New Cat Species

Have I mentioned that we have a new cat in our house?

The new cat appears to be an unusual species: Felis silvestris toddlerus. Very rare, in fact. It likely descends from both domestic house cats and some humanoid ancestor, and we suspect that it has close relatives in the monkey family. It only appears after bathtime, by the way, and disappears by bedtime.


The cat is about 2 and half years old. Its back and head are orange and black in color with terry cloth-like fur, and it has a pink and fleshy (and quite ticklish) belly. This cat also exhibits an unusual dual bipedal and quadrupedal gait. Very unusual for mammalian vertebrates. In fact, its bipedal movement has been clocked to be the fastest in the genus Felis. It lacks a non-vestigial tail, much to its own dismay.

The cat's diet consists of water, raisins, bananas, and other bedtime snacks.

And "coffee" (and the cat insists that drinking this way makes it coffee).

The cat also occasionally transfigures into a Wheatthin-eating duck, but cat seems to be its preferred form.

The cat also claims that it can fly, but proof of this (fortunately) is not available.

Rocks make people happy. Who knew?

Remember the rocks? The ones in our flowerbeds, especially near the roses? The ones that aren't worth a darn in terms of reducing weeds and keeping plant roots cool and moist? After extensive discussion, we've decided we no longer want the remaining rocks in the flower beds. We want to replace the rocks with nice, soft, biodegradable mulch.

This decision led to the next logical question: how do we get rid of them? Various options were discussed.
-Burying them in the backyard (no hole that we can make would be deep enough).
-Throwing them out with the trash (what do you mean, Mr. Sanitation Worker, that our garbage bins are unusually heavy this week?)
-Donation to the Goodwill (do they take rocks?)
-Asking Lowes to buy them back from us (ha)

We even considered a plan that included surreptitious contributions to our fellow citizens' landscaping. We had locations with similar rocks staked out even, but decided we probably wouldn't be able to find someone who would agree to babysit O. for a midnight rock relocation project.

Instead, I listed the rocks on a local bulletin board, and within three days, I received eight offers to take them off our hands. Wow. By they next weekend (keep your fingers crossed), the rocks should be gone!

Post-Painting Vacation Update

Firstly, I have a public service announcement: Ladies and gentlemen, don't install wallpaper. Today's temporary pretty wall is tomorrow's home improvement project.

We are done. Well, not quite done, but we're at a stopping point. We had a setback in the form of an unexpected illness when O. came down with an ear infection and stomach flu. He was well by Thursday and returned to daycare with glee, and we returned to the project at hand.

The office is completely painted (well, walls and the trim). I'm happy with the way this looks. the wall with the bookcase was a strange brown color in a textured effect, and I hadn't realized how much I didn't like it until it was gone. Now, it's all one color ("tea stain," same as the entryway and hallway). As you can see, the passthrough is going to have to wait.

Office, as seen from the living room

Possibly our biggest accomplishment: the wallpaper on the dining room wall is gone! We had previously peeled off the first layer of wallpaper. For the bottom layer of paper, we rented a steamer. This wall is not drywall, it is paneling with some sort of surface-leveling paint on it. We felt very fortunate that the steamer and scraper didn't damage the surface much. We also learned that the wallpaper was fairly recent. We found he signature of three people who must of installed it "Steve, Pete, and Tim Decorating, 11-17-99."

We did have to patch this wall, however, and to be honest, we could have spent more time patching it. I may still go back and do that someday. We painted it "woodland snow" which is an off-white, more taupe than white.

And, J. turned the light fixture is upside down. Or rightside up, depending on your perspective. It is much easier on the eyes this way, though I still can't help but think that this is the wrong light for the room.

Dining room wall, as seen from the living room.

Lastly, the kitchen. The wallpaper here was a bear. I think it was higher quality and it didn't give up as easily as the dining room wallpaper. We painted the walls the same color as the dining room and living room.

