Peony Distress Call (Front Flower Bed Part II)

Ta - da!! Presenting my new front flower bed and trellis fence! Mr. CF helped me transplant some perennials and add a couple of new ones today. I will plant my seedlings Saturday as there is still a risk of frost tonight. I have sunflowers, delphiniums, cosmos, zinnia, salvia and black-eyed susan to add yet. I decided to move our 45 year old white peony (at the centre post) even though I know it won't bloom this summer now. It is suffering serious transplant shock -- at least it is cool and raining lightly to ease it's poor little self. My neighbour loves the new bed & fence -- it will add some privacy for her as she likes to sit out on her front deck and read in the morning. The elementary school is the building with the blue roof in the background, so there is quite a bit of foot traffic along here. The mailman gave it two thumbs up this morning!

We spent our May long weekend building. Miss M was very helpful as per usual. I have some cove moulding to cut and add under the post caps, but other than that, it is done!

Good thing there were only three posts; our little family of three was perfect for lifting it into place. We managed to step around the perennials given to me last fall by my cousin. I did buy an amethyst coralberry shrub, one each shasta daisy and purple coneflower (which I split) and three small tickseeds. The rest will be transplanted or seedlings.

The plans for our arbor and the trellis fence both came from this book; there are oodles of good designs in here.

 Don't you love it when they post your age right in front of your house? Living in a 30 zone was much easier to take. My sunflowers and delphiniums will be easy to tie to the fence and the cosmos and zinnia will fill things in nicely while the perennials get established. At least that is my plan... not sure what the neighbourhood hares and the occasional deer will think about the new buffet -- hopefully they will turn their noses up at it.

I'm so happy to have this bed in... I just can't wait for midsummer to see how it looks then. Thanks for stopping by!

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Front Yard Flower Beds Come to She Who Waits... and Waits (Part I)

September 2011... Macy needed a photo for school of her favourite place in the whole world. She wanted a photo of our home and that made me smile. It makes me smile again to know that we are finally putting in the flower bed I've wanted in the front yard for two years now. Note my almost 50 year old bleeding heart behemoth at the front door!

When we bought our 1965 spit level 3 years ago we knew it needed curb appeal but there were oodles of more pressing items to be fixed... like wiring not up to code, new attic insulation, parging to cover the nasty blue styrofoam insulation on the addition, hideous former kitchen remodel, terribly neglected empty back yard, and so many more. Oh, and filling the hole in the front lawn left by the birch. 

I got my first glimpse of our house circa 1971 from my dear neighbour a few weeks ago -- I was so excited to see this photo. We had the very same fence in turquoise and white in the house I grew up in. Note the size of the cedar at the corner of the house and then look above to see what 40 years of growing can do!

We planted an amur cherry in the fall of 2010 (we had BIG ones at a previous home and loved them) and took out both corner hedges this past summer -- but not on the day of this hailstorm. :) Macy is sentimental like her mama and insisted that we keep part of the hedge. The bit left standing was relocated to the back yard.

To say we're starting with a clean slate is an understatement.    Photo from April 2012.

Mr. Crow's Feet, Uncle Bradley & their supervisor hard at work this morning. The trellis fence is starting to get built tomorrow and I've got seedlings waiting, plants to move and a shrub to pick out.  I hope to buy just the shrub and some tickseed for this bed. We shall see. The sunflowers, cosmos, zinnia, black-eyed susan, and others are a few inches high. Good thing they aren't planted yet as there is a frost warning tonight. Sigh. I'm heading out now to cover the baby boo pumpkins and the canary creeper. If the weather (and Mr. CF) cooperates I will hopefully have an update by early next week!

My Mother's Day Bouquet

 Here they are... the spring stars of my garden. That is the whole show. My dry shade flower bed in the back yard surprised me this spring with this blast of colour. I totally forgot about the grocery store primrose that I had stuck back there after the blooms faded and now here she is. I checked last years photos and we still had tulips here in June. I'm a bit envious of of my green thumbed friends south of the border with... ahem, slightly longer growing seasons! Oh well... I will take all the green I can get right now. And the purple.

After the Mother's Day Brunch guests left I puttered out in the yard watering and pulling a few weeds. It is a beautiful day and brunch was fun. The photos of everyone on the 'clothesline' were a HUGE success. Macy gave me one of her famous manies and pedies. She made my day.

