My Peaceful Place

The memorial garden I planted for my mom has been decimated by gophers.  First they ate the lily bulbs -- all 25 of them-- and then they started eating the dahlia tubers.  Cha-ching!  Not to mention the disappointment of having buds one day and stalks on the ground the next; sheared off at the soil level.  They didn't eat the lilacs or rhubarb -- I planted them in wire cages.

Friday on my way home from work I stopped at the nursery.  My plan was to buy some small cages for future bulbs and tubers.  I was also planning to buy some native perennials in the hopes that they might be more gopher resistant.  After expressing sympathy for my loss (which felt kinda weird to tell you the truth.  They were plants, not loved ones),  the master gardener told me that gophers eat everything.  Everything.  But she did have a gopher repellent that she said works very well.  The gophers hate the smell and move to a new neighborhood.  Or area of the garden anyway.  I picked up a bag of the granules and some plants.

I planted lavender and alyssum by the pelican.  The blue-purple and white will, hopefully, look like the ocean around the base.  I planted all the flowers yesterday evening.  I put a healthy palm-full of granules in each planting hole and then scattered more over the top of the bed.

This morning, they were still standing.  I put in drip lines over to the pelican and then covered everything with composted manure.  I added compost to the main flower bed as well.

Kersey slept under the garden table.  Brett was busy on his tractor moving compost over to the garden for me.  He's getting around really well, and the swelling has greatly diminished, but his range of motion went backwards.  He said working on the tractor was good therapy; it required that he bend the knee beyond 90 degrees to reach the reverse pedal.

When I finished, I sat in my favorite red chair and soaked in the peaceful garden.  Small birds flew to the feeder, flitting between the fence and seeds.  Kersey slept under the table.  A breeze blew through the garden, drying the sweat on my face and neck.  I looked at the pelican and thought of how my mom loved to sit in a garden, with a book.  She would have loved sitting there.

It's hard to believe that last August, when we moved in, the garden looked like this.  It was almost impossible to imagine a peaceful place among all the weeds and brambles.

The Kitchen

I've been meaning to post about our kitchen remodel for quite a long time.  It was a post I was looking forward to sharing with my mom and after her death, well, I just couldn't face it.  I had spent too much time picturing my conversations with her as she looked at the pictures.

We moved into the house just over a year ago and there were two things that needed immediate attention: the floors and the kitchen.  The new flooring went in first.  The kitchen had yellow, stained and faded linoleum.  The previous owner put a lot of money into the house before he flipped it.  Most of that went into a new septic system, roofing and plumbing.  But, he also put granite countertops and new appliances in the kitchen.

We started getting bids on replacing the cabinetry, selected a contractor, developed plans and then started work in November.

That center island cabinet was one big empty box, with a door on the sink side of the kitchen.  No shelves and you had to crawl all the way in to reach the back.  

The space above the refrigerator was wasted space as well.  I needed storage capacity, and lots of it.  I had a large kitchen at Aspen Meadows -- and it was full.

The drawers were not very deep.  They did not go back the whole width of the counter.  The corner cabinets were impossible to access.

We wanted to save the granite and a large part of the reason we selected the contractor that we did, is that he said he would try to remove it in one piece and then put it back on.  The other guys wouldn't even try.

I packed up my dishes back into the moving boxes we had saved and we started living on take out.  I didn't get my kitchen back until Christmas.

The new cabinets were installed in December.  Yes, that is snow outside.

I love the lazy Susan in the corner bottom cabinet and the tall, narrow cabinet for baking sheets.

The glass doors for the upper cabinets went in next.

And this is where we sat for months while we waited for the new pantry doors to come in.  We made the pantry wider so the shelves would be easily accessible.  The doors were "custom" ordered from Home Depot to fit -- and had to be sent back twice because they arrived damaged.

I am particularly happy with the center island.  Narrow shelves on the ends for my spices and deep pull out drawers, on both sides, for pots and pans.

There are cupboards above the refrigerator now, and the pantry doors look great.

I love how this kitchen flows; its very cooking friendly.  I don't have to walk miles to get what I need and it's beautiful to boot.  My parents were with us last Christmas so my mom got to see the kitchen complete (except for the pantry) but she never saw the "before" pictures.  She had looked in the windows while we were still in escrow and said "Oh, Annette, are you sure you are up for this?  It looks like a lot of work."  It was, but it was (and is) worth it.