Kitchen

I like that the wallpaper is gone, but I think the result is plain kitchen. This color ("woodland snow") looks good in the living room but blah in the kitchen. Filling in the passthrough with tile will help and maybe adding more color in general. Those are projects for the future.

As of this week, we have now painted every inch of paintable surface. Except for the trim in some rooms, the closets, ceilings, doors, and the outside shutters.

We learned more about the house's wiring, too. J. thinks the organization of the circuits is just bizarre. There is one breaker for the the closet lights, the outside light for the garage, and the dining room light. The master bedroom lights are the same as the sink light and the garbage disposal. Many of the double switch panels are installed as relays, like they were an afterthought. There are some advantages to this setup; one can, for example, work on the kitchen wiring without having to turn off all of the lights. Maybe what we see as madness is method.

Painting Vacation

This week begins our painting vacation. J. has the whole week off from work, and I have the last three days. The to-do list includes:
-removing wallpaper from the dining room and kitchen
-painting the living room, dining room and kitchen ("woodland snow")
-painting the office walls ("tea stain") and the trim ("white")
-replacing several of the outlets and covers
-flipping the dining room light so it points upward
-some touchup work in the blue bathroom
-tiling a wooden drink tray, which will serve as a test of technique for the upcoming passthrough project
-some odds and ends, like rehanging some of the blinds so that they roll up right
-J. would like to change the living room lights for recessed, although I would rather add a storm door. Most likely, we won't have time for either.

We also plan to take advantage of the already paid-for daycare and see a movie matinée. And there's discussion of trying to recreate the vanilla vodka smoothies that we had two summers ago at a super swanky DC hotel. Will report back on all accounts at the end of the week.

Zoo Trip

Toddler photography is challenge greater than I ever would have realized. This was demonstrated for the umpteenth time yesterday, during last weekend's zoo outing.

Zoo photo: we ate lunch here.

First, there's the speed factor. I'm convinced that there is no shutter speed low enough to capture a two year old in constant motion. For every halfway decent photo, I have ten more of blurry blobs that I've deleted from the memory card. It's safe to say that the experience of seeing unusual animals at the zoo was completely lost on O. For him, it was all about having an unusual space to run through.

Combine the speed problem with the fact that a toddler's expression and mood varies from microsecond to microsecond, and add on a side of the same toddler is so distracted by the camera that he forgets that mere microseconds ago he was in full glee, and you have a series of photos that show O. in the expression just after he was completely adorable.

Evidence 1: O. loved the fish tank. Really, he did. He acted as tour guide for every new group of people that came to the fish tank, saying "LOOK! At the FISHIES!" and "LOOK! Fishies here, TOO!" But you'd never know it from the photo below, which is the best of the bunch.

"Nice fishies!"

Evidence 2: Here we are, waiting for our pizza at lunch. He was excited about the pizza, eating out, being in the presence of a hundred or so other kids, and the zoo banners hanging from the ceiling ("Zebra!!" "Lion!!" "Bird!!!"). But whatever you do, don't say "Hey, O., can you look at Mommy?" You get this:

Waiting for lunch

Evidence 3: Well, here he's just being a little punk.

Posing, but not liking it.

There were a few good photos. O. liked this giant beetle statue, because he thought the back of the shell was a slide.

O. loved this cobra snake sculpture. I thought we were never going to get him away from it.

"Nice snake!"

The highlight of the trip may have been the waterfall. This is a really great idea. On a hot day, this hit the spot.
One last photo. The zoo has a train that circles the whole park. We knew about the train beforehand, and talked it up for O. He was so excited, and talked about how he was going to ride the train, on and on, talk talk, jabber jabber. We waited in line for our turn and finally the train came. O. walked right up to the train and climbed aboard and sat down. And then nothing. Silence, stunned silence. No comment, nothing, for the whole train ride. This is how he looked the whole trip.

This is serious train riding, folks. He recovered promptly after the ride, fortunately.

Pretending that his father's head is a drum.

Passthrough

Let's chat about the passthrough, shall we? I'm thinking glass mosaic tile in rich colors and a fabulous design, new trim...wait, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me explain.

