Day 2000

 It started with a step forward, followed by another and another.

Today marks 2000 consecutive days of meeting (and usually far exceeding) my daily goal of 10,000 steps. I currently use a Garmin watch to track my progress.  (I'm on my 3rd Garmin, the first replacement was by choice to go to a more sleek design. The second replacement was by Garmin to replace a watch that kept having issues.)

In the past 12 months, I have recorded 676 activities with a total of 1341 miles but know that I have done many activities that for some reason didn't sync to the app.  Oh well, I know I did them and at least my daily steps were counted. 

I have had the opportunity to walk in many different parts of Eugene, always enjoying the new scenery as I walk or hike.  I've also put in MANY miles in Australia, Arizona, California, Oklahoma, and Washington as well as many cities and towns in Oregon.  Today I finished my steps in Bend, Oregon where Levi and I went to take Dad out for dinner and stay overnight.  

June 21, 2020 marked the most steps in a single day with 51,147.  

The week of December 23-29, 2019 marked the most in a week, with 189,932, most of which took place in Australia when Levi and I went to visit Cole.  We didn't get a rental car until Tad joined us on January 1st and of course the number of steps plummeted after that. 

May 2021 marked the month with the most steps, 643,618.  And I'm currently in my longest goal streak which I have been able to keep alive despite traveling, having a bout with Covid, and having many days where I just didn't "feel like it." 

If I have a day where I think I don't feel like walking I tell myself that it will NOT be the day my streak dies and I just get out and get some steps.  Somedays I barely clear my goal but my daily average for the past 6+ years is 16,256.  At one time I had a substantially higher average. 

More spring beauty from my garden

Water droplets on hosta 

In order to get these photos posted I'm going to restrain myself from saying much about them.  

New succulent garden beneath family room window.

I think we'll be eating a lot of lettuce this year!

Back yard border on the south side.

Christmas Velvet peony bud in center garden

Knotted (see the trunk) maple tree with metal art from Tad

The first of the alliums to bloom

Red twig dogwood blossom

Native iris-these came with the house 30+ years ago

Ah, the scent of this lovely wisteria. 

Climbing hydrangea. Once it got established it really took off! 
Purchased with Christmas gift card from Justin so I think
of him whenever I look at it.  It's going to have a good covering of 
blossoms this year!  So excited.

A new garden under development in the northwest corner of our backyard.  I see a view of it from my bedroom window so I'm trying to make it into something I can enjoy looking at as I make the bed in the morning.  

Looking to the east.

Oops! Found unplanted bulbs in late March.  They are doing surprisingly well for being planted at such a "late" date.

Such dainty flowers on the Pink Cow Parsley.  

Spring beauties in my garden

I bought this beautiful Axminster Gold comfrey at one of the many open gardens I attended last summer.  It's really coming up well this spring and should get quite large over the next few months.  It will eventually have small flowers though I really wanted it for the beautiful bright foliage colors it adds to the strip garden.  In the background, along the fence, you can see clusters of foliage from the hundreds of daffodils I planted along the fence last fall.  They gave a pretty good show this spring but I plan to add MORE for next spring and I look forward to them naturalizing and really providing a lot of spring color in years to come.  There are several clusters of allium planted along the fence that should bloom in the near future.  And to the top right of this photo is the first bearded iris to bloom in the strip.  It's a fragrant white with a bit of a blue undertone.  Eventually, those big strappy leaves in the middle right of the photo will have day lilies blooming amongst them.

This beautiful lilac was shared with me a few years ago by Deb whom I met through the Lane County Dahlia Society.  I can't believe how quickly the small start has grown to a 7-8 foot tall bush.  The dark blooms are so beautiful and the scent is lovely.

I don't remember when (2022 or 2023) I transplanted some of this Centaurea Amethyst in Snow from the back border garden to the strip garden but it has really taken off in the strip and will probably need to be divided soon.  It adds a lovely layer of color near ground level.  

