Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Busy, Busy, Busy

Those of you who are regular readers may be wondering why I haven’t been posting much lately. I’ve been busy with three home-improvement projects.

1. We had dark wood paneling on one wall in our living room. I’ve painted it white and the room now seems much brighter. This involved a coat of primer and two coats of paint. It could probably use another coat of paint one of these days, but for the time being, I’m busy because….

2. I’m tiling the bar and sink countertop in our family room. The whole bar area had black formica on it and whoever (Batal Builders!) put the formica on never glued it down properly. Consquently, the formica was coming off in places and it really looked like crap. Plus…black made the whole bar area seem dark and uninviting. I ripped and chiseled off the formica (with Mark’s help) and took out the existing (grungy-looking) bar sink and I’ve put in white 2×2 ceramic tiles around the sink area and on the bar. On the backsplash around the sink, I did a white and light-blue broken tile mosaic kind of deal. It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. (And I do.) I’m in the grouting stage now. What a mess that task is! Especially on the mosaic part of the project where there aren’t any regular grout lines. It’s coming along, though. I got a new bar sink that I’m going to have a plumber install when I’m done with the grouting. (The grout I’m using doesn’t need to be sealed. Yay!) I was fine removing the old sink but I want a professional to hook up the new sink and fawcet–just in case.

3. My other big project is that I’m completely re-doing my backyard garden. I gave away most of my old perennials to my neighbors. (Such a deal, they dig them up and haul them away and I don’t have to deal with them! Everybody wins!) I put in a small patio sort of area at the foot of the stairs from the deck using flagstones and pea gravel (and landscaping fabric underneath.) That area now holds the grill, the hose reel, and several potted plants. Then, I enlarged the size of the planting bed in the garden so it pretty much takes up the entire (small) backyard. I removed a bunch of grass to accomplish this and I used the grass to patch some bare spots on the hillside in our back yard. Yesterday I also put a bunch of grass seed with fertilizer and mulch (you know…that bright green grass seed mix stuff you can buy) out on that hillside area. My next effort with the garden will involve digging up all the plants I want to save and putting them in temporary holding-pots. Then I’m going to rake out the garden and get rid of whatever sticks or dead plants remain. I’ve got a couple of big bales of peat moss that I’m going to work into the soil. Then I’ll re-plant my plants. One of my neighbors has mentioned the possibility of bringing me a bunch of big rocks from a constructions site her husband works…If that pans out, I’ll use the big (maybe 6-8 inch in diameter) rocks around the perimeter of the garden. (That would take a WHOLE LOT of rocks, though, so….it may not happen.)

At any rate, these projects alone would be enough to keep me busy. Add to them the fact that I’ve also needed to rehearse the music I’m playing with the Woodbridge Flute Choir and work on a duet that my friend Barb and I will be performing at a master class later this month. Oh…and practicing oboe once in a while!…Well, I’ve got lots to do.

I’ll probably write more about the Woodbridge Flute Choir stuff in my Music: Flute and Oboe blog so check there if you’re interested.