New Bathroom Floor

Our house needed a lot of work when we moved in 13 years ago. I've hated the bathroom floor since the first time I saw it but there were other things I hated more so it had to wait until today to get replaced. We used Trafficmaster Allure which is completely waterproof and looks and feels like real wood. The color is blond maple. We prepped Friday night and it took 12 hours to install in the bath and the half bath. I still need to paint some trim but we are 90 % finished.

The old yucky linoleumAndrew hard at workIn progress
Finished

It's a Tough Job...

...but someone's got to do it. A honey locust with two dead limbs was the focus of Andrew's work today as high winds made it necessary to remove them so they didn't blow out and do property damage. You can get some perspective on the height of this tree by looking at the roof of the house in the first one and the top of the trees in the background in the second one.

Magnolia Blooms

The neighbors down the street have a huge magnolia tree. I was outing walking earlier in the week and couldn't resist sticking my nose right down in a blossom and inhaling the scent. I also had my camera with me so I snapped a couple shots. Magnolia's are often associated with the southern states where they thrive nicely because of the warm weather. We have a fringed magnolia in our yard but the blooms only lasted a couple days this spring. On a somewhat related note a friend loaned me a really good book called Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman. It's her first book and it takes place mainly in Savannah, Georgia in a setting which prominently includes a magnolia tree.

Daisy's Day Out

Daisy's groomer, who had groomed her for 6 years, had a baby and moved away. Since we were traveling a distance anyway and I didn't care for the woman who was hired to replace her I scouted around for a new groomer. I am happy to report we found a new grooming "salon" about 5 minutes from the house and a mile from work. Daisy went today. Sara told me that Daisy behaved well and she didn't seem to be in a big hurry to flee to the car when I came to pick her up so it seems as though this should work out. Doesn't she look cute?

HaPpY EaSteR

Happy Easter! We got a visit from Pip and PJ (Pip Junior). My parents and brother came to dinner and we had New England boiled dinner (a family favorite) and we ate way too much candy. The Easter Bunny aka Pip in the sage.PJ, who has been with Pip since last summer.I actually took the time to color eggs this year.

Yummy New England boiled dinner with ham.

CANDY!!
And just for fun I thought I would share this vintage postcard that I bought earlier this year at the Scott Antique show.

First Float Trip of the Season

We did our annual first float trip of spring down Big Darby today. It was cool, windy and cloudy but we still saw an abundance of wildlife including wood ducks, herons, geese, mallards, three kinds of turtles, a couple snakes, darters in breeding plumage and a huge tadpole. My college friend, who is a 5th grade science teacher, came along to refresh her field i.d skills and we had a nice time catching up since we hadn't seen each other for several years. (And it was just like old times since we spent the majority of our time in college learning species id and field sampling methods.) The rest of the group, for various reasons (none of them sound) baled out. Their loss. LOL

Beached canoe...

because luckily I saw this coming up before it "strained" us. Andrew will be removing this early next week.
Just ahead of the strainer was a nice spot to capture (and later release) rainbow darters in breeding plumage.

Male darter

Gravid (full of eggs) female darter.

Ginny with a baby painted turtle. Awww.Here is a close up of the little guy.

Huge bullfrog tadpole in a viewing container.

Satin Angora Baby Booties

I just finished up knitting these darling baby booties last night. My co-worker/friend Brenda is having a baby in May and we are having a shower for her at work next Wednesday. The yarn is 60 % red Satin Angora from Garnet and 40 % BFL from Lisa's fabulous sheep. The pattern is a cinch and they knit up in about an hour a piece.Booties

Garnet with a prime coat.