Thursday

The day here started out gray and rainy. Not much encouragement for getting out of bed and turning on that coffee pot, honestly. But that's okay...we need wet mornings like this one and meanwhile, every time I look at the forecast for the holiday weekend it looks a little better!

These red begonias are in a stone planter outside of the bank. I should have taken a picture of them earlier in the season when they were a little fresher looking. But they caught my attention this morning and so here you go.

There was a little upheaval at the Nest this morning, but nothing particularly monumental. We had suspected in the last couple of days that perhaps there was a leak in the gas line that comes up to the apartment, as there'd been the occasional whiff of the stuff. Today, Lenny pulled off the facing boards on the step ups from dining room to kitchen and bathroom, since the gas is piped in between floors there.

Naturally, it was only once that destruction had been done that it was discovered that the new stove was actually the source of the leaking...and it has apparently been a lucky thing that we've been sleeping with windows wide open so regularly lately. Anyway, the problem is all fixed, there's no more leaking and all is well.

In fact, I like the photo above not for the destruction (and that's no big deal--haven't painted ANY of the trim in the apartment yet...), but I like the way it shows off the red-orange-yellow progression from kitchen to dining room to bathroom.

Dykewife calls my string of lights "cheer lights" and I love that name, though I've never heard them called that before. I've always been a fan of the indirect light cast by these little lights and have often incorporated them in my living situations one way or another for years now. They ARE cheery, though. And another thing I wanted to point out, are the little balls made of grape vines. I got them on one of those novelty strings of lights years ago and love the way they make these great shadow designs on the walls. The shadows do something to the painting on the wall I really like.

I'll try to get some better pictures of what I'm talking about as far as detail of the painting work in the days to come. It's pretty late now and I ought to already have been in bed...but there's a few flower pics to round out the day.

On the way back from the bank, this bed of furry-flowered ageratum and yellow marguerite daisies called out to me from one of those traffic island gardens and so I stopped for a photo or two.

I'm pretty sure this fuzzy topped stuff in ageratum, though I've not grown this variety before. They ought to call the particular strain Animal, after the Muppet Drummer it so reminds me of.

These petunias are showing what end of the season it is, but I still couldn't look away from the rich purple flowers. Next summer I want to do more with petunias.

And here's some of our fall foliage, a blend of pretty Virginia creeper and sneaky poison ivy, climbing the side of a pine tree across the street from the traffic island, at the path entrance of one of Eastham's conservation areas.

Catching Up

Well, okay...so thank goodness for Photobucket. Now I just need to get a little better about re-sizing photos before uploading, and I might be okay. Sorry for the delays in posting.

Because of the recently limiting of photo uploading, I'm considering moving the blog to WordPress, where I understand I'd have substantially more memory hosting. Anyone have any bouquets or brickbats to share with me about WordPress? What's your experience been in transferring a blog and its archives from one place to t'other?

Meanwhile, though, I don't want to distract from the important garden business at hand. First, above, you can see that my imperial Chrysanthemum (well, that's what Chuck thought it was when he passed it on to me, anyway...) is fixing to bloom shortly. Also, below, I was happy to know that my favorite - the garden heliotrope - has bounced back from its rough treatment in moving and seems to be taking very nice to its new home by the front door.

Now, I realize (and have been reminded) that the recent photo debacle has left you all in the dark about how progress has been coming along here at the Nest...so I'm glad to be able to share a photo or two with you to show you how things have progressed. As I mentioned, I have finished off the painting in the living room. I might go in with a tiny brush and touch up the dragonflies a little, but I also sort of like the way they seem embedded into the wall, too. Maybe I just want to go in and sketch some of the finer lines of their wings with a marker. We'll see.

Meanwhile, though, I am happy to let them be as they are, while I try to focus less on the painting and more on getting the Nest finally starting to feel more like a home than a collection of empty rooms filled with boxes. After all, I will be hosting some company this weekend and am eager for the place to start feeling a little more comfy and welcoming. Plus, for my own well-being, it sure would be nice to have things unpacked and starting to feel a little less unsettled.

Here's a photo, with Cat, of the loveseat we welcomed to our small collection of furniture this weekend. It's second hand, but we like it just fine...plus, it was relatively easy to get up in the ladder and into the apartment. In the background, is another view on the living room painting (The crow, I'll remind you, I've actually touched up a little so its not quite so recessed into the painting now.).

