Archive for ‘June, 2008’

Mountains, Lupins and Karl

First – a note from Karl…

Karl's note

Onward…I have some photos from yesterday and no profound words to go with them. It has been rainy, thundershowery, occasional sun breaks … the rain is wonderful, we need it. It is a busy work week. So there you have it – weather and work. I’ll be quiet now and go with the pictures.

Mountains in the mist yesterday morning.

Mountains

Mountains

Mountains

Lupins – they are starting to bloom around my woods. And I am continually fascinated by the way that the leaves hold raindrops. Walking the path that has the lupins on each side, it is like walking through a field of diamonds when the raindrops catch the light.

Lupins

Lupins

And Karl…it has been cooler and so he is full of joy and running and generally playing on the morning walk. A good stick is plenty to keep him happy…well, and his dirt pile!

Karl

Karl

Thus was yesterday – Mountains, Lupins and Karl.

King of the hill

There was a large garden with raised beds and a mini-orchard of 9 fruit trees enclosed by a 6 foot high deer fence…was… It was more work than was fun for me and the garden now lives at my neighbors. There are several posts about it under the category “Yard and Garden”…

The gist is my neighbors and I swapped – they dismantled the fencing and graded the leftover with their backhoe in return for the fencing and planter material. Before starting the grading, there was already a small pile of topsoil left by the previous owners. After the grading, the topsoil pile was a bit bigger.

I don’t know what to do with the topsoil – there is not enough to spread over some parts of the yard that need it. I decided that at the first opportunity I’ll just push it flat and spread it out right where it is. There is a bit of a track behind the pile from some of the logging work and it can fill that area.

Karl might take care of it for me..

Karl went at it so vigorously that it kind of looked like he was having fun. And not just once. He has rearranged his little cave – hidey hole – cool spot several times – always the dirt flying as he works on it with seeming enthusiasm.

But he does use it…

And it is a good spot from which to keep an eye on things…

Mr. Karl – King of the hill!

Bob likes his bit of dirt also – a good dirt bath is heaven on a sunny day!

Bob is “King of the hill” in his own way.

not a real gardener

Every fall when I put away hanging baskets and plant containers ….that I save…I vow that next year I am going to reuse the baskets and containers and do my own baskets. And so far, every year, I go to the nursery and buy beautiful hanging baskets already full of bloomin’ stuff. Yea, well…NEXT YEAR!

I absolutely love going to the nursery, though. And yesterday’s trip was my third trip this year, although the first I actually bought anything. See, if you put things out before Memorial Day, you either have to be a martyr to covering up and/or bringing everything in and out or you will lose it because we have these teaser summerlike spells mid to early May and then it snows one more time. But it is so hard because things are greening up, leafing out, the sky is blue and you really, really, really want to plant something – of course, I did – once…

But yesterday was June 1! So off I went. My local nursery is on a funny little rural corner between my house and Bigfork. There is Swan River School on one corner, Swan River Community Center on another, Echo Lake Cafe and Echo Lake Store on the other two. The nursery sits next to the Community Center.

Store ……………….. and Cafe

Swan River Nursery The owners of the nursery are a young couple. This is maybe their 4th or 5th year. Sometimes their little girls are there as well as their golden retriever. A number of employees that have been the same for these years are around. It is another thing about this community that I enjoy – the continuity, seeing the owner and his family, seeing the same people getting things…

Swan River Nursery

Swan River Nursery

I wandered around inside several times and didn’t see what I thought I wanted. The front porch gets morning sun and doesn’t get too hot but where the baskets hang do not get a lot of full sun. I always get something that will do well in part shade. And although I love how petunias look, I’m not all that fond of the maintenance required. And I don’t like too much pink and purple…last years baskets were mountain bell in red, white and blue and mostly I just watered them. There is not so much of the pinching off of dead blossoms. So, I was thinking that maybe I would have to put on my big girl panties and just plant my own baskets when I wandered outside and found the perfect baskets – 2!!! – planted with the same colors, the same size baskets – the perfect thing!

Swan River Nursery

Done! – well, one quick trip inside to gather a few things for another idea I had…

Swan River Nursery

One of the “perfect” baskets – it picks up all of the colors on the front porch and then some – I LOVE it!

Tree Root planter

My other idea… this tree root – last year I looked at it and thought that it would be pretty with a little color in it.

Tree Root planter

not a real gardener, but we’ll see how this goes.

a new view

I bought some new chairs for the kitchen table. To call the table in the kitchen, a kitchen table is stretching things a bit. The table that I use in the kitchen and occasionnally eat off of is really a little side table made for holding a lamp in a hallway… But it is what I have and it fit in a corner of the kitchen and I have been hemming and hawing over what to do in the kitchen and not really having the budget to do much of anything.

I had this little table in the corner and one ladderback chair pulled to one end so I could sit there and eat. Most often, though, I take my plate to my desk in the sunroom, the front porch or to the living room in front of the tv or the fire.

Chairs

I had seen these chairs before and thought about getting one for my entry area – I have a corner that it would be nice to sit and put on or take off shoes or boots. Saw them again a week or so ago and decided they would work. Sara had moved the kitchen table at an angle to the corner and I thought – perfect – those chairs would make a bit of a nook and they are a bit larger than a regular ladderback, but still the same style…

Well, things did not fit or look right as I originally thought to arrange them and so I ended up like this:

Chairs

…and the thing is, I really like it…and I had breakfast AT THE TABLE! And I noticed that with the new arrangement, instead of looking at the corner, I have an entirely different view out the windows from both chairs and it is comfortable and serene and I really like it!

Chairs

Chairs

Chairs

The rest of the kitchen from the chair I’ll sit in.

Chairs

From the other side of the table looking out the sunroom window…

A small change and a new view.

The chairs are from Sturbridge Yankee. They came completely assembled (YEAH!), packed well in very large boxes, delivered to my door by UPS.