Month: April 2012

Progress made.

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I have no idea what that plant is, but it was all over my backyard.  And I spent the better part of my weekend digging it out by hand.
 I also ripped out oodles of muscadine plants that were popping up all over the place.  Pat had chopped the original plant down, painted the stump with plant killer and still, that stuff just refused to die.  It’s like the terminator of vines.  In order to get all the plants sitting in various containers around my house into the ground,  I had to clear spots for beds. As I ripped out vines by the root, next thing I knew, I had cleared most of the back yard.  That overflowing galvanized tin is probably a third of what I dug up.
After digging up so many weeds that I couldn’t stop seeing them as I drifted off to sleep, I got the fig in the ground, finally, after all these years.  It looks insanely happy.  All the plants sitting on my kitchen counter, save one, made it into the ground this weekend and that one, a basil plant, is sitting on the back porch as I contemplate putting a tomato in to keep it company.  I know it’s early, but what if I just plop a big Early Girl in somewhere?  Tomatoes in June are a tempting idea. 
Edie’s tiki hut got some landscaping – I moved some very delicate looking wild geraniums to one side and put some Virginia Bluebells on the other.  I am considering moving some ferns and hostas in around it as well.  I have this thin bed by the road along the very back edge of the property that gets sun that I call the ‘by the side of the road garden’.  Every sun-loving non-vegetable plant that is given to me by a friend goes there to live.  There is very little rhyme or reason to that garden, but this weekend with things just popping up, I was able to rip some stuff out (bee balm, which if you want some, come and get it), rearrange things (purple and yellow cone flowers & daisies, also available if you so desire) and otherwise just get a handle on that bed. 
 I wished I had remembered earlier in the weekend where my good gardening gloves were (in the pocket of the overalls I wore to work in last weekend, in the laundry), and also that I had worn them once I did find them, as my hands are shredded.  Pat pointed out that perhaps I just need to invest some newer, nicer ones.  He might have a point.  I’m also investing in band aids and all manner of heavy duty hand salves in the meantime.
We got so much of the back yard ripped out that we are at the point of being able to plant not just little island beds, but ground cover, in big wide chunks. Pat wants clover in lieu of grass, so that it requires little mowing and maintenance. I’m totally on board with that. I also have been envisioning some furniture groupings back there and spent some time driving around the county to all my favorite junk shops in search of metal outdoor furniture. No luck, so if you hear of something, let me know.  I’m thinking a little table & chairs between those hollies would be nice.  By the ferns.  Or a bench there and the table just under a tree outside of that shot. 
About the butterfly bush – I realized that I should have cut the butterfly bush back before I moved it. I also realized I overwatered AND overfertilized it. The only downside of this happening is that it’s not likely to bloom this year, which is good, as that means I didn’t kill it. Yet.
The weather was just insanely beautiful this weekend, we were wide open for the first and last time in quite a while, it was good to get so much done.  I was actually too tired to drink a glass of wine several evenings in a row.  Pat & Brian made some progress on the chicken coop and we set a deadline by which we will have chicks ordered.  Brian wants to see if we can’t find someone to split an assortment from Murray McMurray – either Rainbow or Ornamental Layers.  We’ve put word out about that, but haven’t found anyone yet that I know of. So, if you or someone you know is looking for some chickens this spring, let’s chat.

Spring Break adventures.

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We are the sort of people that not only like having projects around our house, we will come help you with projects at your house too. This last week has been spring break for Edie, meaning we aren’t tied down to the homestead and we can take the show on the road.
After spending some quality time working on the neighborhood chicken coop in Brian’s back yard (there will be chickens this spring, just as soon as Brian & I can figure out what kind we want!), we hit the road to visit friends in Harrisonburg.  There was a most lovely Sunday Funday party, where it was commented that the last time some of those folks had seen me I had taken over the same friend’s kitchen and baked to my heart’s content, as I did this time.
What can I say?  It is what I do.
I think most of our friends like this about me, especially considering I usually leave the kitchen cleaner than I find it and I leave fresh baked treats.  In this case it was chocolate chip cookies and a few loaves of bread – some black olive & rosemary, as well as some just plain rosemary loaves, as I hadn’t noticed  Edie had chopped up most of the olives I had on hand while making dinner the night before.  I’ve found that’s a great new way to get her to stop complaining about dinner taking so long, is to get her to lend a hand towards the prep.  So far, it’s worked.  But you know kids, once you think you have a handle on whatever the current stage is, they mix it up and confuse you again.
We also headed to see friends in north western Virginia.  The idea was to make their farm home base while we took some day trips into the city.   Earning our keep there meant doing things like checking the chicken coop for eggs and bottle feeding the lambs. 
Amazing how you can be doing something like that and just a short time later, you can watch people flying kites on the National Mall.