Passthrough, as seen from the kitchen.

Below is a photo of the passthrough from the kitchen to the erstwhile dining room. The erstwhile dining room is now our office. We use part of the erstwhile living room as the dining room, which has been renamed the pretentious great room.

Passthrough, as seen from the office.

The office, because it was intended to be a dining room circa 1970, is open to the great room. Which is great for a dining room, but not for an office. We'd like the office to be a space that could be private when needed, to be used as a guest room or just a place to get away. So, someday, we'd like to wall off the office, and install French doors. The French doors, in theory, would enable the space to be used as a dining room again if needed, and provide the privacy when we need while not closing it off completely.

The great room, as seen from the office. Imagine French doors in this space.

Now, back to the passthrough. In order to achieve the noise reduction that we'd like in the office, we need to wall off the passthrough. But as you can see, the passthrough is handy as paperback book storage. Plus, we don't want to do anything permanent, just in case the next person who buys this house thinks that a passthrough to a dining room is the cat's meow.

My idea: mount a board from the office side of the passthrough. This board will fill in the space, created a flat surface that is visible from the kitchen. It could be removed in the future without major renovation. On the office side, add a shelf to the board and paint, voila--built-in book shelf. Nothing like enabling the reading addiction, eh?

But what to do with the kitchen side of the board? Here's the current plan: We can remove existing trim and replace with new trim pieces on the sides plus trim pieces on the top and bottom of the shelf to match. I think that this will create the appearance of a frame space. Inside the frame space, I'd like to create something interesting out of glass mosiac tiles, but this is where I'm fresh out of ideas.

Passthrough as seen from the kitchen

What do I put here? The wallpaper is going to be removed in a few weeks, and we're going to paint it the color...still to be determined. So what do I want here? Something recognizable, like a pineapple? Or a butterfly? Or something geometric and symmetric? Or a random pattern in colors similar to the counter and cabinet? Or just a single color? And which color is that?

More fuel for the book addiction

J., O., and I are readers. Chronic readers, possibly even addicted readers. Evidence: who else but book addicts would think that their two-and-a-half year old needs a grown-up sized bookcase?

O. has outgrown his two-shelf bookcase. We have been using baskets and bins and stacks to keep track of the overflow, but they were always a mess. Recently, his baby bookshelf has developed a distinct slant to the right, reminiscent of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

A few weeks ago, J. and I hatched a plan to build O. a bookcase.We have had previous experience with this (Dad helped us build a similar bookcase nearly ten years ago). And, we decided that during my Finland trip would be an ideal time for J. to sand and stain the boards (because Dad and Mom would be visiting and could help with process).

J. and I finished the project last weekend, and it is installed, anchored to the wall, and bookified. Looks like we have room for a few more.
Not a bad result. We were a little hasty on the wood choice (CLEAR pine next time, says Dad), and the stain is uneven due to a last-minute gutcheck and change in the color. But it's sturdy and it's useful and it's done.

Bonus photo of O., helping his grandpa put together his bookshelf. Mom and Dad said that O. thought they were doors at first, and was heart-broken when Dad turned the bookshelf on its side to finish it. As you can see from the photo, he recovered.

Happy Anniversary

...from our mortgage company. One year ago yesterday, with quivering hands and bated breath, we asked a mortgage company to buy our house and then agreed slowly buy it back from them over the next thirty years. We received a card to mark the occasion from the mortgage company, which was, um, thoughtful.

J. and I calculated, that after a year of payments, we now own about 53 square feet of our house. And in my world, we get to choose which 53 square feet of our house we own. We've chosen the smaller of the two bathrooms (for obvious practical reasons) and, with what is left over, a cozy corner of living room.

The Finland Trip

I returned from Finland a few days ago. I attended a workshop for young scientists in my field, which was held at University of Helsinki's forestry field station. The field station, called Hyytiälä (pronounced hoo'-tee-ah-la) was about 2.5 hours by bus North of Helsinki.

