When Phil Attacks

We've noticed a woodchuck (or groundhog, whichever you prefer) hanging around our house for some time now. I'd been told he'd attack my garden but I was waiting to see what would happen. Well, last Tuesday, he fulfilled his promise, as a woodchuck, and mowed down my broccoli, carrot tops, some parsley (there was luckily a ton of it), and, insult of all insults, sat on my dill plant. Now that's just mean!

In retaliation, Patrick has now dug a 50-foot trench, all the way around the perimeter of the garden, 9 inches deep and 12 inches wide. We buried a chicken wire fence all the way around.

Yesterday morning, on our way downstairs, we noticed Phil nosing at the edge of the fence but unable to get at our tiny garden (hey, Phil, what about those other plants there, or those there, or that grass over there?) A small but satisfying victory!

Now if we could just get a gate built so that I can get into my garden. . .

The Past Week

With my parents' visit over the past week came

my birthday and fennel ice cream (we had to follow Molly's suggestion since she's from Oklahoma City),

lots of hiking

and work on the house (my birthday gift from them was this wonderful faucet which doesn't spit water all over the place as my old one did),

a trip to a local sheep farm I'd been wanting to visit, and much much more.

Thanks for the great week mom, dad, and Patrick!

A Preview

All of last Tuesday (and I mean all of it) was spent in painting the hallway. I know that this sounds like an excessive amount of time to spend painting a hallway but you have to hear about the hallway itself. It is a small hallway on the first floor, containing 4 doors, then the walls of the stairs up to the landing, containing 1 window, then the walls of the stairs up to the second floor, where there are a further 4 doors. Lots and lots of trim work.

My parents came in for a visit (from Oklahoma City) on Wednesday. They helped me to hang a 1920's/30's light fixture given to me by a friend but we haven't yet been able to hang the excessive number of framed things I plan to hang in the hallway. Here is a preview of the newly patched, painted, smoke-detectored, and light-fixtured hallway, for now.

More soon.

Antique Store Find

This weekend, I finally got to go out to an area antique store which is supposed to be a really great shop but is closing at the end of the summer. It lived up to its reputation (although a bit low in stock, likely because of the impending closing) and I found my new favorite piece of furniture.

The photos are a little weird due to the fact that the light in this room is always bad but you can imagine that the colors are nicer (less purple -- the walls are white) in person.

The first teacup I acquired was the one on the bottom right. Patrick's Great-Aunt gave it to me when we stayed with her a few years ago. Since then I've been given another (top left) by my grandmother, bought one at my favorite antique store in Oklahoma City (center right), found one at a tea room in York (top right) and then, despite my decision to buy no more than 4 cup sets, purchased one more on a trip to maine (center left). They've never had a place for display until I ran into this great shelf. And now I need one more teacup to finish filling the shelf. Added bonus (I love quests for pieces to finish collections)!

Forget that the walls are not yet painted and the light is not good and the cabinets are currently lacking doors, I love this pantry room and the fact that I have this shelf for it makes it just that much more fantastic.

After the Rain

It rained and rained for about a week. And my garden is all the happier for it! I'm sure that the last time I took a look at it, there were not any peas. Now they are almost ready to be picked. I know what's for dinner tonight!

Walk Up the Mountain

Yesterday evening we decided to actually take the 3.7 mile walk up the mountain across the street from our house that all of our neighbors had been talking about. And it was lovely. We should have gone sooner. We feel very lucky to live in such a pretty place.

I think my favorite part was the elderly lady toward the top of the mountain who had a very very old farm which is now being worked by her son. She was very friendly and, just because she saw us looking at her livestock from the road, gave us a tour of the whole farm and chatted with us for quite a long time.

Here is my huge quantity of photos. Click on over to my flickr, if you want to read my comments about them.

Chicken Little and Littler

I've been sidetracked from my usual work by knitting chickens for a few days. I ordered this great yarn to make the black speckles and at about the same time that it came in I found out that my friend has a room decorated with chick-themed things so I had to have some chicken-knitting time. No choice.

The chicken is from a Blue Sky Alpaca pattern. The yarn is bits that I had about (Lorna's Laces and Araucania) and the white-with-black-speckles that I ordered from owool on etsy.

The chick is a free pattern from Purl Bee. He is from some leftover Beaverslide Dry Goods (I love that yarn and their website!) mixed with some leftover Anny Blatt mohair and a bit of random yellow cotton.

Until I get some real chickens (which we are considering doing), these two gals are being amusing enough.