prayers

On a misty morning last weekend I hung the prayer flags, so they will blow and fade and send prayers to the ethers when I am otherwise engaged. I hope drive home tomorrow for another couple of days.

sparrows singing

Before I left home on Sunday I heard a sparrow singing. They are returning. I put out wool for nesting material, although I think that it is mainly the robins who avail themselves of it. It will still snow, but spring is only days away. I don't put out seed in the winter because I am only home sporadically. Someday I shall be home to stay.
And this is Saint Urho's Day: http://membracid.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/happy-st-urhos-day-2/

burning brush

Okay, so you don't see the huge conflagration because I was too busy watching the fire, and raking down the burning grass. I had two huge piles of brush, one covered an old willow stump and roots. I was by myself, and a little breeze came up. So I pulled stuff over to back a third smaller, more manageable pile and burnt that first. Then the larger heap became smaller and that went next. And then I fed it with the other heap. In the end all that was left is the stump. It will become a rather fetching garden feature. Assistants turned up to help. One assistant's hat inadvertently got thrown into the blaze *&%@#, and my hair got a little singed, but all in all in was a great success. Lawn chairs were set out, and we all enjoyed the fun in the sun.

BBQ bucket

It works: a few charcoal brickettes, a twist of newspaper, and (this is important) wait at least thirty minutes. I am impatient. It stays hot practically forever. And it burns whatever it is standing on. Here I was supporting the local pig farmers. I do my bit.

picture

http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
A new picture, hanging in the kitchen, Everyone coming through has commented on it. (favourably) and I just love it. We bought it when we went to St. Martins last weekend.
Now I have made the trek back to Sussex. In less than two months I shall have moved and will be closer to home, but not close enough to commute. I shall not miss the long, long drive.

2 cords

Two cords of wood have arrived and need to be stacked - crying out to be stacked. I worked on it for an hour and a half this morning, and now my back is crying out. A friend came by and saw me at work, went home and returned with a wood carrying apron. It takes the strain off the back - but it may be too late for me. I'll get back to work wearing the apron this time.

bistro table and chairs

I am just back from a day and a half at home in Nova Scotia at which time I put two coats of paint on a wall, primed and painted trim in Chewy Caramel, planted the last square in the potager and weeded and weeded and weeded. My Cruising Partner came over and weeded with me. That's my kind of friend! (Cruising Partner means that we cruise oceans together - not cruising bars - which we probably could do as well, but haven't.) So then we inaugurated the new bistro set. It works very well.

planting the garden

I went home for the weekend. A friend came with me and we planted the potager. It was so good to be working with someone. So here is where the sugar snap peas are planted with sticks to support the coming plants. Some kale came through the winter so I am letting it go to seed.

And here is a video from the Everest camp:

willow revisited

This is a maple bursting forth. I was thinking about Debbie's comment about the willow tree that was cut down. The willow has been like a relationship. It looked good, even beautiful, but under the ground roots were reaching out to strangle and break my water source. Eventually I had to gain enough courage to cut down the willow - and yet with regret. It would have been a beautiful tree/relationship, but it became so destructive. I denied it for years.

501th post

I was going to post about my beautiful weeping willow that two guys with chain saws took down on Saturday. It was a friend. It swept by my bedroom window. The golden glow of its buds, its new leaves, its bark coloured my room. My grandchild played house under its canopy. But it was false friend. I could trace a large root heading straight for my well. It had grasping , selfish ways. So now I have had it executed, and cut up to fuel a lobster boil this coming summer. When I see the stump, I grieve.

When I came to post this I found that I had posted 500 times - imagine! I started it by mistake. I was really trying to post a comment on someone else's blog and ended up creating one of my own. Writing a title off the top of my head was very optimistic. Dancing in the the holy circle really didn't describe the circles of despair that engulfed me at that time. The dance has proven to be an upward spiral. Thank you for joining it with me.

My son tells me that the name is really a misnomer and a cheat. He thinks that it attracts Pagans and Wiccans. Then it is really about renovating an old house, so it must be quite a let down. It has served me well. I dance while I plaster and paint and all the time spent just waiting to get back.

switch plate

I was given this lovely and fun switch plate which perfectly matched the parlour wall. I was sure that it was a mermaid until I screwed it on. Now I am not sure it isn't a merman. A couple of friends have giggled the same observation. Whatever the gender, it is a great finishing touch and a lovely gift.

parlour revisited

So this is what awaited me when I returned home last Thursday. This is the pressure tank in the parlour before the door went on. It was to be all finished and tidied up by the end of Saturday, but I had to leave in the morning.
I am going abroad for a few weeks. When I return spring will be truly here. I will have a delightful house awaiting me. If winter comes, can spring be far behind? Yes.

