A New Door

First snow on October 30, 2020

We are predicted to get our first substantial snow fall of the season tomorrow evening, 4"- 8". I planted my tulips bulbs today and set a rose back in the ground in a new location. The rose was dug up a few weeks ago and it sat covered until I finally got to it. Tomorrow I will need to get the deck cleared and all outdoor living furniture under cover.

I made a terrible mistake with last spring's tulips which I dug up some weeks back. After they'd sat in the sun to dry the earth that still clung to them, I put them in a bucket and forgot about them. Sadly, I discovered this afternoon that fungus had set in and most were softening and spoiling. Oh dear. Lesson learned. I salvaged some of them but most had to be tossed upon the compost pile. Luckily, I had 24 new tulip bulbs that were ordered this summer and they went in. Looking forward to some 'Apricot Beauty' and WFF Perennial Pink next spring.

With the very generous help of my neighbor, there is now a new door leading to the back yard from the entry room. Yay! I'm very glad it happened. I did most of the demolition myself and was feeling confident that I'd be able to get the new door in myself, but upon hearing my drill and saws, my neighbor came over and went right to work. Most, most thankful. He built the stairs for me and all I need to do now is frame the door on the outside.

Wow, what a convenience! I used the new route this evening to bring in wood for the evening and it was a true luxury to be so close to the door. There's a wood bin in the entry room that I can fill which saves me from having to go outside if I'd rather not venture into the cold. I have to say, though, many is the evening when I look forward to going out to the wood pile at 11pm, or so, just to take in the beauty of moonlit nature. It's magical.

There wasn't much sewing this week. I finished the golden ring, and cut out the pieces for the 'geese-a-laying' and that's it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

More construction

 

Pudding cake just come out the oven... yum!

Recipe for the pudding cake: Chocolate Pudding Cake

The latest construction project, which I'm attempting on my own, is replacing a window in the entry/shed room with a door. As you can see from this picture, I've already removed the window and just beyond is the end of the wood shed. Putting a door here will allow me to exit the kitchen, turn sharp left and out the door for quick access to the wood. That will save me from having to clear a path through the snow all the way around the shed.

I found a pre-hung door at the local Habitat for Humanity for just $100 (edge of it is visible on left of picture). Today I took measurements and decided what I need to do next. My neighbor has offered to help if I need it... thankful for good neighbors. I hope to have this done by end of week and then I'll have to do something about stairs outside. May opt for a temporary solution this winter and deal with the stairs in the spring.

I made three potpourri with the materials I gathered from the garden. All experimental, so I did not make great quantities. I used powdered orris root as a fixative. A scant tablespoon for each, to which I added drops of essential oils to create the scents. This was mixed with the dried material and is now in air tight containers under the desk in the dining room to 'cure' until Christmas time. The following one will likely be my favorite. It's scented with balsam and Christmassy aromas. The tiny pine cones are not from my garden.

This one is quite appropriately scented with Arabian rose oil. I purchased the vial of oil many, many years ago in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. A deep, sensuous scent. Some of these petals may have come from bouquets that I allowed to dry out. The purplish flowers are fuchsias and the small yellow ones are 'Tête-à-tête' daffodils.

Finally, the last one is scented with a mixture of 4 oils to create a light, flowery aroma. I need to work on the formula a bit. When I get it down, I'll post my recipe.

The last of the Beatrix Potter characters is done! Tom Kitten is the eighth and final pattern in the set I purchased. I need to find a small straw hat for him. In the meantime I've used a small round straw 'cap' that I had in a set of doll house accessories. I do have a pattern for Peter Rabbit and will make him too, but first I want to get on finishing the Twelve Days of Christmas ornaments I started last year: I had made days 1 through 4.

All eight characters are done and boxed until the tree is put up in December.

At work on day 5 of the 12 days, a golden ring:

I need to get in the garden this week and plant my tulip bulbs! Luckily, it's warming up and will be comfortable for the task by end of week.

I think I'll do a post soon about the music I'm working on.

Pantry is done

The first fire of the season. Lit it three nights ago and it was allowed to go out during the following day. I re-lit it the following night and last night as well, but today I continued to stoke it as it was only in the 30s most of the day. There is nothing like radiant heat; so enveloping and soothing. It makes me happy.

The Tailor of Gloucester is almost finished. I just need to secure his glasses and attach a small bell or bead to his tail!

Only one character remains: Tom Kitten.

The pantry is done! Almost... I want to get some shelf paper for the shelves. I have some very pretty vintage paper but I'd rather preserve it than use it. My neighbor suggested photocopying it and using the copies. I may do that if they can copy it down at the UPS store. What I have is one long strip. I have a printer, and I could scan a portion and repeat it, but home printer ink has become prohibitively expensive.

