitchen is going to be so retro and happy!

 

 

 

Mrs. Wren is now sitting on five eggs in her nest in the pot in my greenhouse.   See her tucked WAY down inside there?  It's hard to get a decent photo because the white perlite bag is in the way in every angle but this one.

 

 

 

The new Romantic Homes magazine came out this week, and my friend Janet's shop is featured in a fantastic article, with photos taken by her son!  See that little greenhouse in the corner of her display window?  Yep, I built that.  No mention of this in the article, but that's okay ... I am thrilled that all of the hard work that Janet has put into her shop is being recognized on a national level.  Love you, Janet!

 

 

 

A strong line of storms passed through our area on Thursday.  Whenever things like this are predicted, I always worry about my trees.  Last time we had a big storm, we lost two of the large Oak trees in our front yard.  (See the damage in THIS post)  Fortunately, this storm passed just to our south.  We had rain, but little wind and no damage.

 

 

 

Thursday's sunset, after the storm was gone, was a beautiful one ... as seen from our deck, looking toward Hartwood Winery next door.

 

 

 

Friday dawned with a beautiful blue sky, puffy clouds, and cool, comfortable temperatures.  It was a great day to do something outside.

 

 

 

Normally, this means working in the garden.  This day, though, I decided that it was long past time to clean up my Mustang and get it ready for convertible season.  It was so dirty and dusty after sitting in the garage all winter.

 

 

 

With the car all washed and waxed and polished (and myself and The Husband cleaned up, too), we spent part of yesterday evening at the local Friday night classic car cruise in.  There was a fantastic selection of cars last night ... with the Mustangs making a respectable showing.  That's a 1970 427 Cobra Jet parked beside mine.

 

 

 

To end on a garden and rose related note ... yesterday morning, I saw my first Japanese Beetle of the year.  This seems to be a little bit later than usual ... beetles arrived on June 4 in 2011, and I didn't note the day of their appearance in 2012.  We have had very few beetles for the past three years ... I wonder what this year will be like?

 

 

 

There you have it, a whole week's worth of blog posts in one shot!  The weather today is almost a gorgeous as yesterday.  Am I going to work out in the garden like I should?  Nope ... I'm spending today with Deborah, and we are going to hang out and hunt junk all day.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Battening the Hatches

Hurricane Sandy is coming.  The weatherfolks on TV and radio are warning that we can expect damaging winds and heavy rain Sunday night and into late Monday or early Tuesday. 

Hartwood is right in the center of the cone of probability on this diagram, just south of Washington, DC.

 

 

Tomorrow, I will finish putting away any items outside that can be picked up and damaged by the wind.  We are used to dealing with life in the dark after storms ... at least it's not air-conditioning season, so the house will stay comfortable.  Our generators are on the ready, and we will have power for our well pump, refrigeration, and a few lights and the DVD player. 

 

We will prepare whatever we can to the best of our ability.  It's the things that we cannot prepare for that worry me.  I pray that this storm spares our trees.

 

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Edited on Saturday morning .... as of this morning's predictions, it looks as if the track of this storm is going to be a bit more toward the north, and we are now on the southern end of its projected path. 

 

 

I am still going to spend today securing things outside and preparing to be without power.  (We were dark for 5 days in July with the Derecho storm.)  Please keep the folks in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England in your prayers.

 

Feeling Powerless

By now, everyone in the US (and maybe some of you in other countries) has certainly heard about the widespread damage and power outages caused by the storm that swept through the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic last Friday night.  The news said that we were hit with 90 mile-per-hour straight-line winds.  Our electricity has been out since then ... and we are not yet on the power company's schedule to repair the power line up the road, which has a tree laying across it.  The company says that we only have 151 houses on the line, and we have been skipped in favor of repairs that will affect a larger number of customers.  I guess I understand their priorities, but it still sucks for those of us who are now in the FOURTH day without power.

Without this little piece of equipment, I'm not sure what we'd do.

Our generator has enough capacity to run our well pump (so we have water) and it has four electrical outlets to power a limited number of essential electrical things in the house.  We are using it for our basement refrigerator and freezer (where the contents of the kitchen fridge are now), a lamp in the family room, multiple fans, a radio, and the TV and DVD player.  We are living life in a maze of extension cords, paying particularly close attention to how much power we are using so we don't overload the generator.  We have no air conditioning ... with temperatures hovering in the high 90s each day, we are uncomfortable but we are managing.

Our power came back on at about 3:00 this afternoon.  (I wrote the above part of this post earlier this morning.)  I saw the crew working on the line under the downed tree up the street, and I stopped to thank them.  Four days with electricity were definitely a challenge.  The a/c is doing a fine job of cooling the house down, and it's WONDERFUL to go into a room and be able to flip on a light!

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The storm was responsible for a particularly heart-breaking loss for us.  Our largest oak tree in the front yard, the big beautiful tree closest to the house in the line of three trees beside our driveway, is gone.

The fallen trunk of this tree is almost as tall as I am.

My hands are shaking as I write this, because I still can't quite believe it.  This feels like a death in the family.  As the tree went down, it took with it a majority of the limbs that were left on the damaged middle tree ... so that one is going to have to be removed, too. 

The landscape in front of our house now looks incredibly empty.  I am so used to seeing the huge crown of this tree filling the sky ... the bare patch of sky in its place looks so out of place. 

I have shown you this tree many times in the past ... it was a supermodel in the world of trees.     

What it looked like this spring before it leafed out.

Now it's a heart-breaking heap.

My favorite photo of the three trees in a snow storm.

 

The same angle today.  The picnic table is smashed under the tree limbs.

This huge tree is going to require a tree crew to remove ... and the reputable tree crews are out clearing powerlines and removing trees from people's roofs, so our heap of tree will have to wait for a while.

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Daniel hasn't been feeling well.  For the past two months, we have been running him back and forth to the veterinarian for tests ... which have resulted in a confusing list of symptoms, none of which point to a diagnosis.  He has been x-rayed, ultrasounded twice, had needle biopsies and blood tests.  Through it all, he continues to lose energy.  Fortunately, his appetite and attitude are good.

This morning, we were at the specialty vet to see an Internist for a needle biopsy of his spleen.  (While I was waiting, I used their wi-fi to catch up on work and email.)

 

Preliminary results from this latest test may have our answer. The vet thinks that Daniel may have lymphoma in his GI tract. His review of the samples were promising enough to forward them to a pathologist for further review. He told me to expect to have results on Thursday ... I will probably be holding my breath till then.

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I'm not at my best unless I feel like I have some control of my life.  With all of this going on, the lack of control has been a recipe for serious stress.  I'm doing the best I can to find a way to deal with each of these situations. 

We have power again, so there's no more living in the dark. 

The tree is gone ... I can't put it back ... I have to make peace with this.  It will take some time.

  Daniel is comfortable ... he continues to enjoy his food ... and I have every confidence that we will figure out what is wrong with him.

... like I said ... feeling powerless ... but working on getting the upper hand again.

Evening Storm

Last night, as I was making a late dinner, the sky grew ominously dark toward the northwest ... a storm was coming.

See the rain falling in the distance?

As long as I am safe inside my house, I really enjoy a good thunderstorm ... the ones that rain and flash and pass quickly, not the ones that bring destruction and power outages.

We had wind and thunder and lightning for a short time, then the storm moved past and the sun returned. 

There's another storm on the horizon, but that one went to our north.

Today is a beautiful day.  The gardens are watered and the ground is soft, and I can hope to make some progress clearing weeds.