Cisty

This is "Cisty", and somewhere in the frozen earth, under the eternal snow, in my daylily field, she is waiting for the summer. Meanwhile I am making a quick trip home across the Bay to check up on Eddie, the carpenter. He is building door frames and hanging the old doors and other stuff. We'll see what has happened so far. I'll be back in a couple of says.

winter potager

This is my potager from the back door. I just opened the door on the weekend and snapped the picture. Deep snow is good for the plants, but spring seems to be a long way off. Except that today it was sunny and above freezing, so there is hope yet.

I drove to Moncton this afternoon to have my little car serviced: water, warer, everywhere, but mostly muddy and mostly on my windshield.

An answer to yesterday's comment: a pressure tank is part of the pumping system I have a deep artesian well with a submersible pump, but to push the water through the house pipes I need a pressure tank. This will be neatly disguised. I wonder what the haddock that carpenter is doing?

hallway

I hit the wall, well actually the hallway. There was where I stored the old doors that need to be hung and the wall board that needs to be put up. I couldn't go any further until the baseboards were installed, door frames constructed, plumbing covered and finishing stuff finished. My neighbour carpenter said that he could come in this week and take it on, as well as moving the pressure tank into the parlour. Everyone should have pressure tank in the parlour. This takes it out of the cellar where it is rusting, and it will be hidden in the someday-to-be-constructed entertainment centre. Anyway if it is boxed in with a charming door, I can put a flower vase on top of it. So it was taking it all on or waiting another year until the slower winter months. You grab a carpenter when you can. This is what lines of credit are for, I suppose.

winter house

I just snapped this picture before I drove back to New Brunswick this morning. I took the picture, and then I got into my little car with my little cats and drove back to my little apartment across the Bay in New Brunswick. Now I know every twist in the road. Yesterday there was snow and rain and sleet and freezing rain and high winds. Today the road was clear. So now I am back online. I took pictures each day when I was home, and I'll put them up in the coming days. Then I can relive my time in my own home. I spent my time painting the bathroom: two coats on the walls and then I looked at the plywood sub flooring. It will be some time before I can afford the flooring, so I took the wall paint and put a coat on the floor. It will keep the dust down and be cleaner until the bathrom can be completed. A sink will also be nice.

heading over the Bay

I'm heading home tomorrow when the weather clears and the roads become passable. This means that I shall be entering the black hole of no internet - I'll be back mid week if I don't have an opportunity to post sooner than that.

and the kitchen sink

Finally, finally, my mental health project is a reality. On Novemebr 20 I showed you the old sink and counter. They had been hauled out of a garage. There was no, no way to keep it clean despite the yellow paint that a dear friend painted over the crud earlier this year. Here is the new sink and counter. I left earlier than I thought I would on Wednesday for Nova Scotia. I tried to beat a storm and I almost, but not quite made it. Getting over the mountain was a little white knuckly. But when I came in the door and saw the project installed - it was heaven, well a dry heaven, there was no water, not just in the sink, but in the whole house.

By late evening the blizzard was roaring through. The house made such a noise in the wind, that sleep was impossible. Morning brought sunshine and glare ice, but the roof was intact. Still no water. I thought that I had frozen pipes because it had been so cold - but the house wasn't cold. By evening a couple of guys came to my rescue. The pressure tank had a blocked valve. I never would have figured that out. I washed my dishes in my new sink. And now to pay the cabinet maker.

I came back a day early. Today was lovely, but with snow forecast for tomorrow I decided that six hours driving through it was not my idea of fun. I was more than half way home, when listening to the radio, I heard that the forecast had been downgraded. I am here now, back in Sussex.

relaxing days in the country

My son has told me that with a title like "Dancing in the Holy Circle" that people log on expecting Wican or Pagan content, and instead they get my home renovation reports. It must be really disappointing.

I had a half painted kitchen floor - so I took the paint I had - and painted the other half. I painted green, crimson, brown, grey, dark yellow and lots of bare boards. Now the kitchen is only two colours and much cleaner. Then I took on the bathroom and primed it all and then painted the ceiling. People say to me: "Oh you're going home. Have a wonderful relaxing time." Each stroke of the paint brush brings me one step closer to a finished house - my home.

mad cat

This is the Czarina in the car with bag, snow shovel, and cooler about to begin her journey back to New Brunswick. She is not amused.

Neither am I. We had three days of heavy driving rain. It seems that the century old flashing above the windows of my Nova Scotia home have ceased to adequately function. Water poured into my newly painted parlour. I wept. The primary purpose of a house is to keep the water out. But as the rain didn't abate, there was no way I could take three or four courses of shingles off and replace the flashing. The good thing is, I suppose, that I was there to witness it.

Into each life a little rain must fall. My mother used to say that. She never replaced flashing.