MASKED MARAUDERS

We're sporting our custom made masks...Jack's daughter is mass producing masks instead of quilts these days. We're staying home as much as possible...no dentists, doctors, hair stylists, hardware stores, garden centers...

MAPLED!

 I didn't start out to be a collector of maples...Japanese maples to be exact...but somehow over the years...I've added several...and these aren't all of them. According to garden rules, 3 to 5 of a particular kind of plant makes you an enthusiast...more than five and you're a collector! Oye! Besides these, I think I have at least five more in the yard, including three vine maples. So enjoy!

 Just a couple of nice looking tulips...

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STAY HOME

 Refrigerator clean out! Has to happen before our next load of groceries is delivered! Yes, we are paying to have them delivered now because the local Fred Meyer is over loaded with folks wanting to pick up their groceries. We pay $9.95 plus a 5% tip...so naturally I try to order more than if I was going to the store every few days.  

What I've noticed is that every successive refrigerator that I've owned is harder to clean. This relatively new GE is a true pain! Lots of little nooks and crannys for crumbs to collect. And I haven't even done the bottom freezer yet. Oh joy!

STAY THE FUCK HOME!

 This is what you can do with a bag of frozen wild blueberries from Trader Joe's, sugar, cornstarch and some pie crust mix... on a VERY QUIET weekend.

 Oh, and did I mention the Tillamook French Vanilla ice cream? Takes the sting out of not being able to go to the Grange and buy plants!   SORT OF!

It feels like someone stuck their foot out and stopped my world from spinning...but the daffs do remind me that NATURE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT HUMAN PROBLEMS...it just keeps on keeping on and blooming away!  

TUTEUR OR NOT TO TEUR...

This free-standing trellis with a mushroom shaped top is called a TUTEUR. When we had our new fence built, we gained about 2' of additional space so the Campsis radicans (Yellow Trumpet Creeper) that had been growing on the fence was now 2' away from it. What to do? I spied this trellis in the Gardener's Supply catalog and figured it would let me keep the Trumpet Creeper and perhaps a morning glory or two. 

It's very naked right now in March, but we hope for lots of blooms this summer that attract pollinators to the garden.

DRAGONFLY ADDITION TO THE GARDEN CORNER

My daughter in law Susan found this great dragon fly at the MADE IN CHICO store. It really compliments my "garden corner" of the dining area. We secured it with an anchor bolt. 

SHANTY TOWN FENCE...MILLER PAINT TO THE RESCUE!

 Our neighbor's "new" fence along our driveway. 

The original blew down during a big windstorm this winter and they rebuilt it using new posts and the original 40 year old cedar boards. IDIOTS ABOUND, IT SEEMS. It looked like HELL, and we decided its only hope was to paint it and give it some uniformity.
 Before we painted, we had to saw off the boards that were sticking out beyond the posts on our side. The neighbor heard the saw and came out saying, "I wanted those boards that way! Shame shame shame," he said for not asking my permission to cut them! We told him, "Go fuck yourself! It's our side of the fence and it looks like HELL!"
 

It took $200, 5.5 gallons of Miller Storm in "boxwood" color, and a week long  sacrificing of our bodies. We painted all 19 panels and the gate. Worth every penny, don't you think? 

BULLYS, BULLYS, BULLYS

AS WE SUSPECTED, TRUMP ONLY HIRES BULLYS...MIKE POMPEO IS A CASE IN POINT.

HE BULLIED AN NPR REPORTER AFTER SHE DARED ASK HIM ABOUT UKRAINE AND THE FIRED AMBASSADOR. TOOK HER INTO A PRIVATE ROOM AND SWORE AT HER, CALLED HER A LIAR. WHAT AN ASSHOLE HE IS! A COMPLETE JERK! 

WHEN IT SNOWS...

 I get antsy to clean out closets and cupboards!  Should have thought to snap a photo of the before but who'd believe it? This is the closet we call Fibber MacGee's closet. "don't open that closet door, MacGee!" his wife Molly would call out to him before  you heard the crash. Yes, heard...it was a radio show.

Okay so no one remembers radio any more...but being an audio learner, I loved radio. Anyway, here I've done my best to reorganize everything from towels, tissue, bum fodder, cleaning products, pest spray, first aid  and bandaids, toothpaste, soap and supplements. Oh, and bags of birdseed. Good times!!!

UPDATES AROUND HERE

 UPDATE on the conspicuous consumption department: I did manage 6 meals for two out of this big, luscious hunk of meat, plus sandwiches...too much for us!

 UPDATE ON SILVER HAIR. I'm finally growing it out to a real hairstyle. And I had to replace much of my hair product with different stuff. I now have healthy, non-color treated hair, so a cleanout of hair old products was required.   

 UPDATE on threatened cosmetic drawer clean out...I started with the lipsticks and got it down to almost the basics, eliminating about 50% of them. I separated them by color: PINKS< NUDES
It's amazing how many of these I have collected through several years. It was obvious when I went silver, that some of the very warmest colors were not going to work for me, due to a more neutral skin tone. Mr. A painted numbers on these Estee Lauder lipstick tops with only one round body, non EL left. 

NEXT UP? FIBBER MACGEE'S CLOSET...THE SO-CALLED LINEN CLOSET WHICH IS MY CATCH-ALL, COSTCO CLOSET...AND YES, I HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO KEEP A FEW TOWELS IN IT FROM TIME TO TIME...