Went for a walk Saturday afternoon. Here are some things we saw.
Sweet shrub (Sweet Betsey) blooming. Russ got some seeds. I want to plant a bed of them near the house because it's a native plant. We're trying to stick mostly with native plants because they will do best in this soil and weather.
Wild azaleas all over the place. More about them later!
On the right below, the ravine behind the cabin. Russ has dreams of making this a lake. Our biggest trees are in the ravine so the smart thing to do would be harvest all them first.
Bluets left, lots of very green moss right
No leaves yet and a halbert leaf violet on the right
It was cloudy and stormy looking; after the walk I started cutting the grass on the road in. Russ had to come and pick me up when the rain started coming down hard.
A few years ago I used to see a big rock across the ravine from our road. I called it the Mayan Temple because from a distance that's what it looked like. Russ is standing on it, left. Now it has lots of little trees around it. I'd like to clear it out so we can see it from the future lake and the road: something interesting in the distance. Right, new little maple leaves.
Azalea colors: pale pink, hot pink, pure white. They call the white one Alabama.
Big new patch of azaleas right down in the woods behind the cabin.
And we have two patches of azaleas right by the house. On the right, a funny little toy Russ bought several years ago. It whirls in the wind, bounces on a spring and its propeller goes round and round. Hummingbirds like to fly up to it.
Flower bed by the screened porch: non-native! Irises and gardenias.
The Alabama azalea, left; others. We have a patch of pale pink ones and suddenly this year, a hot pink sprang up in their midst.
Now for the work part. Russ has hired a neighbor to clean the outside of the house then re-stain and paint the windows.
Here's the ugly black stuff that's growing on it. Mold I guess.
As you recall, we have no running water at Richmond Woods; we catch rainwater. So here's the setup Russ used when he was trying the house washing.
Generator running a power washer (it's sideways but I left the picture like that because R was complaining that it kept falling over...)
Then a hose running from a full rain barrel up on a tall rock (gravity) to the pressure washer. And it was enough pressure. He filled the barrel from our barrels over at the bath house (opened a tap to fill a basin then ran a long hose connected to a pump to fill the up high rain barrel). He sprayed with water and with bleach. It's a big job. Not sure how we will do it when we are old.
Applying bleach to stubborn black stuff. Look how much cleaner the wood below looks!
Here's the stain: honey gold. Same color as before. Of course it will look darker since this is a second coat.
Sunday when things dried out, I finished the mowing, fixed a couple meals and Russ did some more spraying and cleaning. Rod (neighbor) came over to discuss the job Sunday evening so we didn't get out til kind of late, 8PM or so. Here was the beautiful sunset. And we saw the moon and planetas all grouped up.
Footnote:
Rod did a nice job of re-staining the cabin - it looks all fresh and new :)
