Pond Plants in December

It has been eerily warm and humid here.  Christmas Day was close to 80 degrees and the humidity was so thick it was like a presence (not a present!).  So my son and I pulled out the waterlilies to repot them.  When they arrived last spring, I didn't have time to do much with them and they looked so tiny and improbable that I just tossed them into separate black plastic pots and called it a day, meaning to repot them when I found my water plant pots (although I was pretty sure I'd tossed them out when I left CT).  About a month ago I was at Home Depot and saw they had two water plant baskets for sale for about $2 each and I bought them.  I thought I would use them to repot the lilies in the spring, but it was so warm and the mood came upon us.  So we quickly transplanted them into the bigger, hole--ier pots--after oohing and aahing!

This one  had tiny new growth at the base.  I added some ordinary garden soil to fill up the basket (I didn't want to use anything too rich and cause it to start growing like gangbusters and then keel over and die!).

 I forget which is which so will have to wait until they bloom.  There are two of the same variety in this basket (either Charlotte Strawn--yellow--or Pink Beauty--pink and smaller).

Repotted in their new baskets and ready to go back in the pond.

 This is a few days later after being put back on their cinder blocks at the bottom of the pond.  They seem to have survived my attentions.

I then decided I needed to repot the pitcher plants.  They've been growing in a ceramic pot on a shelf in the pond.  I wanted to use that seafoam green/turquoise pot to plant a dwarf lemon tree in come spring.  I couldn't get it out of my head how glorious that would look.  So I'd been thinking what toI  transplant the pitcher plant into.  A year or two ago I  found a cracked recycling bin on the side of the road.  I asked the guy at the dump if I should turn it into the county, and he looked at it and said, " Nahhh.  With that crack, they won't use it.  It's no good anymore," and he started to throw it in the dumpster.  I asked if I could have it, and he let me take it.  It's been sitting in my garage holding junk all this time.  I took some old peat moss and filled it up and then transplanted the pitcher plant into it.  I'm thinking about sinking it into the ground up to the rim, but haven't decided the best spot yet.

This is a camellia bush I planted a year or two a go.

 

 It's got beautiful flowers.  I have a tea olive planted next to it and it smells heavenly, which makes up for the lack of scent from the camellia.

 I planted green onions today, too.  This is my new layout for my kitchen garden.   My son did most of the backbreaking work.  The paths are covered in leaves to keep the weeds down.  Once they rot down, we'll use them as compost in the beds and add more to the paths.  One thing I have plenty of is leaves!  We put a fence up to keep the dogs out.  They love to run all over the garden and dig like crazy. A week ago I planted Elephant Garlic that I bought from the produce section of the grocery store. It was three big cloves.  We'll see how it does.  It's next to the onions.

 

 

 

The vegetable garden is just 3 long rows with a 3' wide path (where the leaves are) on each side.  Each bed is 36" wide and 20 feet long.  I plan to use three soaker hoses to irrigate it. I can't stand to stand there with the garden hose in my hand every night watering.  I decided the only way I was going to do another vegetable garden was if I didn't have to hand water it.  So I  bought three soaker hoses (25 feet long each) that were on sale at Home Depot at they end of the season for $7 each.  We'll see how this works out. 

 Meanwhile, inside....

Close up of some of my succulents and a grafted cacti.

A long shot of all my houseplants crowded up near the southwest window.  I can't put them straight up against the wall because the dogs would knock it all over in an effort to get to the window to bark at squirrels and birds, or the occasional crazy cat that wanders onto the patio, taking his life into his paws!  While we're on the subject, about two months ago, the neighbor's kitten wandered into my fenced backyard and my 3 rat terrier mixes got hold of her.  I ran outside when I heard the screams and growls and got bit seven times in the process of trying to extract the kitten from their mouths.  Most of the bites were from the kitten, but one of the dogs got a good nip in on my bicep.  The cat survived.  The only blood shed was mine.  I was sure they had ripped her to shreds and I would be pulling tissue paper pieces of her  from their jaws, but amazingly, she only had a hurt leg.  It might have been broken or a ligament torn, but she limped for a couple of weeks and  has since made a complete recovery.  It was a bad experience and I'm lucky none of my wounds got infected.  Now, every time I let the dogs out, I check first to make sure there are no little black patches moving in the yard.