I'm also going to paint a little decorative border along the partition that separates the broom closet from the pantry. As you can see in the picture below, I took some space on the right side of the original pantry to make a broom closet as I did not have one. The pantry shelves are now narrower, but since I put five of them on euro glides I was able to place them closer to each other. Originally, there were five shelves, now there are seven with room to grow on the bottom. I'm quite pleased with how my DIY turned out. The gliders were a challenge, especially since the walls aren't entirely straight. I put a motion sensitive light on the ceiling within to help illuminate what was once a very dark space.

The partition between pantry and broom cupboard was constructed with wood that was removed from the living room this summer; the shelves are the original ones that I cut to size and supplemented with a few pieces left over from past projects; the paint was also leftovers from a previous project. The only things I purchased for this make-over were the euro glides and some construction screws.

Happy November!

New slippers

 Continuing with all the fall chores this week. Most of the 2 cords of wood that sat across the yard all year has been moved to the shelter; there's about one wagon load left and that will get moved tomorrow. There's almost 3 cords in the shelter now with another 2.5 cords left to bring in. Two of those were delivered just a few weeks ago and will probably not be needed this year.

Most of the 2 cords that were here are now in the shelter. A small pile of kindling in lower right corner of picture will also get moved.

How different the yard looks at this time of year!

The bottom right corner of that picture is where my round wood stacks were stored the past few years. Now that they are cleared, I plan to build new flower beds in this area next spring. How different the yard looks at this time of year!

Another chore that needs doing this fall is tending to this sad sight:

That's my Dutchman's Pipe vine. It was planted about the second year I lived here, so it's now about 8 years old. It took several  years to grow into much of anything but has obviously outgrown the rose pillar I used to support it. It fell over last month! There is no way to remove the vine from the pillar, it is completely intertwined with the supports. I finally had an idea for fixing it a few weeks ago. I'm planning to use three substantial tree limbs, taller than the pillar, to fashion a teepee around the pillar. Then I'll tie the top of the pillar to the top of the teepee. That will hopefully keep the pillar from falling and give the vine more room to spread. That's the plan!

This week saw a pause in the Beatrix Potter ornaments construction. The weather at the beginning of the week was quite cool and I needed new slippers for the winter. So I took a few days to knit up a new pair. They are knitted with rug wool that I've had in my stash for a number of years. Very heavy, rugged, and warm! Toasty warm.

Still, Squirrel Nutkin was finished earlier this week...

As if there wasn't already enough happening, I set about cleaning out the pantry last Sunday. Roughly a bi-annual task to sort out the expired stuff from what's still good. I try to use everything before expiration but it doesn't always work out. While at it, I was reminded how dark it is inside so I decided to re-do the pantry! I'm painting it cream colored inside to lighten it up, confiscating the right 6" to build a broom cupboard, and will build new shelves on euro glides so they can slide out. Wish me luck! Here's what it looks like after I removed all the shelves. Hopefully there will be an after pic by time the next post goes up.

I was out meandering in the garden the other day and found this absolutely beautiful Mallow. It's quite late, but we're luckily and thankfully having very mild weather these three last days of the week, supposed to get over 70 F tomorrow! We've only had the mildest of frosts yet and that seems unusual. Anyway, it must have been included in the packet of wild flower seeds that my neighbor gave me last spring which I scattered over an unused bed. How very beautiful.

Beatrix Potter ornaments: Tools and techniques

 I'm sailing through these characters and enjoying every minute of it. This week saw the completion of Mr. Tod and Pigling Bland.

As I mentioned previously, I'm hand stitching these. I'm using backstitch for most of the seams and ladder stitch for a few difficult-to-reach constructions (such as attaching the inside leg to the body).

The following tool has been very useful in this project. I don't know what it's called, picked it up at a thrift shop if I recall correctly. It's very helpful when turning newly sewn pieces right sides out, and a big help when stuffing batting into small places. It also makes a great needle puller for when I need to sew through a thick seam.

This needle is also getting lots of use, not only to poke holes in the body for the arms (and sometimes legs), but for helping ensure the arms are balanced from one side to the other. It's long enough to poke all the way through the body, so I can check for levelness and position front-to-back and up-and-down.

Some of the pieces have to be tinted (inside the bunny ears, for instance). I am finding these Inktense blocks to be great for that. They are water-soluble pigments and work on cloth. Look at all those beautiful, exciting colors!

And pins! Pins, pins, pins. The trickiest bits to sew are sometimes the ears, but with enough pins to keep them in place while sewing, it works out.

The patterns for these ornaments were purchased from The Cheswick Company (on Etsy).

