Sideboard curtains

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I was planning to make new curtains for the sideboard on the eating porch. I used the old ones as my pattern, and I re-used the little rings that are sewn on the top to hang over the rod. I spray-painted them black.

Here's a close-up of the fabric.

 I set up the sewing machine on the eating porch and enjoyed listening to the birds while I worked. I wanted to finish them before Mama came to lunch last Sunday May 27. Sure enough I did finish them on Saturday.

Finished --- voila!

 They add a bit of color and some freshness to the sideboard. Come see them in person!

Spring planting

Sunday Brad and I went to early church. He wanted to have plenty of time to work in the garden. There had been so much rainfall over the past few weeks that the earth had been too muddy to plow. Finally, the conditions seemed right. So he went back and forth over the garden multiple times with the plow (borrowed from Elmer Loving). Once he was satisfied with that, he planted row crops. These included roma beans, butter beans, corn, okra, snap beans, black-eyed peas and kale. He also planted tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, and a few herbs. He followed up today by planting yellow squash, zucchini, and beets. For those of you who are familiar with our garden, you will note a couple of new additions this year. Don Davis says to try at least one new item each summer.

Here are some seedlings waiting to be planted.

While Brad worked in the garden, I worked in the house. For the third time this spring I cleaned the two porches. I even bought a new mop, and that helped with the porch floors.  Pollen has not been my friend. During this episode of cleaning I decided it was time to run items stored in the sideboard through the dishwasher. Then I opted to arrange things a bit differently than how it was done in the past. On my list this week is to make new curtains for the sideboard, although I'm asking myself do I really want them?

We bought this hanging plant at the community market a few weeks ago. We thought maybe the wren would find this to be a suitable spot to construct a nest, as opposed to the porch light fixture, but that has not been the case. I like how the leaves are green and white on the "front" side, but purple in the "back" side.

Speaking of birds, we have seen groups of baby birds at our feeders or in the yard the last few days. It's hard to believe that little fledglings have already matured so quickly. We've seen baby house finches, nuthatches, chickadees and, unfortunately, cowbirds!

In loving memory

One of the most faithful readers of my blog has been my dear friend Karen Rosenblatt. If you look at the names of those who are followers of the blog, she is listed as rogerrosenblatt. Roger is her husband. Vibrant and youthful Karen died suddenly and without any warning on Thursday May 10, at the tender age of 55. She had two sons: Joe is finishing his freshman year in college and Andy his junior year in high school. They called it "sudden cardiac arrest."

I met Karen when I was working for Verizon in the mid-1980s, teaching PBT (Programmer Basic Training).  We both worked in the Bell Atlantic computer training center (that was before the company name changed).  We liked each other and eventually became really good friends. Karen and I both went through separation and divorce around the same time. Karen was the person I tried to fix up with Brad in October 1987. Their first meeting was at a Halloween party in the townhouse development where I lived and Brad lived. She was not impressed and left the party early. A week later Brad and I had our first date and we got married about 6.5 months later. Karen eventually met Roger and they dated for a longer period of time. They got married in October of 1990 and I was the matron of honor. They always lived in the greater Baltimore area, most of the time in Ellicott City, Maryland, which adjoins Columbia.

One of my earlier memories of a time with Karen was on the day that the space shuttle Challenger exploded in January 1986. I was teaching a 3-month class in Richmond, and had relocated there for that period of time. Karen came down one day to relieve me and teach the class for me and she stayed maybe three days. Anyway, the day she came was the day the Challenger exploded. When she reached my workplace she told me that she'd been listening to the radio all the way down I-95 ---- there was continuous news coverage about the explosion.

In September of 1986 Karen and I enrolled in a class to learn how to play bridge, at Howard Community College. After the semester was over, she and I joined several ladies from the class to form a bridge-playing group. We played on the first and third Tuesday night of each month, rotating among homes of the 8 participants. The group continues to play today --- although "girls" have left and new ones have joined --- myself being a prime example of one who left, when we moved to Lynchburg in 2001.  It is interesting that the last time before she died the group played at Karen's house, on Tuesday, May 1. The next time they were scheduled to play was the day of Karen's funeral, May 15. The girls got together for a meal but did not play cards --- instead they had a time of remembrance and love of this person who was the youngest member of the intergenerational group.

My blog was a vehicle through which we reconnected and once again communicated often. Karen would e-mail or call me after a post and ask me follow-up questions. The latest question she had asked was for an explanation of the difference between a species daffodil and a cultivar. She was always interested in what was happening in the lives of my children. She sent a baby gift to Evie and a wedding gift to Eddie and Kelly (though not invited to the wedding).  The last time we spoke was on a Saturday morning about 3 weeks before she died. She called about 9:15 a.m. and we talked for about 30 minutes. I could write pages about Karen's thoughtfulness and the way she kept up with a myriad of friends. But since you did not know her, I won't do that. It is enough that those of us who knew her and were able to attend her funeral were able to share in so many Karen-specific stories as related by the priest and also by Karen's sister. Suffice it to say here, I loved her very much and I will miss her. She was such a behind-the-scenes cheerleader for everyone in her life, including me. Roger attended Lynchburg College. One day Karen and Roger were going to come to Lynchburg and see Hanshill. Now, that day will never come. I will miss the anticipation of that visit and I will miss knowing that Karen is reading my blog and that our friendship continues, despite the miles between us. God's blessings upon you, Karen, and your dear family.