 

 

And my HOME sign in front of some bedraggled thyme out back by my patio.

One Beaver's Passing

Christmas Eve morning, driving to Walmart for cheese and frozen butter beans, we came across this beaver lying stretched out dead on the road.  It looked like it had just lain down to take a nap and would be rising up directly and going on about his business.  It was still drizzling and his fur was wet with the rain, but other than that, he seemed untouched.  I got out to take a picture and the only thing wrong with him as far as I could tell was that he was dead.  His paws, tucked back behind him, just about broke my heart.  A magnificent creature, dead on the road.  Lots of folks around here hate beavers and would just as soon shoot it or run over it as look at it.  I'm not denying they can be a nuisance and cause problems with their dam building and tree gnawing, but they have a place in the world, just as we do.  An honest, self-reflective soul might note that we cause a lot more damage to the planet than the beaver.

Beavers are the largest rodents on this continent and other than man, they're the only ones that modify their habitat to suit them.  Strict vegetarians, they can weigh over 60 lbs, but mostly they weigh between 35-40.

The time was when there were no beavers in South Carolina; they'd been hunted down and eradicated by the early 1900's.  In fact, they were almost hunted to the edge of extinction in North America.  By the late 1800's, you'd have been hard pressed to find one in this state. For about 1/2 a century, no beavers lived in the state.  Finally, the craze for beaver pelts died down and with proper management the beavers have made a remarkable comeback, re-inhabiting their former range and becoming quite common.  In the winter of 1941, the National Wildlife folks released six in the Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge.  All the beavers in the state are descendents of that group of six.

Some folks probably think that was a big mistake, bringing the beaver back.  However, beavers play an important part in the ecology of the forest.  The dams they build create habitat for a host of other animals and plants.  Deer forage on shrubby plants that grow where the beavers fell trees.Waterfowl use the beaver's pond as a nesting area and a migratory resting stop.  Ducks and geese actually build their nests right on top of the beaver lodge since it is warm and protected in the middle of the pond. Woodpeckers are attracted by the insects that come to feed on the trees that die from the rising water.  Later the holes made by the woodpecker will serve as homes for other wildlife.   Along the fertile edge of the marshy beaver built ponds, herons, raccoons, weasels and other animals hunt for frogs and other prey.  The wood duck has benefited greatly from the creation of nesting and brood rearing habitat that is a direct result of the beaver's efforts.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/living/beavers.html  This Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife site provides fascinating information about these remarkable creatures.

Graphic Side Note (rated for Mature Audiences--so if you are a young'un, quit reading):

I've always been puzzled as to why the gentalia of a woman was called a "beaver."  After doing a little research, the answer that seems most reasonable to me came from urban dictionary and was backed up by Wikipedia.  It seems credible but don't quote me on it.  "In colonial times it was thought that prostitutes spread venereal diseases through contact with their pubic area, so the women were made "bald" in that area for health reasons. However, their clients did not like that look and business began to suffer. Therefore, pubic wigs, called merkins, were manufactured for the prostitutes. These merkins were made out of beaver pelts. Hence the term beaver. Learned this on a historical tour of Philadelphia."  Could be totally out there and a complete fallacy, but maybe it's true.

Front Entry

This was the front entry.  It is currently storing two pieces of furniture I need to find a home for.  This is the mosaic that I got along with the one in the kitchen. 

 We have a periwinkle colored door.  I keep thinking about painting it gray.  Dini and Molly hanging out near the front door.

 Next to the huge closet (that I currently use as my clothes closet since there isn't one in the room where I sleep) is a little painting of an ocean and a cliff with birds flying around it (Ebay), a round porthole mirror and the IKEA stool where I park my purse and keys.

