Home Work

It was our first weekend home in about two months. Not coincidentally, it is the first weekend where I've actually felt caught up and accomplished going into a monday.

Thursday night
We held a neighborhood barbecue at our house. There are four sets of new neighbors on our block, so it seemed like a good time to have a party. A week earlier, I dropped off postcard-like invitations in bright blue and light green to all the houses on our block, inviting people to come join us for a drink to meet the new neighbors. Everyone brought a dish to share. We had it at 6:30 and 20 people or so showed up; it went well, the neighborhood is really friendly and people got to know each other better, etc. I especially love our new neighbors who recently bought the duplex closest to us. They are very sweet and nice. I just heard that the other side sold; they close in October. Don't know who bought it yet.

Friday night
After work, Ken went to dodgeball pickup and I cleaned the brush from the backyard where we'll be putting in the fence. After the party the night before, working all day and then yardwork in the evening, I was cooked. I went to sleep at 9:40 and slept for 12 hours.

Saturday
I woke up at 9:40 to Ken and Kinley gone (the note said they were at the park and running some errands). I took it as a good sign to make my coffee and drink it at Portland Nursery while looking at plants and meandering around. It was a beautiful morning to do it. And since I also had to return some stakes that I didn't use, that meant a store credit which means I could bring home a new "friend" for "free". I went directly to the shade vines since I've been trying to liven up the walkway on the west side of the house. I found this beautiful variegated climbing hydrangea
on sale (Schizophragma hydrangeoides 'Moonlight') and purchased him. He's now one of five climbers I've planted over there this season (others include a jasmine, an early spring-blooming clematis, a passion flower and an evergreen climbing hydrangea that has red stems). They make me happy. As I was walking about, I found a sweet little obedient plant (a perennial) that had already bloomed and was therefore marked down 50%. In my cart, it went. And as I was walked through the citrus room, I finally saw him after two years of searching... a beautiful, healthy, inexpensive Meyer lemon tree. I have been waiting, not so patiently, for a long time. Meyer lemons are sweeter than normal lemons (almost like a lemon mixed with an orange). They are prized by cooks for their flavor but they are very expensive since their thin skin makes packaging/travel difficult. But now I have a sweet little one for my very own. I am excited. While I was at the nursery, I also got some fava beans and red clover seeds for my cover crops this winter. All total, I got out of there for around $22. A record.

Ken had rented a belt sander and was sanding down the garage doors when I got home. I put my new friends down and helped him. We made a good team. I had the heat gun and a scraper to remove the old, chipping paint while Ken sanded down the wood. It took us 5 hours, but it is finished. They are ready to be hung again.

I went to bed at 10 pm again.

Sunday
It's football season which means Ken was in the bar by 10 to watch his beloved Vikings. I slept another 12 hours and talked to my folks for a while before tackling the windows for the garage. We bought three reclaimed windows at the Rebuilding Center for a total of $27. I had already removed the old cracked glass and putty, stripped the old paint and sanded the wood window frames. Now they needed glass and to be re-puttied before we could hang them. I had never done either but the internet is a wonderful thing and the process seemed easy enough. I was going to make stained glass panels for the windows but since I have enough projects on my plate right now (thanks mom for talking some sense into me), we decided to use some beautiful old glass instead. I went down to the stained glass store to find some old-style ripply glass. They had a lot. I finally settled on "Old Reamy" which has an irregular wavy look to it. As the guy was cutting it for me (thanks again mom), he told me this story:

"In the movie Stardust, Michelle Pfieffer plays a witch who is trying to catch Claire Danes. In one scene, Pfieffer turns her carriage into an beautiful old English Inn to lure in Danes. Turns out the windows in the inn are 'Old Reamy'. There aren't too many glass manufacturers in the world, so I knew it immediately."

So there you go, Julie. Since you're probably the only one who will/has seen this movie, there's a bit of Hollywood in our old reclaimed windows. After he cut the glass, I went to the store to pick up my putty and glazing points. It is not very hard. I finished the windows in about 2 hours. They have to cure for 7-14 days before painting. I was very proud of myself.

The last bit of Sunday involved ordering the retaining wall blocks for the backyard fence (to be delivered Wednesday) and returning the neighbors' dishes from the barbecue along with some tomatoes from our garden.

And then more sleep.