Some of the beautiful tulips growing in the strip this year.  I need to remember to plant more tulips for next year!  

The Persicaria microcephala Red Dragon adds such a lovely intense color to the strip garden.  It's growing pretty rapidly and will soon need a wire cage around it to help support it throughout the summer.  The green foliage to the left is the butterfly bush that is just getting started.  It will eventually tower over everything around it. 
Back by the gate, you can see two columnar bushes that I received from a neighbor who was replanting a garden bed with rose bushes.  

Here's a wider view of the strip garden.  Mexican orange in the foreground, the red leaves behind it are on a lovely rose bush and then the bright colors of a small maple tree.  A little further away we can see the Persicaria and beyond that tulips and then a yellow twig dogwood and the very tall lilac bush.  

Clematis Vanso Blue Light 

This beauty is to the left of the gate into the backyard.  It has the most blooms it's ever had, the only bummer is that they are all way up high; there's nothing at eye level.  

Lastly, a sweet bouquet of lily of the valley, cerinthe, lungwort and forget-me-nots.

Truly, there's so much more going on in my garden that I've just not had time to document.  So much time has been spent on attempting to keep ahead of the weeds, a battle I'm already losing in some areas of the garden, as well as developing some new areas of garden beds around our property.

Until next time!  

 

A very productive week with redecorating the house

I worked really hard in all my free time last week and made a great deal of progress with the redecorating project.  There remains a lot to do but I'm at a good place for a little break now.  Want to see what I accomplished?

I spent much of my week sewing (or buying fabric for) throw pillows which all lead up to the "scary" job of covering two cushions for the wine barrel chairs Tad bought me some months ago. Scary because I'm not that much of a seamstress and the cushions involved circles AND zippers. I wasn't sure of my color scheme when I went fabric shopping.  My requirements were that it had to coordinate with the shade of gray used on the walls and it had to have at least a pop of color. When I found the 5 coordinating fabrics with the turquoise color I knew that I would go with them.  A while back I had painted our small bathroom a turquoise color and had used some of the extra paint on other projects, so it's obviously a color I like. The little dresser along the black wall in the entry/dining area was painted with a toned-down shade of that turquoise a few years ago.

Here's a picture of all (but one) of the throw pillows piled on one couch, staged especially for Levi because he wondered where people would sit if I kept making pillows. 😁 I made one of the yellow pillows and bought the other.  I picked up the solid turquoise pillow at a garage sale this summer and the cream-colored pillow is something I did quite a few years ago.

Before doing any sewing I had to take my machine to the shop and have a few adjustments made and buy a couple accessories.  I was relieved that it was all able to be done as I waited so that I could get right to my sewing.  The last time I tried sewing I had a disaster because the tension was all messed up and I had no clue how to fix it.  I guess I needed a new bobbin cartridge and I had been using bobbins that were the wrong shape for my machine.  Who knew?  I thought they were all the same! 

All that pillow sewing was helping me gather confidence for making the cushion covers. By the time I made them I had plenty of practice with zippers and I had found a couple tutorials on the internet on doing round cushions with boxed edges.  I was able to combine a couple techniques to come up with my covers.  Thankfully I took time to think it through and each one turned out on the first try!  I amazed myself and thought of how proud Mom would be of my work.  

And there's still room for people on the couches!  I really like my tulip painting on this wall because it can be seen from more of the house than when it was on the wall above the other couch. I need to decide what else will go on the wall but I'm trying to not rush into it.  The reason the picture isn't centered over the couch is that there is just one screw sunk into the wall and it is centered over the fireplace which I've placed the couch in front of.  I'll either decorate to the left of the picture to balance it or I will get a new hanger and move it over because leaving it the way it is will bother me. 

