Thursday, May 31, 2012

Wildflower Walks

 I tried to upload these last week, but blogger wouldn't play along.
Since then, I have added a few more to the gallery.
 These are my fellows on my evening neighborhood walks
through the forest.
One must be careful where they step!
 Each day brings more blooms,
more colors,
last night I saw the first wild rose, she didn't want to be photographed.
 The smells are indescribable!
 All this, basically in my yard,
right out the back path.


Wild Apple Tree

 Last night was a gorgeous evening!
I got home and headed out to the garden
where I weeded and planted and dug
and mulched till 8:30.
Then a neighbor came down and we took a 4 mile walk around the 'hood.
(I found my old pedometer, and calibrated it with mile markers on
Camp Creek Road so I know the distance!)
It doesn't get dark till well after 10 at this time of year,
it is really wonderful to have a good 5 hours of light when
I get home from work to totally exhaust myself!
On the way back up the driveway after my walking loop,
I was reminded by the smell and then the blooms
of this wild apple tree.
Isn't she just gorgeous?!
Perfect light of day for fotos!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Camping with the Hamers

 The shed/house is coming along,
not nearly fast enough for Natassia!
 It is much further along than this now.
The upstairs is wired and insulated and the interior walls
are on and taped and mudded.
 This is a close-up example of some of the fine details that will really shine in the finished product.
 And here is how they are living while they build!
Pretty posh camping accomodations!
You can see a bit of the bus in the background of the "bedroom".
The kitchen is really nice.
 These all the old cabinets that Natassia and I have been cleaning, sanding and painting.
Silas put a cedar counter top on and the sink runs cold water.
 The water source.
And the glorious view of the adjacent meadow,
the garden will be in the foreground where you can see they have burned.
Mike and I went over for the weekend in our camper and worked
and had good food and lovely campfires!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Jeff Beck and the Imelda May Band Walking in the Sand

Imelda May - Johnny Got a Boom Boom - Later With Jools Holland 2008.09.23.

Fire!

We've had a good two weeks of hot and dry and
finally last night it started to sprinkle with more rain
in the forecast.
I think it sprinkled about 4 drops and that was enough for Mike,
he started lighting!
We have a few piles that have sat the whole winter, so we have
been itching to light them but it has been too dry and the hose system isn't in place yet.
One Down! More to go!

Troy Bike Shop

 'tis the season!
I love the quirky-ness of this place!
Dennis was a teacher for years, he is now retired.
Well, retired to the garden and bike shop.
The shop used to be open after school and weekends.
Now it is open most the time, but sometimes you have to go find Dennis in the garden....
He gardens.
Every square inch of available space is garden and he even gardens at the neighbors if they let him.
 Don't you love this one!
The jump cracks me up!
See the rhubarb peeking out along the garage?
That 2 feet between the garage and the ally...Garden!
I am not exaggerating, he has garden plots everywhere!
Here he is.
Not the greatest foto.
He was saying, "what are you doing?"
and I didn't want to over foto my welcome!

Monday, May 7, 2012

Hamer House

 Natassia and Silas are moving to their property.
Today is their last day in the rental they have been occupying.
Mike went over Friday morning and I joined them Friday night,
we all worked all weekend getting things ready on the property.
The guys has the floor base done by Friday night
and put the boards on Saturday.
Silas tore down a house for some folks and got all the salvage materials for free.
So they are set in many ways.
 This is the bus Tassia used to live in when she was a River Guide.
Now it is their storage unit.
 We made good use of building scraps and debris from cleaning up the property
on good warming and cooking fires.
It was cool, overcast and often rainy on Fridya and Saturday.
The sun came out for us on Sunday.
 We enjoyed delicious and gourmet dutch oven dinners.
Elk roast, local potatoes and brussels sprouts,
followed by fresh rhubarb cobbler.

 It was also "Super Moon" weekend!
We were all pretty exhausted by moontime!
 Yesterday Mike and Silas got both gable ends raised.
Mike cut all the wood for the other two sides.
They move out of their rental this evening!
Silas thought he'd have the roof on by then.
This is a shed. They are going to live in it while he builds a timberframe structure
on the property that will be the house.
The plan is to do that right away. They timbers are all ready.
The shed is a rent saver. They shower at the gym.
All the materials are salvaged!
Natassia and I scrubbed, sanded and painted some metal kitchen cabinets
that were salvaged from the house Silas tore down.
They turned out really nice!
This shed will be a great "craft house" once they move into the house.
It will have an upstairs loft with a bed, and will serve as the
guesthouse/"mother-in-law" house!
 (read between the lines~a place for Mike and I to stay when we come to work!)
I love the floors! The wood is gorgeous!
you cannot really see it here that well, but there is great color happening!
All of the materials are beautiful.
Those old 2X4's have gorgeous tight grain.
This is a sweet little place.

Springing forth

 Ok. So these are pictures of rocks.
But as you can see, these rocks appear to be growing out of the ground.
 In a way, they are.
They are emerging.
The frost went deep this past winter,
and when the ground warms in spring
it "births" the rocks.
These fotos are taken out in the woods on one of my walking routes.
But the same thing happens in my flower beds and garden.
There are always rocks.
I make piles, I decorate with them.
I move them constantly.
And come spring, each year, there are more!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Playing with the new camera

 Oregon Grape
(trying out the macro)
 So, it is seeming like our yard and the general world around us is greening up rapidly, like it truly is spring and the greys and browns of winter are behind us, but then I look at these fotos and it doesn't seem as green as it is in my mind. I suppose it is a matter of perspective! The fotos from friends and family in other places are super green, they have mowed their lawns....
Lawn mowing is still out there in the future for us.
Which is not a bad thing!
 I got a variety pack of daffodils last year,
and this is one of the suprise varieties!
Love them!
what is weird is that they were all mixed up in the bag and then I mixed them up further by pouring them out and schlepping them around the yard and down the driveway,
but these two rows in the garden are all one variety!
 Baby red orach.
It needs thinned badly, but I want it to get a wee bit bigger before I thin it
so that I can eat what I thin out!
 And Wow!
It is early, but it has been unseasonably warm,
so asparagus is up!
So, that is usually an indicator that the morels are up too,
I must go hunting and gathering!
The big, plain, basic variety.
I Love the burst of sunshine
that daffodils invoke!
I plant more and more
every year!.
Someday, perhaps there will
be a carpet of them up and down
the driveway.