Monday, February 24, 2014

Procrastination turned to ‘mission accomplished’

 

Good evening Folks ~ It is Monday almost 6 p.m. Moroccan Chickpea Chili is reheating for supper.

Today I stopped procrastinating and shed some ‘light’ in this little cottage.  I brought in a ladder, got a box of 60 watt bulbs and put them in 5 light fixtures. 

Bathroom

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Bedroom

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My creative space

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Kitchen

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Kitchen

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9 light bulbs later and there is more light in Plum Cottage.  I have lamps in rooms, but ceiling lights have been out for quite some time.  DH and I used to do this together.  He would be on the ladder, would unscrew the nut holding on the globe, hand the globe to me and the blown bulbs and I would hand him new bulbs, he would put the globe back on and we were done. Doing it myself is a whole other story. But, I DID it and was so happy with each fixture done and flipping the switches and having light. Yippee!! So many little things that he did or we did together now are more monumental, at least to me, hence I procrastinate. There’s no one else here, I am the doer and fixer of what I can handle. I thanked God with each fixture done.

I also did three loads of laundry, hoping my machine was going to hang in there.  The last time I did laundry there was a weird noise on the spin cycle.  It wasn’t as bad today. Maybe I need a new belt, I don’t know. This is a Maytag top loader, bought in 2000.  I’ll keep you posted and today I am thankful for the three loads washed, hung out and solar dried. 

We had a nice gentle rain yesterday, which did the gardens good. We could use some more and it’s predicted, but time will tell, predictions don’t always come to pass.

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Hope you all have a good day tomorrow. 

Look for the beauteous and be thankful for your many blessings.

FlowerLady

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

I love flowers but especially roses :-)

 

Good morning Folks ~ I hope you are starting to see signs of spring happening where you are. Down here in tropical s.e. FL, we are able to garden all year long, so don’t notice a real difference.  Although there are certain trees, etc. that bloom only in the spring and they are beautiful.

It is another perfectly gorgeous day down here and I try to be outside doing things on days like this.

Blooms below are from yesterday and this morning.

This new growth on my Lancepod Tree excited me to no end when I saw it yesterday. It is about 8 ft. tall with a tuft of growth at the top. I just planted this in the ground by the heart patio, to the west of the caravan.  In time this will give some glorious, beautiful shade.

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Clock vine.

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I bought this orchid below around my birthday (March) last year and it is the Dancing Lady orchid and I am excitedly looking forward to seeing the blooms.  I had this many, many years ago and lost it. There are two flower spikes below, the blooms will be yellow.

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Below are the blooms of the ever populating Mom-of-millions.

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‘Louis Philippe’ my first rose bought many, many years ago at a local flea market. 

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‘Mr. Lincoln’

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Unknown

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My dear husband bought me this beautiful steel gazing ball many birthdays ago.  I love it.

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‘Angel Face’

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‘Heirloom’

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Huge blooms and wonderful rose scent.

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‘Mm. Laurette Messimy’

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‘Rose de Rescht’ ~ These blooms are small but packed with petals and scent.

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Unknown

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Well, that’s it for today. I need to get up off my seat and start doing some things for the day, first off being some breakfast.

“Today I have a choice.

To live

to enter into,

to be present in

this life,

or to wait for a life yet to be.”

Let’s choose,

“the gladness--to just be”.

Terry Hershey

Saturday, February 15, 2014

The morning after

 

Good Saturday morning Friends ~ Here it is the morning after Valentine’s Day and I ‘made it’ through.  Today is a new day and I will rejoice and be glad in it. I had a nice dinner, read past V-day cards from my dear husband, cried and laughed, read the following and cried and felt joyful at the same time.

This piece is from Grace Gems, which I get daily in my email box.

“See how happy are God's saints at their death! They go to a kingdom! They see God's face, which shines ten thousand times brighter than the sun in its meridian glory! They enter eternal glory, which is the quintessence of all delights!”

I am oh so thankful for the 43 years we had together.

So, it is another beautiful day here in s.e. Fl. I went out in my long nightgown to take some pictures and it was chilly but comfortable.

Here is some eye flower candy for you.

Azaleas

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Clock Vine

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A fading Hugs-n-kisses hibiscus bloom

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Another hibiscus

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Reed orchids growing all over.  Easy peasy orchids. These are in the main garden growing out into the path.  One really great thing about these orchids, is you can break them off after you see an Arial root and just plop it somewhere else.

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Tibouchina blooms.

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Vanda orchid “Miss Joaquim”.

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Velvety Mexican oregano with a seed blown in from somewhere.

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Mm. Laurette Messimy

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I’m not sure what the rose is in the next two pictures, same bush.

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Not sure what this one is either.

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I did some puttering in the caravan the other day to make me feel better and get a hadle on what I want to do in there. It is a little get-away, right here at Plum Cottage. It’s not finished with paneling and painting on the inside, but it will be, hopefully by the end of this year. I can sit out there with lap top, read, have a cup of tea, pray, whatever. It’s a happy, love filled and restored haven.

I’ve already put one 3 drawer sterilite unit out there and am putting another one out there. Some storage for my craft supplies. I wanted a top to cover both of them and found a temporary piece of wood in the meantime, not perfect but I covered it with an old and stained lacy table cloth.

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Then, I spied the marble stack and wondered if there perhaps, might be a piece I could use.  I got my tape measure out and sure enough, the piece at the back of stack is 16 inches by 48 inches, by about 1/2 –3/4 inches thick. YIPPEE.

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The color is perfect. The only thing is, I’ll probably have to wait for my dear B-I-L to come back down in order to get it lifted into place. I can move it over there with the help of a dolly, but it is too heavy for me to lift myself.  Maybe I can do what I did in the bedroom and that was to move it up in stages on things and then slide it over. I’ll see and let you know how that goes, one way or the other.

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North side of caravan, where the marble will be just on the inside of the window.

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Here is looking at the south side.  Little stove is over the fridge, they both run on gas, and the fridge also runs on electricity.

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The lace curtain is there temporary, I wanted to see how it might look.  I’d have enough to do both lower windows on either side. You can see my toaster oven sitting on the cover of the stove top, and I also have a little one burner hot plate.  We were going to sleep/camp in here after we finished it, so that we could do our bedroom walls and lay the laminate flooring.  But, God had other plans for DH. DH did a wonderful job on taking this run down camper bottom/shell and turning it into what it is today.  It is about 6’x8’. The stove was a God saving element when it was in the ‘old camper’ in 2005 and we were without power for 13 days because of Hurricane Wilma.

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This is looking west towards the heart patio garden.

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That’s it from Plum Cottage and gardens.  I hope you all have a great weekend, inside or out. Count your blessings and thank God for all of them.  Let others know you love and care for them.

Love and hugs ~ FlowerLady