GARDEN GLIMPSES 11

November came to a close, and there was very little color in the backyard. One small old fashioned rose bloomed redly though, and there were some yellow berries for the birds to enjoy on the prickly tree. In the front yard, plenty of color was visible.

Two of the 3-4 fuschias were still flowering abundantly, the cotoneaster and purple-berry tree were full of fruit for the birds to eat, and the camelia burst open its first flowers of the season on December 1st.

As winter took over from fall, a few garden tasks lay ahead of me. Yet, every time I planned to do one, it would rain or I would be going out. There is no real rush, but I should like to tidy the edges of the front yard path, pull the last mooli, and dig a trench before the frosts solidify the soils.

The trench is so that I have a place to dump composting scraps while 2014 manure makes itself, ready to dig in early next year, from the current bin full. Every few days, I have another bucket or brown paper bag full of scraps and coffee grounds to add. Having only the single composting bin, I need to place these elsewhere for a month or so, to enable the matter currently in situ to break down and not constantly have new material added.

Ideally, I would have dug the trench in October and dug in the rotted compost in December, but wet weather delayed this option. Another choice is simply to purchase a second bin. This is the long term plan, in fact. Then, I can fill one bin while matter in the other rots and composts itself ready to enrich the garden plots in the end of year through pre-growing season of winter.

FALL CLEANSINGS 36/WINTER WONDERS 23

Once more, the walkway area needed attention after I had replaced some of the stuff to allow the door to be used once more. My kitchen was nice and empty without the great big green plastic chairs, though. I have it all clean too, while I was feeling energetic and had the broom and bucket in operation. It is a delight to be able to whizz across the kitchen without having to dodge the chairs - and cleaning is far easier now, too.

At some point, I hope to bring my tan bookshelf downstairs into the room - maybe where the white stools currently are - or on top of them even, if I get myself a suitable coffee table. For now, I left it alone - the day had been filled enough with tasks and it was time to use my spacious kitchen for cooking...

December arrived! Cold weather also arrived. My current routine, which may alter soon if I obtain paid employment, is to take coffee while computing for an hour or so, then 'rush about' for 1-2 hours doing my regular chores, laundry, feeding birds, taking out trash, etc. To progress from this stage into daily life, chores, lazing, or more computing is the next stage and is sometimes joined to the form stage by way of a jahe wangi. On one early December occasion the next stage was my favored chore - re-ordering the pantry!

FALL CLEANSINGS 35

My next task, once the floor was totally dry, was to lay the linoleum. I was uncertain precisely how much I had left, but luckily it was just the right amount! I had measured the length to know which way to start it from and it came up near perfect.

I had a roll from the inside left over - stripey. I was unsure what to do with a large cardboard roll - but eventually decided to dump it. Had it been unmarked card, I could have let it rot down in the garden, but... My next task was to remove the chairs from the kitchen to allow me more space.

I placed the chairs in the position I assumed would be best. I aim to purchase a small 2-seater sofa at some point and dump the chairs, but for now, they will have to do. Of course, I like to play with design decor - so the chairs went through a few positions before i finally had them where I wanted them.

That will do for the time being. I will eventually place a coffee table in the room also, but that too needs to be purchased first and the white stools will 'do' for now.

FALL CLEANSINGS 34

Overcast gloomy cold weather has arrived in the latter half of November and the bright candles are now cheerful rather than pallid. This shot shows how my berry-scented hallway now looks when I am rushing up and downstairs on a gloomy morning, with a bright and cheerful glow of encouragement.

I have not been lazy - the former pink n white room is now a functioning coffee-hide, if somewhat unfinished. Let me show you how this happened. Mid November was chilly and dull, so I enjoyed whooshing about warming myself up doing the chores. Running low of such, I took the opportunity of a slightly warmer day to work on the next big task of transforming the room.

These two shots show where I began. I firstly shook out the linoleum mat and swept up the dead leaves and mud from the pathway through the side of the room. Next, I moved everything I could to the pathway area - blocking the back door. The fact that my son was off from work for two nights and would not be using the door to enter/exit by helped - just in case I got lazy and it took longer than one day.

Out came the bucket and broom with some vinegar water and I scrubbed the floor over one more time. Window wide open to dry the floor quickly, I took a quick jahe wangi break before continuing. As soon as it had dried out, it was time to get the rest of the large roll of linoleum I had purchased a year or two ago to line the toilet and bathroom floors. This had to be roll-carried into the correct room. Luckily it was not too heavy and the task was not too difficult.

FALL CLEANSINGS 33

I left you last post with my nicely polished TV table sitting in the hallway. Moments after polishing it, I dragged the old heavy dark wooden drawers into the spare room our of my way - and sight for now - and placed the modern brighter wooden TV table in situ.

Here are my before and after shots, so you can compare the phone tables and see if you also prefer the more modern version of my lower hallway. I certainly prefer the decor to the way dad had it, though I admit I do not use a TV so did not need the TV table for other necessities as he did.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that as well as several major shifts, sales, and changes, I like to fiddle about with things. The phone table was no exception. Just like my 3-4 time a year pantry-tidy delight and the hall windowsill fiddling, the phone table went through a series of mild morphings to arrive at its perfection. I have spared you every rearrangement and will just show you a former and the final design.