Signpost to Hyytiälä.

The field station was build in the early 1910s for the university forestry students' summer courses. The oldest part of campus reminds me of an US Midwestern farm. The forestry students, in fact, have an agriculture component to their studies, and keep sheep during the summer and harvest them in the fall.

The barn and the old bell tower.

The field station is located next to Lake Kuivajärvi, which is one of 187,888 glacial lakes in Finland.

The forest is 90% pine and spruce, with a few birch and poplars thrown in. Since wood is abundant, the signs at the stations are wood relief carvings, really beautiful.

A map of the station as a wood carving.

Finland is the most North I've ever been (about 61 degrees latitude at Hyytiälä), and because the season was summer, the sun is visible for all but a few hours every day. The sun set around 11 PM and rose around 3 AM. Even the night wasn't very dark, only twilight. Most of these photos were taken mid-evening (9 PM-ish), so you can see for yourself.

In the 1990s, the forest field station was expanded and a SMEAR research station was build (SMEAR = Station for Measuring Forest Ecosystem-Atmosphere Relations). It is a unique site in that it is comprehensive, and able to measure many of the inputs and outputs of the forest ecosystem and in as many measureable parameters as possible. It is located in a boreal forest a short hike from the forestry field station.

One of the central features is the main cabin, show below. It was made from two log cabin kits put together. There is little insulation in this design. In fact, the wood is thick enough and the instruments produce enough heat that electrical heating is used only on the coldest winter days. There are bars on the roof of the cabin, which prevent snow from falling sliding off the roof when it melts and damaging the inlet ports. Most houses that I saw in Finland also have a ladder attached to their roofs, so that homeowners can shovel the snow.

Main Cabin

Another main feature is the 72 meter tower, shown below. The tower is tall enough to rise high above the forest canopy, which enables measurements at the atmosphere/canopy interface. Each crossbar on the tower has at least one instrument on the end. Instrument maintenance has an added excitement--to maintain the instruments, someone scales the tower, pulls the crossbar back, and then has to decide whether to fix the instrument on the spot or bring it down.

72-m sampling tower

One of the goals of the station is to measure the energy fluxes (carbon, nutrient, water) in and out of the forest. For this reason, it is important to not disturb the ecosystem, and these walkways were built. Each sideboard leads to a sampling device, often the rainwater or leaf litter collectors. It was like a maze to me.

Forest Floor Walkway

Sauna. As far as I can tell, sauna is a daily activity for many Finns. I was told that most homes have a sauna, and there are four saunas at Hyytiälä. They are separated by gender, although families usually take sauna together. The Finnish researchers prefer saunas heated by woodburning stoved to electric or gas. I did try sauna, and it was nice, although I think I enjoyed it more for the swim in Lake Kuivajärvi afterwards.

The food. Since I ate at a cafeteria-style dining hall most of the time I was there, I don't really know if I had typical Finnish food. I presume it would be a version of what Finns would eat at home. If that's the case, I've learned that boiled potatoes are very important in a Finnish diet. Most meals (lunches and dinners) included some chicken or beef dish with a creamy sauce, and it was served with potatoes. Fish was not as common as a I'd hoped, although a couple of fish dishes were served. Lettuce salads were served at all lunches and dinners, too, although only one kind of salad dressing: thousand island. I don't know whether it's the national favorite, or if salad dressing is not eaten by Finns and it was a concession to the Americans. Puddings are common desserts, although they are flavored differently than I'm used to. They are less sweet (although sugar is offered with them). Usually, a fruit preserve was served with them, too, sometimes whipped cream. The flavor of the puddings were different, too. They tended to be flavored less and differently. I had one that sort of tasted like prunes, and another that I'm told was flavored with rose hips.

I did eat reindeer, in a wild mushroom and cream soup. The soup was very good, and although I didn't get a good sense of what the reindeer tasted like, it reminded me of prosciutto. I was told that eating reindeer is reserved for special occasion dinners.

