Getting Ready for Spring

I love spring!  I get so antsy as the weather turns a bit warmer and the daffodils start to peak up through the ground.  I usually can't wait to dig around in the yard and the flower beds.  And, according tomost gardening experts, now is the time to get out there!  A common mistake many people make is waiting until the weather turns much warmer and flowers are beginning to bloom to pay attention to their yards.  Unfortunately, by then, it is too late to really prepare for your yard to show at its best.  At the end of February and early March, I begin the season by doing the following task list before I do anything else:

I'm in Zone 7, so this may not fit everyone's March to-do-list.  Those of you a little further north will want to wait a month or so...

• Remove all the leaves, twigs and fallen branches that have accumulated in the yard over the winter months.  Even though I removed all the leaves in the fall, there will still be some in the spring that have blown in over the winter.
• Trim up the foliage on the summer blooming perennials that are above the ground.  I normally trim up my evergreen herbs like rosemary, etc. during this time.  I also prune most of my roses in March.  Keep in mind that it is too late to prune your spring blooming perennials and shrubs (forsythia, quince, etc.)  - prune these later after the blooms have gone.
• Dig out all the weeds that have started to spring up in the flower beds.  As hard as it is to believe that those suckers can grow in February...they do.  Weeding now will reduce your job in this regard later in the year!
• Cut back vines and ivy that has grown out of its territory.
• Cut back ornamental grasses, including liriope, and the dead stems of perennials (I always leave these during the winter for the birds and other wildlife) to a few inches high.
• Loosen the old mulch with a cultivator (or in my case, a gloved hand) acorns and other dried plant matter that has accumulated around my shrubs and perennials.  Air needs to be able to better penetrate those roots!
• Reseed and fertilize the lawn.
• Fertilize my spring bulbs.

Here are some photos of our yard in spring and summer.  We are still in the planning and planting phases of our landscaping, and there is so much more to do, but we are quite proud of what we have accomplished.

Happy Gardening!

Jane Austen Meets Twenty-First Century Technology

 I have had an obsession with the novels of Jane Austen since I was a young girl.  I remember the first time I read Pride and Prejudice:  so began my maddening crush on Mr. Darcy that would last until...well...now.  The first time I watched the BBC's on-screen version of the novel, I fell instantly and madly in love with Colin Firth.  I mean, what woman couldn't?!   So, for the better part of my life, I have been a true Janeite.  I love having a membership to JASNA, the Jane Austen Society of North America, although my husband seems to have no understanding of this.  I pity him.  I cannot imagine my life without the influences of Jane Austen and her wonderful literary characters.  It was through reading the works of Austen that I first realized I wanted to major in English Literature in college.  And it is against those same works that I measure every other novel I have ever read. 

So, just imagine my excitement when I read about the BBC releasing a new interactive game for facebook based on Jane Austen and the characters of her novels!  Truly!  I was so astonished (in a good way), that I had to copy the press release here.  Read for yourself!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BBC Worldwide Limited

BBC WORLDWIDE TO CREATE A JANE AUSTEN GAME FOR FACEBOOK

Jane Austen’s Rogues and Romance coming to Facebook this Spring

LOS ANGELES, CA (February 23, 2012) – BBC Worldwide is preparing to bring the world of Jane Austen to Facebook in a new interactive game inspired by her work. Developed in partnership with Legacy Interactive, Jane Austen’s Rogues and Romance will re-create the world of her novels allowing players to take part in an imaginative adventure that follows the path of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy after they are married.

For almost 200 years Jane Austen’s work has stood the test of time with legions of fans worldwide enjoying her witty character portrayals and depictions of 19^th century English society. Her novels have inspired countless adaptations, prequels and sequels including The Jane Austen Book Club; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Clueless. Jane Austen’s Rogues and Romance will mark the first time her works have inspired an online social game.

Robert Nashak, EVP, BBC Worldwide Digital Entertainment & Games, explains, “Social interaction is at the core of Austen’s work and we felt that was a concept we could explore that had a natural synergy with Facebook. Rogues and Romance is a fun romp of a game that celebrates the world of Jane Austen.”

