Made more good progress on my to-do list on the last two days of spring break. I stained the interior of the windows & doors downstairs the same honey color as the rest of the wood in the house. Turned out pretty well. I skipped photos because the difference is a little too subtle to see in a photo. I also made progress on touching up the paint in the downstairs rooms. Should be able to finish that next weekend. In other news, the vegetable garden has been planted & is ready to go: The total area is 19 square feet -- the long side is 7 feet long, and the little angle is 2 1/2 feet long. I trimmed that angle down by a couple feet this year to open up the area in front of the panda a little more. I decided against a garden border of broken terra cotta tiles because I realized that I don't know whether those tiles have lead in them. I am using these broken pieces of concrete instead and/or until I get around to testing the tiles for lead. The bed has been planted with beets, a...
A few things this week: First, I hung up this very nice photo of AJ that Jon took while they were in Japan a couple years ago: It has been in storage since he gave it to her for her birthday last May. About time for it to come out & be seen! I hung it in the sun room part of the kitchen: Second, AJ lent her Taiko drumming muscles to help me finish the fence/wall thing at the bottom of the stairs: I also hung up my trusty shovel on the side: Next step for that project is to get the panda/bamboo mural started. The weather was beautiful this weekend so we also spent some time working in the yard. AJ positioned some succulents in this planter, to see if they looked good there before transferring them: And we made another big succulent planter out of old foundation stones that came up out of the pit when they excavated down (the plants go in the spaces between the stones): Lastly, I put the hammock back out, after more than a year without it: And this is how I spent the rest of the aft...
Another festive Christmas was enjoyed here on Mars. As usual, we began our Christmas decorating by hanging Momma Arave's festive glittery bough: And Mama O'Brien's stockings: More holiday doo dads: AJ's special purple lights: And our traditional set of winter-themed paper cut outs on the dining room table: On Christmas Day, our friend Brian came over, bringing his famous homemade cranberry-chocolate rugelach for breakfast: We went out for a movie, and then returned to Mars for lunch, and started cooking dinner. Delicious cheese, crackers, pickles, and nuts to tide us over: For dinner this year, AJ made a crab curry, accompanied by slices of the world famous king of all breads, the Tartine country loaf : The finished crab, potato, okra, coconut milk curry, complete with crab meat piled on top: For dessert, AJ once again made a salted honey pie, with homemade crust: Thank you for all that effort, AJ, and thank you, Brian, for your usual sharp wit, good company, and delic...
Looking at all this, I need to go take a nap. Good work!
ReplyDelete