I also ate Karjalanpiirakka for breakfast a couple of times. I didn't quite figure out what was in them, but I think Karjalanpiirakka must be Finnish for "tasty gooey buttery pastry pie."

The meal structure and timing was different, too. There are 4-5 meals per day. Breakfast at 7 AM, lunch at 11 AM, coffee and a pastry or dessert at 1 PM, and dinner at 5 PM. At the field station, a fifth meal, a late-night snack was served at 10 PM, although it was mainly for the hard-working forestry students.

At literally every meal, there was what looked like to me to be a sandwich spread: cheeses, cold cuts, bread, plus cucumbers and peppers and breads. Even at breakfast. At first I thought it was an option for people who didn't like the main dish being served, so that they could make a sandwich, but I saw the people from the Nordic countries taking a few slices of the "sandwich" platters at each meal, and eating them more like hors d'ouvres, and I was told it was common in Finland to do this. I came to rather like this, and by the end of the week, I'd have a slice of cheese wrapped in cucumbers for breakfast.

The flights. Oh my, the flights. I have a new least-favorite airport in the world. Before this trip, it was O'Hare; now it is Heathrow.

Heathrow is a beast. There is no short layover at Heathrow, especially if you have to change terminals. To change planes, it goes something like this: exit the plane (and this is the last point where it stopped being like any other airport I've seen before). Take a series of ramps and escalators, stairs and lifts to arrive at the gate. (Note this is just the gate; this is not the main part of the terminal where you'd go to transport the next terminal). Walk to the terminal, which can take 10-15 minutes. Finally, you're at the arrival terminal, and you hit a long line at a security checkpoint. Wait, wait, wait, and finally go through the security procedure (which was on par to a US security checkpoint for terminal entry). After security there is another walk and escalator to the terminal transfer point. At this point, you have at least a ten-minute wait and a ten-minute bus ride to transfer to your departure terminal, more if there's a long line. After exiting the bus, there are more ramps and escalators, reminiscent of the exit gate, and finally you're at your terminal. Heathrow does not set gate numbers for flights until 30-40 minutes before boarding, so it is here that you find your gate number. Once you have your gate number, you have a walk between a 5 and 15 minutes long to your gate to board your plane, and this is with moving walkways. At the gate, there is an additional security checkpoint (instituted only after recent events), which is the open your carry-on, turn on all electronics to prove they're not bombs, take of your shoes and pat-down type security checkpoint. After that, you're finally ready to board the plane. Whew.

In the future, I don't think I'll choose a flight through Heathrow if I have an option, and if I don't, I wouldn't choose one without at least a two-hour layover if I could afford to miss my flight, and no less than a three-hour layover if I couldn't afford to miss my flight. I had a 90 minute layover at Heathrow on my return, and I made it only because I ran the whole thing, because my departing flight was running late, and because I probably lucked out a couple a places. My checked luggage, however, was not so lucky, and of this writing (home for about 60 hours), I haven't received it yet. (Edited to add: luggage was returned after a short sidetrip through Memphis almost five days late.)

Other than Heathrow, my flights were fine. Everything ran a little late, but I think a little late is the new on-time for airline travel. A couple of other random notes about the flights:
-A two-hour layover in O'Hare is pushing your luck if you have to go through customs with checked baggage. I actually think I made it to my connecting flight on time because I lost my luggage. Without checked luggage, I had nothing to declare at customs and I didn't have to recheck my bag, which meant I was able to glide through passport control instead of waiting.
-Filed under coincidences in a small world, during the London flight, I sat next to a gentlemen who has the same career as me (though in a different sector) and lives in the same town as my undergrad university. We didn't know that many people in common though.
-Heathrow has a snippiest-sounding public announcement system: "Passenger So-in-so, please proceed immediately to your gate. You are delaying your flight departure and your fellow passengers." Imagine that with a prim British accent and simmering disapproval. It makes you feel guilty even if you're not the person who is misbehaving.
-My travel experience was bracketed by encounters with obnoxious drunk people. At Heathrow security queue, there was college-aged man a few people in front of me who had purchased duty-free vodka on his London fight, and did not know that you can't bring liquids of that size with you if you have a connecting flight. Rather than waste his vodka, he'd decided to drink it while waiting in line for the security check. He loudly let everyone know the injustice of the situation, and that he ought to be trusted since he was an American and from the Bronx and not to be messed with. I think he's lucky that made it through security without being subjected to a body cavity search.

