Diamonds are a girl's best friend ...

The main floor bathroom is in active renovation mode, after a few weeks of dormancy. The new tiles are a nice pale grey with a subtle pattern running through them, which will  provide perfect camouflage for muddy foot and paw prints and will hopefully reduce required mopping frequency.

They're set in a diamond pattern, which makes me very happy when I count the newly revised total number of diamonds in this house.  

 Coming up next:  grout.  Stay tuned.

Front Hall Shoe Closet Couture

Voila!  Look at thees unfashionable front hall closeet.

 Eet ees in need of a make over.  Are you at ease with thees?

 Look at thees fashionable homme who can make us over.  He is very 'andsome.  N'est-ce pas?

Et voila!  Eet ees fantastique!

Who knew that you could find a "how to tie a tie" video on youtube in preparation for a band concert and surprise your parents who were thinking that you were completely ignoring their repeated yet gentle reminders to get ready?  

Youtube is awesome!  

All Hallows Eve

Here's our very spooky Jack O'Lantern!  

Does he look EEEEEVIL?  

Or kinda goofy?  (I mean the pumpkin, not the kid.)

Here's a rare pic with J covering his top half!

Traipsing in the Falling Leaves

It must be fall: the combines are in the fields, frost is decorating the weeds and the mosquitos have finally ceased their attack.   

The winter garb has been freed from the basement storage and is ready to keep us warm on our long backyard ramblings.

Coyote, wolf or a combination thereof?

And is that a poor rabbit who has left his prints in flight from a gnarly-toothed predator?

 Tarzan would be proud of J's foray into tree swinging!

(His yodel could use some practise ...)

 Scooby sat still for about a second during our walk; he loves running free in the leaves and sunshine.

 Do you see a soaker in his future? Well, he confidently crossed the makeshift bridge and landed safely on the other side!  Mission accomplished.

 This print is larger than it appears. Yikes!  With those claws I'm heading the other way.

Closets and Such

We need some shelves!  After trying to find something at the very bottom of the pile of junk in the office closet, I convinced the renovators in my family to revisit the shelves which are essentially non-existent.

 Scooby wants to help, but he's not very handy with a hammer, what with his lack of opposable thumbs.

 Here's the man with the tool belt who looks like he knows what he's doing. Plus he's wearing some awesome boots that are quite attractive.  Can't show them here, though.  All I can say is that Lara would be jealous.

 Et voila!  A finished project.  This means there are a few more boxes from the basement I can clear out! Yay! Linens within reach.  I love this renovation thing!

Fall Mums

Just when I thought the gardens were finished for the season, out popped the mums, and glorious they are, in great bushes in the front gardens. Before we know it they'll be covered by snow ... !

Burnin' Down the House - Part II

It took the better part of the day, and needed encouragement to get going, but the fire burned up the shed and all but the most wet and rotten tree stumps.

It was smoldering for hours until the last bits and pieces finally collapsed under Bop's watchful eye.  Now, to gather up the nails and metal roof and haul them away!

This area just might make a good fire pit on a permanent basis; it's sheltered from the wind and has a shade tree close by.  It'll look great once we trim up the long grass around the edges of the old shed.  With this eyesore leveled, our farm looks a little bit tidier!

Burnin' Down the House - Part I

Thanksgiving weekend was gloriously sunny and amazingly productive at Hawthorn Creek Farm thanks to GT and Bop's inspiration.  The biggest project was getting rid of the apparently mis-named Skunk Shed, reducing it to ashes.  The weather was warm and bright and the leaves golden and red, a perfect autumn day!

Autumnal News

In May, GM brought over a clematis for our new garden on the east side of the house, and it struggled all spring and summer to anchor itself and embrace the wooden trellis against the house.  And finally, after hours of tender, loving care (and encouraging sniffs from Scooby) it has bloomed gloriously!

All this gardening resulted in a nasty hawthorne thorn in my finger, so I dialled Dr J to operate.  You'll be glad to know that all is well.  I can still count to 10.