Category: home

Learning a new trick

August 2, 2020

a day in this life, home

A decade or so ago, my friend, Ann, decided to try a block-a-month quilt project and learned a new trick that way. She has been a quilting fiend ever since. It’s been to my benefit. I have 2 gorgeous quilts that she made me and she made another one for my kid when they were getting situated elsewhere. Offspring loves that quilt.

I have tried various crafty things to keep my hands busy and none of them stuck. My paternal grandmother taught me how to make a cathedral window quilt. Ann helped me cut enough blocks of muslin to make one that would cover my bed. And there they sit. I took a class in chainmaille jewelry. Bought a collection of rings from a young friend who had gotten tired of it. And there they sit.

The only projects I stick with (much) are outside. I plant things, let the grass grow in the beds in the heat of summer, and fight the grass all Spring. And I do a little bonsai. Those are not things to do while I listen to a book during the blistering heat of the afternoon or watching TV in the evening.

I’ve been playing a lot of solitaire on my tablet and it was becoming really tedious.

So, when I saw a kit-a-month crochet ad on Instagram right after the shutdown started, I thought, “That’s kind of how Ann got started quilting. And I can quit after the first month if it just sits there. OR, I’ll end up with an afghan.”

I’m liking it. The kit teaches me 3 blocks a month and, in the end, I’ll have 30 blocks and the 11th month will be putting them all together. The difficult part has been getting a handle on how to do the end of the row correctly. I have ripped out you-wouldn’t-believe-how-many sections that either wanted to become trapezoids or magically expanded. But, that’s OK. It’s not like I have a deadline.

Frankly, the kits don’t come quickly enough because it’s too hot to do anything outside and I only work 2.5 days a week anyway. Three 9″ blocks hasn’t really been enough for the muscle memory to kick in either. And, I got the first kit done in a little over a week. So, being the mad genius that I am, I decided to do another afghan, at the same time, parallel to mine for my kid. Hello, practice!

Offspring likes black, grey and red. I am here to tell you that black yarn is impossible for 60 year old eyes to see worth a damn. So, they’re getting shades of grey and some finishing scarlet.

And, I still didn’t have enough to do. So, Ann gets one, too. She asked for “bright” and we had a photo consultation via text while I shopped, masked and well spaced, at Michael’s.

I have no clue what I’ll do with this new skill once I have finished a few afghans. Honestly. How many blankets can you give to your friends and family?

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Miracles and wonders

March 10, 2020

dirt under my nails, home

Once upon a time in the murky, distant past, I developed a yen for a yellow Xmas/Thanksgiving cactus. I saw pictures of some on FaceBook and thought they were spectacular. I had one that was white with fuchsia edges, already.

A neighbor of my mother had put her collection of Schlumbergeri out by the elevator on their floor and she had a yellow one blooming. I stole a pinch. Then, I told her I’d done it and she told me I was welcome to as many cuttings as I wanted.

As I waited for it to grow, I decided to hit up Home Depot to see if they had any yellow ones after Xmas. Just in case the cutting didn’t thrive. And there was a pot of light colored buds. “Ah ha!” thinks I. “A yellow one. Waiting for me!” I brought it home and all the buds fell off.

So, I waited. And in the Fall, the fuchsia one bloomed. And the pinched one got unexpected buds!! And the “yellow” one did, too.

But, the pinched one had dark buds. Apparently, there were 2 plants in that pot and I got the wrong one.

“Yellow” turned out to be peach.

It’s still attractive and I do like it. But, it’s not yellow.

And the pinched one is a lovely red.

Again, it’s lovely. But, still not what I was aiming for.

Last Spring, visiting my mother, again, the yellow one was blooming. I took a pinch that had a freakin’ flower on it.

Now, I have this.

Addendum:

It took 13 days longer to bloom.

I’m delighted.

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Update and stuff

January 29, 2020

a day in this life, dirt under my nails, home

I fell off the exercise wagon last year and I expect I won’t be getting back on it in any organized way. Even though I love the endorphins when they kick in, routinely making time for that takes a great deal of effort. And there are other things I prefer doing. So, I let it slide.

One of those things is yard work. I don’t like doing it. But, I like the final result. And I don’t have to get in my car to do it. I just have to get my as dressed and go outside. Well. I do eventually have to go to Lowe’s and get more mulch. But, that’s not a given for the starting point like going to the gym is.

I have 2 things to do today. I am going to plant a bare root lilac bush on the south side of my house. And I’m going to put 3 lily bulbs in their places.

My cousin told me that when my great grandmother’s house was sold, there was a white lilac bush covering the whole side of the house. The people that bought the house ripped it out. There’s a pert of me that wishes I had a piece of that bush to plant where I live. But, the truth is I prefer colored flowers to white ones. So, I’m planting a standard lilac and that’s enough.