“I am a ‘Janeite’ of long standing and thrilled to be able to translate my secret obsession into a fun social game,” says Ariella Lehrer, CEO of Legacy Interactive. “We are determined to deliver an experience that passionate Austen fans will love, as well as gameplayers who know of Austen but have never read her novels.”

Jane Austen’s Rogues and Romance is set to launch on Facebook this Spring. The game takes Pride and Prejudice as its starting point following the newly married Elizabeth and Mr Darcy on a hidden object adventure with an intriguing twist. Players will be able to take their place in society leaving calling cards, attending and hosting receptions and pursuing courtships. Each player will have their own manor house and be able to indulge their penchant for fashion with a choice of Regency-era costumes.

For more information, please contact:
apps.facebook.com/janeaustengame
www.austengame.com

About BBC
BBC Worldwide Limited is the main commercial arm and a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The company exists to maximise the value of the BBC’s assets for the benefit of the licence fee payer and invest in public service programming in return for rights. The company has six core businesses: Channels, Content & Production, Sales & Distribution, Consumer Products, Brands, Consumers & New Ventures and Magazines, with digital ventures incorporated into each business area. In 2010/11, BBC Worldwide generated profits of £160 million on sales of £1158 million and returned £182m to the BBC. For more detailed performance information please see our Annual Review website:

www.bbcworldwide.com/annualreview

bbcworldwide.com

twitter.com/bbcwpress

So, for all those other Janeites out there, mark your calendars for March!  I know I will be counting the days!  :-)

And do, please, leave a comment for me, as "my idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company." (Jane Austen).

Dreaming of Darcy,

Wire Baskets: My latest fetish

You know, I am thankful that I can admit when I have a problem.  I am not sure that it helps the situation, but at least I CAN admit it.  My latest problem is:  I CAN'T STOP BUYING ANTIQUE (or antique-looking) WIRE BASKETS!!  I love them. I love the way they look.  I love the way I can store things in them...pretty things or useful things.  Things. I love things, too.  So it is important that I can store them in something fabulous. I adore the two above from The Pottery Barn.  They're the perfect size for the kitchen.

My most recent purchase of wire baskets were the two great looking ones from One Kings Lane.  They are treasures, and I use one of the larger ones on the kitchen cabinet to hold all of my cutting boards - it works perfectly. 

From Hudson Goods (hudsongoods.com)

I also recently purchased an antique, German apple picking basket.  It's in my husband's bathroom, and I use it to store his towels.  I roll the towels, and it's actually a pretty way to display something needful. 

Another one of my favorites is in our family room holding all of my magazines.  And I have others.  I am just waiting to try to decide what I can use them to hold or display.

And there will be more.  In fact, I just can't seem to help myself when I see one for sale.  I have found a terrific place for finding old wire baskets and other special vintage finds.  If you have a fetish like me, I promise you it will be well worth your time to visit Hudson Goods.  Be impressed.  This is a wonderful place!

Would love to hear about how others use their fantastic wire baskets! 

Happy Tuesday!

Antique Glass Insulators

  

Photo by Patrick Conn, PCONN, Flickr, "Around the House."



 My grandfather was a collector.  He collected everything from old tobacco cutters, to antique scales, to toy metal cars to coal company script.  One of his favorite things to collect was antique glass insulators.  A few years ago, my grandmother took me out to her old barn, showed me an old crate full of glass insulators, and told me they had belonged to my Grandfather...and now I could have them.  My "Granddaddy" was adored by my brother and me, so to inherit anything that had been important to him was a thrill for me.  They were dirty and heavy, but I somehow managed to heave the crate and its contents to my old car.  I still have all these old insulators, and every time I see them, they bring a smile to my face.  I have no idea WHAT to do with them, but they make me smile nonetheless. 

Photo by Julie Green, DestinyCaptured, Flickr

My husband has encouraged me to get rid of them.  I don't think I could do that.  These pieces of glass are a part of history.  Some glass insulators were made as early as the 1850's and used for telegraph lines.  Later, they were used for telephone and power lines.  Imagine all the communications that have passed by these little treasures!  If only THEY could talk!

Boston in the 1860's in front of Old State House.  Notice over the tops of the buildings all the old insulators!

Memphis, Tennessee, 1907, Union Depot. Wow...look at all the poles and all those insulators!

