moss boss

May and June are the prettiest time in the garden.  It's still early, but I love seeing things come up that I planted years ago.  

Front garden, which had a few desultory daffodils when we moved in

I'm especially glad that I planted "cemetery moss" - the color is so vibrant and it spreads like crazy!

Side "rose garden" is starting to fill in, all perennials

I'm waiting for the peonies to start...they're so beautiful with the purple of the false baptisia and the yellow of the irises.  Total accident!

I've had a little trouble up here, though.  The deer, which have never bothered this garden in the past, have been mowing down my bee balm.

En route, they're stepping on and crushing the little seedlings I've planted around it.  I'm going to have to replace about a fourth of what I've planted.  

Our front red maple has filled in quickly.  I'd never noticed one before we moved here, but I love it so much.  A few more weeks until it's totally lush!  

I've been doing some work in the garden, but I have to pace myself.  I have so many other projects, and my regular job as well.  One really pleasurable project is this pair of bedroom side tables that I found at a thrift store for $14 each...on half-off day.  That's right, I got the pair for $14!  I knew they were good quality...solid wood...and checking inside, I saw that they were Ethan Allen.  When I did a price check, I discovered that they're selling for hundreds of dollars online.  Score!

They were a little beat up, though, and I didn't like the orangey stain.  I'm in the process of sanding them...

...to give them a really natural finish.  I'm about halfway done!

I'm continuing to spot spring ephemerals on our walks...

celadine poppy

trillium flexipes

dwarf larkspur

jack-in-the-pulpit

white baneberry

...and lazy kittens while working at home.

We're loving this time before the dread humidity and heat of summer sets in.  As long as it's not too bad, I'm going to try to continue to take short reading breaks on the porch swing.  It's so peaceful, especially with the garden filling in around it!

Have a great week!

Shrew-d Moves

The dust has been flying around here lately!  While Todd is working on installing a subfloor upstairs...

...I have been discovering my unexpected love of wallpaper installation.  Pre-pasted, paste the paper, paste the wall...I have all of the types, and I am greatly enjoying them all.  Upstairs, I have a nature-themed paper...

If you look closer, you can see the blackberries, foxgloves, rabbits, and hedgehogs.  LOVE.

Because of the odd angles of the slanted walls and tiny doorways, I'm doing a lot of cutting and pasting to keep the patterns straight.  It's just like working a puzzle and therefore, right up my alley!

Downstairs, we've got rabbits in the bathroom...

...and the kitchen is nearly done.  It was tiled last week...

...and I spent at least 2 full days with the wallpaper.  There were so many little nooks and crannies around the sink that had to be custom cut.  But I absolutely adore the wallpaper, even though it's not quite an exact match to the trim.  Close enough.  It's hard to get a good picture in this early morning light, but you get the idea!  It's a William Morris pattern from 1876. 

We installed a new snail door knocker, whose long antennae will poke out an eye if you aren't careful.  We're going to cut those down a little bit and possibly replace the entire door.  A name plaque has been ordered to cover the hole left by the previous (personalized) door knocker. 

I've sanded down all of our cheapo '70s hollow core interior doors...

...and am in the process of installing beadboard and painting.

It's going to be a busy couple of weeks, because we will be moving in the rest of our things from storage after the floor is laid down upstairs.  I'll be so glad to have my craft supplies back, though.  And framed wall pictures, and summer bedding, and the list goes on. 

I've squeezed in some outside work, completely filling the newly-created front bed with perennials from an amazing sale I found last week.

The plants are severely pruned here, but hopefully they'll give a good show in late summer and certainly next year.

I had some nice company in the garden while I worked.  At first I thought I was seeing moles...

...but they were so much quicker than moles, and they were eating fallen seeds from the feeders.  Moles are insectivores and don't eat seeds.  I did a little research and discovered that we have a few SHREWS!  My photo at bottom, versus the confirmed shrew picture at the top.  

Shrews are SO interesting.  Their hearts can beat up to a thousand times per minute, and they are understandably voracious eaters.  If they miss a meal, they can die (I've experienced this problem myself, as Todd can attest)!  Shrews are also venomous and a single shrew has enough venom to kill 200 mice!  Humans are too large, though, to experience anything more than pain from a shrew bite.  There are endless YouTube videos about shrews fighting (and defeating) snakes, scorpions, frogs, chipmunks, and many other creatures.  Theodore Roosevelt kept a pet shrew and noted, "Certainly a more bloodthirsty animal of its size I've never seen!" They have pointy, red-tipped teeth (red because of iron deposits)...talk about an appropriate look! 