& from above looking down...

Nice and neat - the shelving hides our daily diary, phone books, address books, pile of pens, and note pads. I like the way the mirror and table are both of a similar octagonal shape and much prefer the lower lighter table to the tall dark one.

This task left a mess in the spare room, although I managed to fit stuff in so it looks more roomy already. You can see that dreadful 40+ year old carpet - cringe.

FALL CLEANSINGS 32

There was still so much stuff in the spare room that I am not yet able to progress with painting. However, I did manage to finally sell a few items and gain a little money towards the next round of paint when organizing for an antique/collector company to come out and view everything in the hope that something might be of value to them.

A few items sold, advice on how to clear the rest will now come into operation and hopefully this ghastly room of cobwebs, dust, dead slaters, and what is to me junk will finally become a pretty pleasant pink-burgundy spare room.

The next indoor task was the phone table. Since returning to live in my father's house and then inheriting it, the modern bright phone sat upon an old dark wooden chest of drawers; not a good match in my eyes. I had plans to use the former TV table instead, which is made of a lighter wood and more 21st than 20th century in appearance. Alas, it was covered in stuff to sell...

One morning, I felt energetic and decided to tackle the task. I was also fed up of the hallway looking so bleak and 'Victorian'. Therefore I braved up and removed all the clutter from the top and insides of the table. Cassettes have been put into a beer carton for sale, plates aside for valuation and sale/dumping, and other stuff crammed upon the old settee. I then had a clutter-free table!

As you can see, once I got the dirt and dust off as well as the stuff, it could be taken into the hallway and given a good polish with lemon oil. Much better, I think we can agree...

GARDEN GLIMPSES 10

The above shot shows how many purple berries we currently have (written in late October) to attract the birds over winter. It also shows a metal spoke I cannot shift. When I took down the tattered plastic fencing that my father erected, I was left with a gate post and a metal stick protruding above the wall.

The weather was fairly warm in late October and early November, so I dug over the main veg plot and replanted what was left of the calendula and mooli and my 'Guru Purple' chili plant. Later on, I dug over the second plot and discovered two potatoes I had missed before - nice big ones!

The third week in November arrived, and I wanted to take a look around at what jobs might need doing over the next month or two. The leaves of the tree outside next door's house have mostly fallen as you can just see above the mass of camelia in this picture. Plenty of buds - ready to burst - on the plant that generally flowered from Christmas thru Easter according to my late father... (The straggly stuff is dying off passionfruit vines.)

The path - which my father grumbled about being uneven - has a nice lumpy bumpy effect in my eyes and shall not be 'fixed' to a smooth finish but left to wear away naturally until cracks go right through the 6 inch block! I shall however trim the flowering weeds and ivy back to the edge of the path on the left.

From today's final picture, you will see that there is still plenty of color before the camelia flowers. The purple-berry tree, exceedingly late flowering fuschias, and cotoneaster berries add reds and purples. The purple berries, red berries, and prickly shrub berries are all tasty treats to our birdlife.

FALL CLEANSINGS 31

My next task indoors was to prepare the radiogram for sale. I had more or less cleared the top, leaving just the basket of garden gloves and tools and bin bags. This was easily moved to the drawers behind and polish was applied to the then bare-topped radiogram.

The next task was to check inside. I found yet another batch of 78's in the record drawer to the side, and inside the top...

...were 3-4 plastic bags of newspaper wrapped somethings. Or at least, so I thought as I removed them. As I began to unwrap the somethings however, I discovered they were just plastic bags of rolled up newspaper with nothing inside the paper. My thought that my parents had managed to stash away more precious junk turned to a thought that they must have read somewhere that this was the best way to keep a radiogram in good condition - even if it no longer functioned.

Bags cleared, I could see the no longer working insides. perhaps repairers can repair such, although only a collector would want a 78-playing dinosaur, surely? I was assuming that the radiogram would only be of interest to someone wanting retro furnishings, perhaps as a shelf or coffee table, but...

This last shot is not the radiogram - but the dresser. I am now taking you into the kitchen to refresh your memory of the fact that this is a home, not a DIY monster with the homely sight of a used item.

FALL CLEANSINGS 30

This is the before and after shots of the bottom coat of Tibetan Gold paint. I might have also attended to the bathroom door, but I ran out of Chux. The result looked a lot better once I had top coated the doors. In fact it made the upper hallway look the way I wanted it to look - bright and clean and shiny and vivid - not dull, dirty, boring and generic.

I soon moved the chux and began working on the bathroom door trim. In the next shot, you can once again see the view looking east. This shows that I am over halfway done with the upper hallway!

 

The above picture shows the opening of my first ever batch of home made wine. I named it the 'Sande's gooseberry & ginger 2014'. It turned out to be describable as a 'sour and fruity dry white with ginger tingle'. It was all right to take a few sips, and had a delicious fruity aroma - but was not exactly my glass of wine. I prefer dry reds to any white. I could not really drink very much of this stuff at a time. Oh well, maybe the banana and butternut will be more to my liking...

It has begun to stop bubbling - though it only bubbled for 2-3 days. Currently, the banana and butternut lumps are sinking and the yeast-puff has begun to vanish.