Flowers and Critters

A routine week here at Heart House, folks. Some new flowers bloomed, Mom Rabbit appeared with her bunnies, and a few projects received attention. A few items to discuss this week.

The baby rabbits have left their nest and we have seen them with their mother, running around the north lawn. We accounted for three of the 4 (?) newborns Pam had originally seen under the ferns. Hopefully the young will survive the neighborhood cats and traffic on the roads. Below is a photo of the mom rabbit lounging beneath one of our lilac bushes.

A few new blossoms appeared this last week, including the bridal wreath, lily, and a gorgeous dark-red peony.

The standard peony plants also bloomed, adding color to the front yard.

Good to see the various colors as they appear around the house. Day lilies and hollyhocks will open in a few weeks and they look to have a lot of flower buds this year. Looking forward to that.

A couple projects moved ahead this week. Pam continues to work in the guest bedroom, sorting and arranging the stuff we have stored on the wire racks. She has consolidated and emptied quite a few boxes and put like or related items in some new decorative boxes she bought online. The room is finally clearing out.

I began working on cleaning up the equipment trailer I bought last fall. New paint is on the agenda, but the process is time consuming. Below are the before and after photos of the work started on the fenders and wheels. (The “after” photo is as far as I got before quitting for the day on Friday.)

I finished my twice-a-week physical therapy and will now be on a once-a-week schedule. The shoulder is improving but has a way to go, not unexpected, but still a limiting factor in what I tasks I can take on.

The cats provided some comic relief this week as cardboard boxes provided some entertainment. Here are Elmo and Stirling examining the latest delivery.

Hooray! We heard from the painter – he is scheduled to be here on June 26 to begin painting the gables. We are really looking forward to having that work done. But I never heard back from the roofer about a revised quote to do the tower, so I’m betting that won’t happen this year. A “Plan B” may be needed. We may personally need to do some repair on the tower’s trim from the bucket lift. There are no leaks or other problems – the work is cosmetic in nature – it would be the final element to address on the exterior project.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

What’s behind the curtain?

Some of you (Becky, Craig, Carol) may remember when the storage room had three five-foot-high piles of boxes w/ walkways. That second floor room was where most everything was stored immediately after the relocation from Colorado. Over the last 3+ years, items from that room have been distributed throughout the house as decor, but also some to under-eave storage (holiday), basement, and above garage storage. When I look at those two rolling storage units of consolidated storage, plus the “tower of totes,” I finally see an end to that initial distribution.

I probably should have purged way more than I did, but I did meet my decorating goal of “everything out of boxes that can be accommodated.” How many of you could find space for 1930’s era hockey skates or a 1950’s bowling ball with bag?

Happy Trails.