(photo credit John Rochester, Flickr)

Yes, they tunnel, but they also eat a great deal of garden pests.  For the moment, I'm glad to have shews around!

I spent hours and hours weed-eating around the perimeter of the barnyard last week.  It was nice to see the white barn again...it had been half-covered with weeds...but we've just been too busy to get back there and get the work done. 

Now we can see some of the fencing that has to be replaced next year!  This is one of the worst areas, but at least we aren't needing to keep anything fenced in right now.

While plowing through 6 ft tall weeds, I nearly destroyed this tiny nest, even though I'd tried to be intentional about going slow and giving lots of "notice" for wildlife (mainly snakes) to move along.

Thankfully I stopped in time, but I was worried that I'd removed its protective cover.  The nest was still about 2 feet off the ground, but was completely exposed.  I've been checking it, though.  On weeding day, there were 2 eggs.  A week later, there are four!  I'm excited to watch this spot for new babies!

Borga is enjoying our brief moments of sunshine during this rainy spell...

...and the cats are passing through our noisy construction time by staying close and taking lots of naps.

They'd better get used to it, though.  Many months of construction ahead.

Have a great week! 

Whole Lotta Love

Things I'm loving this week...cupcakes for two, with sprinkles...that we've had three days in a row.

Pollen-covered bees.

 

Tiny bouquets made up of flowers from the garden.

"Things" that resemble other "things", like seed pods that look like pointy-hatted gnomes...

 ...and this emerging fennel umbel that resembles an acrobat, twisting backward to grasp a pole.  Do you see it?

Also love...flowers grown from seed.

Color...lots of color.

When a plan comes together...like a walkway bordered by feathery cosmos that are just starting to open up.  

Yard sales steals...like this handmade miniature covered bridge I found for $5.00.

I love doll-free dollhouses and the tiny wooden furniture inside.  One day I will indulge that love, but for now I'll stick to this miniature covered bridge, which may become a trailing shade plant holder, or a bird feeder...or maybe just something to sit on a shelf and admire.  It's got both puppy and kitty seals of approval.

Another $5.00 steal...this was the price for three vintage wooden dough bowls found at Goodwill recently.  Not $5 each...a total of $5 for all three bowls.

They were in pretty rough condition.  Lots of scratches.

Because my arms are usually aching from the gym, I slowly sanded them down over time.

Then I used mineral oil to bring out the natural beauty of the wood.

It's a beauty, isn't it?  I found other, nearly identical vintage wooden dough bowls online ranging in price from $35 - $250 -  per bowl.  

In the midst of so many good deals, I've been feeling a bit guilty for paying full price for some items that I don't even use...like my tart pans.

I decided to make mini fruit tarts this past week, to assuage my guilt...and because they're so tasty.  I don't use a set recipe for these...it all depends upon what you like.

I mixed up my preferred recipe for pie dough (Smitten Kitchen's all-butter pie dough) and placed the  dough in the refrigerator to chill.  I preheated the oven to 350, greased my tart pans, and placed them on a cookie sheet in case of mid-cooking spillage.

Once my dough was chilled (to be honest, I only chill mine for 15 - 30 minutes), I rolled it out on a floured surface and used a tart tin to cut out the pie bottoms.

Of course, this only makes enough dough to cover the bottom of your tins.  

I took leftover dough, sliced it with a pizza cutter, and made sides for each tart.  

An alternative is to just cut a larger circle of dough that covers bottom and sides all at once.  That's the easiest way...I just wasn't thinking when I was making these!  But this method worked just fine and didn't take much more time.  

This is just a miniature version of my favorite three-berry pie.  I measured about 3/4 cup sugar and mixed in 2 tablespoons of corn starch.  I stirred this mixture into 3 cups of frozen fruit, and spooned it into my tart containers.

Since I just threw these together, I didn't pay much attention to time...I just baked these until the crusts were golden...around 20 minutes, I think!  

The tarts are a bit runny when they come out of the oven...

...but they firm up as they cool.

These can be whipped up in no time and it's a perfect summer snack.  Great for picnics!  Each tart is equivalent to a half piece of pie, so it's a small, guilt-free indulgence.

Enjoy!