When I first started the redecorating I ordered a stencil for my bedroom.  I had not noticed that it was being shipped from Istanbul, Turkey so was a little surprised when it didn't show up within a week.  Eventually, I saw that it got stuck in Germany for a few days.  It finally arrived Friday afternoon and I got the wall done in about an hour and 45 minutes on Saturday morning.  I love how it turned out! Tad loved it too.   

I originally thought I might do the closet doors with the stencil but decided to do the wall so that if I get tired of it someday it will be the easier thing to cover up.  I'm kinda lazy that way.  That cool dresser belonged to my grandparents.  It was passed to me by my parents at some point.  A few years ago I sanded off the varnish (or whatever it was), stained the body of the dresser, painted and distressed the top, and then changed out the handles. It was in Cole's room for a few years and then I decided I wanted something different in my room so I took it last year.  I'm not gonna lie, the top of it is not usually this clean.  But after seeing how nice it looks in the picture I just might make it a goal to keep it cleaned off!  There is a little nightstand on Tad's side of the bed that needs to be painted to match the new decor.  Soon... 

Looking from the front door to the back of the house. You can see a snippet of the hallway wall.

Another project done last week was to paint the dresser on the left side of the above photo. The French White (light pink, which you can see if you look at the post from last week) just didn't go with the new color scheme and I had lots of paint left from that bathroom done years ago.  I purchased a sample pot of dark gray and mixed up 6 jars of chalk paint to get the job done.  I've been wanting to do the ombre look on this dresser for a while now.  What better time!  This is where we store cloth napkins (used daily), placemats (not so often), tablecloths (rarely) cards and dice (a winter staple), and a few odds & ends.

Looking from the living room toward the front door.

I must say that I just love how it's all turning out!  It feels very calm to me and for some reason seems to make the spaces feel larger.  Granted, I have gotten rid of some clutter (or at least moved it to the garage to be gone through.) 

For the first day in a few weeks, I don't have a decorating plan for today.  I think I'll take a day off and contemplate what needs to be done next.  Perhaps I'll inspect the walls for areas that need touching up. I know that I have a lot of trim to get painted but that's my least favorite so I think I will take a breather before I dive into it.  Eventually, most of the trim will be coming down to be replaced by more modern trim when we replace the doors throughout the house, but until then there are a couple areas that have the WRONG color and that's going to bug me. 

Maybe I will eventually post some before photos to have a record of what a dramatic difference this has made.  I just need to go "digging" through old photos to find each area.  

Cheers!   

Transforming the interior of the house

For the past week, I have been repainting the interior of our home. Totally changing the color scheme!  Making it cleaner (calmer), cohesive, and more modern. Once I finish the walls I will still have some trim to do because some rooms have the wrong color trim, though the eventual plan is to replace all the interior doors and trim. When we removed the carpet several years ago we were left with huge gaps between the bottoms of the doors and the beautiful hardwood floors. It's time to remedy that AND the current doors have so many coats of paint on them that I just can't stand the thought of painting them again because it just doesn't hold up well! I’ve learned though that I just need to move forward rather than wait until we have the doors done or I might never get around to changing the color! 

So far I've painted our bedroom, the hallway, living room, dining room, and kitchen. It's coming together. Sunday we removed the fireplace mantle (we haven’t used the fireplace more than 6 times in 29 years), I prefer the couch to be on that wall but it seemed weird with a mantle right above the couch. I like the absence of the mantle! I’ll have to come up with a new decorating style for Christmas though.  Need to decorate the wall and paint the rest of the bookshelves to be able to call the room done but I really wanted to get the furniture back in place 

Lest you get the (wrong) impression that I have it all together I'm sharing this photo of the other side of the same room. I've got a LOT of stuff to put away! 

I wanted to add a little element of fun to the hallway wall and I love how it turned out.  One thing always leads to another!  The doorbell (original from 1955) was brass and stood out like a sore thumb so I had to paint it to go with the new color scheme.  

