We enjoy our backyard time in the egg swings. My legs are scratched up from gardening at the Wellfleet house.
Backyard Time with Boyfriend
Category Archives: Home & Garden
Staging and Beautifying Rental for Now
The temporary home I’m in is where I’m storing the things that I want for my real home under renovation. While this house has a little charm, such as a nice view when we wake up in the mornings with trees and hillsides, I still long for my corner lot and my unique backyard layout. I miss the spots in that backyard I could go to any time of day to bask in the sunlight with strategically placed seating and lots of nap areas, not to mention the hot tub I miss so much. I’m still deciding what furniture I’m going to bring or donate or “stage” for donation in the garage, not to mention repurchasing some of the same items I loved to make me feel like I never lost them. A Turkish lamp, three Tiffany-style lamps, and even the Barbra Streisand barbie-doll I was gifted are examples of things I try to convince myself were the same ones in pictures from before the fire. There’s something to be said about mass production when it comes to nostalgia. This brown glider chair is another example. It looks so much like the one I previously had, and gliders are so much safer when you have dogs with tails, but especially BLIND dogs with tails. Not only did I get this brown glider for inside, but the blue outdoor couch I just put together is also a glider itself, so tail and blind dog safe!
Can Beauty Come From the Ashes
Shea and I brought a few things back from the ruins of my garden which we tended to a bit yesterday. I had a sudden inspiration to try to resurrect a few more items. I think I can bring this plant back to life, and some of these other items can simply be washed, including this vase from Spain that my family had since the mid-1970’s. I’ll always be able to point to these items (among the less than 1% of things that I used to have) and say that they were among the few things that I had in the “before time.”
Clippings from this plant, which is more of an indoor plant that I had in a covered patio area, have been propagated by me several times, so it will be a big win if I can resurrect it from the dead when it’s been subject to the fire and exposed to the outside for over eight months. Some of the clippings were in my home office that perished.
Driveby Gardening
The contractor suggested I periodically stop by and work on my garden which was great advice. Rather than feeling sorry for myself for not getting home sooner, it’s nice to stop by the house and make some concrete changes that will help my garden to be ready for me incrementally. Shea helped me water the plants while I cleaned up a lot of the materials and did some serious pruning to be able to see some of the garden features and release the windmill from the newly grown bamboo and other overgrown plants. Snoopy and Bonnie were happy to chill out while we worked back there. I found it very therapeutic.
House and Backyard Progress with Daughter and Snoopy
This was my first chance to show my daughter the damage from the fire in January. Only Snoopy joined us because Bonnie was convalescing after surgery.
Butterfly Friends
We went to visit Shani Simmons today in her lovely home and yard. She’s a board member of the Bay Area Butterfly Festival and had a garden tour. There were many monarchs and finches in the yard, so she takes her volunteerism seriously! I’m glad Shea got a chance to meet her and I got to meet Shani’s husband Steve. I just realized I neglected to take a picture of the huge portion of her garden which was comprised of milkweed!
Furniture from Fire
This is the only piece of furniture that I tried to have professionally cleaned which sort of survived the fire in January at my house AFTER having survived my mother’s fire eight years prior. It still smells like fire, which is sort of triggering for me, so it’s currently in my garage, despite the “professional” attempt to clean it. I don’t know if I can find someone talented or patient enough to ever paint it again, but here is the current 2024 condition and from 2020 between the two fires. My family bought this when we lived in Spain in the mid-1970s and it’s one-of-a-kind based on my research. It has a proletariat message and comes from the Catalonia region where we lived.
Donated Furniture in Rental
I’m still taking nice pieces from friends who need to move forward on. I love this armoire a friend in San Francisco had to give from a friend of his who died. The clawfoot desk/dresser that was in this space is now put into the living room, in a space that I really like. There are more pieces to be photographed as I stage the house for the furniture I’m taking back home to my house under renovation.
Rental Home and Garden
It’s not home, but I try to make it as pleasant as I can for the time that I’m stuck here. I want to live my best life for now, which includes making it a practical and safe place to live for the dogs as well.
Gardening for the Future
Did some gardening at the house under renovation to try to have things somewhat orderly months from now when I return. Even got some lemons from my tree and trimmed a path for walking by. I’m especially thrilled at how well the cacti are doing and gave some loving homes in planters to the new agave that I got from Manny and Wendell.
