Around the web

Eliot got it wrong - February is the cruellest month, not April. Well, for gardeners in this part of the world anyway. Spring is so close, and temperatures are so mild. Surely, it would be OK to put the seeds in now? Surely it's time to take cuttings from the chrysanthemums? And wouldn't everything benefit from a bit of fertiliser now? I rush to my copy of The Gardening Year, hoping that last time I looked I missed something and it will tell me I can get going. But there is only this stern warning : ".... temperatures may reach 13°C (55°F), but it is always wise to ignore these false springs for the spell rarely persists and cold weather is sure to return."

Trying to tell myself that I'm in Italy not Britain doesn't work. I know there's occasionally been snow in March even here. But given how mild this winter has been ... I'm afraid it's stronger than I am, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to hold out much longer.

In an attempt to distract myself, I thought I'd spend some time catching up with what other people have been doing. Big changes for Trillium, who's changed from being a weekend gardener into the owner of a small commercial nursery. Well, she says it's small but as she also said that "Three of the staff were in ... on Tuesday", it sounds pretty impressive to me. She's started a new blog to record her adventures.

Another interesting post came from John regarding an association which he's involved with called Thrive. Thrive works with disabled people, using gardening as therapy, and has a project going in Battersea Park. They need volunteers for various dates in the spring and summer - follow the link to John's site to find out when. I can't work out from their website what they do in other parts of the country, but John may know if you leave him a comment to ask.

A couple of people seem to have disappeared. Roy in Australia hasn't posted on either of his blogs since January - hope everything's OK, Roy. And Snappy moved house saying he'd be back as soon as he got the internet connected, and is still AWOL. Come back soon Snappy.

Carol of May Dreams Garden has managed to involve her nine year old niece Sophie not only in gardening but also in blogging. And nice posts she writes. The last one was about accidents in the garden. If you've done something daft while gardening, please leave a comment and give her a bit of encouragement to go on writing.

Carol is one of the few people who've managed to go on blogging more or less daily right through the winter. She's great at thinking of topics for posts, and earlier this month came up with the idea of asking everyone to post a list of what was in bloom in their garden on the 15th of each month. I missed it this month (though I'll be joining in next) but can't resist posting this pic of my salmon pelargonium which has not stopped blooming once all through the winter. As you can see, it now needs dead-heading, but there are still new blooms on the way.

Read more...

Anyone out there that is a regular reader, I have a prayer request. Please pray that the weather channel is off its rocker by predicting snow for the next ten days. For my Michigan friends, guess what?? Probably means some of this will be heading your way, and you sensed spring in the air didn't you? My moving company, PODS, will not deliver to my driveway if there is snow or ice on it. I'm tempted to get a very large heat gun and melt any precipitation that sticks :). In the meantime, the workers are busy taking turns installing light fixtures, plugs, and fans this week. The trim molding is gorgeous and adds such a vintage/craftsman feeling to the home. Today was a bit hectic as I had my cell phone, caller ID, school bus, mailman, and a neighbor require my attention all within a four minute period! My mind just cannot multi-task with more than two items in the frying pan at a time ;)

The picture of the vintage ironing board cabinet with the rustic and crackled (dinged up, peeling paint look :) is the reason for my grungy fingers as reported in my other blog. You see, I gutted, stripped, refinished and inverted it then had it built into my kitchen wall; this will be my new spice cabinet. It holds even those large Costco size bottles. The opening at the top of the door (appears as a small golden rectangle) is waiting for a glass front (and glass shelves inside). Of course it will be that old vintage looking glass that has a few ripples/distortions in it. An amber glass/oil rubbed bronze pull knob and new hinges will grace it too. This was a big debate (in my mind :) "Do I take the chance of having it installed and then not liking it leaving me with a big hole in my wall ... or do I just go for it and use my gut instinct about it? I chose to use my gut and not my wishy-washy mind. You ask, but it's golden and brown??? Yes, you see, when the cream backsplash gets installed in the kitchen, there are iridescent gold and beige and eggplant glass tile accents. And my vintage dining room light has amber prisms (much like the ones used by Pollyanna in the book and movie ;). The French doors have been finished to match the front door; they grace the bonus room above the garage.

Read more...

February

My calendar this month features flax – linum usitatissimum . My first ever contact with this plant was in the form of the seeds – usually known as linseed. I always fed them to my horses - a cupful mixed into their other food keeps their coats healthy and shiny. So I knew it well. But for quite a while I never realised that linseed and flax were the same thing, and so I never really associated it with the plant which produces linen.

Nor did I realise that it might do my hair some good too. Then, a couple of years ago I asked my hairdresser what I could do about my hair, which at the time was horribly dry and straw-like. “Try this spray” she said, “it’s linseed oil”.

And now the calendar. I put off reading it for a while, as it was full of frighteningly long words. If you know a bit of German, you’ll know that it’s a language which uses compounds a lot, and can often chain four or five words in order to express a concept for which English has an individual word. So when I got to the bit where it described the medicinal uses I was confronted with Magenschleimhautentzundung (stomach-mucus-membrane-inflammation) which I guess is gastritis, and Nasennebenhohlenentzendung (nose-near-cavity-inflammation) – sinusitis, I presume. But please don’t quote me - my dictionary failed me miserably and I really am guessing.

