Month: November 2012

For months, I’ve been looking for three specialty grooming items that Ron bought in bulk and had shipped in May 2011: hair ties, Rembrandt toothpaste and Pear soap.

For the last couple of days, I’ve also been looking for a box of outdoor Christmas lights and a yard power stake that we bought last year.

I turned the cellar and attic upside down, multiple times, and yesterday, I was able to locate everything – soap, ties, toothpaste and the outdoor light paraphernalia, the latter of which had been hidden by a pile of old clothing.

Brought leaves to the transfer station from the other day. We left the tarp! Luckily, the front end loader had picked it up and put it in the furniture pile before someone could steal it.

The leaf vacuum started then stopped. It’s out of warranty (bought it in April 2010, thank you, blog). Peter from Terminix was here for his November inspection. We bought a nice balsam wreath at Stop & Shop, put the red velvet bow on it, hung it on the storm door.

Did some last-minute raking here. Cleaned up the beds near the house and the oval. Planted the mum that was decorating the front steps at Edgewater.

Am I the only ones who finds these social media outlets depressing?

We managed to clear both yards of leaves before the small snow storm anticipated for tomorrow.

We had less than 2 hours of light by the time we got to Edgewater, but we made it. Ron did the back with the leaf sweeper. I used the lawn mower and was able to clear the day lilies, the grass garden and the shrubs in the front as well as the the front lawn. The truck is pretty much jam-packed.

It doesn’t look like we’ll have a lot left to do, although the beach tree in the back at Edgewater hangs on to its leaves even later than the oaks.

We cleaned up the garden in front of the fence here, too.

To celebrate our anniversary, Ron bought flowers and picked up a superb dinner at the Chinese restaurant in Dino’s plaza: Happy Family, shrimp in lobster sauce, hot and sour soup, shrimp fried rice, dumplings. I was barely able to waddle back to the computer to post this.

We had one of the best Thanksgivings, in Jaffrey, with Ron’s friends Betsy and David, and their family. Visited Sandy and Steve in Laconia the next day.

Ron was kvetching the other day about not seeing his friends and relatives, until I reminded him that ten times over the past two years, we’ve gotten together with same:

Townsend, MA
Vernon, VT
Martha’s Vineyard
Berkeley, CA (Thanksgiving 2010)
Williamsburg, MA
Kingstown, RI
Jaffrey, NH (Jim’s funeral)
Concord, CA
and we put up two couples at Sea Mist.

Thanksgiving with his friends in Jaffrey makes number 11.

Spent all day on projects: a good 6 hours (9-3) on setting up MRS for 2013 and 2 on new NEPS images and links.

Made clam chowder. Soup, salad and good bread for supper, my favorite.

Travel Guide for December 2012

We’d just finished loading the truck for the transfer station run when a big, friendly, middle-aged, short-haired light tan dog came wandering into the yard.

She had a Sandwich license, but the Sandwich police didn’t have a record of her owner.

Turns out, the dog’s name is Bill, and she belongs to a person working on a home improvement project one street over. He thought Bill could hear him whistle (wrong). I walked her over on Paula’s old leash.

I did the transfer station while Ron did a leaf sweep in the back yard at Edgewater. We picked up supper at Lambert’s.

It’s getting pretty cold at night, so I took the jasmine plant* in today and put it in the cellar. I hope it gets enough light during the daytime.

I also cleaned up leaves and greased the tailgate.

Ron took the door down to work on the weatherstripping but couldn’t find a replacement part. So, he retacked the old stripping and the door is working just fine now.

We brought Fluffles for a follow-on visit to Dr. Alfano this morning and stopped off at a couple of holiday fairs. The doc said Fluffles is doing fine. He wants to check him again in a couple of weeks.

I made soup and roasted seeds from one of the sugar pumpkins Peter asked us to take back. We ditched the big pumpkin, since it had started to rot. The pumpkin soup is a delicate, refined treat, much milder than pumpkin pie and even winter squash.

*Instructions from a website:
Woody-stemmed tropicals, such as jasmine, brugmansia, tibouchina and bananas, should be brought indoors before the first frost. Let the plants rest in a cool place (40 to 50 degrees F) with little or no light—they’ll get the message that winter has arrived and their leaves will gradually yellow and drop. The plants can then spend the winter in an unheated basement, root cellar, unheated garage, or even a cool closet. Make sure the area is relatively dark (try enclosing the whole pot loosely inside a heavy black trash bag) and that the air temperature stays above freezing. In most cases, woody-stemmed tropicals should not be cut back until early spring (unless you can’t fit them into the house!). Water the plants sparingly throughout the winter, checking monthly to see that the soil is barely moist. When early spring arrives, revive the plants by repotting them in fresh soil. Water thoroughly and provide a weak dose of liquid fertilizer. Expose the plants to bright, filtered light, gradually acclimating them to full sun. Try to give them about a month of indoor (or greenhouse) growing time before moving them outdoors.