Traveling Show

So, I did have coffee out on the balcony this morning, as the sun rose up from behind the trees. It was pretty delightful.

Also, with Lenny's help and wisdom (he's seen many move in and out of this up-in-the-air space...), I was able to get our first piece of cushy furniture into the apartment. Look, we have a chair!!

The interior staircase is narrow and steep, so that wasn't an option for this and other bigger furniture pieces...but we were able to slide it up an aluminum ladder to the balcony (after sufficient coffee, of course), and then temporarily pop off the feet to get it in the door...and voila, the Cat has a place to sit!

It was a full morning, as I finally got around to changing my address with the bank and post office and also arranged for the transfer of Comcast services (phone/internet/TV)--I'm a bit amazed that they were able to schedule me for an install this Thursday morning. I hadn't dared to hope it could be that soon.

Of course, we still haven't a television, though one is coming my way in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, once I've got the Broadband, I'll be able to watch the new episodes of HEROES and Desperate Housewives when they appear on the schedule. Meanwhile, though, I'm quite enjoying the serenity of just NPR on the radio.

There was also a stop at CVS, as I was running low on Altoids (it's been 53 days, 16 hours, 6 minutes and 41 seconds now since you-know-what...) and they have a buy-one, get-one deal...plus I needed a grooming kit, because facial hair waits for no man.

And then it was off to Harwich for a visit to the garden. As you can see, it's looking a bit bedraggled and windblown after last weekend's storm.

I'm sorry to tell you the flags were all snapped off the fence, but that was during a rampage in the rain unassociated with T.S. Hanna - I hope he didn't hurt himself doing it. Oh, but I'm proud to tell you it hasn't slowed the morning glories down AT ALL.

After an enjoyable walk around the block with my girl, I got to the business of disconnecting all the cable equipment, so I'll have it for the install (and to prevent him from ordering any more pay-per-view movies, which I found videotaped on the TV table...)...and then went out to the garden to do a little potting.

Dykewife, the photo above was taken special with you in mind, to assure you that at least some of the fabulous orange calla lily rode shotgun with me as I left town.

I also brought along my favorite heliotrope, and then an assortment of black-eyed susans and mums which were about to bloom. Hopefully the move won't be a set-back for them.

It wasn't nearly as well-organized a move as last autumn's was...but there'd been more time to prepare for that one. Today I only had the car, so I had to choose just a few things...but I hope to make another visit with a friend's pick-up truck on the weekend and we'll see what I get accomplished, then.

One of the fun discoveries came when I realized that the over-grown garden was concealing quite a substantial crop of pole beans and I picked as many as I could find to bring along with me.

There were probably twice as many as seen here by the time I was all done. Along with the latest cherry tomatoes, a handful of crunchy beans fresh from the vine made a nice little lunch as I drove off.

And now, a few shots from the new garden...well, the abbreviated, elevated version, for starters. The previous tenants, upon hearing that I was a Gardener, left behind some window boxes of petunias for me, along with a pensive-looking little gargoyle. I've added a few elves, a pot of mother-in-law's tongue (aka, snakeplant) and a tiny birdbath here.

Here's a pair of pots with some of the marine heliotrope I'm such a fan of, as well as my hanging pot of lantana...and one of those tulip-shaped solar lights (the purple).

Because autumn here on the Cape is so often sort of summery, I did take the time to pot up a window box with some marigolds, bachelor buttons and a zinnia and a snapdragon, too, so I'll continue to have some of my own garden on the porch as the season fades. It looks a little ragged just here, but I think it will bounce back nicely.

Here, my Grandma's elf joins the hanging pot of fuschia, another pot of petunias from the previous tenants, and the ginger plant.

As I finished unloading everything, some great looking storm clouds started swirling and rolling in overhead...and I'd sort of hoped for a real ripper of a thunderstorm. There were a few good booms, but really, all we got was some rain...which was just the ticket for the things I'd just planted and/or moved.

And I didn't mind the storminess, since I'd also stopped by our local Benjamin Moore distributor this morning and they loaded me up with paint swatches and brochures about the nature of color. What fun!!