I'm also really happy with the entry/dining room wall.  It's painted with chalkboard paint so that I can write messages on it but I'm a little hesitant to do that because I love the crisp black and once you chalk on a wall it loses that.  It has another few days to cure so we'll see...  Shown below with the front door open.  

Oh boy, that tan color HAS to go!  Once I got going I just couldn't wait to get the kitchen coordinated with the rest of the house.  I never really liked the tan color but it (sort of) worked with the floor and the other colors in the house. The truth is that about 8 years ago I chose what I thought was a fun sort of bright color for the kitchen.  The swatches looked good.  I painted the kitchen in the late evening and it didn't look too bad but it was a little more intense than I thought it would be.  The morning light made it look like a neon cantaloupe and I had that paint covered up within the next couple of days!  I just used the same color as one of the boys' bedrooms.  So glad to get it changed up this week. 

The boys' bedrooms, family room, and main bathroom will be done as I can. We need a new ceiling in the bathroom so it will likely be the last room. That will give me time to think about if I want to make other changes to the bathroom while we’re at it.   

Once I got started I haven't wanted to stop!  I love the transformation and I know myself too well.  I know that sometimes when I lose the momentum I don't end up finishing things.  THIS time will be different.  I WILL finish this project.  Last night I picked out some beautiful fabrics to cover the cushions on the wine barrel chairs (if you scroll back up you will see them in the messy picture, currently they are just wrapped with red table cloths to protect the foam cushions) and make pillows for the couches.  Need to pull out my sewing machine and get it to the shop for a tune-up because it quit working the last time I tried to sew something.  

I have never really thought that I enjoyed painting.  It's tedious work and there's so much room for making mistakes. What if I mess it up?  What if I spill and ruin something?  What if I don't like it when I'm finished? What if I don't get it perfect?  This time has been different! WHAT IF I really love the new look?  What if I mess something up and choose to redo it?  What if I decided that the imperfections give it a little more character.  What if I realize that this is an OLD house and is already full of imperfections and once I'm done with this job I won't really notice them anymore and it's likely that those who enter my house won't really notice them either.  What if I realize that perfect is an illusion?  So, I can actually say that I've really enjoyed all the work I've put in over this past week and I look forward to continuing on with it.  I've enjoyed the stillness of the house as I have worked while everyone is away.  I've had time to think, time to just be, time to listen to music.  

I've been so blessed that Tad has been on board with everything I've done so far even though each day is a surprise to him because I haven't shared any of the ideas with him before executing them.  One day he came home and our bedroom was 3/4 of the way painted in a color of my choosing.  One day he came home and the hallway was decorated.  Another day he came home to a black wall.  It's so different from anything we've ever had before and yet he has been so supportive and he even loves that black wall.  I'm glad he trusts me enough to let me just go with it.  

Today will be a light day of painting because it’s Cole’s 26th birthday and I have things I need to do and I've got to pack a lot into this day so we can celebrate with him tonight. 

I saw these lovely daffodils while walking on the first day of spring.

Mine are still poking their way up out of the ground.  

Welcome to my garden August 2017

Let's enter the backyard through the gate that we (mostly I) built this summer.

This is a long post, you might want to grab yourself a cup of tea or a cold drink and take your time.  Or maybe you'll just take a quick look at all the photos and ignore my rambling.  Either way, enjoy yourself!

For the first 25 years here we had a chain-link fence along the east side of the house.  It came with the house and I decided it had been here long enough!  The entrance gate used to be flush with the front of the garage and it latched over the downspout which really wasn't a good idea at all!  We installed the new gate at the back corner of the garage.  This gives the front a more open appearance and allows the meter reader access without having to come through a gate.  How thoughtful of me.

After walking along the east wall of the family room you will pass through the one chain-link gate that we left in place (for now.) You won't be able to miss the asparagus bed with the morning glory trellis on the north side.  For some reason the vine isn't as full of its glorious blooms at the time I took the photo as it was the day before. My apologies for the photo quality.  There  has been so much smoke in the air lately and it just messes with everything.  I also don't usually have hoses snaking all over the yard but we just returned from a five day trip during the hottest spell of the summer so I had to set up all sorts of automatic sprinklers and hire out the hand watering of all my potted plants!