Happy Mother's Day!

I made a new sign for Sunday... a little tweaking of the spring mantle and we're ready for our annual Mother's Day brunch. At least the mantle is ready. The grocery shopping has a ways to go yet.

Easy, peasy and total cost: $0. I used the font LD Petticoat Black, printed out and transferred to one of the old fence boards in my stash. I used craft paints that I had on hand and dried well using my high dollar drying station, pictured at right. Sand and voila!

I enlarged and printed the photos at home and picked up the clothespins from Mom last night. They are the same ones that I used to pin the clothes on the line back in the 60's and 70's when we were much smarter and used clotheslines.

I printed photos of everyone that will be at the brunch with their mothers. My mom, my dad, my daughter, my husband, my aunt, my mother-in-law, hubby's aunt and our neighbour. We're all there and DD knows who everyone is in these old photos, and that makes me smile.

 This is one of my favourites. My mom and I on our way to church in front of the house I grew up in (which is in the same city I live in now). Roots are good. Wishing you all a very Happy Mother's Day! :)

Edited on Mother's Day to add:
We were happy to add two more guests to brunch and photos of them with their mothers to the clothesline: my cousin and our neighbour friend from across the street. The photos were a HUGE success!





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A Recreational Hazard

I have a new health and safety poster at my desk -- albeit a bit too late. I don't know what I was thinking, but we didn't put my desk up on a perch when we moved here and it is too low. Or... my armrest was too high and I didn't think to lower it. Needless to say, many hours of doing genealogy, surfing, scrapping, and pinning and I have mouse elbow. It is similar to tennis elbow, but I am finding it much harder to heal. I am trying to rest it, but it is the start of gardening season. I am using my left hand for my mouse when I can, icing it, massaging it, and taking ibuprophen. Sigh. I thought that making a poster would help -- but I used my right hand for mousing. Ooops.

The skeleton & Miss Mousie are from The Graphics Fairy of course. The text was found here with a slight modification on that last line. The addition of the Red Cross logo was inspired by Vickie at Ranger 911's post here. I think it makes it look awfully official!

I am waiting to get in to see the doc as I am finding that this just does not go away on it's own. It is painful to even turn a door knob let alone garden. Has anyone else had mouse elbow? What helped you??

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Butter Late Than Never!

In the early 1900's my great grandmother Eliza Anne used to make butter and sell it to the grocery store in town. Luckily my aunt still had some of the parchment butter wrappers and gave me some about three years ago. I have always wanted one framed to hang in my kitchen and finally... ta-da! I had envisioned a pricey custom frame, but instead I used a $1.50 thrift store eighties number and after averting my eyes from it's peach hue, I painted it cream. It's 5.5"x6.5"... just right I think; it may get distressed a bit yet... that can always come later. Mrs. Robin needed a spring kerchief and I had to get out a coordinating salt & pepper. 

My great grandparents and my grandmother (circa 1920) on Garden Hill Farm with one of the first cars in the area.

Four generations: me, my dad, grandma Gladys and great grandma Eliza Anne, the butter maker from Garden Hill Farm. Thank you for stopping by!

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Coffee, Tea or Chickadee?

Yesterday we moved my grandmother's sewing machine into the dining room. This move was inspired by my new-to-me pewter coffee pot which was given to my mom by her dear friend and US neighbour Holly who is almost 90. My parents spend the winter in the USA; Mom's parents were both born in the US and I have enjoyed doing lots of genealogy research of relatives in the Spokane, Washington and Waterford, Wisconsin areas. Holly moved from Canada to California many years ago and enjoys the Canadian ties & friendship with my folks. She has been sharing her treasures with us and they are getting a lot of love.

The crocheted tablecloth is from her also. Thank you dear Holly -- I don't imagine you expected a bird's nest in the coffee pot, but considering it spent many years in the barn in Quebec, (before you rescued it) a bird's nest may not be much of a stretch!

The Dixon & Son pewter coffee pot was made between 1823 & 1835 and made the trek to Quebec with Holly's family from England. The scale was my mother's paternal grandmother's. The binocs were my great grandfather Sid's. My mom remembers the day they got this second hand treadle Singer and how excited they all were. It belonged to her mother Anna, who is on the right in the photo with her sister Belle. I love finding old treasures but when they have family history, the find is even sweeter.

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