Hey everybody! I’m here and so ready to be done with 2020. I just wanted to wish all of you a safe and happy new year! I hope to be back more in 2021 ..read more

I’m still here. My garden has been exploding and I’ve enjoyed puttering around it. It’s a nice distraction from covid. I am so concerned about the pandemic and it’s trajectory – NY had such a hellish period that I can’t believe other states aren’t taking it seriously enough. Just wear a mask, people, please. Or a face shield. Just something as we all need to do our part. Anyway, It’s been hard to get up the will to post stuff, but then all of the sudden it’s there again and here I am I have a pot of pansies that has hung around despite the really hot and humid temperatures. It kind of comes a ..read more

The blooms are back! The weather here has been pretty warm this past week, warmer than usual. That means the garden will start popping. It went from the red tulip phase to the blue/purple phase: It’s Picasso phase, I suppose. I divided a lot of irises last year, gifting them to my neighbors, and mind really took off like a shot after that. They have just started to open. This one I planted two years ago, but it didn’t bloom last year and I kind of forgot what color it was until it opened. It’s so pretty! It’s called Immortal and is a reblooming iris. Hopefully I will be posting pictures of ..read more

Instead of What’s Blooming, I’m posting a reno project! One of the more difficult parts of the bathroom remodel was replacing the bathtub and surround. The old surround was fiberglass and the tub was obviously part of the whole kit. The tub stopper was broken and the surface of the tub had a bubble and crack in it, which at some point would probably cause leaking. Anyway, time to go. We removed the bits of drywall that were covering the lip of the surround and we were surprised (or maybe not really) to see a complete hole to the roof. You can also see where the tile was attached to the back w ..read more

Spring is slowly coming in. The last part of April has been much cooler and kind of wet, so the garden slowed down a bit from early in the month. The tulips have made an appearance. I have several types and the early ones are now open. Those cool fritillaria are still around. They are long lasting, which I love in a flower Lots of foliage appearing all around. A lot of that in the background is allium. Daffodils: These are from a clump that I found when we first moved into the house 5 years ago (can you believe it has been that long??). They were in the shade and not really blooming, so I ..read more

Hey – it’s time for What’s Blooming again! Something nice to talk about other than coronavirus, right? A few plants are peeping out. It’s been fun going out and seeing what survived the winter, which appears to be almost everything. I lost a couple baby plants to frost heave and there are a few that won’t wake up for a few more weeks, but looking good so far. The birds have been going crazy as well. It’s that time of year to get working on bird babies! Some of the migrating birds are showing up. I hope to get a picture of the yellow throated sparrow before they move out. I hear them all the ti ..read more

It feels like we are in suspended animation here in NY. We have pretty strict measures in place and hopefully that will help, but it seems like it wasn’t quite enough. Here upstate there are cases in our hospital and one nurse has tested positive. When I had my hysterectomy last year, my nurses were so great and I worry for them. Testing in our area is only available now for health care workers or those admitted to the hospital. They only did about 600 tests in our area before they stopped (a week ago) and it has taken more than a week for results to come in with 200 results still pending. Ugh ..read more

So, in an effort to bring some kind of normalcy, here is more progress on the bathroom. Again, we are farther along than this, but I’ll just play catch up to post more. We had the floor finished, which I’m really happy with now that we got the pattern right LOL! We got the new toilet installed for a little while – yay! Then came finishing up the walls. We had to install drywall on the one open wall, which I then did a skim coat on and started painting. We changed the color a little bit. It’s still blue, but more powder blue than aqua blue. Paint color is Air Kiss by Valspar The trim is going ..read more

These are certainly strange times. As of today, NY shot up to the most Covid cases in the country with over 900 statewide, and of course that number is going to grow with more testing coming on board. Governor Cuomo gave a stark warning today that he did not think we were going to flatten the curve enough to not overwhelm our medical system. Schools are closed. All restaurants and bars must either close or go to take out/pick up only and nonessential businesses are encouraged to close or let employees work from home. John and I are very fortunate in that we already work from home, so there is ..read more

Hey everybody! I’m here and so ready to be done with 2020. I just wanted to wish all of you a safe and happy new year! I hope to be back more in 2021 ..read more