Guinea Visit

I was sitting at my desk this morning and the dog next door started barking like crazy. She doesn't normally bark that much, so I went to the window to see what was the matter. Nine guineas were in our yard. They pretty much just ignored the dog. Maybe they knew about the invisible fence! I don't know who they belong to, I just hope they found their way home okay.

Ready for Spring

My husband put in his first garden last year. It was pretty small and all he planted was tomatoes, assorted bell peppers and jalapenos. It did quite well. He canned dozens of jars of jalapenos and I made and froze numerous quarts of tomato sauce. Here's a picture of him last May with his first crop.

He can't wait to start planting this year. Our temperatures have been averaging in the 60's during the day, but we are still getting a frost every so often. He's already bought some seeds and little peat trays to start them in. He's ordered a portable greenhouse and it should be delivered tomorrow. He decided to make the garden bigger this year, so today he dug up the new area and got all the roots out. Next, he'll amend the soil and till it up. Look at the pile of roots he dug out!

He has a friendly rivalry brewing with the neighbor across the street. The neighbor has a lot more garden area, though, and he had a huge assortment of vegetables last year. When we put our lawn in, we didn't think about wanting a garden later and didn't leave a spot for one. We found a sunny place at the edge of the woods just big enough to squeeze in a small plot. We should have known better. Being Italian, my husband has growing tomatoes in his blood. I think I'll have to watch him closely. Next thing you know, he'll be ripping out the grass to make his garden even bigger!

The Baccousa

Finding a proper place for the litter boxes has always been an issue. At our last house, the boxes were in the upstairs guest bathroom. When we began building this house, we had three cats at the time, and would no longer have a guest bathroom (we were customizing the second bath as handicapped accessible for Mom). Since we would have unused space under the stairs going up to the finished room over the garage, we decided to build a cat door in the mudroom to give them access to this space. We put a door to the area from the garage so we could get to the boxes for cleaning. Their private toilet even has a light. Such spoiled kitties. When the muralist was here, I asked her to come back and paint something over the entrance. I decided on 'baccousa', since my husband is Italian. Baccousa is an Italian-American term for the toilet. I think it originally referred to the back house (outhouse). My sister-in-law still uses this word.

Mural Artist Extraordinaire

My friend, Kathy Molizon, is such a talented person. She can do anything. Besides being a fabulous mural artist, she does custom sewing and embroidery, refaces counter tops, reglazes cabinets, does faux painting, makes reborn baby dolls, makes slipcovers, purses and numerous other amazing things. Check out the mural she did in our master bathroom that I posted yesterday. She just moved back to the Charleston area and if you want to get something done, now is the time to contact her before word gets out that she’s back and she gets all booked up! You can check out some of her other work at her homepage:

http://www.picturetrail.com/homepage/ladybird438

Bathroom Mural

A friend of mine, Kathy Molizon, is a muralist. She recently moved back to the area and last week she painted a mural in our master bathroom. The bathroom walls are painted Sherwin Williams 'rainwashed'. I wanted to go with a theme of lily pads with a dragonfly and a little frog. I have several dragonfly and frog themed items scattered around the room, but not too many (I hope). I didn't want to overdo it. I already had a stained glass piece that I had made about 25 years ago when I took a stained glass class. It is waterlillies as well. I am thrilled with the mural. Now our bathroom is finally done. (Click on a picture to enlarge it)

I love the way the afternoon light dances on the mural through the glass blocks. It makes the mural look even more like water.

I had purchased a print that I love from a local artist and initially hung it on the wall where the mural is, but the light from the window over the tub reflected on the glass so much you couldn't see the print. I ended up moving it over by the shower.

Hubby's vanity. Notice mine is more than twice the size of his!

The plate is made by a local artisan. It depicts loggerhead turtle hatchlings as they make their way from the nest to the swirling waters of the ocean.

Groundhog Day

February 2nd is Groundhog Day. If he sees his shadow, we'll be subjected to six more weeks of winter. Let's all hope we have a very cloudy day!

Ling

Ling is my husband’s cat. When we met, I had a cat and a dog. My cat was a male tabby named Eldon, who succumbed to cancer four years ago. My husband had never been around cats and thought he didn’t care for them – until he met Eldon. Eldon had such a cool personality, he soon convinced my husband that cats weren’t so bad after all. Hubby decided he wanted his ‘own’ cat and besides, Eldon needed a playmate, so we went to Petsmart to look at the cats available for adoption. He fell in love with Ling as soon as he saw her. She had just been spayed and we thought that was why she didn’t like to be held. But ten years later, she’s still that way. She has an aloof personality, but does like to be petted and brushed…as long as it’s on her terms. She will jump in your lap to be petted, or paw your leg and ask to be scratched under the chin. When she is displeased, she isn’t shy about letting you know. That’s where we got her name – she reminded us of the character named “Ling” played by Lucy Liu on “Ally McBeal”. Beautiful and serene, but if you cross her she turns into a snarling dragon.

Ling pretends to be sophisticated and ladylike, but she isn’t above rummaging through wastebaskets…

And she can’t resist boxes…

This is what she thinks of the kittens…

Ling never did play with Eldon much. I think she thought he was 'beneath' her.