Posted in cottage, garden, gardening, landscaping, tagged cottage, garden, watering system on July 19, 2008 | No Comments »
Good thing summer came late this year because it took us until last week to figure out how to get water to (almost) every corner of our compact garden. The solution came, as many have, from the Lee Valley catalogue. I love that place. While this is an unsolicited endorsement, I don’t want to discourage any [...]
Posted in blogs and bloggers, community, renovation on July 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Last week the very kind soul who is B over at A Cotterpin House awarded my efforts with an ‘E’ for excellent. As a condition of acceptance, the honoured blogger is asked to award ten other blogs with an ‘E’. Mathematical laws suggest that we will all have an ‘E’ ere long, but this does not prevent [...]
Posted in cottage, garden, gardening, landscaping, tagged garden, gardening, perennial, plant identification, plants on July 10, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Do be kind and have a look.
Though I am beginning to feel intimately attached to my perennials, I have yet to be formally introduced to many of them. Now that they are coming into bloom, I beg leave to impose on you, gentle readers, to perform the introductions.
The tall stalks with blue flowers I had half-imagined might [...]
Posted in cottage, garden, gardening, tagged cottage, cottage life, deer, garden, wildlife on July 7, 2008 | 4 Comments »
When I was at the cottage last weekend, one of the first things I noticed was that the geraniums were looking a bit flattened - “like something was laying there…” I mused.
A few hours later, I noticed a doe snacking on my neighbour’s apple tree. The next evening, some local friends told us they had dropped [...]
Posted in Euro cup soccer, cottage, kids, paint, renovation, tagged cottage, cottage life, family and friends, porch, porch roof, renovation on July 2, 2008 | 2 Comments »
This door - officially the ‘front door’ - has long been exposed to the elements. When we bought the cottage six months ago the inspector noted the foundation was a bit damp on this corner. Later we found that the light bulbs in the motion-lights were full of water. A porch roof went on the ’sooner rather than later’ [...]
Posted in Charitable giving, Modern Life, blogs and bloggers, community, contests, renovation, tagged One Project Closer, Before and After contest, home renovation, Habitat for Humanity, contest on June 21, 2008 | 1 Comment »
My Best Friend Fred has come up with a fun summer contest that you should know about - especially if, like me, you have a few home projects on the go. Best of all, its in aid of a good cause.
Fred and his team at One Project Closer invite you to send them Before and After photos of a [...]
Posted in Euro cup soccer, community, favourite things, tagged Euro cup soccer 2008, Holland on June 20, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Years of watching my kids play soccer in sleet and drizzle - surprisingly - did not make me a fan of the game. That happened when Cottager and I accidently planned a cycling holiday in the Netherlands that coincided with the 2000 Euro Cup. We watched games in pubs and hostels, on a jumbotron in the [...]
Posted in Jane Austen, community, cottage, tagged cottage, cottage names, Jane Austen on June 4, 2008 | 4 Comments »
We’ve had a few half-hearted discussions on this topic during the last 6 months. We both acknowledged that a name is an important thing for a potential rental property. For us it’s just ‘the cottage’ or ‘Gibsons.’
I thought something to do with the bamboo would be good. Lucky Bamboo? Blue Bamboo? Bamboo is very hip; [...]
Posted in cottage, decorating, decoration, garden, paint, renovation, tagged cottage, white-on-white, paint, beach house decor on May 24, 2008 | No Comments »
Like a bolt out of the blue, I opened my morning paper yesterday to learn that country style-guru Mary Emmerling has written a book on beach cottage decor: Mary Emmerling’s Beach Cottages: At Home by the Sea . My birthday is just a few weeks away . . . so hopefully I can provide a full review mid-July. Meanwhile, there are some juicy [...]
Posted in Modern Life, cottage, family, kids, tagged camping, cottage, cottage life, family, Modern Life, parenting on May 22, 2008 | 1 Comment »
A long weekend and a great forecast had us heading to the cottage for three nights, where we were joined by some of our city neighbours for barbecues, campfires and lots of laughs. We have an enormous deck on the steep slope behind the cottage where a previous owner had a hot tub, and it seemed [...]