Looking to the left of the asparagus bed you will see what I call Asparagus Alley.  The asparagus (on the right) is probably 7-8 feet tall now.  To the left is a beautiful Nelly Moser clematis that was absolutely covered in blooms most of the spring and now mostly has the fuzz balls that remind me of the Truffula trees from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.  To the lower right is some sort of pink astilbe which was gifted to me by a dear gardening friend.  Beyond that are the Incrediball hydrangeas with the huge greenish-white blooms.  Too bad the bush has become so hidden by everything else. And beyond everything mentioned so far are my Porcupine (on the left) and Parkland Rave (right) dahlias reaching for the sky.  

We are now walking between the asparagus bed (left) and my four 4x4 raised vegetable, herb and flower beds (right) that sit in the spot that has previously housed a sand pit with playhouse, a 15' swimming pool after the boys were too old for the playhouse and then a fire pit for one season as I worked out my next plan for the area.  As the boys have grown up the yard has become more and more my territory to do with as I please.

The red grid (repurposed decor brought home from our store) and arbor (given to me by a neighbor when he had a new one built) lead into the chicken "compound" where my happy and beautiful hens spend most of their time.

We're just past the asparagus bed now and looking to where there once stood a huge evergreen tree that slowly got uglier and uglier until I decided that it no longer added anything of value to our backyard. I decided to trade in the shade for SUN so I would be able to grow more plants. Some of the plants that used to enjoy their shady spot remind me of their preference by wilting or displaying dry leaves but most of this garden is doing quite well.  Someday I might find the complainers a shadier spot elsewhere.  This bed is home to several hostas, a beautiful coral colored hardy fuchsia, astilbe, three different hydrangeas, some iris, bleeding heart, and a lot of others.  There are two evergreen clematises working their way up two trellis that I hope will one day block the view of our neighbor's camper trailer.

This little "island" bed is home to an amazing Venosa Violacea clematis that bloomed non-stop for weeks on end.  I built this bed in the fall of 2015 using the lasagna gardening method of covering up the existing grass with wet cardboard and newspaper and then layering on dry leaves, grass clippings and even past-its-prime produce from the grocery store.  It all sat and composted throughout the winter and then I planted it up in the spring.  Everything has grown like crazy in this bed.  The leaves in front are rhubarb which came from one tiny crown purchased on clearance in late spring 2016.  There is also a Cranesbill geranium at the lower left side with its pretty violet flowers.  The volunteer sunflower is bowing at the top left of the photo. I got a lot of entertainment from the little squirrel who came to snack on it daily.  He would balance up on the top and then lean over to get to the seeds.  The pink just to the left of center are some of the 120+ lily blooms that I have had summer.  I think there are 3 different varieties planted at the south end of this bed.  I do regret that their peak bloom time was while we were traveling.  I missed out on much of their heavenly scent.  

I couldn't stand to not have you see how beautiful the clematis was in full bloom.  These 3 photos of the clematis and the sunflower were taken on July 13, 2017.

So glad I let this volunteer do its thing!

Passing by the entrance to the chicken compound and heading west along the back of our yard.  The bright spot just to the right of the top center is a dead branch on our vine maple.  I need to get the ladder and pruner out and take that down.  I wish the lawn wasn't looking so dry but I just can't afford to water everything, nor do I have the time.  

A couple weeks ago I referred to this section as my "purple jungle" as there were quite a few purple flowers blooming.  Salvia, bee balm, Dianthus, lavender, Cranesbill geranium and many others that I can't even remember right now.

