Rental Garden Improvements

I’m still looking at everything that I’m setting up in the temporary yard as a staging ground for my home when I finally get back, but it feels good to make a space that is good for hosting and helps me imagine how things will be when I move this back.

Shea and I recently brought back several pieces that I’m going to try to clean or repurpose artistically, including some plants that needed some TLC. We might even be able to get one of the fountains to work again when we get a new motor installed. Several items need to be de-rusted. I also assembled this white rocking chair which had been lingering in the rental backyard under plastic for many months, but I don’t remember who gave it to me or where it came from.

Glen Cove is Officially a Firewise Community

Board members of GCCA are with me (I’m the current president) and our councilperson, Vice-Mayor Mina Loera-Diaz.

Taken from my phone, the Firewise team helped Livestream this event at our local school where GCCA, our volunteer neighborhood association was gifted the Firewise designation (only the third in Solano County).

Update on September 10, 2024, Vice-Mayor Loera-Diaz mentioned this event at City Council:

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.

Hello from Vallejo, California!