Sister Paint

Lockbox and I together are a little combustive. I don't mean that we conflict but more that like a combustive engine we are a positively explosive combo. The two of us here in the house means that suddenly we're caught up on the washing, planning art projects, starting new books with the boys and randomly busting open cans of wall paint! Huzzah!

The other night when we were sitting around together, plotting the final hours before A came home and what still needed to be finished...we got the urge to paint. With no real warning we found ourselves in the dining room with paint and brushes, screeching all the furniture to the center of the room and skipping the whole taping off the edges part. Bam. The dining room is that beautiful Swedish grey I've been contemplating. I went with the darker color that I wasn't sure I was brave enough to try and we repainted all the gloss white trim to contrast.

I love it.

Lockbox is galvanizing for me. She tells me to go ahead and do the things I am bashfully considering and then volunteers to hold the ladder.

Love sisters.

24 Reasons Why February Is Sublime

A list is a kind of a cure. I keep a small pad on my bedside table for self-curing end of day (or early morning) stress bouts. I keep oodles of lists on our computer, I scribble them on our new kitchen chalkboard and I have a gazillion all over my iPhone to boot.  Lists galore! That's the way to sooth what ails you.

 I do eat trash to calm myself but I am trying to break the habit and one of the recent ways I've been reading about is replacing the habit with a different soothing mechanism...a good way to figure out what works for you is to observe yourself and see what else you do to set things right again. And the first answer that came to me in the midst of my ill-tempered fit this morning was LISTS!

It's February and my id is sulking and sobbing by turns. Time to solve it. Here's a list of what I love about February today, greyest of months, center of winter's numb heart.

25 Reasons Why February Is Sublime

1. Its the month when we celebrate love with its very own holiday.
2. It has a Leap Day!
3. The snowdrops bloom in February.
4. It's great baking weather.
5. Chilly days mean snug fires in the fireplace with a big stack of library books teetering next to us.
6. President's Day is a special surprise I always forget about that brings us a little long weekend together.
7. Maple syrup season starts!
8. There are always stray clementines lingering in my coat pockets.
9. We use the snuggly throws on the couches.
10. Sunny days feel potent and rich, even if they are infrequent.
11. Greenhouses. 
12. In February I sew and knit and paint and all other manner of industrious indoor things.
13. Dee was born in February.
14. February is short.
15. It's a great time to read design blogs.
16. Sleeping comes naturally in February...a healthy habit after all.
17. February is a great time to test out new teas and coffee spices.
18. Watching costume dramas (which my boys consider a fun treat!) is a wonderful chilly February occupation.
19. The people in my life who love me feel warmer and brighter and more potent to me in February.
20. Scarves and boots come out to play!
21. I get to try out chapstick and lotion flavors with impunity. 
22.  The weeds in the garden stay in check perfectly.
23. I think of having company.
24. The Academy Awards happen!
25. Coffee houses.

See? Not so bad now! February...my new pal. Just don't wear out your welcome, eh F? I have hyacinths out there budding and we're not gonna wait forever for 'em.

Downton Abbey Fever

Am always late to join these cultural parties [see the mentions about the series in this, this, this and this blog I read] but I am finally working my way through Downton Abbey (Hooray instant Netflix! And hooray rainy days!) and am much enthralled, wondering why in the world I waited so long.

Image by c_l_b via Flickr

I was getting ready for a break from the self-educational non-fiction that is my normal track, time for a little escapism. Especially, since the weather is so bizarre, dismal and even obstructive to normal springtime activity. (I have a feeling that it will take me longer than I imagined to get the garden all in, for instance.) But, no matter! I am neck deep in Brittania and suffragettes and butlers and proposals and ladies maids. *sigh* Ru has actually even taken to watching with me which has been quite fun. I'm not sure how much he understands, but he's interested and sometimes he asks me questions..."What's that thing he's carrying Mommy? etc..."

Someday I will go to England...and spend my own holiday "season" in London...someday....

Until then, it is blooming, floral May even if it is rainy although I have to admit I am finding myself swept back up in homekeeping interest, and less drawn towards the landscaping plans of old...all this grey makes the indoors the most alluring thing I suppose. I always feel a bit inspired regarding my housekeeping whenever I see films with lots of maid footage. This time what is catching my eye is the lovely rotating bouquets of flowers all over the manor house. There are quite a few times when maids are busily laying out fresh arrangements and some moments when we catch glimpses of a vase full of this or that on the dresser or the side table etc. And I swoon.

