Off to Maine!

What could be more American? Load up the car, let's go!

Dining Room Table

Yes I did have a good race, thank you.
But here's what's really important:

Steve built us a dining room table!!!


The top is a piece of galvanized sheet metal from the shop. The base is original wood salvaged from the house. It's beautiful.
Enzo is really tired. Manhattan wears him down. Doesn't it all of us?

Sunflowers, part I

Back in April, I planted a whole packet of sunflower seeds. Maybe it was too early, maybe I mistook the seedlings for weeds, but in any case, only two of the initial planting survived, and they are now blooming. They're really tall. The one above goes above the chain link fence -- it's growing out of a cement block. I planted more seeds a while ago, and have tons of little sunflower plants now, figuring the same timeline, I guess they'll bloom late this summer.

This guy below just kills me -- it's growing out of a crack between the brick patio and the chain link in the back, by the ugly fence. Not quite as hardy, it's still doing a lot better than some of the seedlings that were planted in nice rich soil with plenty of space. Go figure.

making me happy

The garden is in full swing and it makes me happy.
The echinacea are tireless. Pictures don't do justice to the orange centers, contrasted against purple petals...




In front, the hydrangeas are full-force, and you can see a little bit of the planter heaven that is now over in that part of the world.

And there's the "fence cover" flower box, which I'm really proud of myself for. It does a nice job of patching the "hole" where there are no vines in the fence, a little visual interest, and a nice mix of spiky upright stuff (I am loving the red pom pom guys), and then gazania and little daisy guys too.

window progress

Because my not-so-anonymous sister (Hi Liza!) is always bugging me about house progress, now that I have some to report, I thought I better post some pics.

Our future bedroom was once a kitchen. The windows were bricked up to counter height, and the project of the moment is to restore them to their original size. Our buddy and contractor Steve Creighton (aka Whippet) helped out, since we don't know what we're doing here.


We had to take out the old brick. That was fun. I even got to swing the rubber mallet.

And Whippet and his guy Ray took care of the brick that was falling out, sagging, and generally making the space the right size. Steve built the framing thingy, and I tried my best to stay out of the way. The garden needed to be weeded anyway.

Ta Da!

There's still waterproofing and finishing to do, and obviously we've got a lot of cleanup to do. But holy cow, what a difference.

Here's the new view from the bedroom window. This is what I'm going to wake up to!

neighbors being neighborly

This is long overdue.

A few weeks ago, a neighbor (in the loose sense of the word) found that post on the vandal who terrorized our stoop, and offered some planters she no longer needed. And people say that New Yorkers aren't generous. I jumped on the opportunity, and went out to Shannon Florist and gobbled up some annuals. The front yard is now amazing. I still think I need to reorganize a bit, and now even though I finally got batteries for the camera, the pictures didn't come out so great. But watch this space.

In other neighbor news, one of the women who lives next door gave Steve some cactii. And me some forget-me-not seeds, which I'll plant later for next spring.

I love Brooklyn.