Making Progress

We've been having another stretch of damp and rainy weather, but during some breaks in the rain, we managed to stain the steps off the back of the barn. We hope this will help these steps last a new more years before we have to replace them. We had to debate over staining and mowing the lawn -- in this case, the lawn will have to wait.

Antonio has made excellent progress with scraping the barn, and we power washed lots of paint off the back wall, too, so we are now just waiting for things to dry out enough to sand and paint. In addition to painting the barn, we've got to do the dormers on the house (we'll rent scaffolding for that) and stain both decks. Those are the big projects of the summer, although some of the smaller projects are not that much smaller.

In the gardens, the delphinium, white meadow rue, mountain laurel, white astilbe and purple salvia are blooming now, along with the deep pink peonies. The delphiniums love the cool wet weather, until flowering time, then the rain can really beat up the blossoms, especially as I have yet to find a staking method I like for the delphiniums. Usually the peonies and the purple salvia look great together, but the rain really flattened the peonies this year.

In addition to working on house projects, we have been walking every morning for a good hour with our friend Lynn of Pics-elated. I hope we get a routine established that will survive Lynn's 3-week trip out west. Although Dan and I know the long brisk walks are good for us, it seems like there is so much else clamoring for our attention that it is hard to stick to the routine andspeaking of routine, time to get ready for this morning's walk!