I took a walk around the yard the other day to forage for potpourri material. I gathered only enough to make a bowlful as I'm experimenting. If it goes well, I'll gather more next year. I also have a bunch of blossom heads drying that I can use as well. Need to make this asap, so I may plop them in the dehydrator, since it will need 6 to 8 weeks to cure and I'd love to have it ready for Christmas.

An autumn fair

It is full on autumn now. We were advised about possible frost last night, although it didn't happen. Lows in the 30s, though. It is hard to believe we are in our second week of October! I put some ghouls out yesterday at the end of the drive.

The task of putting wood in storage for winter use is proceeding well. About half the pile from across the yard has been moved to the new storage facility, that leaves another cord to move. Then there's 2 cord up near the facility and I'd like to get them stored this fall, but it will be OK if I don't get it done.

Beatrix Potter ornaments

I finished Jemima Puddleduck this week, she was very fiddly to accomplish but looks great in the end.

I have almost finished Jeremy Fisher, but had to set him aside until I got to the store to buy some crepe. He still needs collar fringe and a black ribbon around his neck. I picked them up today.

I'm currently working on Mr. Tod. They're quite fun to sew and they make me LOL when a new feature makes them come to life.

The Sandwich Fair

The Sandwich Fair is NH's last fair for the season. My neighbor and I went last year and enjoyed ourselves enough to repeat the trip this fall. Sandwich is only an hour from here and it's a lovely drive by Squam Lake (On Golden Pond) and beautiful country lanes.

Preparing for Winter

 A quick update. . . I did indeed add an emery cushion to my Victorian sewing bird. It's a bit of a cheat in that I took a prefabricated strawberry cushion--the type that comes attached to those ubiquitous tomato pin cushions--and covered it in the same fabric as used for the pin cushion, and glued it to the button. It was necessary to use a drop of glue to adhere the button to the bird, but I can live with that.

Here it is put into service while I work on Benjamin Bunny, one of nine ornaments I'm making for the Christmas tree:

(As always, click to enlarge.)

Benjamin Bunny, Jemima Puddle Duck, Jeremy Fisher, Mr. Tod, Pigling Bland, Squirrel Nutkin, Tailor of Gloucester, Tom Kitten, and Peter Rabbit. Characters from the wonderful tales of Beatrix Potter. I bought the patterns for these from The Cheswick Company (they can be found on Etsy) last year.

I am sewing these entirely by hand because I think it adds a lot of meaning. (Soapbox: Nothing makes me sadder than the sight of $20K 'embroidery' sewing machines, which seem to be the rage. They're available now from every major sewing machine manufacturer. This is not craft in my opinion, it is production. Push a button to start the machine, it stops now and then to tell you to change the thread color... congratulations, you have become a machine operator. IMO, the results are not satisfactory. Give me imperfect hand work any day.) Here is Benjamin Bunny, I just finished him:

Winter Prep

It's that time of year when the turn of temperature and color of leaves forewarns of colder days to come. It turns the mind's attention to the issue of fuel and the desire for warmth when the thermometer dips below 40, 30, 20, 10, and beyond. To that end, 2 additional cords of wood were delivered this past week making my total store for the winter a little over 5 cords. I don't think I will require it all if years past are any indication.

One cord is stacked. Four are not. There is work to do. Two cords are on the other side of the yard. There is more work to do.

Another brain storm hit last month when I realized that the 'garage in a box' which I purchased several years ago and which has sat in the grass unused since I got the garden shed 4 years ago, would make an excellent cover for my stacked wood. So I gathered the pieces and re-constructed it in the upper garden. I'll purchase some tarps to cover it and hopefully that will solve the winter long struggle of keeping the wood dry, and safe from inclement weather.

I truly love the holtz hausen stacks I've been building these past few years, but throwing a tarp over them turns into a headache mid-winter. For starters, tarps don't protect the sides of the stacks and that wood gets wet. The stove doesn't like wet wood and physics demands that creosote will be the result. Additionally, trying to shovel snow off the uneven surface of a holtz hauzen is impossible. A shovel is too stiff, a broom too weak. So some snow settles on top and it melts when the sun comes out and the result freezes into ice and before you know it there are 6-8" ice puddles on top of your wood and the struggle is real. And stressful. But not this year if all goes well.

Other News 

The broken Subaru left the yard today and I'm very happy to see it gone. It saddened me to see it all the time. 90% of it was in good, useable shape, everything from the chassis up. A shame that it was all rendered useless because of a rusted out under carriage. It's nice to the have the drive cleared.

Speaking of the drive, I decided to move the hexagonal flower bed and fountain to the other side of the walk and that leaves an alley that will allow vehicles to drive right up to the house if need be. I won't be  using it as driveway, but it's available just in case. I will probably make the entire area where the hex bed is now into one large cottage garden. The bed and fountain in their new location, the almost cleared emergency driveway to the left (yes, my little wagon had a flat tire and needed some attention):