February In The Garden

Even with our late snow and ice, the yard is showing signs of life. It's still too stinkin' cold for this fair weather gardener to be out puttering, but I did do a walk through to see what was happening.

I was surprised to find my pot of chives is comin' along quite a bit.

Oregon's infamous moss.

Not long now and the tiny daffodils will be blooming.

I spy a columbine.

The very first marsh marigold bud.

They'll be threatening to take over the entire property in no time.

The blueberry bushes are just startin' to show signs of life.

All the different sedums are starting to green up.

The clematis are starting to leaf out.

All the primroses are starting to bloom.

And as you can see, the slugs clearly are not deterred by the cold weather.

How are they out already?!

I love the way this barberry looks when it first starts getting leaves.

The honeysuckle I put in late last year made it.

And last, but not least, the hellebore that never ceases to impress.

This sucker gives 110% every year.

My other ones are just starting to get new leaves, but no flowers yet.

So that's what's happening in the backyard.

Any signs of spring at your house yet?

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The Cat

Now how could I not take pictures of this?

I was sitting at the dining room table, with all my menu-planning, grocery-list-making paraphernalia, and the basket was sitting in the middle of it all when he first got in.  

When it was time to set the table for dinner, I just moved him to the counter.  

Basket and all.  

Clearly,  he was unfazed.

He did start to get annoyed by the camera in his face.

Only enough to switch positions, though, not to actually move to a new location.

Dopey cat.

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The Kitchen Remodel: Phase 18

Geesh, I haven't done a kitchen update in a long time.  There's a reason for that.  We hadn't done anything to the kitchen in a long time.  Like, since before Christmas.  But we're back in business. Sort of.

I finally got some shelves back up and was able to unpack a few more things.  The majority of my blue glass is still in boxes, but I hope to remedy that over the next week by getting the soffit shelving back up.  Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, here's what I have accomplished:

I had one of my dahlia photos printed and I stuck it in a frame I already had.

I have it on the little counter to the left of the fridge.

I also put a little bowl there to collect keys and random things that The Dad brings home in his pockets.

Above the counter, I reused the shelves that were in the kitchen prior to gutting everything.

I just had to cut them down a bit to fit on the little wall.

After I took these pictures, I rehung the calendar on the fridge end panel.

It used to be where the shelves are now.

Without a cell phone, or any other electronic device, it's how I track what's goin' on for the month.

The old-fashioned way.  :)

Here's a few closeups of the shelves.

I was excited to dig out some of my favorite things again.

We actually put the trim up above the cabinets in November, but never got around to caulking and painting it.  I think one of the posts I did at Christmas time showed some of it, but here's a reminder of how it looked before we did that.

This next picture shows where we had to build out the soffit to match where the new upper cabinets ended.

I just recently got all that sanded, primed, and painted.

So here we are now.

And, of course, while I pulled things out of boxes, I rearranged things on the counters a bit.

So here's how everything looks now, including all of the, finally, painted trim.

That's another one of my photos from the yard, again, in a frame I dug out from under the bed.  :)

We weren't sure how to end the trim above the cabinets on either side of the sink without it looking weird, so we ended up just going straight across with it.

I think if I were to do it again, I would have taken that section of soffit out above the sink.

Then the trim could have wrapped the corner, and the area above the sink where the light is, would have gone all the way up to the ceiling.

But I think it turned out good the way we did it.

You can see here that we still haven't built a new window sill.

The Dad has his saw out in the driveway working on quarter-round, so maybe he'll get to that, as well, before the day is over.

So there it is.

Still on the to-do list:

* Backsplash

* Planks on the ceiling

* Ceiling trim (a cheap version of crown molding) in kitchen and dining room

* Baseboards and quarter-round

* Install lights over counter between kitchen and dining room

Not far now.

You can purchase the dahlia photograph here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RindyMae

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