We built this new fence on the east side of the dog kennel last summer.  The idea was to make a more attractive fence than what we had previously and to provide a place for me to grow some grapes.  We planted 4 vines last year; two have survived our curious dog and the winter storm we had in December.  The vines are growing like crazy; I better read up on the proper pruning techniques so I can keep them going long enough to provide us with some table grapes someday.  The "small" tree on the left side of the photo is a plum tree I bought for Tad a couple years ago.  In order to allow it to develop its root system I let it grow only one plum this year; I think that next year it will be OK to let it just do its thing.  I planted several dahlias along the front of the fence, with two varieties planted at each stake.  Hollyhill Starburst,  and Raeann's Peach (which didn't do well this year) are shown in this photo.

The dahlias in this photo are Parkland Rave (I shopped at two different tuber sales and forgot that I already had this), Sorbet, Wildwood Marie (the coral one on near the right) and Bride to Be.  I'm really loving Wildwood Marie this year, just wish it would produce more blooms.

The "bedroom" garden, situated in front of the bedroom windows.  This area used to be piled up with all sorts of things that I didn't know where else to store.  While the stuff wasn't very visible from inside the house I eventually hated to see it when I was out in the yard so I did a major clean up and got this garden started Memorial Day weekend of 2015.  I hauled in a bunch of compost and then started planting it up.  Wow, things have really grown!  The dark red is a cardinal lobelia.  In front of it is some orange crocosmia of an unknown variety, the blooms of which are barely visible.

The same garden bed from a different angle.  The little red and white dots belong to Hot Lips salvia.  The daylily in the foreground is done blooming.  There are two Helianthus (perrenial sunflowers) in this bed.  It also contains a couple blueberry bushes, a forsythia and red twig dogwood bushes as well as some hardy verbena, grass, foxgloves, columbine, a mini rose and MORE.

I did a lasagna garden bed under the apple tree in the fall of 2015.  Most of the plants love it there.  They include several hostas, a hardy fuchsia (the pink blooms to the left of the tree), some Dianthus which is almost done blooming and two varieties of daisies, both of which are about done for the season.  I'll deadhead them and see if I can encourage another round of blooms.

Are you still with me?  This is a hazy view of the raised beds.  The taller bed to the left contained my garlic crop until I harvested it a few weeks ago.  I had a great yield and look forward to cooking with it in the coming months.  I built a trellis from retired wooden rake and garden tool handles on the north side of the taller bed and this year it has morning glory climbing all over it. We see this when we look out the family room windows.  The bed to the front right has a ginormous lupine plant, rhubarb, Pooh (a dahlia) and a few green bean plants. The bed to the back right of the photo has another dahlia I can't remember the name of, green beans and yellow beans, and a bit of dill and I think some basil.  The fourth raised bed has some volunteer tomatoes, a huge variegated sage, and a few basil plants.  

A view of the garlic-bed morning glory.  There are some potted plants, Mexican Orange, horseradish, lilies, and some annuals between the sidewalk and the north side of the raised beds.  The left third of this photo really shows the Mexican Orange with the tomato reaching for the sky at the left edge.

Looking back toward the chicken compound from the edge of the "island" garden bed.  The little tree is an Asian pear tree I picked up on clearance for $5.  Last year it looked like it had died after we had a heatwave but I just kept on watering it and I maybe even remembered to fertilize it so it looks healthy this year.

Close-ups of some of the lilies.  The color is way too warm due to the smoky air.

Chocolate cosmos in a sea of variegated sage.

I'm so glad you could spend some time with me in the garden.  I prefer to take close-up shots of the flowers but I know it's also important to take some wider range shots in order to have a good sense of the entire garden.  I look forward to someday being able to look back at these photos and compare it to the garden I have at that time.

I'll show you out through that gate I built earlier this year.  I think I forgot to mention that I built it of wood reclaimed from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's fence that they removed this year.  The horizontal piece over the gate was reclaimed from a remodel job at a neighbor's home 2 summers ago and I finally found a use for it.  The yellow frame has a little succulent garden growing in it.

See you again.  Thanks for dropping by.