Since Edie was in preschool, her spring break has consisted of the two of us heading to a city to take in the art museums.  Spring break has always coincided with Pat’s job picking up steam, and being an environmental educator and the schools across the state having different spring break schedules meant he was generally pretty busy, sometimes even out of town himself.  I’m not a big fan of sitting around the house, playing single mom, especially when all her pals are out of town too, so packing up and hitting the road always seemed like a better idea.  Pat’s job change last spring however, meant he doesn’t take other people’s kids out on field trips anymore.  It means he could take off and go with us this spring break.  I have to admit, it did sort of throw me.  Edie and I have a routine down.  I know if we have to run to catch a train, she can keep up, carting her own suitcase if need be.  In my super big mom bag, I will have a brown bag lunch packed, snacks and water bottles.  We like to find a nice bench and eat lunch and people watch.  I love my husband, but he’s not a city boy.  He agreed to ride the metro as driving in DC with me always means taking a wrong turn somewhere, circling around the monuments a few times, inexplicably ending up at the Pentagon where I get my bearings and then can get us to anywhere we want to go.  But first, I must circle the monuments and end up at the Pentagon.  Always.  Doesn’t matter which one of us is driving, I could be asleep in the car and this will happen.  Always. It happened to me & Pat just last summer, with a GPS, printed directions and a map in hand.  I swear, the magnetic north of my internal compass is set for the Pentagon.  To avoid this, we take the metro from the furthest point we can into the city.  It’s safer that way.
Pat thought we were being silly with the brown bag lunches I dragged along.  He felt we were missing an opportunity to discover some fun new lunch spot, heck, why not try some of the museum cafe food?  Through experience, I have yet to find anything affordable that I really like near the mall in DC – if someone knows of any, please let me know.  The people watching on the mall is just fantastic though.  I could make a day out of just sitting there and people watching the entire day.  Large school groups in matching T-shirts, even the parent chaperones wearing matching colors.  We saw families in matching ensembles, prompting me to suggest we do that for our next family field trip.  That went over about as well as you can expect.
As we sat on our bench, Pat suggested we make time for the Natural History Museum.  Oh, that one I pointed out?  The one with all the buses cued up in front, the steps absolutely crawling in school groups in matching T-shirts?  Maybe next time when it’s not field trip central.
Over the last few spring breaks, Edie & I have taken in some really great exhibits.  There was the Tim Burton exhibit at MOMA a few years back that gave us an excuse to take the train up to NYC.  Last year was the Picasso exhibit over in Richmond.  This year, I had read about this exhibit that started at the Frick in NYC

and was pleased to discover it was coming to DC and would be there over spring break.  I thought that since Edie declared Picasso “The artist that makes me feel the most”, she’d want to go see this. 
The collection wasn’t big, three small rooms of early sketches.  And I do mean early.  There was a sketch he did when he was 9, one when he was 11, in which the raw talent was amazing.  You could see a noticeable maturity of his talent in those two ages.  There was a watercolor sketch he did of his father when he was 15 that blew me away.  I also learned his father was an artist as well – I had not known that.
I think she was bummed I didn’t buy her the catalog as we exited this exhibit the way I did with last year’s Picasso exhibit.  I will get it for her, but a friend who works for museums tipped me off that you can find catalogs at reduced prices after the exhibit closes, so I think I’ll go that route this time.  I do understand a girl needs as many Picasso books as she can get, especially when they are catalogs of the exhibits she has seen.
As we left that exhibit, we stumbled onto the next one. We had meant to just breeze through it on our way to the next building, but it stopped us in our tracks.

Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800)
Wow.  Seriously WOW.
This is the first time these paintings have been seen outside of Japan.  They apparently were just restored – they are all painted on silk panels.  They are only there for 4 weeks through the end of April and if you can get to the National Gallery of Art in DC before then, then do so.  This exhibit is worth it.   These paintings are exquisite.
This is the second time we’ve gone to DC to see an exhibition, only to stumble upon another one that we walked away talking about more.  The first time, it was the Van Gogh Exhibit, way back in 1998.  That was pretty amazing, but then across the mall we found a Star Wars prop and costume exhibit at the National Air & Space Museum.   All these years later, we are STILL talking about how flipping cool that Star Wars exhibit was.   
We had fun with the triangles in the concourse between the West and East wings of the National Gallery.
While in the East building, we came across the Mel Bochner exhibition going on in the tower.  I liked it, probably because of the color usage. Pat & Edie not so much.  I snapped a quick shot before the docent told me no pictures please.  Whoops.  So of course I have to post my illegal shot.