 African masks, the Bird Girl of Savannah repro statue that I've broken and glued back together innumerable times, Chinese tiles I've had for at least 20 years, a cow skull I got from an old boyfriend, an old globe, a teak tray and a painting I bought when I lived in Arizona.  It was done by a student at AZ State University.

 Rosewood veneer credenza I got at Goodwill in Ct.

 Rustic style crucifix I got off Ebay.

This is outside on the front door.  It was given to me by my good friend, Andrea!  The spiderwebs and dirt came with the house.

A bad neck repair job!

Vignettes--I'm Crazy for Vignettes

This piece of furniture was made on the property of the house where I grew up.  For awhile the land changed hands and the bank owned it and I had this piece of furniture in my house.  When a member of our family bought the house back, I sent the piece back to the house.  It seems to belong there.  However, all the little pieces of junky bric-a-brac stayed with me!

 

 

I got these three penguins in a garden shop in CT.  The little one immediately fell over and broke his beak off.  I repaired it.

 The clock came out of my family home, the Bud Lite Year is from Goodwill.  Pottery from various sources, the black dripping pot is a piece of Catawba Indian pottery.  The 3 saints are from junk shops and have magnets underneath to attach to the car dashboard, I think.  The wooden bench was seatless and I used string to weave a seat onto it.  It has a matching chair and I got it from someplace that escapes me.

 Toys from Goodwill or Happy Meals at McDonalds.  Bear I sewed.  Chair is matching part to agove bench.  Old cameras from junk shops.

 Black-eyed moth I made.  Wooden Swedish doll from junk shop, as are fan and wooden Scandanavian troll.  Fungus from yard.

 Fertility figure is a whistle from Mexico trip, truck represents the one I'll never have but would love to own.

 Shell from great grandmother's house where she used it as a doorstop, alligator from Johnny Stowe, statue from my mother--I always thought it represented the blind boy of Pompeii and his dog.  Puss and boots from Happy Meal.

 Wooden burro from little shop in Virginia.  Mugs from good will.  Trolls from Goodwill.

Little round gourd has Chinese poem written on it.  Pictures of my children in ceramic frames that hang on Xmas tree.

 Polar bears from Goodwill.

I get all warm and fuzzy inside when I look at little groupings like this.  If I ever took up painting again, I think I would paint still lifes of these.  That at least gives me a reason to hang on to them.

My Kitchen Remodel

I started this kitchen remodel way back in the winter of 2011 and then very inconveniently had a stroke and was out of commission for awhile.  I think I pretty much finished it up in early winter of 2012.

The folks who lived in this house before me are pretty intriguing to me.  It was a couple who built the house in 1949, a husband who was an art professor at the local college and his wife, a librarian at the same school.  They hired a student architect from Yale to draw  up the blueprints and the building has a flat roof--one of the few in this area. It is partially constructed from cinder block and has very solid walls that keep it from getting too hot in the summer.  It also has a little section with a shed roof and a clerestory lets in lots of light. I don't think they updated the house  much as the gas hot water heater was sitting in the kitchen corner (vented illegally).  That and the appliances were probably 1970's era.  They did add on a laundry room, studio and dark room in the 1980's.  They lived here until they died, both in their eighties.  I bought the house sight unseen after seeing pictures of it online.  My sister and her beau came and looked at it for me and took tons of pictures that she sent to me.  No one had been living here for four years (as the wife had moved to a care facility after her husband died and then she too had died) and it hadn't sold after being on the market for four years.

The Cons: Very old wiring, plumbing, mechanical systems.  Flat roof with membrane (expensive to replace and hard to find someone to insure it).  Property very overgrown.  Built on concrete slab and flat roof (real problem when you need to work on wiring, gas lines, plumbing).  City water but has a septic tank. Shared driveway with neighbor.  Road in front of house is pretty busy during rush hour (early morning and for drive home from work).

