poplar road

Here is a "before" shot looking down the hallway towards the family room. It's astonishing the difference changing out the old dark brown door has made to the feel of the hall. And the white door combined with the stairwell light (thank you e & j) has banished my paranoia at having that door closed when using the stairs. We also switched it so it opens from the left, so when I approach it from the main living area I don't have to get past it first and open it all the way to reach the railing. Can't do anything about the steep steps, but it's an improvement. You should have seen how off square the framing was – over an inch to shim at the top left corner and the bottom right, and jutting forward at top and bottom while sunken in the middle. You'd think the walls were plaster there are so many dips and bulges in it. Typical.

In the bathroom, while I was cleaning off Richard's antique bottle collection to display on top of the vanity, he was delving into another kind of antique: 70's wallpaper, under the molding. No photo this time, but it was classic. A complex linear floral pattern in light and dark grey that must have made quite a show with the original white and blue tiles around the baby blue tub. Hah. By the way, does anyone else besides Mari Ann have a penchant for the old blue fixtures? No? All yours, Mari Ann, just as soon as we get to the master bedroom reno….

It's hard to tell by these photos, especially this small, but our bedroom walls are a deep reddish-purple to match our quilt. We actually took the fabric in to HD and fed it into a machine they have in the paints department, which tells you which paint chip it matches. Neat service, although we ignored all the suggestions of complimentary colours in favour of white. With the closet freshened up with white paint and new 6-panel doors, white trim and baseboards, the purple really doesn't darken the room that much. The contrast is exciting but the colours are comforting, as you'd want in a bedroom. We were thinking of refinishing our "pearlized" oak furniture, but now it suits this room perfectly. The only thing we still need is blinds. A scrap of fabric is just tacked up there for now.

We tidied up and moved our bed back in when we arrived home from the Island on Sunday night, and set Dagny up in the guest bedroom. She seems to have enjoyed sleeping on the brand new mattress, although the box spring is so thick she almost needed a step stool to climb in. Eventually, this room will be the bedroom half of the new master suite. The existing master bedroom (currently the work room) will be a walk-through closet and dressing room centred on French doors, donating a few feet on the west side to both the existing bathroom and a new ensuite layout. No idea when we'll get to that project, though it's tempting to finish it, rather than the downstairs guest suite, first.

Rather than painting while the weather was so gorgeous, I dragged Dagny out to the yard with pruning tools and we attacked some of the overgrown plants and weeds on Monday and Tuesday. The front yard looks much better, and I can point out some of our fruit trees. We recently found out we had more of them than we thought!

At the east side of the house to the left of the root cellar we have a large apricot tree. I adore apricots. Richard removed a fir and an ornamental crabapple that were stifling the apricot, and discovered another small fruit tree that our neighbour thinks is another apple. I can't wait until these are covered in blossoms! And, in front of the garage off the left edge of the photo is a very tall bing cherry. Other fruit-bearing plants include five or six grape vines, red currant bushes, and the Golden Delicious apple tree on the west side of the property.

Here you can see the severely pruned small Macintosh apple tree that gave us piles of fruit last fall, and beside it a large ornamental crabapple (one of several in the garden). Around the edge of the yard was a mess of tall grass and weeds, and an ugly, overgrown juniper. Dagny made short work of it while I razed the grass and thorny weeds to the ground. This southeast corner will be perfect for wildflowers (thanks Warren and Melissa for the seeds), and one or two plum trees that Dorothy next door is giving us from their over-crowded orchard. At right just at the start of our driveway are a small maple and signs of possible blackberries – though I'd try to move those to the back fence where the goats, llamas and deer can keep them from getting out of hand. But cutting all that stuff down with a pair of shears was hard work and I've given up the thought of doing the same around back. We pruned the lilacs and mountain ash instead. Chad and Maria, if you're reading this, could you stick Richard's weed-wacker in your trunk when you come visit? Thanks! This yard looks a lot bigger when I'm cutting 2 foot long grass a few blades at a time. Thank goodness we own a rake! (The one we bought for wheeling trips, to level the ground for our tent.)

Well, the owls are saying "Who's that still up at this hour, scaring away all those fat juicy mice!?" so I'd better finish up and get to bed. Have to drive Richard to work so he can take the Mog down to Chilliwack for the day tomorrow. Just wanted to share a wonderful moment from last night.

Dagny, Richard and I were sitting watching a movie when we got a call from Jonathan down at Goat Haven. Daisy the long-pregnant sheep had dropped the first of her lambs. In the time it took to put coats on and walk two doors down, she birthed the second, and when we arrived in the barn she was watching Jonathan's wife Sandra towel off its head while the first one quickly learned how to walk. We watched the second lamb try again and again to get its legs beneath him and stand. Daisy showed no concern, carefully licking both of them clean between mouthfuls of water, grain and hay. She hadn't had much of an appetite earlier in the day and was making up for it as fast as she could chew. She made a constant sound the whole time, between a bleat and a grunt, that apparently helps her bond with her sons.

I worried for the second lamb when he kept tumbling over into the tray of grain; but he got his legs steady and we cheered. It took longer for them to figure out how to nurse, especially with Daisy turning from water bucket to hay and knocking them off their feet, but they managed it. In this photo the younger one is less than 20 minutes old, and both a bit gruesome looking, but by this afternoon they were drier, cleaner, and absolutely adorable. I fed Daisy some lettuce and we watched them for a while.

In another two or three weeks, there will be other new arrivals as several goats, one of the llamas, and two of the dogs are nearly ready to give birth. And most likely all coinciding with the blossoms on the trees. Spring is on its way. Hurrah!