I have 2 other lilac bushes in my yard. They are a pair of clones I got from the National Phenology Network. They are tracking climate change with the information they get from volunteers all around the country who are growing lilacs they gave us. They are nice to have. But, I was given instructions about where to plant them that are functional for the project, not particularly where I would have preferred. And they aren’t the standard color. They are Red Rothomagensis lilac (Syringa chinensis) and they have never been enthusiastic bloomers in my yard. They do bloom. But, not what I have wished for. So, I got the other one.

The other thing to do today is plant 3 lily bulbs. I bought a package of 9, kept 3 and mailed 3 to my cousin who lives in Las Vegas. They have a small back yard with a tiny growing area and last year whey saw pictures of Easter lilies and were quite taken with them. (Actually, Chris asked what they were and I called him a doofus for not knowing. Jennifer told me they don’t see them there. I thought they were universal.) So, when I saw them for sale, I got them to share. According to their USDA planting zone, they should be fine. And I know they grow here.

There is something in me that likes flowers as connections to people and places I have known. The irises remind me of my maternal grandmother. The gardenia is for my paternal grandmother. My crepe myrtles remind me of a conversation with my dad and he was always fond of the little primroses that grow in the front bed. My Thanksgiving cacti bring my mother to mind, (She thinks they’re ugly and tells me so frequently.) The black elephant ears I have in a pot make me think of the friend that gave them to me. My African violet reminds me of the friend that told me how to care for them successfully. There are 3 roses that remind me of specific people. The hydrangea is for a niece. The fig is my husband’s. (I will never see a fig without all our growing and eating of them coming to mind.) The foxglove is from an old friend. The Lenten roses are from another friend and the butterfly bush reminds me of my trip to Canterbury. There are several lilies that put me in mind of another friend.

The list continues but I’m going to stop and get on with planting.

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Home update

May 14, 2019

a day in this life, home

I have always hated the brick-look vinyl floor in the kitchen. And the carpet in the living room had been abused by shoes and pets tracking clay in for over a decade. AND my child had done some damage to the kitchen vinyl when they were in high school. The damage was small and only noticeable if you looked in the right spot. But, I knew that it was going to be an excuse to redo the floors sometime.

That time came last spring. I looked down and a small piece of the vinyl had come up. It terrified me. I was afraid that, if I left it for any length of time, there would be damage to the sub-flooring that would be ridiculously expensive.

Chuck and I had been talking about replacing the floors with laminate and had looked at options. Even getting chips from Lowe’s to bring home and think about. Of course I couldn’t find the one we liked best when it came time to actually do it.

I went to Lowe’s, looked at choices again, picked out 3 I liked (again), talked to the guy, got a rough estimate and found i could pay for it without taking out a second mortgage and came home to talk to Chuck. We picked a floor and I signed a contract.

AND we decided that since the paint was ancient and in need of refreshing, we should do that before the floor was laid. When we moved the furniture in anticipation, we found the floor chips we had gotten 2 years earlier and the one we picked out was one of the trio. CLEARLY this was our favorite.

We ended up with both rooms the same color and with the same floor. I even found switch plates and outlet covers that matched the paint.

We gave the old carpet to my friend, Carolyn, who had admired it for years, and got a new one to go with the new look.

When my mother came to visit, she and I stopped at the ReStore in Durham to drop off a lampshade I had changed and found a sofa that was the shopping coup of my life. They took the old sofa that had been badly reupholstered and sold me that one for $13. It had been marked down from $75 in October to $20 and was 40% off the day I went in.

It almost feels like a new house.

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Bat flower plant

August 8, 2016

a day in this life, dirt under my nails, home

Chuck and I went adventuring into Virginia last Thursday, looking for a labyrinth in Boydton. Coming home, we stopped at Cedar Creek Gallery in Creedmoor, NC. (It’s right off I-85, and worth a visit.) In addition to a gallery and studios, they have lovely gardens and a little plant sale area.

I wandered over to the plants (as I must) and found a bat flower blooming its heart out. I have seen pictures of them, but had never seen one in person. And they had a relatively small one (with no blossoms) for sale for $5.

It’s a terrestrial orchid and needs low light and high humidity. I accidentally did the right thing when I repotted it with extra vermiculite in the mix. I have it up against the back wall of my house where it gets early morning sun and it seems to be happy there. For now. When nighttime temps get close to 50ºF/10ºC, we will bring it into the living room and put a humidifier nearby.

I have friends who think I have a green thumb. I think I am simply willing to give a plant a shot. And I read the instructions that come on those little tags. (That wasn’t a lesson quickly learned.) And my yard has all the choices for sun.

I think the trick to keeping plants, is finding things that like what you have to offer. If you tend to want to water a lot, don’t get cacti or succulents. If you have a tendency to forget to water, go for those. And don’t beat yourself up if the plants you wish you could grow don’t love your climate.

When I lived in Charleston, SC, I had a collection of bromeliads and all of them bloomed for me. I moved from that house to a different angle and amount of sun and they all died. My care didn’t change, but the environment did. That has affected my plant expectations since then.

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