Pressure

Finally, there's another thing we can check off the dwindling list of renovation items not finished.

The water pressure here has been poor. We have county water, but the piping runs about 300 yards from the meter out by the highway to the house, and it runs downhill and uphill twice along the way. Two lovely shower heads were included in the renovation, but the trickle of water that has been the reality when showering has been disappointing. Not to mention that you could not run the clothes washer while showering, nor the dishwasher. Finally, after a couple of false starts asking vendors to provide estimates, we found a plumber willing to do the work and as of two days ago, now we have good water pressure! They installed a small pump plus a reserve storage tank. I don't know exactly how they work ---- Brad does ---- I only know that the end result is what I had been hoping for. Yay! Now we don't have to be apologetic to our guests about the lack of water pressure.

I found a nice stand of Solomon's seal in the woods and couldn't resist clipping a few pieces to bring inside. The peonies that have been here for years are doing very well. There have been a few wildflowers or weeds blooming in the woods that we have enjoyed too. The asparagus production has slowed greatly. This seems a bit early as we usually get two months of harvest. The sun has been absent for much of the past week. Maybe when it comes out we will get another spurt of new stalks. I hope so!!

Wren

We have a very industrious wren, or pair of wrens, who are intent upon building a nest on the driveway porch. There have been at least 10 days where we have had to remove the nesting materials they amass overnight in the light fixture.

Here is an example of their handiwork, done in less than 24 hours. Unfortunately, for the little birds, we removed it all.  In past years, these people-friendly birds have also often nested in hanging, potted plants on our porches. So I put up the first one of those for this year. Maybe the wrens will find that to be a good home.

Our first hummingbirds for the year arrived on May 2. This was quite a bit later than many feeders in town. We believe that the same birds return here year after year. This would be the first spring that the feeders were put up so early. In the past, when Hanshill was strictly a summer place, we would clean and open the house in the latter half of May. So I suspect our hummers are late arrivers, as well as late departers. We are glad they have returned.

I Love Spring

We're enjoying the full effect of spring at Hanshill. We've gone from daffodils to redbud and dogwood trees in bloom. Next came a viburnum which I have dubbed the Amherst county junk-fruit tree. We are not sure of the exact variety. Everything is now incredibly green and fresh. The couple of nights earlier this month when we had freezing temps and frost, the young crepe myrtle trees that we planted three years ago were damaged. We don't know if they will survive. Other trees we have planted are thriving: maple, dogwood, weeping willow.  Our three new rhododendron bushes are in bloom and the new Indian hawthorne and hydrangea bushes are sprouting leaves.

Spring birds have made themselves known: chipping sparrows, robins, towhees, phoebes, and cowbirds (ugh).  Our 20+ goldfinches continue to visit the feeders, with the males now looking spectacular. The white-throated sparrows have not yet departed --- at least not all of them. Wrens are attempting to build a nest in the light fixture on the entry porch. We clean out the debris every day. Bluebirds have laid eggs in 4 houses along our fences. Asparagus is in high season and we are picking it roughly every other day.

Pollen has been quite evident for the past few weeks. We are hoping that the rain of the past couple of days will bring an end to this annual spring "problem." We are ready to pull out the furniture for the eating and drinking porches, but had been waiting for the pollen to finish.

Our grandbaby and her Mama are coming down from Michigan this week to check out the spring conditions first hand. Charlie is in Italy for 3 weeks with the Navy Reserves, so the girls, including Stella the dog, are coming for an extended visit here! Yay!!

Below are some highlights of the last month.

On these first two pics, you may recall that we took a shot from the same angles when we had the big snow back in February.

The house as seen from the pond road near the garden.

Daffodils are all gone now, except from my memory.

The next variety is the latest-blooming one we have. It was planted by Murnie in the 1930s near where she also planted the spider lilies. This is a species daffodil, not a cultivar. (I only recently learned the difference.) The identity is N. Poeticus var. recurvus and it may well be the ancestor of some of the poet's eye cultivars. Here it is in the woods:

And here it is up close:

It has a WONDERFUL smell and is a very pleasing daffodil.

The next few shots show clippings from the "Amherst Co. junk-fruit tree." As I said before, it is believed to be from the viburnum family, but has not yet received positive identification.

The leaves are small.

My sisters gave me some cool vases for my birthday. They look a little bit like crooked chemistry beakers. I have found a couple of neat ways to use them and here is one of those ways.

Spring is my favorite season.

Frosty spring morning

Sure enough ---- the cold weather is not yet totally behind us. We had frost overnight. The front yard looks so pretty this morning having just been mowed.

The cold temperature gave us one more opportunity to enjoy the woodstove this spring.

Another morning a couple of weeks ago, the scenery was totally different. It was foggy and there was lots of moisture in the air. I woke up to a world of little cotton candy balls, or that's what they looked like. Here's one up close.

And here is the pasture. Would you ever know there were so many spider webs just hanging around to be walked through?? That's the roof of the (former) rental cabin in the distance. Enlarge for full effect.

This view is near the tennis court, but across the road. Rather eerie to see! They were all over King Road too, along the roadside.