And for my last flight home, I sat in front of drunk Shiners (which, I'm told, is an oxymoron), who provided entertainment by singing barbershop quartets while we waited for a ground hold to clear. I thought it was the most fitting ending to my trip. And this blog entry.

Operation Batwatch Addendum

First, an update to Operation: Batwatch. No sign of activity. Yet. We may have installed the bathouse too late in the year. Also J. thinks the bathouse may not be warm enough for bats. Considering a move of the bathouse to more direct sunlight or painting it black.

Second, we inaugurated Operation: Wrenwatch on Father's Day, and we're already seeing signs of life. J. placed the wrenhouse in the dogwood tree. I saw a wren in that tree less than a week later. And now we see that something is stuffing twigs into the wrenhouse.

Dead and Dying Plants R' Us?

Sheesh, what happened to the thuja next to the patio?We've been a little dry in the past few weeks, but this spot is watered regularly (the annuals are in this bed), so it's not that dry. Plus, this thuja was here when we bought the house, so I would assume it has an established root supply. The other thujas in our yard look fine, I don't suspect disease. It is only this thuja that appears to be throwing in the towel.

The herb garden, on the other hand, is doing well. I haven't started harvesting yet for drying, but I froze six bags of basil pesto last weekend.

Ceiling Fan #3

The final fan, installed in O.'s room.

This is a low profile fan, which we chose because the room is small and we thought that it might be safer for O. if the blades were closer to the ceiling. Another advantage of the low profile fan is that it seemed much easier to install than the other two with a downrod.

However, this fan doesn't seem to have as much oomph as the first two. The other fans feel like you're sleeping in wind tunnel, but this gives a slight breeze. Maybe it's the height of the fan, and it ought to be lower for the room? Then again, maybe it's the fact that it has four blades instead of five blades. I guess hindsight is twenty-twenty etc.; I just thought that a higher fan would reduce the chance of O. snagging the small objects and stuffed pets on the blades.

Though, really, an extra 12 inches isn't going to change the chances of that much.

Edited to add mental note: check that the fan is not in the reverse position.

Edited to add response to mental note: we just checked, and nope, the fan is not in wrong position.

Lighting Issues

This is the lighting fixture that is located in the dining room end of the living/dining room, or the pretentiously misnamed "great room."


J. and I have issues with this fixture. For one, it is probably a bathroom fixture masquerading as a dining room light, but it is not convincing anyone. And since the dining room was probably the former living room, the light is installed at a height that might be good for a sofa. As a result, the fixture imparts a nasty glare visible to everyone sitting at the dining room table. That's just crappy ambiance.

With our upcoming painting vacation, we've decided to address this issue, since we'll be tearing apart this area anyway. We can:
a.) Rotate the fixture 180 degrees. The light will point upward instead of downward. This might take care of the annoying glare problem. However, it means we will be effectively lighting the ceiling of the room. This is also the least challenging solution, technically speaking.
b.) Move the the fixture three feet higher on the wall. The thought here is that the light might diffuse better and light the table more evenly. Or it might just mean that the lightglare is more likely to bother tall people. This could be a challenge to our electrical installation and wood paneling repair skills, but it would be worth it.
c.) Replace the ugly brownish vases with slightly less ugly with white vases. Then we could buy lower wattage bulbs for less glare and the white vases would diffuse the light better, keeping the room bright. And if nothing else, at least they won't look dirty even after they've been dusted. This is also the most expensive of options, but it is doable.
d.) Do nothing. Paint around the fixture and leave as is. But really, what's the point of that?