There were two second-hand loveseats to choose from actually. I liked the muted colors and lighter pattern of this one, which seems to go pretty nicely with the detailed painting I've done in the living room. The other one also featured a floral pattern, but not a brocaded one, as seen here, but merely a print on fabric and in a bright green, red and pink floral pattern that would've been more appropos for the Golden Girls' lanai, or perhaps a shirt for Bea Arthur. I feel I've chosen well and Badum - who's had WAY more time than I to test it out - seems to agree.

I did make myself sit down a little the other night and it is a comfy place to rest. There's just so much to accomplish, though, that I feel a little guilty about settling in one place for too long. Well, not guilty, since I'm on no one's schedule but my own...but there's so much I want to get done. Let's put it that way. In other news, I am about two-thirds finished with painting the bathroom yellow. I like it much better than the dingy pink I am covering over, especially in the golden light of morning.

Speaking of morning, it is pretty early here just now. I have an early eye appointment (slow progress there, but I'm practicing patience, which is apparently my Big Lesson to learn from the Universe just lately) and hope to visit the bank before leaving town, so I'll have a little cash in hand for a stop at K Mart afterward for a few needful things like Flatware and maybe a nice shelving system for my music CDs...and some hooks to help properly suspend some of my houseplants near their favorite windows.

On that front, Patience (the landlord, not the lesson) gifted me a pair of long and dangly pothos plants last evening. She'd had them outside this summer, but was feeling a bit oppressed with the responsibility of bringing them in for the coming winter...so I was all too glad to bring them upstairs to the Nest, where the light is wonderful and should help to encourage that Jungle feeling I enjoy on a winter's afternoon, when all my plants are thriving and green around me.

Here's the view off the deck just about ten minutes ago, as the sky turned from dark blue to lavendar and the sun crept up over the horizon. It's chilly this morning and I wonder, with deciding, if the season for going to the beach to watch the sun slip above the eastern horizon hasn't passed for another year. We'll see. Perhaps there's one more sunrise morning coming our way before the holiday weekend is through. In the meantime, there's this view from the deck to enjoy each morning.

By the way, in the time it took me to prepare and upload that photo, we've gone from pre-dawn silence to a crazy multitude of bird chirpings out there. It's pretty nice. I'm tempted to go back to bed...but I fear I'll never wake up for my appointments if I snuggle back in this morning. Of course, it's also still far too early to think about pounding a nail or anything like that.

NOTE: Apologies about the weird photo file sizes...too early to be messing around with this, perhaps. I'll try to figure this out before next post. Promise. Meanwhile, have a day!!

Tuesday's Gardens

I wanted to show you a little of the detail from my work on the living room walls. I was really pleased with the tiny purple flowers down near the baseboard.

A very important accomplishment today: I finally got myself over to Orleans Town Hall and made sure that I was registered to vote here in town...and learned where the polling place is, too.

Don't we have a nice looking town hall? I learned this year that Orleans is one of 3,310 communities designed as a Tree City USA. Here are the criteria for the designation.

After I'd tended my business inside, I poked around with my camera, enjoying the grounds a little. There was some beautiful blue and purple cranesbill (aka, perennial geranium) blooming just outside the front doors.

It's possible it's looked better than it did today at this end of the long growing season, but that didn' t stop this bee from visiting as I snapped my photo.

There was something about this big patch of clover in the lawn that really tickled me...or would've, if I'd actually stopped to roll around in it...but hey, I just moved to town, a little decorum can't be a bad thing.





I stopped at Friends Market today. I was getting something for lunch, but also looking to bring a little fall flower color to what was mostly a gray and dismal autumn day.


I sure love these red and rusty chrysanthemums.



I also noticed they've got some pansies on special. I thought about picking some up, but I want to make sure they are at the beginning of their lifecyle and will continue to bloom through the winter (or at least resume when the winter passes). It sure is nice to have some of those cheery little faces around.

The sun did make a veiled appearance at the end of the day. Here's a shot of the sky from the deck earlier this evening.


Tonight, I discovered that the door to the deck, which appeared to have been long-ago painted white, really only had some sort of residue on it from being exposed to the elements.

Once I started rubbing it with some polishing oil, the white film vanished and the door's frame turned a nice chestnut color...a great contrast with the peachy-orange dining room walls.

Tonight I also decided that the pair of snapdragons needed a little context for their frivolity, so I painted these flower silhouettes onto the walls.

I swear, these are the last elements I'm adding to the walls. The next step will be taping off the radiators and woodwork, so I can do the final sponge coat of the top color of the room.

Monday Monday

A cloudy morning started us off today and it sort of matched the mood of my heart. It's funny how it changes a little like the tide lately.