 We exited the East Wing of the NGA and headed across the mall to the Museum of the Native American.
Pat had heard great things about the food in their cafe and really wanted to eat there.
Until he saw the prices. 
He suddenly got why I had so quickly dismissed the idea of museum cafe food.
That’s okay, there were other things to do and see there.

Like a VW bug covered in tiny seed beads. 
I think the hubcaps were my favorite.
I wonder how they would look on my car.

Edie wanted her picture taken by the tipi in the Song for the Horse Nation exhibition.  I liked the way this one turned out. I have talked here before how my camera is great with natural light, crummy with any other sort of light.  One of these days I will get a fabulous camera that’s not a point and shoot that can take pictures in all sorts of light.  Until then, I just live with it and appreciate the unique perspectives. I think the shadow in front of the tipi is more fitting anyway.

Finally, after a long day of walking up and down the mall, we made it back to the Metro station.

And before long, we were back to lovely scenes like this through our windows.
I do love the rolling hills of western Virginia. 

When we arrived back at the farm, the sheep were waiting for us in the driveway.  They were quite welcoming.  Those little lambs are just darling.
Twilight, with the not-quite-full-moon rising over the Blue Ridge, just to the east.
That’s the view our friends have from their front porch. 
Pasture, rolling hills and mountains.
I think it’s quite lovely.
Their house belonged to Ryan’s grandparents.  His father was born in that house. 
That view has been part of his life as long as he can remember.
You can see his parent’s house across the pasture. 

That’s the view out back from their kitchen window.  The free range sheep and chickens hanging out with the rabbits in their cages.  Just to the left of that is a pasture that had cows, horses and Ryan’s dad’s sheep grazing. Everywhere you looked was some sort of animal.  We even saw some deer frolicing.
We talked about heading back into the city for another day of museum hopping, but frankly, we were wiped out after the day we had had, and did I mention Pat’s not a city guy?  He wasn’t overly excited about it, so we had a lazy morning on the farm before heading home to start knocking out some of our own projects, like maybe get some of those plants sitting on the kitchen counter into the ground and figuring out if a long, slow deep watering will make the butterfly bush perk up or if I shouldn’t just hack it back and see how that goes.
Stay tuned. 

In progress.

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I currently have no less than 4 various containers, including a 7-11 coffee cup, sitting on my kitchen counter holding plants that were gifted, acquired or are in process of moving from one spot in the yard to another.  I moved the butterfly bush to it’s new spot in the back yard but it’s looking awfully droopy.  I wonder if I should have cut it back before I moved it.  I wonder if I should chop it back now.  Would that kill it? I thought they were supposed to be hard to kill. I might have a green thumb, but that thumb can turn black at any time.  It’s all a giant experiment, I really have very little idea of what I’m doing out there, although my garden seems to say otherwise at times.  There is a partial hole dug for the fig to move into, bags of mulch and compost scattered here and there in the yard.  I did manage to plant the strawberry plants I thinned from a friend’s patch, but the hibiscus someone gave me is still sitting in a pot on the front porch with zero signs of life.  I suppose I could just go set it in the sun and see what happens.
I finally got to see the building Betty has been rehabbing since her return from NYC in December.  We realized we need to schedule time together weekly because entire weeks have gone by where we haven’t talked since she moved back. Which seems slightly insane, since she lives two doors down and for years we saw each other several times a day without effort.  Life being what it is, even though we now have time set aside for each other on a weekly basis, sometimes other things pop up.  Which happened last week and so Friday morning turned into a spontaneous adventure of the sorts we used to have all the time, just rolling with things.  I had to run back home and grab my camera to capture some images after finally seeing the interior of the building that really is just up the street.  I love crumbling old plaster walls, I love layers of old paint.  The building is just a nondescript square box, but it has claw foot tubs, hints of pink & that green I call Southern Gothic Green that was visible through the crumbling layers and a view of Brown’s Mountain through the second floor rear windows.  Some of those things won’t be there by the time construction is completed, but I always like knowing they are there, just under the surface.