After watching an episode today I went dashing out into the yard twice "between the raindrops" with a basket to snip and clip whatever I found. Right now our lily-of-the-valley is all in bloom so it was my most leaned upon basket filler....and then I went inside to dry off and assemble a train of bottles, jugs and vases on the counter for stuffing with blooms. Such fun to sweep the house up, polish off the windowsills and set out little jugs of blooms while a big pot of split pea soup bubbled on the stove. Sometimes life is jolly.

The Grey Part of Spring

Our speckled orchid, blooming in the sunroom window.

I was talking on the phone the other day to Mama (Big Grandma in the sidebar to your right) and she mentioned hoping that their recent trip to South Carolina to visit my sister, Lockbox (see the sidebar again for her) wouldn't sour them on the dregs of winter that they had to go back home to in Northern Michigan. Now that I am so newly returned from parts further south myself I have to admit to being pretty hungry for the vibrant colors of warmer weather too. I understand, Mama, even if I didn't head home to two feet of snow and maple syrup season.

Our fig tree, making a baby fig.

There isn't a flake of snow anywhere on our third of an acre but spring is still dragging out very slowly. We're living in those long cold days that hang heavily and greyly over everything...a dim, dirty light is all we seem to get for days on end and my photographer's eye is just hungry for some clean bright light, some warmth, some vibrant living thing.

My birthday plant, a little Meyer lemon, blooming (smells amazing!)

Yesterday I went out in the yard to check on the hyacinths (leftovers from the kind previous owner) and we found them up but producing only straggling buds mostly in white and pale pink. Monday is never a good day, I am prone to rash and irrational thought patterns. I gave up on the garden, and spring, and all plant life. And then A and I promptly had an argument. Overtired much?

Darned if the coffee plant isn't looking like its making flower buds again. See em?

Today, a night of sleep under my belt, marriage re-assembled and a little bit of light slurping through the morning blanket of grey I decided to take stock of the garden again and get re-inspired. One does not give up on the garden in the spring. It is just not done.

A single, tiny blue squill blooming in our backyard...one of my favorite spring flowers.

I was surprised what I found in the yard after a little investigation. There's a surprising amount of life and color starting to show. And folks, I have to tell you that it really looks like we're going to get great blooms on our inherited lilac! I am super excited.

Big fat, lilac buds.

All enthused, I decided to play hooky from my painting group and headed out to scope some local garden centers instead.

Lenten rose, blooming at the nursery.

Endless flats of pansies.

I can never resist the purpley pinky ones. They're my favorites.

There is something so boosting about garden centers, greenhouses, public horticultural centers and those tall, spinning racks of seeds in the hardware store....even if all of them tend to make me spend more money than I like to admit. Spending money on living things somehow seems less evil than many of the spendthrift possibilities.

My new watering can.

I found the perfect watering can (which I've been looking for for a good while), bought some pansies, and loaded up on crabgrass pre-emergent for our lawn. And bought, um....only a few dozen packets of seeds.

A straggling, but alive lemon yellow primrose.

Tiny purple veined violets which are blooming in our lawn!

I think I'm gonna make it. And until the real sunshine shows up, I'm drawing forsythia...sunshine on paper for foreshadowing.

Related articles

• A morning communion (mentalflowers.wordpress.com)
• Spring Rites (bethtrissel.wordpress.com)
• Hope (kristinvonkreisler.wordpress.com)
• can a Johnny's seed catalog cure depression? (1veggieatatime.wordpress.com)

The First Day of Spring!

In honor of the first full day of spring, a few local florals.
Love to see that blazing color showing up again. Shades of grey are all very well for pencils in my evening class ,but wow, do I love me some zip in real life. Nothing like a good blazing-monarch purple crocus with those absurdly neon stamens to wake you right up, eh?

I thought I'd leave you with a lovely snippet from "The First Spring Day" by Christina Rosetti.

I wonder if the sap is stirring yet,
If wintry birds are dreaming of a mate,
If frozen snowdrops feel as yet the sun
And crocus fires are kindling one by one:
Sing, robin, sing;
I still am sore in doubt concerning Spring.

(read the rest of it here)

Congratulations all, technically, you've survived winter!