I have chosen with no regret, and seem to be finding happiness wherever I look. And yet still there are things I wish had been different, that sometimes make me a little sad.

I miss the Garden, wonder what is happening along the fence, if the rest of the mums have begun to bloom yet, and if the cosmos ever really started blooming, and if any of them turned out to be seashell shaped.

I have a few roots I would like to extract still, particularly some irises only recently planted there. One or two of them promising to be purple. And maybe a little red dianthus. So I will be heading to Harwich one carefully chosen day soon and I'll be sure to bring the camera along, to show you what I find.


I had to pull over at Rock Harbor when I got a look at the sky over the bay as I headed for work this morning. I'm sorry I didn't notice until I was back behind the wheel and driving what the sky behind me looked like...it was pretty amazing looking. Sorry to tease with just the mention.

Hey, this really bugs me. The property you see here used to be a nice wild patch of woods, all trees and wildflowers. And then last year they cleared most of the lot and built this McMansion. It happens WAY too often on Cape Cod lately.

That was enough of an abomination, a crime against nature, to me...and then this week, they took down another tree or two and hoisted this great banner, which is spotlight-illuminated by night and day. It's a pretty residential area and anyway, I bet its not zoned for nightlit billboards...so add disregard for the law to raping the land, needless power consumption and reshaping the world in one's self-important image. Yep, sounds like an apt advertisement for the candidates.

Oh, I'm getting all itchy thinking about it. Here, let's chill with a bachelor button instead.


As you can see, I got more painting done in the living room this evening. It took a little while to sketch in the crow. I wanted to make sure it looked just right before doing anything with the permanance of black paint.

I'm pretty happy with how its looking right now.

Remember way back on September 13th, when I was painting the bedroom with Cape Cod Gray and tapped the end of the roller on my palm?

I did sort of like the pattern that made...especially as my mind began to transform it into some kind of stylized cave painting version of the sun. And when Patrick suggested in comment that it represented a Brand New Day, I knew it had to be front and center in my plans for the living room.

In fact, it kind of brought together the idea of the garden as cave painting.


It was very important, though, to make the sun a big icon in the scheme of things, and it had to be perfectly round...so I needed something big and round to trace.

In a stroke of luck, I found this pristine metal garbage can lid in the barn outside. What a find! Not only is it perfectly round and just as big as I'd hoped...but also one of those lids that feels fun in your hand, you know, like you've just picked up a great shield and are ready for battle...well, would be, if you also had a sword, and even the slightest clue what to do with it.

I lit my butterfly candle this evening with thoughts toward an orange tiger-striped buddy of mine - Mom and Dad's Dewey cat - who seems to have wandered away from the house in Connecticut they've all just moved into this past week.

I wish him courage and bravery and resourcefulness, and whatever else he needs to make a safe return happen. And meantime, hugs and the power of positive thinking are sent to Mom and Dad.

It's like a mania: tonight I stenciled some more leaves on this particular tree part of the living room wall. I almost think there are enough now...but we'll see what tomorrow brings.

"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there."

"It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between a man who cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said."

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, 1950.

Painting Thoughts on a Stormy Day

With the heavy rains that spattered against the windows and the exterior walls of the Nest overnight, it would have been an absolute joy to stay snuggled in bed a little longer this morning.

Alas, I had an early morning appointment (the customer had insisted, over my minor protests about the restaurant not yet being open, etc.) scheduled...so was up to prepare for that and also got myself ready to visit the beach after the meeting.

So you can imagine my annoyance to get to work and discover that the appointment had been cancelled in a phone message around 8 a.m...although the message clearly mentioned that the decision not to attend the meeting had been reached the night before...when I was still at work.

So, thanks for your lack of consideration, Potential Customer...I hope there isn't too much bad wedding kharma blow-back from this for you! And that's about as negative as I'm going to let you make me...

My visit to Nauset Beach was certainly a good and fast curative to any crankiness I had about being up and about so early...as Hurricane Kyle churned things about a hundred miles out, there was some wind and rain (I was barefoot, but in a slicker...and delightfully soaked with a warm rain when I finally headed back to the car...more pictures in the previous blog post, for those who may've missed that one!)...and some exciting surf. Our waves here on the Cape are not world-reknowned, though there is still a culture of surfers, who were certainly out there yesterday. But some of the waves yesterday were big and impressive...and once in a while crashed with the surprising KAPOW of a cannon shot.

Most satisfying.