Louisville, Kentucky, 1906, Corner of Fourth and Main.  Here's a nice closeup of a pole with insulators...many, many insulators!

Hemingray Advertisement, 1926

In an attempt to find a creative way to display my antique glass insulators, I discovered on the internet an absolutely WONDERFUL idea!  Pendant lights made from glass insulators!  Below is a photograph of those listed on Remodelista.com.  Aren't they FABULOUS?  Now I won't rest until I can find someone who can turn my Granddaddy's old insulator collection into pendent lights for our house.

I am looking for other interesting things to do with these little pieces of glass.  If anyone has any ideas, I would truly appreciate you sharing them here.  I would love to find creative and wonderful ways of displaying these sentimental collectibles.

Emeralds in the Sky

A booming train derailed the silent night

The fallen poles in skins of moss unroll

A trains conductor pounding rails in-flight

Around the glass, and through the wires control

The rare conductors weren't common names

Those colored jewels, emeralds in the sky

Atop the threaded perch, flamboyant flames

Where mustard yeller insulators spy

A million miles of wire across this land

Converting sounds from golden amber girls

To ears of purple ponies on demand

With pleated skirts a dancing dancer whirls

The hemingrays beside the lost zicme

Between the poles a catenaries sag

Our saddened faces watch a crosses plea

In piles of poles and crosses, raise the flag

Memories wonder through our minds of glass

Our crystal balls of color now amass

In homes of those who wonder why, and as

Memories never fading from our eyes

Our minds release the emeralds to the skies.

~Wesley Willis, 2007

Happy end-of-July,



Hello, dear friends

Here come the irises...awakening after their long winter's nap. Seeing them is like welcoming home old friends!

What is making an appearance in your garden?

Wings for my Dream...

If you have followed my blog for any length of time or know me personally, you know how much historic preservation means to me.  It means a lot.  My husband and I were caught up in a battle a few years ago when the historic school house across the street from our home was torn down to make way for condominiums. It was a heart breaking experience, as we felt hopeless and nothing that we did made a difference!  The elected officials in the city had already made up their minds to have the structure destroyed. I will never forget standing in the street in front of the school the day they drove the bulldozer through the front doors. I cried. I cried not only for this beautiful old building, but for all that it had meant to the children who had once learned inside its walls...and for all the people who would never get to see it and for what it once stood. 

Before that sad day when we finally realized that the building would not be repurposed or restored as we had hoped, we quickly went about trying to have some of the beautiful architectural details inside the building saved:  the antique stairwell, the windows, the doorknobs and light fixtures.  The person in charge of the project would not allow us to go in and remove these items. When I asked to remove the old front doors right before the bulldozer drove through them, I was laughed at by the men from the demolition company and the by the developer.

The building is now gone, and what remains in its place is an empty dirt hole.  The developer never finished the project, and the city has seen nothing but heartache over this project. I vowed a few weeks after this happened that I would never be defeated so easily again.  With this said, I know that I will not be able to save every historic structure, but I certainly can try!  And if the structures cannot be saved, at least I want to try to salvage the beautiful architectural details that once made them so special.

I have long dreamed of opening a business that focused on architectural salvage, whether it be repurposed or sold to interior designers, architects or builders to use in other restoration projects.  But with a need to pay bills and support my family, I have never been able to pursue that dream due to financial commitments that cannot be postponed.  Start-up for a company of that type would take a bit of time and money.

Enter DOCKERS.  They have announced a contest called "Wear the Pants Project."  People like me who LOOOONG to pursue their dreams of doing something important and fulfilling can enter for a chance to win $100,000 to get their project started.  CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!?!  How wonderful!  Of course, I had to enter!  I've long had my business plan constructed and just lacked the financial means to follow it.  Dockers is giving one lucky person the chance to do just that! 

So, I'm looking for votes!  I NEED votes!  I would so much appreciate it if those who frequent my blog (and even those who just stop by on occasion) would PLEEEEEASE visit the link below and vote for my plan!  Please give wings to my dream.....I WANT TO FLY!

 CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR PAULA'S

"WEAR THE PANTS" PROJECT ON FACEBOOK!

Thanks to all for your much-needed and appreciated support!



