Cleaning & Organizing

That title sounds pretty frightening doesn't it? However, cleaning and organizing is what I was doing this morning. I vacuumed the basement — except the woodworking studio which contains Thom's tools guarded by killer spiders. They're not at all civilized like my friend Queenie. (Thanks, Kim, for your comment on my spider!) I've offered to help clean this room with him but Thom hasn't taken me up on it. I'm not allowed to move anything or (horrors!) chuck anything out in there so I prefer to do it with his supervision/assistance. In the meanwhile I ignore it. Then I cleaned off my back deck and patio furniture which always get covered in dirt while just sitting there innocently minding their own business. I watered all my potted plants, swept the front steps, and washed the dirt off the front and back doors. Here's the front door so you can admire it too. See the nifty wire basket? I made that with some help with the heavy wire bending from Thom. It's got orange, translucent white, and blue beads on it. I decorate it according to the season; right now it's orange begonias.

While I was cleaning I collected all the squirrel-pruned walnuts from my back deck and yard. Hopefully this time I'll remember to use them for dye before they degenerate into a really slimy smelly disgusting mess. Some fermenting is desirable but maybe not 3 years worth as happened last time. Thom threw it all out after I realized I just wasn't going to ever use it. I'm feeling optimistic this time. Heh-heh!

Squirrels are pests. These ones are black (sometimes grey but both are the same species) squirrels imported from Eastern Canada and they don't belong here at all. I guess some easterner got nostalgic and figured we needed more squirrels here or something. First they inhabited Stanley Park. Then some bright spark decided that we also needed some in Queen Elizabeth Park, so they transferred a few over. Now they are infesting the whole city like fuzzy-tailed rats! I haven't had a single walnut from my huge tree in over 10 years and I used to get pounds of them. I don't get any of my hazelnuts either. They don't eat my American chestnuts, but other people do. Guess the rats...er, squirrels don't like the nasty prickles on the husks. My cats are no help — they're scared of squirrels. Wait, I'm scared of them! They're 5 times the size of our native squirrels (which you never see in the city) and get seriously grumpy if you try to scare them away. I wish the coyotes would eat more of the little devils instead of making me keep my cats indoors at night.

Want to see some more of my pretty garden? Do you see a colour theme going here? Something about red-orange, white, and blue-violet (or violet-blue)? Hmmm...does it help more to know that my studio and study upstairs here are white walls with various combinations of blue-violet, red-orange, and yellow-orange trim on doors and windows?