And then it was home to dry off, have a bit of breakfast and turn my attention to getting a little more of the Nest whipped into shape, painting-wise.

The living room remains the focus, as I added some more stenciled leaves to the two tree parts of the room. Since the leaves will become less visible when I've applied the top coat of paint in a day or so, I'm pondering adding a few more leaves to this particular tree-top representation. I guess it will depend on how I feel later on.

I enjoyed some blogger communication today, as I chatted with both Marc and Jess on the phone about their plans to visit Cape Cod for the upcoming Columbus Day weekend. They've actually made reservations at an Inn just down the street from the Nest, as it turns out...and there's talk of an appearance by Marc's Chicken and Noodles, as recently featured at his blog!

Although I will have to work for some of the weekend (these three day occasions are great times to schedule a special event), I look forward to spending the rest of the time with these guys, and also Patrick, who may be catching a ride with them for a return visit to the Nest. (I'll have to save some painting...he's awfully good at it...)

Much has been made about how cool and enjoyable my roommate is. While the Cat Dood is not, like some boys, particularly fond of kissing (he mostly hates when I smooch on him), he is in many other ways a great companion, both fun and caring and not obsessed (as dogs can be) with his next meal. In fact, he is not unlike Ferris Bueller in that, for him, Leisure Rules. If there is a real point against him, he is the only roommate I've ever had who leaves footprints in the bathroom sink.

When he first came to live with me and was a little mal-nourished, he did make a good impression with a mouse-kill, but since then, his interest in mousing has probably been mellowed by being well-fed. I have often joked that he is still interested in mice...the trick is getting them to roll around in the catnip.

So this evening, I was surprised and interested to discover that Badum was doing just a little bit of hunting, and had sort of cornered a breathless and wide-eyed little gray mouse under a bookshelf in the dining room. He chased the mouse from one side to another...and my participation (moving the shelf out from the wall), really only complicated the situation by knocking something off the shelf, which created a diversion during which the mouse was able to dash to the living room...and catch his breath under the relative safety of the baseboard heater, while the cat continued to stalk the place where the mouse had been minutes before.

We'll have to keep an eye on this situation and see what happens and perhaps I'll try not to help next time.

Meanwhile, once I'd finished adding stenciled leaves to the walls, I had a little extra paint left over, and so decided to add that remaining paint onto the walls in a texture that will be somewhat concealed by the finish sponge coat on these walls.


For the texture, I crumpled one of those plastic grocery bags and used that as my paint application tool. Interesting effect, I've always thought, and as I said, only some of it will still be visible when all is said and done.

As I did that, I also made use of the cardboard stencils I made last week, using them to apply some of that paint in the form of large leaves along the baseboard of the interior walls. And then I started playing around with some of the other images I wanted to add onto the walls.


Patience has a little projector thing-y that helped me get some of those images enlarged, though it was not quite as helpful about the enlargement as I had hoped at the start.

While I had to adapt my plan a little bit, things seem to be coming together pretty nicely...and before the night was over, I had the chance to paint in a couple of accent bits, which I'm pretty thrilled with.

Working on this room is so interesting - I find that so many images and ideas and experiences in the Garden, on the blog, in this crazy world of ours are finding their way out of my brain and into my hands and fingers and brushes and stuff and making their way onto the walls here.


Patrick mentioned something in his blog yesterday about how we all seem to become inspired by one another through sharing our experiences and such in bloggety-blog land. I've certainly found that to be true...and in ways I never quite guessed when I started the Midnight Garden a few years back...and in ways I'll mysteriously say you can't possibly imagine. Or maybe you can.

So maybe I'm looking at some of this re-decorating process as a sort of visual journal, an out-growth of that whole experience. Is it all about just addressing the experiences I've had? Am I trying to visualize the future I want? Maybe I'm just thrilled with the way these two dragonflies seem to be dancing around one another and the way the living room's turning into an extension of the garden that grows in my heart.

The creative process of it all certain seems to be opening more doors to the future for me, so I think I'm doing just what I'm supposed to be doing...and exactly where I'm supposed to be doing it. That's an awfully good feeling.

I ran out of steam later in the evening, though I still had a few more things I'd hoped to get painted. But that solar/tribal image and the crow will just have to wait.

Maybe this evening I'll have some fresh energy to tackle that...but I think I'm also going to have to find time to watch last week's two-hour premiere of HEROES before tonight's new episode comes on...so I may find myself distracted with other, very important things.

