Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: Newly blue bedroom wall, obviously still being touched up with a ladder and paint containers in full view.

The photo does not do this color justice. We have begun repainting our bedroom "Baskerville Blue," so named because of a funny story. The story goes like this. Shawn and I were watching Sherlock on the iPad back when it was popular. We got to the "Hounds of the Baskervilles" episode, which wasn't one of the better ones, BUT as we were watching it we noticed that the Baskerville dude had a LOVELY blue library wall. It is seen, in passing. We must have circled that image several times before finally getting a decent screen shot. I took the screen shot to my local paint store and said, "Match this color." They claim it is "bluebell," but we know this is "Baskerville Blue."

I only did one wall, because I am OLD (and only recently recovered from my back injury). And, because we only had one full day for this project, as we planned to spend yesterday (Sunday) making a fancy meal for Shawn's brother, Keven, who was over for dinner. You can see the old color, which Ralph Lauren called "Kalahari Sunset," but which we have long though of as "dusky rose." We liked the rose color for decades, but we are generally feeling like the house could use a pick-me-up and so it was time to unearth Baskerville Blue to see how it felt. It feels wonderful, so I will be painting the next wall next weekend. 

I am also starting to seriously plan my Lawn2Legumes "pocket habitat" project. As you know, Bob, I got a small grant to do something that would be pollinator friendly in our yard. Today, I went out to take some "before" pictures of the site we are considering. 

We have this hill in front of our house that has been at a loss since we lost the giant pine tree to a storm several years ago. I actually despair to imagine EXACTLY how many years ago, since we have done almost NOTHING to this area since. The one thing we did do is make a path for the postal carrier at the top of the hill. 


Image: The path Mason and I lay at the top of the hill for the postal carrier.

Obviously, the flat section of this part of the yard would be an ideal place to start putting in a pocket habitat. We have a ton of unused space here, with literally nothing except weeds to pull out and replace with natives.

However, I would LOVE to be able to use some of this money to do something with our hillside as well. 


Image: Hillside with our little free library--taken this morning when it is cast in shade.

It might be too ambitious to try to conquer this hill at the same time. However, I feel like the grant is such a good time to consider our options. We've long wanted to add a bit of a retaining wall, and the grant will reimburse us for a percentage of landscaping. As I mentioned, we had Shawn's brother over for dinner last night and we were talking about this project. He has access to a literal (as well as figurative) TON of rocks and boulders which he can harvest from a section of land that he owns just north of here. So, if we could enlist his help (muscles and trailer, or at least just trailer), we could actually get the materials for a dry stone retaining wall for FREE. All we would need to "charge" to the grant would be whatever fill we would need behind the stones, like gravel, sand, etc. We get to count our labor as 'in-kind" donation, so I mean... it's something to seriously ponder. We do need to so SOMETHING about the erosion problem that this hill represents, otherwise we're not really  doing our part to upkeep the natives. Because, you know, with no SOIL, plants, natives or not, aren't really sustainable.

But, the upper section is absolutely going to be doable this year. 


Image: Empty space (8 x 12) waiting for native plants

Shawn would also like a small water garden somewhere in here, if only because out drain pipe really needs somewhere for the water to flow other than backwards towards our house. (We had new drains put in some time ago and they really were not the best at actually angling them in the right direction.) So, now I am thinking about how that might be done, too.

Besides the "usual suspects" like Narrow-leaved Purple Coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia,) Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa,) Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta,) and  New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae,) I am considering:


Purple Prairie Clover


Common milkweed

and nodding onions


Of course, we are supposed to get colder than average temperatures for the next two weeks, so I guess I'll have lots of time to plan???? (<--she says, disappointedly.)  I did make Shawn go with me to Mother Earth Gardens just to talk to the people and see if they had anything out yet (nothing but pansies and a few perennials, of course.)

Anyway, that was me this weekend. I went on one HeyGo tour, but it's nothing to talk about just yet. I will save it for a round-up of any others I might go on this week. 

 It is time to hone the old apocalypse skills so that I'll have something to trade when the economy collapses.


Image: sewing project laid out on dining room table: colorful velvet strips badly sewn into strips.


To that end, I decided to try my hand at some simple sewing. I should preface this by saying, I don't sew. I have never sewn. I normally would never have pegged myself as a person who would enjoy sewing. HOWEVER, the real story of how this all happened is that when I was visiting Terry Garey regularly I happened to time my visit to the Ladies Sewing Circle and I thought, "Huh, if this happens again, I'd really like to have something to do with them, since it looks so neat, everyone busily doing their crafting."  So, I asked Shawn if we had some DEAD SIMPLE project lying around that needed doing. Some time before Mason was born we started collecting and cutting squares of velvet for a crazy quilt. They had been collecting dust in a plastic bin in the sewing room upstairs, so I said, "Okay sure, so long as no one cares if the seams are straight." Shawn said, "Just make them strong." I thought, okay, why not?

So, I just started pinning and sewing.  Now I have nearly enough strips that I can cover a large portion of the bed:


Image: Quilt squares (some of them sewn together, others just laid out) mostly covering the bed. Cats acknowledging this project as a blanket by instantly lying on it. Void cat blending with black velvet bits.


This weekend was just so lovely that I will confess to having spent much of it on the porch sewing with my wife. Shawn is working on a far more complicated quilt, a style I think she called "grandma's garden" and hexagon shapes, paper backing, and basting?? I don't know. It's above my quilting pay grade.

Shawn is already talking to me about the next crazy quilt project I can tackle once I finish this. I do like the randomness of this project? I have always enjoyed watching colors come together, so there is something really satisfying about seeing which strips go together. I have already made some mistakes. There are dark patches sewn next to dark ones and light ones together (I'd been hoping to be more checker board-like), but this is my learning quilt and so I accept all mistakes as part of the process. The seams are already crooked, so who the hell cares? That's the crazy part of crazy quilt, I've decided.

But, it should keep me occupied while we are all shut in during the coronavirus pandemic. 

For those curious, there are already two reported cases here in Minnesota. We had previously already had two University of Minnesota students in quarantine, but now we have two official cases. One in Ramsey County (my county) and the other in Carver County (the county just south east, I think, of us.) It is what it is.  My wife has been a light prepper for a long time, being part of the Liberal Prepper's Facebook group, so we are prepared to shelter in place for a couple of weeks. 

We are washing our hands and being sensible. What else can you do?