While Stalking My House...

And by "My House" I do not mean the one we live in. I mean this one:



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which I'm hoping to just acquire. I want the (apparently very happy) family which is living there to inherit Great Aunt Millie's pre-earthquake Victorian in San Francisco. On Russian Hill. So that they're in such a good mood that they notice me stalking their house and just offer me first refusal out of the goodness of their heart.

I would, of course, take it.

And then I would live in a fab house on the same street as this, the most awesome porch treatment ever:

Yes, it's shabby-chic, which usually makes me want to boot, but which in this application made me pull out my phone and snap a photo. Yes. It's a piano, a white wrought-iron garden chair and a freaking candelabra. It's so Great Gatsby it makes me want to pull out my pearls and drink champagne in the afternoon.

...sigh...

I have no idea why this image is so small....but this is my plight: a large empty wall.
Lots of them, actually.

Rainy Days

Still. Raining. And we're all slow and vaguely sick and so I mostly stayed in my pajamas and read all day. But at one point when the drizzle let up I went out to take pictures of more blossoms:

Peach

Apple

Apple

Peach? Plum?

Same tree - peach or plum

Cats who can't understand why I'm walking around in the chilly drizzle.

Fingers crossed for some motivation, soon!

Because it giggled me

(here)

And in case you've been living under a rock...this is why it's funny.

Wishing for Spring...

Well, warmer weather at least. I've got some buds:


And some green ground cover (clover?) from all the rain:


But mostly I've got an odd jumble and lots of negative space:

(The white wall back there is the garage/summer kitchen and the slatted wall to the right is an "open air rec room" which feels right now like wasted space.)

To the immediate left is the kitchen/back porch and what's in front of you is the (l-r) "rec room", summer kitchen, garage. Because of the way one of the tree trunks is growing we almost never put the car back here. The next picture is what was behind me as I was taking the above picture. If that makes sense.

That's the owner's table. It's fairly generic, but I see no point in replacing it. I'm in the market for some awesome folding chairs to add to it.

I like this one:

(here)

Not sure if I like the price, but I'm new at shopping for outdoor furniture. Suggestions?

I'm hoping that a broom and maybe a few coats of paint will help that back picnic table area look less neglected. And since I'm convinced that our gardener is worthless, I'm going to have to clean all that up myself. There's rain in the forecast for the weekend, but that will just give me more time to plan.

Wish me luck.

Home Again

To find this!

It's cold and rainy today, but I hopped out during a break in the weather to take some photos of the little bush that's started flowering outside of my office window. When the weather is more reliable, I'll pull out my long lens and get some shots of the bird's nest in the orange tree. If that's not great design on the part of the birds, I don't know what is.

I have no idea what this is, but there are two in the backyard just like it - all with tiny white blossoms. I can't wait to see what all of the other dead-looking twisty trunks turn into!

...sigh...

I have a sick husband. He's not a baby when he's sick, which is So Nice. But he is running a fever and trying to sleep. So I'm trying to be quiet...which means a lot of the house-related projects are on hold.

Also on hold: packing. Because my closet is in the bedroom where the sick husband is trying to sleep.

Not that I would have gotten a lot of packing done anyway. I'm in Dallas for 10 days. In February. If you're not familiar with Dallas let me explain why that is a packing conundrum. Lows will be in the low 40s- to upper 20s (I'm looking beyond the 7 day forecast and basing this on 25 years of living there.) The days that start out close to freezing will likely end up close to, if not higher than, 70 degrees. It could stay in the mid 60s the whole time (as it will be the first few days that I'm there) OR it could decide on Tuesday to drop a few inches of ice. If it does this it will be on a day that is also in the 70s.

I want to pack one suitcase. I don't want to pack sweaters. I've been jonesing for a heat wave since we got back from Switzerland so what I really want to pack is a bunch of sundresses. But I don't like being cold. AND I discovered upon purging to move here that I hate most of my clothes. So I got rid of them. Ok - mostly they didn't fit/were worn out...but that still leaves me with a half-empty closet.

Maybe none of my lunch dates will care if I just layer up the yoga clothes the whole time I'm there. At least I'll be comfy. Then I can pack flip flops and my uggs and move on.

Oh...speaking a clothes, and a big Thank You shout out to the posters below: the window in Husbands closet has a roman shade that is down most of the time - it was up for the photo. Add to that the giant Peony Tree and the fact that the window is on the North side of the house and there is almost never direct sunlight. But I did bring it up with Husband before the flu set in and he said "Oh yeah wow, I didn't think of that. Tell them thanks." And then he started coughing and said something about curtains. If he hadn't been getting sick I would have thought the cough was to protect his manhood...after all, what manly man brings up curtains to protect his clothes?

I have no new house pictures, so I'll post this picture:


This house is on Minnesota right by the Willow Glen library here in San Jose. I'm not sure if you can see it even when you blow up the image, but in the second floor window - the one facing you with the shade pulled up - is a mannequin...I think it's Mark Twain. Like I said, this house is by the library and also on the street I take to get to quite a few shops, so I pass by regularly. Mark Twain (I'm calling him that, I don't care) is always posed in a different window, in a different position. It's creepy and awesome. I promise to get a better shot one of these days. And find out the story.

This is their front gate. I love the roosters.