03.12.2023 "Joe"

 

03.23.2023 “Joe”

  Finally, the house is back in order. All of the furniture was placed into the original places, all of the pictures were rehung on the walls, books placed back on the shelves, and all of the boxes emptied, unusable contents discarded, and the boxes finally removed from the living room, dining room and atrium. My house is back in order! It feels so good to have everything in its place. I even bought a bouquet of pink roses to celebrate the restored order. It took about 2 months to have everything completed and I will admit the dogs were skillful in negotiating the new obstacles in their pathway.

Everything back in place except for Joe. Joe is a bunny rabbit won for me at the local county fair by a charming young man when I was just a shy 16 year old young lady. My friend named him after his own nickname. Joe has traveled with me for every move since high school. He had a prominent place in my bedroom until it seemed inappropriate for a woman to have a stuffed animal in her room. So Joe lived in a box with other stuffed animals, tucked safely away in the closet. Or so I thought they were safe. It appears that the mice found their way into a few boxes in the closet, so the items that could not be salvaged were discarded. But Joe was gently placed in the washing machine for a good cleaning. Then he had a few seams sutured and he is almost as good as new.  While I do have a new and clean box ready for him for storage, I have hesitated to put him away. He reminds me of the younger days that we all thought would never end, of all of the dreams and hopes we had as we grow up and transition into adulthood. Yes, Joe will eventually be put safely away, this time with a few additional precautions to ensure that the mice do not disturb him. But until there is a guest who uses the room, he has a comfortable place on top of a few pillows. 

Meet Joe, who is now a Vintage stuffed animal! He shows a little wear but smells so good from his two washing machine baths! He lost a little of his filler but that does not seem to matter. He is still cute. Don't you agree?

 

Spring will be here in less than 2 weeks. It seems like we all have Spring fever here and Spring cleaning is in progress. We anticipate at least one more snowstorm this week, but it is March and the wintry effects will not last long. The boys (Fionnegan, Gunnarr and Shorty) still delight in rolling in the snow in the front yard. And I will delight in only shoveling paths instead of entire driveways and porches following the next snow. 

A pink rose to brighten the living room. I love fresh flowers in the house and have always enjoyed their presence and fragrance. They do make a difference in uplifting the mood.

 

Hope you all are well. Shorty will need to update his blog soon, too.

 Until next time.........

 

 

February - 03/05/2023

Where has the time gone? February is already past and we are into March. I guess February is the shortest month of the year!

It is one of my favorite months of the year. Yes, it has been bitter cold and then it becomes unseasonably warm and confuses everything from the birds to the trees and shrubs. But, in February the days are appreciably longer, the sky is robin egg blue, and you can just feel that Spring is coming soon. Yes, Spring will be here soon. So, I don't really mind the cold and the snow in February as I am already planning my gardens. When it was warm and the snow had all melted, I was already doing Spring clean-up. But now it has snowed again and again and I am shoveling again! But there are absolutely no complaints about this winter as it has been relatively mild with rain more often than snow. The good news is that we have had sufficient precipitation so as to offset the minimal snow. One does not have to shovel rain! But I do need to manage the leaky basement,

Icicles on the lilac bush. Cold then warm, then cold again. Winter scenes are appealing, they are refreshing and clean.

Blue skies and just a wisp of clouds and snow is still covering the ground. The next day we did have a snowstorm, much to my boys delight!

Fionnegan gets up close and personal with the snow. He just puts his face right into the snowbanks and also likes to eat it as if it were ice cream.

And when your face is almost completely covered he just shakes it off. Maybe we should all learn to just shake things off whenever we are covered with something a bit annoying.

Shorty loves to play in the snow. They all run to the gate when they hear the question "Who wants to run?" And run they do, just like the cavalry.

Gunnarr is being camera shy here. He has just finished chasing Fionnegan around the yard. 

Here they are on the back porch. They spotted a squirrel outside the fence and are keeping an eye on it.

And when he is done running and playing and rolling in the snow, he loves his spot on the front porch. This is his spot and only his spot. He does not share this special real estate on the porch.

 

We have also been quite busy in the house. I decided to take advantage of a special deal by my contractor and paint the downstairs bedroom. And since it was being painted, this was the ideal time to remove the carpet that had been there for 30 years ever since I moved into the house. So everything had to be moved out of the room and into the dining room (the only furniture there being the chair and ottoman the dogs love) and into the living room. All of the pictures were taken down, the bookcases emptied, and knickknacks carefully placed in boxes.  There was not much time to sort through the items so everything was packed in anticipation of a clean-out as the contents were to be moved back. My old desk that was a bit sad and falling apart was sent out for repair by a local cabinet maker. The bed was the largest item placed in the pathway of the dogs run. It was pretty amazing how they negotiated the new obstacles while keeping up the speed chasing each other. 

So after 6 weeks, the room is done, the bookcase is back and the furniture is back in place. So I have been spending each evening sorting through the boxes with the goal of discarding at least 10% of the contents. Since I am not moving, I cannot discard any sentimental items or tokens of appreciation from my patients. But I can get rid of unnecessary clutter and clothes that no longer fit. The boys just go to sleep in my study as Shorty has realized he is not going upstirs to bed any time soon! After a while as it gets late, I get bored and just close a box or two and say that I will get to it some time again. Let's see how long it takes to get back to these tiresome boxes!

Now my attention turns to shoveling once more as we had a March snow storm and I need to clear the car before it becomes a block of ice!

I do hope you all are well. I will try to write again soon.

Until next time,