Tampering With Family Treasures

A long time ago we had a family reunion in Medicine Hat Alberta.
Be patient, I'm getting to those tables.
The reunion coincided with Hal's and my thirtieth wedding anniversary and the kids decided to make this a double celebration.

Son Scott agreed to find just the right gift and he'd bring it with im on his drive from Vancouver to Alberta.

Now we come to the tables.

Scott owned a car smaller than the not-yet-invented minicar and the tables took up all the trunk space. He and his then-wife squished themselves, two babies and everything else in the space that was left and successfully climbed up and over the rockies to arrive triumphantly intact.

Aready the tables had a history.

Fast forward a lot of years. Some of my kids have changed partners and Hal died but the tables and I are still intact, though we display wear and tear.

I'm not a plastic surgery type of person but I don't mind altering defenceless furniture.

Last week came the "OH my god, do I dare?" moment and once I found the courage to make the change I went searching for the right shade of oriental-looking red to hide the chips and dints on my beloved pals.

I'm not quite there yet but already the carvings pop out beautifully.
I removed the glass covering from the top for the better effect.

You can see the dings in this before shot.

So, a little more tweaking here and there and these babies will continue on in the family for the next owner to do her own alterations, and the history of how they came to be will be lovingly told.

Some Rules Are meant To Be Broken.

The rule is, don't muck around the garden until the soil dries out.
But--it's a gorgeous sunny day, a no-coats-required- day, so I slipped into my gun boots and clomped outside to pull out all the debris.
that would be the same debris I wasn't in the mood to clean up last fall. It was cold and gloomy then so I lacked incentive.
I know where things are planted so I stepped carefully.
Too bad I didn't stock up in yard bags first.
I'll do that the next rainy day.

Ten Days Ago...

Ten days ago the back yard looked like this.
Okay, it looked prettier and tidy and now the debris is revealed, but this is progress.

Now the snow is gone, perhaps permanently and the grass is making a run for green.
The chandelier collapsed under the archway but it will rise to face another season.

There was a glitch with the pond heater and all six fish died. I've had them for the almost six years I'll miss them terribly.
I've made a mental note not to name any replacements.

Funny thing--Despite the pond freezing rock solid, the plants that were encased in that iceberg survive and are sending up green shoots.
Mother Nature is truly amazing.

If This Is spring, I'll Take It

The geese are straggling back into town although I'm not convinced that they ever left. There was a lot of random goose-honking overhead and in the woods all winter long.
This morning I mushed out on the deck over frozen/melting snow to check out the fish pond and what I can see isn't good. usually I see the heater circled by melted ice but instead today there is a thick covering of snow.
With luck the promised double digit temps this weekend will produce a functioning heater under there and all my fish will be intact.

The icicles cluster along the sieve-like part of the eaves trough. funny how they tend to look a little silly when the weather is turning milder. Or am I just ready for tulip season?
How did we manage before ornamental grass came into our lives? I'm going to find room for more of them this summer and do away with the last of the lawn in the back yard.
On to spring.

Olypmics

Vancouver, my old home town, had quite a couple of weeks.

So far at least, no one has been disbarred because of doping, the weather was pretty much what is was supposed to be and the excitement kept on coming.

It was wildly exciting to see the U.S. and Canada pit their best hockey players against one another and fight the fight of their lives.I figure most of the payers were born in Canada anyway.

When Canada finally won in a sudden death overtime, I had a lump in my throat for the losing team; they fought a fierce battle.

Canadians aren't pushy people and we draw our lines of privacy with fences but for two weeks the old rules went into suspension and everyone chatted, cheered and celebrated while exchanging languages and souvenir pins.

Even Oprah got into it with the mittens.

We won't return to our old ways quite yet. We got a taste of being loud and over-the-top in nationalism and it was a pretty good feeling.

It's heartening to know that countries can get together in friendship. let's keep that up.

A home with a twist

I've never met a room I didn't want to re-arrange just a little.

The color might be perfect but one chair clashes. Spindly, uncomfortable, not even good wood--just a lousy chair and it spoils the room.

Then, there's balance to contend with. If something is out of sync, my eyes are riveted to it, praying that it will turn to ash right away.

Decorating magazines arguably fuss with a new approach to the same old theme and right now the words de jour are "calming" and "soothing" and before that, "eclectic."

For those of us who just stumble along trying for our our version of a comfortable and pleasing room, I use this formula:
first, get the background color under control. Then, push furniture around until it's placed to provide the absolute best comfort. After that, you tweak to get the balance and symmetry so nothing intrudes when you look up from your book.

I can lose my calmness and require a tad of soothing when I encounter "Architectural digest. Those home owners who don't hunker in for a quiet evening in front of the telly. They are people with pieds a terre, the country place and I mean one in every country you can think of and of course, the summer place with the Oriental carpets for the sand to settle into.

A.D. people seem to have their places redecorated the moment anyone spills a drop of martini on the white linen upholstery. Some of these home owners are pictured with beautifully dressed babies but the high chair never shows up in the kitchen. It would be nice to think they had something so useful around, as long as they have the accouterments when they pitch in to personally cook for six hundred people with a place for each one to sit.At least they have lots of staff to do the cleaning up.

My bedroom is the closest to my version of comfortable perfection--the color is right any time of day and the comfort level is high. The balance isn't perfect but nothing is jarring so I wake up happy and fall asleep the same way.

I should get another hobby but honestly, this one is fun.