The Pros:  Incredible trees--gigantic pines and magnolias and oaks--that dance in the wind.(Actually, I was sold once I found out that.  Everything else was gravy.)  House has studio and little darkroom space I can use for all my sewing, painting, bookmaking stuff!  Has two bathrooms.  Has lots of little quirky, built-in features.  Sits on acre with areas for sunny gardens and shady gardens. Mature landscaping and garden has great bones because couple were avid gardeners and had planted lots of azaleas, camellias, and assorted trees.  Has garage and shed on property. Near a hospital, library, college and hospital.  And it was cheap because it needed work.

Before Pictures of kitchen (pretty discouraging and needed lots of work!):
The dishwasher was on wheels and could be moved around.  There was a huge old ac unit in the window above the sink.

Some of the countertops were a white linoleum and some were a very old red linoleum (maybe original to the house)

This base cabinet was not attached to the floor or wall and could be moved.  The door led to the sunporch they had later converted to an enclosed space.

The gas oven may or may not have worked, but the gas pipes had a leak under the concrete slab foundation and had to be rerouted along the outside wall of the house.  The venthood did not vent to the outside.

I loved these wooden pull out drawers that were built in to this cabinet so we kept these just as they were.

On this wall was the old fuse panel from when the house was built and that was still in use.

Under the sink.  All the cabinets were solidly built--no flimsy particle board stuff.  So I wanted to keep them.

The wallpaper was on the wall behind the stove but was pretty disgusting and filthy so it had to go.

The hot water heater (gas) was in a corner of the kitchen.  Go figure.  These cabinets currently reside in the garage along  with the red topped table.

We put more cabinets and counters and the fridge in this space.  We bought a new on-demand hot water heater and had it put on an exterior wall near the bathroom.

This was the original fixture, but it gave out very little light so I replaced it with a strip of 3 track lights.  I still think I need more. It's not very bright on cloudy days or at night.

I worked with a great fellow named Hunter who was very skilled, conscientious, patient and willing to try anything. Hunter did excellent work. Previously, he had tiled most of the house while we were still in CT.  I measured and drew and re-drew and re-measured and re-drew, yet again.  I was on a very tight budget so I spent a lot of time figuring out the most economical way to do things.

Cabinets: I re-used several of the cabinets and rearranged them.  I bought new hardware for the drawers and cabinets.  Originally I planned to paint the cabinets, but there was an oil based paint on them already and it was in pretty good shape and I didn't mind the color so I decided to see how long it would hold up before I took on the task of repainting. My fellow built in one tiny cabinet on one side of the stove so I could open the dishwasher fully without hitting the stove.

There was a little closet with louvered doors than I brought in from another room and had my fellow convert into a pantry by permanently installing it against the wall and adding shelves.  We then added a long shelf across the top of the pantry that extends over the doorway and right up to the cabinets for storage.  We took out the door that lead to the dining room (originally a sunporch) that I was going to use as a bedroom until my kids were grown.  He put a piece of plywood over the opening and we put shelves there (about 8 inches deep) to give more storage.  It can be removed and restored to a doorway when I turn that room back into a dining room.

Appliances:  I bought a gas stove off craigslist (and drove 2 hours to pick it up and load it in my van with the seats out).  It was $300 and then I had to hire a fellow to do some work on it for another $160 but it's a nice stove.  Had I known more about gas stoves, I would have waited and found one closer by that I could have checked out first.  This one is bigger than I need, but I do love it.  I got my fridge off the scratch and dent row at Lowe's down the road. I bought it early for $700 before I had any ideas for the layout of the kitchen.  I wanted one of those fancy tall, skinny Smeg European models but couldn't justify that much for a fridge.  The downside on this one is that it fills the space perfectly, but there is no wiggle room on the wall side so the fridge has to be opened on the wall side.  That makes it awkward for loading groceries in the fridge. I bought an enamel sink from a salvage place about an hour away.  I bought the faucet from Lowe's.  I brought my dishwasher from Connecticut with me ( it was an expensive model I'd just bought).  I bought a vent hood that is vented outside (through some crazy interior cabinet maneuvering) and is a Broan from Lowe's. As part of the vent outlet disguise, my fellow built in a little box for the microwave (it fits in perfectly and I'm now permanently committed to that size!)   I have a radio/cd player installed under the cabinets (old school that I brought from CT) so I can listen to NPR or books on tape when I'm in the kitchen. 

