12 Oakdale

I am so pleased with how my painting the flamingo bathroom turned out. I’ve been thinking about doing it since we moved in. It had to be done. We’d hung our art on existing hooks and ignored the holes left when anchors had been removed.   I dithered about what color to pain the walls. Pink? What about FLAMINGO PINK? Too cliche? What about green as a counterpoint to pink? The glass tiles are grey, as are the floor tiles. I brought home paint chips and dithered. My friend Kathy suggested a brown to match part of the shower curtain. That would be different. I brought home more paint chips. I love my flamingos, but they need to be contained. Spaulding’s piano teacher, who also accompanied Patten and Mary at cello competition, was a flamingo fanatic. Her whole house was filled with flamingos. At Christmas, she staged a reenactment of the nativity scene in her front yard, using flamingos, with a flamingo Beany Baby for baby Jesus, who didn’t appear in the manager until Christmas Day. At ...

  A miniature cool front must have slipped through, because night temperatures now in the mid to high-60s and the daytime cool enough to leave our doors open and the AC off. I am considering a screen for the front door. With cooler weather, I am able to work longer in the garden without exhaustion. I have weeded most of the front beds, putting down more newspaper and pine straw. In the back, on the north garden, I’ve cut back the maypop passion vine, finding several passion fruit on it, to uncover the roses, sugar berry, and non-native blue porter weed. I’m removing more of the last to have room to add native shrubs.  I’ve found 3 sweet potatoes from the vines I started, with probably more waiting for me to dig up. Very reinforcing.The white potato plants disappeared under the weeds while we traveled this summer. I wonder if they will resprout next year. They are on their own, because, if I do try more potatoes, it will be in a basket with hay, thus no digging. The corn, Silve...