Still Smoky

Above: The pasture at the junction of North Road and Buttercup where you turn off the main road (North) to come to my place. There’s another pasture on the other side of the road as well; their ever-changing tranquil beauty calms everyone who drives through them. Dwight took this shot the other morning at sunrise.

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My studio looks nicer than it ever has. I’ve set up the bed for Jess and Todd and the fire’s set, ready to light just before they arrive. (They aren’t coming for sure yet, and not until the twenty-sixth.) 

I have a weird little building, outhouse size, that’s out of sight to visitors because it’s behind my huge shed. I think it might have intended to become a sauna. It’s teeny weeny but excellently built, so I started filling it with stuff I don’t know what to do with, to create space in the shed for my outdoor furniture. I tidied the shed up as best I could to leave as much space as possible for wood chopping through the season.

So right now, Pinecone Park has never looked better. All the gardens look great, the lawns are back to green and all three buildings—the shed, studio and house—look as though I’m about to put the place up for sale, they look so good. It’s a lot of work to keep half an acre and all these buildings looking like Martha Stewart (without staff or wealth) lives here, but it’s what I do.

It was truly lovely yesterday. The smoke made it look like sunset all day—golden light giving everything a gorgeous Autumnal glow. It was as weird as it was beautiful, and it was really warm. I loved hanging my load of laundry out on the line. It didn’t seem smoky enough to make my clothes smell as if I were a smoker. Everything I did was fun because it was so warm and bright.

I took stuff to GIRO to recycle, got bags of pop cans and bottles to the local pet charity for them to cash in, hung the laundry load out to dry in the sun, mixed fertilizer and fed several plants and watered all the gardens. But the greatest part of the day was spent peeling and dicing Apples. I’m going to have plenty of tasty Winter desserts this Winter.

Late in the afternoon, I finally climbed into the spa before dinner, television and early to bed. Another fine day passed with my best friends: my pets and plants.

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Today’s looking gloomy this morning, but it’s still nice and warm. It’s going to be another day of compromised air quality. My only plan for the day is to stain the surface of my outdoor table. It’s suffered over it’s three winters outdoors, so I’m going to resurface the top and sore it, and all my outdoor furniture, in the shed this winter.

Otherwise, I haven’t a clue what Her Highness and I will do today, but we’ll have a good time.