Victory Gardens

As I plant my own vegetables and herbs this year, I am reminded of the old posters of the Victory Gardens that citizens were encouraged to grow during WWII. The images are some of my favorite vintage art even though they portray a time of unrest in the world; they also recall a time of great patriotism. The US School Garden Program also had amazing images of children in the garden. I have many vintage photographs of my grandmother in overalls with a scarf tied around her hair, so the first image reminds me so much of her. She was in her early to mid twenties during WWII and is a wealth of information regarding that era.

And thanks to people like my grandparents, we live in a time when we may garden simply for pure pleasure. I am grateful.

 

The year's at the spring

And day's at the morn;

Morning's at seven;

The hillside's dew-pearled;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in His heaven -

All's right with the world!

     ~Robert Browning

 

It has been a while since I posted, and I have missed it dearly.  We have been busy with yard sales and baby preparations and reclaiming our house after the remodel.  We have also been busy in our yard and garden.  Time certainly flies when one has one thousand things to do!

 

This year, instead of planting herbs and vegetables in a separate space, I have mixed them in among my flowers.  They are alongside the house in the flowerbeds and in the large ornamental spaces in front of the house.  That area receives the best sunlight, and all other places have failed to produce...so I decided to give this a try. Of course, I only grow peppers and tomatoes, along with the basic herbs: onion chives, basil, oregano, fern leaf dill, sage, rosemary, thyme, and parsley.  I am seeing this more and more in landscapes.  I would love to hear from others who mix their herbs and veggies in with their ornamental flowers.  We are thoroughly enjoying the warmer weather and our time out of doors.  Soon, the weather will turn so hot that we will avoid the midday in the garden, so we are enjoying it now while we may.  We currently have irises blooming, as well as our beautiful clematis vines...so full of blooms that you couldn't count them all!  One of the prettiest irises I have this year is a gorgeous peach color.  We are anxiously awaiting our new blooms courtesy of the landscaping project we completed back in the fall:  cone flowers, dianthus, black-eyed susans, and more showy blooms.

 

 

April is a promise that May is bound to keep. ~Hal Borland

Happy gardening and flowering!

Antique Card Catalog

For as long as I can remember, I have had a love affair with books. Not just books, but libraries filled with books. As a child, I enjoyed going to our small town's library and getting lost in the stacks of books, reading the back covers, having a difficult time deciding which I would check out because I wanted to check out all of them. In elementary school, our class would go to the library one day a week. I would check out the maximum books allowed and carry them home with me. My favorites I checked out over and over again. Many years later, the woman who had been my elementary school librarian decided that Harold and the Purple Crayon should be retired. Since she remembered that this was one that I checked out over and over again, she signed the inside of the well worn cover and brought it to me. Of course, I was thrilled. Now that little tattered book is among my collection of first editions and author-signed books, as it is as important to me as any of those...perhaps even more.

Another thing I loved about libraries was the old card catalogs. I loved reading them! So, imagine my delight when poking through an old junk store, I spied in the back corner under piles of "stuff" a dusty antique card catalog that called out to me louder than if it could speak. I got so excited over this scratched old cabinet with it's twelve drawers that I could barely ask the price of the old man who ran the store. Fifty dollars. He actually said fifty dollars. I couldn't believe it. Of course I yelled, "Sold." and went up to immediately pay him, and I couldn't get it loaded in my car fast enough. It barely fit across the back seat, but it did...as if it was meant to be. When I got home and asked my husband to help me unload the car of a true treasure, he looked at me as if I had lost my mind when he saw it. "Where in the world are you going to put it," I remember him asking. "I don't know, but I have to find a place!"

The photo above is not my cabinet, although this one has twelve drawers. Mine is two drawers high and six drawers wide! I love it!

I believe I know the perfect place. In my new studio. It will look wonderful in there and serve as a great cabinet to hold paint brushes, tubes of paint, pencils, etc. I cannot wait to take the orange oil to it and see how that old wood shines. I bet the patina is amazing. For now, it sits among the other furniture all piled in our guest bedroom awaiting the finish of the remodel. I can't even get in there to take a photo of it right now, but soon....

This will be a project that will touch my heart and lift my soul. I can't wait to see it in its new home.