Except for d.), all combinations of these are options. We could do a.) and c.), or a.) and b.), or b.) c.), or heck, all three.

A Mouse Fart of Post

No real reason to post, except that I could no longer allow that photo of the poor dead Japanese maple tree to be the first thing one sees. So, I leave you with a photo of a pretty thing instead.

This is a closeup of my potted scented geranium plant. If I pretend that I'm six inches tall and squint, it could be the maple.

Nothing new here. We're busy with work and life and have little time at the moment to anything but maintain. Big projects are in the works, including a painting vacation in late July or August. More on that later.

Mostly Dead, Slightly Alive, or All Dead?

Here's a photo of the buds that J. claims to be a sign of life from our Japanese maple tree.
It has looked this way for at least a week. We're going to give it another week, but it's probably time to go through its clothes and look for loose change.

Updates and Briefs

1. The weather this weekend was so pleasant that E. the Cat (shown below guarding the poppy and hollyhock seedlings) is sitting just outside the screened door and plucking at it, which is her way of suggesting that I should be outside, too. So, I'll be brief.

2.) The latest from the herb garden. Moderate growth. And I have noooo idea from where those two additional varieties of basil came. Nope, not me, scout's honor.

3.) My birthday present from J.: trellis plus clematis. I also planted two of the moonflowers started from seed on each side of it.

4.) We trimmed the giant bonsai tree this weekend, and it looks better. It is only about half-completed with shade plants, but the idea is evident.

5.) We had our first hummingbird sighting yesterday (feeder only shown below, lacking photographic evidence of hummingbirds).

6.) The neighbors think we've gone batty. We've installed a bathouse a week ago, in hopes of attracting the cute little things to eat their share of our mosquito population. It is now the beginning of week 2 of Operation: Batwatch, and still no signs of them.

7.) It was decided that O. needed a sandbox. Immediately. The first time he played in it, he was silent for 45 minutes. Which only occurs otherwise while he sleeps (and even then--he has inherited his mother's abilities to talk and sing in his sleep). I have to admit the sandbox is a nice way to entertain him for a few minutes.

8.) For Mom--my hyacinth bean plant has twirled its way to the top of the trellis now.

9.) Surely there is no better combination than spring, being two, and hiding in the lilies.

Doomed?

This is Japanese Maple, one week post-transplant. Oh dear.
The few green leaves that were on the tree when it arrived have shriveled up, despite judicious watering.

Keep your fingers crossed, or your branches crossed, or whatever.

The Japanese Maple

At some point in life, I decided I really like Japanese maple trees. I like the shape of their leaves and their color range, and I like the tidy but relaxed structure in compact habit. I've wanted one near my home for years, so I could watch the leaves change during the growing season and appreciate their beauty.

When we moved last summer, we finally had a plan to live somewhere long enough to justify the purchase. Note that this is the highest amount I've spent to purchase a single living thing. And it came in a box. Or as J. said, "There's a tree in there?"

Yes, J., there is a tree in that box.

We diligently followed the directions from the nursery. We placed the tree in a shady, windless spot for three days to allow it to adjust to being free from its cardboard box and packing popcorn prison. We watered it until it was the roots were soaked. After the third day, we dug a hole exactly 3 times wider and 1.5 times deeper than the root ball. We fertilized and enriched the soil with humic matter and mudded-in the roots to prevent air pockets. Finally, we lovingly created a dam to collect and direct water. I would have gladly mulched if it weren't for the rock project, and I'm out of mulch at the moment. And voila.

Yes, there is a tree in that photo.

Tipsy Pots

I found a use for the terra cotta pots that came with the house.


Link to the instructions.

I used a fence stabilizing rod instead of rebar, mainly because it was what I could find quickly at the hardware store with O. in tow. I wish would have held out for the rebar, because I could have used a narrower piece. Because I chose the rod instead, the holes in the pots were too small and I had to use dremmel tool to enlarge them. Oh well, live and learn.