outside living, when will it end?

reader, the baron is tired of outside living. it used to be, outside living actually meant 'outside lounging'. the baron could take a book or a magazine, along with a cup of something tasty, to either of the yard's two sitting areas. sometimes, she would dispense with the book and/or magazine entirely, sitting outside for the sheer enjoyment of nature and bird song.

lately, though, outside living has come to mean 'outside working', or actually, 'outside slaving away WHEN WILL IT BE FINISHED?'

'oh, little the baron', says the husband, 'it will be finished when home depot restocks the wall stones we cleaned out last weekend.'

but you know what, reader? it won't really be finished then. because after the wall is done, they'll have to lay a patio, then some sod, then buy and erect a shed, then buy and erect a fence (to go around the formal garden that seemed like such a good idea earlier this year when the baron was all like 'YES! a formal garden, like at versailles! with pebbled walkways and a gate and a place for a bistro set! YES!' ahem), then frame and plant the garden, then lay the garden's pebbles.

then, only then, will the baron and the husband be able to relax. of course, buy 'then' it will be 2010 and they'll be on the i-10 west to california, but whatever.

see progress, however slow, below. all four photos are from the very back of the yard. these two are from the same angle, the first taken sometime in mid-august, the second taken last weekend.

these last two are from approximately the same perspective. the first one was taken in early august (notice the trees apparent in this one that are missing from the very first photo, above). the second one, also last weekend.

*sigh*.

squirrel meets walnut

the baron and the husband have a large walnut tree in their yard. it's a lovely old tree, easily 40 feet high; it's currently playing host to one of the yard's two bat houses.

this tree, every fall, drops A LOT of walnuts, walnuts that litter the yard like the plastic cups on bourbon street after mardi gras. the walnuts are, at best, an annoyance, and at worst, something that might badly muck up the insides of the husband's lawn mower. the dogs are indifferent to them, except that one will occasionally get a shell piece stuck to the bottom of his or her paw, at which point s/he will gimp around the yard halfheartedly licking at the paw in question and giving the baron and the husband a look that quite plainly says, 'help'.

the squirrels LOVE the walnuts. they grub them around in their tiny little paws, using their teeth to peel away the outer shell. once they get the walnut open, they dig out all the meat, leaving a picked-clean empty shell. in the photo above, you can kind of see faint teeth marks on the outside of the shell. they're industrious, those squirrely bastards.

the first quilt

reader, you may remember that the baron had recently been working on a quilt (one she began calling the-quilt-of-no-completion, given the amount of time it took to finish). well, happy days are here now (!), because that quilt is DONE!!

here's a long shot of the quilt, on the baron's bed... the quilt does a really nice job of keeping her and the husband warm at night.

here's a closeup of some of the squares, and a little peek of the backside. the baron's blog seems chronically afflicted with 'low light-itis', and these photos are no exception... apologies.

here's the baron's signature and the date of completion... more than one person recommended she sign and date her quilt and, with the help of a fabric pen (one of the best inventions ever), she did. because the final product is so PRETTY, and because the memory of her impatience with the-quilt-of-no-completion is receding with the passage of time, the baron is now optimistically thinking of this one as 'the first quilt'.

decorate the garden

right now is usually the baron's favorite time of year (when she's living in maryland, anyway), and this fall is no exception. the mornings are chilly, she's pulled out her tights for wearing with wool skirts, the trees are still mostly green but have begun changing colors just at their leaves' edges... it's a glorious and lovely time of year.

one of the things the baron particularly likes about it are the number of special days coming up. her father's birthday is this saturday, and will give her a nice excuse to think of him, maybe throw back a budweiser in his honor. her brother's birthday is at the end of the month, just before (literally, the day before!) halloween. then thanksgiving, which the baron loves for turkey-eating, then christmas, which the baron loves for the snow and the undivided time and attention she gets from her husband.

ahem.

before the baron gets too excited, pulling out the pine-bough wreath and whatnot, let's start with THIS month's celebrations. this outdoor votive holder, below, gets the party started.

welcome to the house

the baron and the husband, until very recently, had 3 wreaths that - depending on the season - they hung on the front door. winter, spring and summer are all well represented, with wreaths of pears, grape vines, pine boughs and the like.

fall was the lone holdout, the unrepresented season. last fall, the baron made a wreath herself, on a wire wreath frame and using autumnal foliage, but it didn't keep very well and was - frankly - kind of ugly. this year, she cheated and bought one from her local craft store, above. it's some kind of berry something or other, and twigs too, so it's very twiggy with berries. anyway, it's a nice way to enter their house... until, of course, you look past the wreath to the dusty dog lounging on the white love seat and her three brothers pawing to get out.

keeping those herbs in place

having successfully created one retaining wall in her yard, the baron recently felt empowered to build another one, just off her kitchen, to keep her herb garden in place.

(apologies in advance for the darkness of the photos.)

the baron constructed the wall the last sunday in september; it took most of the day, and was kind of tricky, given that she had to account for both a corner and a downspout. this first picture shows the almost finished product. see how the stones are kind of crooked and only mostly level?


these next two pictures were taken the first weekend in october. the baron spent the better part of last friday, october 3, measuring, cutting, and gluing these capstones in place:

the baron has decided that the beauty of the capstones, besides giving one a place to sit, is that they effectively address the 'crooked and mostly level' issues, don't you think?


really, the baron wanted to put this retaining wall in so that she could avoid working on the larger retaining wall project that's slated for the back of the yard... but, alas, the husband made some headway on that larger project over the weekend (digging out and leveling the trench), so she can't dodge it much longer.

but, the good news? more masonry pictures for you, reader! yay!

what? here i am!

the baron and her dogs have developed a nice weekday morning routine. the husband leaves for work around 7:00am, at which time the baron lets three of the four dogs out while she attends to her, ahem, toilette. (the fourth dog follows the baron around the house, usually coming to rest on the bath mat while she brushes her teeth.)

around 7:30, the baron is ready to leave for work and forcibly encourages the fourth dog outside, so he can, ahem, relieve himself. he hops to the bottom of the steps, makes his business just off the front walk, and hops back up the stairs, at which time the baron lets loose a LONG whistle. this whistle is a noise the other three dogs know - they know it means, 'mom's calling, time to go inside'.

dexter and tucker are very obedient dogs, and answer the whistle almost immediately by running up the front steps and into the house.

harlan, on the other hand, fakes deafness to get himself an extra three minutes of outside time, at which point he bursts up the stairs like a rocket with this look on his face:



as if to say, 'hey! where've you been? i've been waiting for you the whole time, but here i am! also, can i have a treat?'