Adventures at The Bunny Manse

We can't make it easy, so while Harris was working on the kitchen I was working on the kitchen garden. I've been making landscape maps, watching the sun, and dreaming about gardens since we bought the house. It never made sense because we were still in the 'disturbing outside paint' phase of projects. yeah, I think we're done there. So!!! We tore off the stairs to the second floor that were about to fall off (that door is bolted shut now) and I started raking and digging and moving earth. We looked and priced all kinds of materials for that patio. Then I remembered that the area gets full sun for at least 8 hours a day in summer. The concrete is not hot to the touch, but bluestone or sandstone would radiate heat. We didn't have money/time/patience for a concrete truck to come pour new cement, tear up half of everything else while they were here and the colors to not match what's been there... so....we used urbanite. Urbanite is recycled sidewalk you ...

  Get you a man who, when he gets home from rehab and sees the ice cream parlour chairs you bought off an artist downsizing her studio while he was in rehab and says, huh, I guess chairs make you happy.  They DO make me happy. Madeline and I washed and scrubbed and primed and painted them while Harris was away in '16. They...lasted a season before the painted started peeling off in sheets. Harris insisted for all of 2017 that he would have nothing to do with those chairs thankyouverymuch.  Around 2017-2018 I bought vinyl and cushioning when Hancoks was liquidated by vultures. It sat in the closet and the chairs sat outside, still peeling paint for another year. We have a big house and lots of stuff going on.  Until, one day driving back from the thrift store, I saw them. The most beautiful chairs you've ever seen just sitting covered in 40 years of rust and plant life on the side of the road. I told Harris over dinner about them. He counted to ...

We've been enjoying the spring, not-spring, spring weather and getting our yard in order for the year. We basically create something new each season or so, one day the whole thing will be done and lovely and just what we want.  Today, there are pockets of magic.  Like my roses  From eye level  And from above!  I finally planted blueberries - and forsythia as our yard somehow had none. Harris spent an entire afternoon re-setting these curbstones that had sunk over decades.  Little Pebble Creek is filling in nicely. That's one pretty drainage ditch!  The front yard bench near the roses.  Otherside of the front yard And PLUM TREES to compliment the peach trees! Our Orchard is starting to take shape.  it's all pieces here and there because we do have this whole set of girls who need... quite a lot of our attention. We're happy to oblige most days.  Easter...

We've been very slowly attempting to convert the South Lawn into more than a grass pit and parking lot. We started earlier in the year by having TROSA come and remove all of the leaves, ivy, and debris from the yard. We then fixed the fence at the back property line so none of us would fall over the 8ft drop into the church parking lot behind our house. Fun times. One day, the tree that is on their property that leans over their church is going to fall.  We've talked to them so many times, offering to let them use our yard to trim or remove the tree... their response was that they have insurance if anything happens.  OK then.  Then, we finally got started building the swingset. Hard to believe, but when Harris and our friend/neighbor Rob went to disassemble and bring the parts back from Raleigh, the dolphin swing was for Margot. She got her ride in it, was joyful, then moved on to the big girl swings.  Madeline taking pictures of me ...

The South Lawn (aka the other lot, aka our yard) suffered benign neglect for at least the past 10 years. The previous owners had a service that came twice a month to mow and tidy up,  but they were not doing anything else. Last year, we had a service for the same thing. This year is different. So far, we've created the rose garden. Here we have deeply scented roses from Lowes and a climbing Joseph's Coat from Witherspoon. A cedar shrub was growing out of this little strip of land. Every time we opened the gate we got a hand or face full of prickles. It was quite unpleasant.  Our best guess is that at some point there was sewage work done that required digging up a portion of the patio. There is a cleanout in the middle of this bed of rock. prior to the pretty rock it was rock covered over in dirt and brush and grass. I spent a lazy couple of hours with the hose washing the rock and removing the mud so that we could put in new rock and stop the growth there. We also h...