As I faded to dark last night, I enjoyed an episode of Planet Earth on Discovery Planet. Sigourney Weaver is a great narrator for this terrific series that shows you amazing things you can barely imagine exist in the world. If you have the chance, check it out. It's truly television worth watching.

Rainy Daze

As it was so many places in the Northeast, yesterday on Cape Cod was all about the rain. It's funny, how much more accepting of the rain I was when I had a nice big garden to benefit from the watering. Of course, that'll be the case again before long...but for now, the rain was just an annoyance, a difficulty in the day, the cause of perpetually wet sneakers.

Since my injured eye continues to be slower than expected in its recovery, my eye doc sent me off for a second opinion, which meant half an hour's ride through the heavy rains in plenty of traffic. Since the blurry vision in that eye also seems to be a sort of mental trigger encouraging me to want to sleep, the driving was a bit of a challenge. Happy to say I am still here.

This second doc has prescribed me a variety of drops, as well as some nighttime goop, to help heal my eye. In addition to the abrasion, which is healing, I also have something called corneal dystrophy, which she likened to being similar to when the grout that holds your tile in place loosens up...except of course, we're talking about my FREAKING eye.

And also, ironically, I have dry eyes...which just seems like final proof of the uselessness of the emotional tears, which have been in abundance the last few weeks, but seem to be tapering off a little lately (most of what remains may probably be attributed to the Nicodemon's little tantrums--after all, it's now been 71 days, 7 hours, 17 minutes and 53 seconds!!!).

Anyway, hopefully all that will help my vision to clear up as things heal. Meanwhile, the rain let up for a little while as I was headed home from work last night and although I wanted to get home to see what I could of the Debate, I also was happy to pause at Rock Harbor for a few minutes and stand out in the fresh sea air and snap a photo or two.



Once I was home and had some dinner, I stenciled a few leaves onto the living room walls, before settling down to call it a night. It's starting to look pretty cool...I wonder what I'll be able to accomplish on Sunday, my next day off.

Meanwhile, tomorrow, the laundromat calls me on the way to work...and it will be a full evening at work as we host a Comedy Night fundraiser for the local Pop Warner Football. There's someone billed as a "sports comedian"...so there'll either be jokes about football (oh, yay...), or perhaps its his delivery of the material that's athletic; we'll see.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure I'd remembered to tell you that the cool ceiling light fixture in the living room does indeed work, though I will be picking up a little putty to tighten up the loose light sockets. Just a utilitarian bulb in there now, as I work on the painting, but will be in the market for something a little more interesting later on.

There's a break in the Raining just now, though it appears that may be our theme for much of the next week. Tomorrow, we are to be enjoying some more storminess, as Tropical Storm (possibly by then, hurricane) Kyle will be passing by us, hopefully safely east of our location.

Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, At the Nest...

My computer's running a little faster and smoother this evening, although you can see from this image that the monitor is still a little substandard and color-blind. I invested in a 4 GB USB flash drive this evening. My CD burner hasn't been reintroduced into my computer set-up since the move, partly because it didn't seem to be working so great beforehand.

But at least the new gadget, reasonably priced at $39, I thought...has allowed me to get all the summer's great photo files off the hard drive, without having to just delete them. While I was at Staples, I did drool a little over the monitors...but I'll have to wait a little while longer on that, in hopes of a nice sale or special or something.

After some dinner tonight, I broke out one of the stencil sheets I picked up at AC Moore a little while back and poured a out a bit of the red brick and the peach colored paints, side by side in a pan and then used the blend to stencil some small maple leaves onto the living room walls.

As you can see, I had a little fun with the remainder of those two colors and their blendings, when I decided to see what sort of results I could get using a plastic knife to lay on some tree trunks, as I hope to evoke more of that Tree House feeling the place has.

I also used some white paint to stencil on some leaves...I'll also stencil some in a shade or two of green, eventually, over those...and all this will be blended backward into the wall once I apply the eventual top color.

I suspect it may be difficult to explain in advance, and may seem a little busy on the face of things. I ask you to watch and see and be patient. I have a feeling about how this will play out, and so far, those feelings or instincts seem to be serving me well, at least as regards the painting. Is it creativity, or madness? And what exactly is the difference supposed to be there, anyway? Lately, I'm more uncertain than ever. But mostly, I'm okay with that.

Forecasts indicate that some tropical weather coming up the coast in our direction will bring a generally crappy weekend, weather-wise. Fortunately, I have this left-over image of the bay last Saturday evening that I've been meaning to share with you.

Do be sure to click to embiggify this one, so you can see all those birds feasting in the tidal shallows just off-shore.