I have to admit I gave up on the German and went to the web to see if there were any recommendations. As last month, the best site seemed to be Purple Sage which suggested that linseed was a good remedy for constipation. But, the same as the calendar, it warned that you must drink at least two glasses of water with the seeds as they need to swell in order to have effect. Both sources also warned that only ripe seeds must ever be used as the immature seeds contain traces of prussic acid and are poisonous. As ever, make sure you buy it from a reputable source.

Back on the balcony – I took the covers off this morning. We’re having daytime temperatures between 9 and 15 degrees, and the fleece was a bit of an exaggeration. It does, howver, seem to have protected the flower buds on my stock - they look fine. I shall keep an eye on the weather forecast as there’s still time for the temperature to drop, but for the moment spring is in the air. When I went out this morning, I saw that the grass in one of the squares near here was full of daisies in flower. And my bulbs are starting to push through as well. The forsythia, though, which is usually the first sign of spring, is still only just forming buds, so I’ll reserve judgement for a bit ….

Read more...

Getting things in high gear: This morning I stopped in to see what was going on in the finish production of our home. The painters were patching and sanding and prepping the interior trim molding prior to painting this week. The contractor was making the final decisions (with my help) on the design of the banister rail and newel post placement. Mr. Alarm guy was there finishing up the alarm system (and I thought he was done weeks ago). Mr. Cabinet guy was there inspecting the bead board interior of a kitchen cabinet that was replaced with the correct finish ... and adding the wooden shelves that have cutouts for future inset glass in said cabinet. I was informed that the granite people would be replacing the kitchen sink & counter top since it was a breach in their own policy that caused the wrong sink to be installed in the first place. DH was not pleased with the oversight nor was the contractor. It really was a pathetic sink as one side was not even big enough for more than a few cups and small saucers to rest inside of it. I have a similar sink in our rental and have had glass bowls and pots actually get quite stuck and this sink is even smaller. So I consented to having it replaced after saying I'd live with it. Hey, when you're paying this kind of money and someone else messes up like that, they should make it right, right?? Our master bathroom floor is installed and the shower is 3/4's tiled. With only three weeks until our agreed upon move-in date, things are happening fast.

Photos: Sink in question, tile in M/B shower, hickory floor, granite counter in M/bath

Read more...

My builder will let me know officially tomorrow, but He thinks our move in date will be March 9th. He has to get the OK from the county planning office, which will be tomorrow sometime. Not too far off from the end of February; I can live with that. Today the granite counters were installed in the kitchen and two of the bathrooms. They came out bee-U-tee-ful ! I didn't have the heart to tell the builder that the granite people supplied the wrong kitchen sink ... there's nothing that could be done now ... and I'll just learn to love this one. Since it's an under mount and the sink holes are already in, nothing can be done . I'm not the type of person to have it all ripped out over something like that. Besides, the granite was hard to come by in this shade. Such a little woe when you consider much of what's going on the the world, and I AM getting a new house :) Wait til the cream color trim molding is in and the cream travertine back splash with a few bold iridescent glass accent pieces thrown in randomly are installed, then you'll see the connection of the wood and cream finishes and white modern appliances. (Trust me :)

Photos: Rock skirting under garage windows (front of house), Kitchen showing bead board at counter bar area (the bead board in the cabinet needs to be switched to a distressed cream color .. they put in white), rock fireplace surround with mantle.

Read more...

Cover Up

A couple of weeks ago I was talking about how we were having temperatures of 18°C. Well, within a couple of days they were warning that a big freeze was on it's way, and forecasting snow and sub zero temperatures. So I immediately rushed out, tucked everything next to the walls of the house and covered it all with fleece.

We did have cold weather one day - I think it dropped to -1° and for about three minutes a sort of sleety snow came down before it turned back into rain. But then the temperature went back up to about 6 or 7° and has stayed there ever since. I'm in two minds whether to uncover everything again or not. This is, of course what the balcony usually looks like in the winter. It's usually covered up from about mid December until mid or late February, or even later. It's not impossible that we have snow in March. I think I'll wait a bit and see. When I put the fleece on I noticed that the flower buds were already well formed on my stock - I hope I won't lose them all.

If you thought you were in the wrong place when you came into the blog, you're not - in a desperate attempt to avoid work one day, I changed the template. I lost my What flower are you? button, which I got from Hanna's site, and had to go back and do it again (click on the button if you want to try the quiz yourself). And lo and behold, I'm no longer a daisy - I've turned into an echinea. Not sure why. I had a second look at the questions, tweaked a bit just in case I'd been flattering myself before, but no - I always came out as an echinacea. A pity, as I rather identified with my daisy, but the colour fits quite nicely into the sidebar ...

Read more...

Peeking in on the progress today, I found the front door installed. (The dark zig-zag lines are from a shadow). The windows have paper over them still, but I'm very pleased with the color. Down in the basement I found the fireplace ready for it's rock face and the split log mantel installed. It's got a fire going to help heat up the room until our furnace is officially turned on. Now I'll have to stain and varnish the log sometime next week. I'm becoming a regular "handy-woman".

Read more...