Countertops and Backsplash: I agonized over this decision.  I really had to go cheap on my countertops and if I had it to do over again, I'd probably go with butcher
block.  I used small tiles because I got a great deal on them.  My fellow laid them very flat and smooth but still you can't roll dough out on them. They are trimmed in oak along the edges. I don't have much counterspace so I really should have sprung for the butcher block.  However, at the time I was in love with tile, granite, stone  My backsplash I truly love.  Though I might have put it in vertically rather than horizontally.  Just the space between countertop and the bottom of the cabinets isn't much and it might have looked odd.  I do truly love the pattern and colors, though.

Mosaic:  In Ct, I had two marble mosaics I ordered off Ebay from Lebanon on my kitchen walls.  (Back in the day when I had money to burn on those sort of luxuries.) They were of swans.  I ordered one for this house while I was still in CT, and I originally planned to use it behind the stove, but it was too tall.  I could have cut it down, but that would have killed it!  So I had my fellow mount it on the wall with a row of hooks underneath it.  Because of that damn refrigerator and it's weird door opening attribute, not all the hooks can be used (except for aprons).


After Pictures:

The backsplash, cabinet handles and paint colors I decided on.  I ended up not using the chocolate brown paint on the cabinets because I thought it would be too dark. 

 

Countertop with oak trim and  and backsplash installed. No more funky wallpaper.  New electric had to be installed for the new appliances and with GFCI circuits.

 

 

 

 

  Microwave shelf, gas range and vent hood.  Swan mosaic ready to be installed. These are the cabinet handles up top before they were replaced.  To the left of the stove is the little cabinet Hunter built. I store pans in there but I need to get something that pulls out so it is more functional.

Enamel sink, new faucet.  And the louvered doors.  I love louvered doors.  I think they remind me of the beach or afternoon naps or something.

 

 

Morning sunlight coming through one of 3 windows.  New hardware on cabinets.

Blue paint (mixed on the fly from blue paint store reject and white paint leftover from painting house) used to paint two walls and pantry in kitchen.

Inside pantry.  It has since been rearranged and filled up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Built-in shelving where doorway used to be and rolling kitchen island. 

 

 Shelf built by handyman atop pantry and doorway to edge of cabinets.  Royal blue Scandinavian plates (off ebay) on side of pantry. I had four, but one got knocked off and broke into bits on the tile floor.  We painted this wall ice blue.

Front doors of pantry closed.  Ikea footstool painted dark grey.  Tile floor I installed when I ran out of money to pay for services.  Don't look too closely.

 

 

 

 

 

I hung baby pictures along the top of the cabinets.

 

Trying out different paint colors on the wall by the swans mosaic.(I don't know why I love this but the heart wants what the heart wants.  It looked better in CT surrounded by white tile and I still might do that one day but for now, that's what I got.

 I like these lacy, French style curtains.  Several times I've thought about replacing them and even started embroidering a valance to replace them, but I like them for some reason.

 The dishwasher that came with me and a homemade laminated magnet to try and keep straight when I turn it on.  So far, it hasn't helped.

 

Aprons and colanders on a partially painted wall.  I finally painted it light blue along with the pantry and the wall it is on.

 

 

 

 Banana pudding on the countertop.  My fruit bowl I've hauled around for 20 years and my garlic jar (it has holes in the back of it

I think I paid close to $5000 to remodel the kitchen, including the labor (but not the electric part of the labor--that was done as part of a whole house update, along with gas lines and an on demand hot water installation).  Here's a little side by side comparison for before and after.

 

Some pictures taken after it is in full use (warning:  real life clutter depicted!):