kittycafe

Another Replay

When we first moved in to this house I wrote this post:

 

The other day I was on the floor, adding another log to the woodstove and when I turned my head towards the kitchen, this was my view. I thought it was an interesting vantage point from which to see the ceiling beams.
It also hid the crumbs of breakfast that were left and the need-to-be-replaced counters.
This is definitely one of the 'before' shots for Before and Afters. When the 'After' will be is anyone's guess. I'm also thinking of painting the cupboards (heresy to some) but I'm not allowed until after the new countertop is installed. It is the most rustic looking part of the house.

 

Fast forward. I'm not sure I would consider this a complete "After". I'm still waiting for the new countertops. But well, time passed and hell hasn't frozen over, so here is the kitchen with the old tiled ones. I painted the cupboards this summer after threatening to many times and my darling husband is still undecided and would like to rip the whole thing out in it's entirety for a new kitchen. "But those are real wood cupboards", I tell him, again and again. I win, simply because there are no funds for a new kitchen.

  

I've moved the kitchen table because it was never used except as a surface on which to dump everything no one wanted to deal with. And the fruit bowl. So now an old couch sits there under the window with good light for reading and hanging out with the chief cook/scullery maid (me).

So, imagine concrete and stainless steel for the counters. More conventional surfaces would require too many joins because we have many unusual angles and that beam, as you can see.

 I'm now waiting/hoping? for a plumber to fix the leak under the sink and then "someone" thinks that that whole cabinet has to be redone (so it has not been painted) and the sink replaced, all before the counter can go on and... hell freezing over, you know what I mean.

My project 365 photo for today? 

More blue,  stolen from summer photos.

  

Because in actual fact everything outside is still so very dull and I couldn't face posting another grey one.

We interrupt my usual mid week silence...

Okay, it was actually a few days ago but I've just resigned myself to it now.

I woke up and looked out of the bedroom window and exclaimed," Oh, how pretty! Look at the frost on the... FROST!"

When I finally went out to survey the damage...

Luckily my beefsteak tomatoes, which I had been (im)patiently waiting to ripen were safe under a mini greenhouse pyramid. The  peppers and squash were done, never to grow into their full potential. The pumpkins, green except for one (the pie pumpkin, of course)

 Darn these veg wanting rain and warm weather! There was not enough of both this summer and most were well behind in growth.

I was most excited about my gourd garden,(which I was keeping secret until I had glorious birdhouse gourds and painted snake gourds to show) but fruits of my labour were too small to keep. I think I tore off the largest, though still immature snake gourd and threw it in the grass in exasperation.

Sigh.

Gardening is a cruel, cruel past time.

To add insult to injury it is now very warm and humid.

I have to go now and organise our weekend away up north with family, twenty of us.

The forecast calls for rain.

All weekend.

Another Peek

The other day I was on the floor, adding another log to the woodstove and when I turned my head towards the kitchen this was my view. I thought it was an interesting vantage point from which to see the ceiling beams.
It also hid the crumbs of breakfast that were left and the need-to-be-replaced counters.
This is definitely one of the 'before' shots for Before and Afters. When the 'After' will be is anyone's guess. I'm also thinking of painting the cupboards (heresy to some) but I'm not allowed until after the new countertop is installed. It is the most rustic looking part of the house.

To the KittyCafe...

...A Little House in the Big Woods.
..or more accurately, a not so little house with woods and a pond.
At last.
I waited a week before posting this, thinking that I was going to jinx it and something was going to go wrong. Three times bitten, makes one nervous
So life in the boonies begins soon, although we are not at all far from the nearest town. I also have it on good authority that the local fish store there has fine smoked salmon, so I will not be deprived of any lingering city ways. No laughing. Am buying wellingtons and one of those snow removal ride'um thingies! I will be a country person exemplified, with chickens and a big garden and fresh trout in the pond.... as soon as we find a good sushi resturant within an acceptable radius.

Now of course you know that the house looks nothing like this one above* and I absolutely DISAPPROVE of Christmasy decorations before December but it appears I will be busy with unpacking boxes at the beginning of December. Generally until December I want to enjoy autumn still, even when it's feeling like winter and the stores are playing horrid pseudo-carols.

I am feeling a little put out by how much I miss MY STUFF. I pride myself on not being that attached to having things but dear gawd I want MY STUFF!
I want enough dishes for the day. I want my favourite mug, my paints, my knitting, my sewing machine, my clothes, my warm duvet, my life back.
I am getting weary of wearing the same few clothes and it's getting a little nippy without my winter coat. A scarf would be nice, too!
I finished the single jar of Ginger Pear jam ( recipe from here via Norma, made this summer) that I brought with me and I want the other jars!
I want these things more because I know I already have them.

*Oh and do you know how hard it is to whip royal icing to a light and fluffy consistency by hand?

Curbside

While on our mini vacation driving home in the rain we saw a sign for a farmer's market and flea market. Thinking it was a good time to get out and stretch our legs we followed the sign down a winding road dissecting a corn field. I would like to think this was off the beaten path but I don't really know if that exists anymore. The flea market had all manner of junk, good and bad. There were plenty of these Red Rose tea miniature figurines in a display case.

These are mine I had saved from childhood. Each one came free in a box of tea in a promotion in the 1970's. You can read about them here. Apparently these are in high demand these days with collectors, particularly the rare Gingerbread man, alas, not in my collection.
Back road or not, the folks running this market were very savvy to the price of things, it appears. An old pie safe, in deplorable condition had a $1575.00 price tag on it. I enquired after a small cast iron pedestal, heavily rusted but restorable for a mosaic bird bath top, I was thinking.
"$75." I was told. I had been toying with offering a twenty. After all, it would have to be sand blasted.
It appears the only deals to be had are curbside.
My neighbour, who in her current incarnation stages houses for a living, appears to have a short attention span with themes for her living space. She used to work in the film industry and would get many deals at set sales.
Thus, on garbage day, I scored this wicker set, a settee and two chairs (not shown) ( I've always wanted to say that)

A lick of paint and good as new. Try to ignore the leaves that are falling on it. (Goodbye summer)
I'm imagining this with a handmade quilt by me (as yet just imagined) a good book and a cup of tea on my (as yet just imagined) covered porch in my (still as yet imagined! ) new house. It will wait patiently in a storage crate in the meantime. (More patiently than me)

Speaking of houses, I have been reading The Naturally Healthy Home.
Many of the concepts in this book we already employ in our daily lives but a few new pointers were worth embracing. One of these involves EMF or electomagnetic fields.
Apparently even remote controls emit EMF ( don't sit close to them) and are a tremendous waste of energy.
We have tried unplugging everything that is 'On Standby", the tv, the vcr, the microwave, for example. They also recommend unplugging your fax machine at night. Next month we will compare energy costs. The microwave we are trying not to use at all. I rarely used it before so it was not a concern for me, although I did automatically go to soften some butter for baking in it . I was determined not to use it, so in the end I softened the butter by placing it in a dish on the stove top between the burners, which the preheating oven warmed enough to soften. In fact, it almost melted it.
Note to self: remember micro-climates and try not to be so impatient.
What do you do to save energy and remove the nasties in your home?