Late September In The Garden

Dahlias by the Bird Feeder

A finch by the birdhouse

And a friend's shadow on the roof

The garden sculpture, which features a quote from Instructions in Gardening for Ladies by Jane Loudon, tucked among the coneflowers and miscanthus sinensis ornamental grass.

The garden stone was designed by Heather Lawson, a Nova Scotia stone sculptor and restoration mason.

Barberry Rose Glow

 Barberry Rose Glow's new growth each year has a pretty bright pink variegation which covers the surface of the shrub like a pink cloud.

From The House At The Edge Of The Woods

Pattern: Montego Bay

Designer: Amy R. Singer

Yarn: Handmaiden Camelspin

Needles: Circular 5.5 mm.

Camelspin is a gorgeous yarn but with only 300 meters on a skein, pattern choice is limited. I am not fond of trying to knit alternately with two skeins of handpainted yarn so after holding on to the yarn for months and waiting for inspiration, I decided to make a second Montego Bay scarf.

• 
  
  The contracting company has reduced our bill after listening to our complaints. This helped a bit to renew our faith in human nature.
• 
  
  My sister and brother-in-law from Salt Spring Island, B.C. have just arrived in Nova Scotia. This sister is particularly forthright and fun. I look forward  to having a few laughs.
• 
  
  The cable man installed a digital cable box a few days ago as the company is offering a year of digital viewing for free. While there are dozens and dozens of sports channels to watch, the Book channel and possibly the Mystery channel are the only ones even mildly of interest among the seemingly hundreds offered! It does afford the opportunity to buy movies and programs via the remote control and watch them instantly. I think the better selection comes with the even more expensive upgrade to the HD packages. We'll see when the year is over.

Stop Gap Decor

The renovation is finally finished - after a supposedly four day project extended past the second week. It could still be ongoing but Rosie Beaucoup's patience was at an absolute end and Rosie Beaucoup rolled up her sleeves, sanded the crackfill repair in the upstairs closet (where a hole had been made to get at the chimney), primed and painted the walls there and replaced the baseboards. Then Rosie Beaucoup sanded and finished the walls in the family room and sanded and refinished the hardwood floor. The renovation company, of course, still wants full payment for "their work".

Until we can find a  more contemporary chair with a fresher look, and small table for the area, Ol' Bess has been resurrected from the basement to fill the gap in the interim.

We did take a break from renovations on Monday evening to enjoy a casual Nova Scotia lobster supper with the Dunkleys, who stayed the night on their way back to Ontario - potato salad, cheese, bread, white wine, and just a whisper of crackfill dust!

Aeolian Blue

I had a fabulous skein of Handmaiden Silk Lace in pale blue and though I tried to knit a new pattern with it, the yarn kept whining to be made into a second Aeolian so I was forced to oblige.

Pattern: Aeolian Shawl

Designer: Elizabeth Freeman

Yarn: Handmaiden Silk Lace

Needles: Circular, 3.75 mm

It is a beautiful September morning here. The air is warm and still. While I move my Aeolian around the garden, there is a worker inside the house, installing a new section of hardwood floor where the brick hearth was this time last week.

The garage has been filled to overflowing with construction company supplies, the wood stove, chimney and chimney liner sections, etc. I had a hard job yesterday extricating the lawn mower from it all in order to do my gardening. Last evening, Paul and Daphne came with a truck and, as Hercule Poirot would say, they used their little grey cells before employing their brawn, and thought out a plan, with a dolly, planks, and just the right driveway incline, for loading the stove (432 pounds!) onto the truck. They also packed up the chimney and liner parts and took the load away to their lovely country home  in the Dublin Shore area. Now, if the power goes out in a hurricane, we know for sure where there will be a toasty wood fire burning!

New Beginnings

2010 has not been, to say the least, one of our happier years. There have been many disappointments and a good deal of bad news. We had hoped, as I am sure many people do, for better at this stage of life. But, if the Queen of England can survive her annus horribilis, I am sure we can as well! We soldier on.

This is one of the smaller, easier steps:

We have a construction company working at the house, removing a wood stove, brick hearth, and chimney. We have not burned wood for years because of back drafting. When we built the house, we had fond memories of burning wood in the Annapolis Valley and the warmth, comfort, and sense of well being associated with it. We did not have the same experience here (and 2010 has been particularly lacking in a sense of warmth, comfort and well being!!). After having the stove and chimney carefully checked, we came to the conclusion that new construction, with higher insulation values and a ventilation system, does not lend itself to wood burning. And the woodstove and hearth took up valuable floor space that could be put to much better use.

We thought it would be such an easy project but we have had a crew of 4-5 people here for two days already - on the roof, in the bedroom closet, in the attic, in the family room, on the deck, in the driveway - all working, calling out to one another, coming and going.

The flooring has yet to be replaced, sanded and refinished, as well as the crown molding and baseboards. The family room and closet walls have to be repainted.

We will be in the dust for the foreseeable future but, when we emerge, perhaps we will see brighter days.

An Old Dog's Day in Paradise

Yesterday, we took eleven year old Lucy (who has really been showing her age this summer) to the Dunkley's cottage. She hadn't been there in a year. She ran down the driveway, across the lawn, and into the lake. In the process, she seemed to shed at least five years. She hasn't been so happy since - well -last year at the Dunkley's cottage!

 The Swimmer

Fetch!

Drying in the Sun

Waiting For Supper

The Remains of the Day

Hear Earl Roar!

Earl struck the province in Lunenburg County as a Category 1 Hurricane and started roaring through here late this morning. It was downgraded shortly thereafter to a strong tropical storm. It made a last minute shift to the east as it approached the province so, once again, Halifax was one of the harder hit areas with wind gusts up to 109 km/hr. Ah, well, at least we have experience with this sort of event! We lost power around noon and are very fortunate to have it back on again after only five hours. At this time, Nova Scotia Power has 210,000 customers without power and predict that in some cases, it will not be restored until sometime tomorrow or Monday. We only lost one tree at the top of our driveway while the city of Halifax is littered with fallen trees and there are power lines laying across a number of streets. One man has drowned, trying to secure a boat that was torn from its mooring. The general consensus, though, with memories of Juan still fresh in our minds, is that it could have been a lot worse.

Tomorrow, the cleanup!

Waiting For Earl

August is a month in Nova Scotia, especially in the last couple of weeks, when we are supposed to be able to sniff the air and declare that we can smell autumn approaching. There is just that certain quality and coolness that portends the arrival of fall.

Not this year. Going into September, we are experiencing a record breaking heatwave and the approach of Hurricane Earl.

Since Monday, the temperatures have ranged from 30 to 34 degrees (with humidex readings of 40-41 degrees). Since the lows at night have been 20+ degrees, the house does not cool off and now feels somewhat akin to a Tandoor oven. Tomorrow's forecast high is, again, 34 degrees.

Earl is supposed to arrive on Saturday morning. Depending on where in the province it makes landfall, and at what level, it may involve significant destruction. We all have traumatic memories of Hurricane Juan. The only positive aspect of the situation is the arrival, with the storm, of welcome rain and a change in the weather pattern.

Since "too many coneflowers" is an oxymoron, and they put on such a show in this woodland garden, I could not resist trying a yellow variety this year - Mac N Cheese. So far, so good!