Garden Planning

The days are getting longer. After what seemed like a full two solid weeks of gray skies, there have been brilliantly blue sunny skies. Even though I start to get seed and plant catalogues after Thanksgiving, I simply pile them on the ottoman and don't really start looking at them until now. It's kind of useless to plan when I haven't the cash to make any purchases.

Over the weekend, I sorted through the stack, recycling over 75% of them. It's time to start thinking of what I want this year. I reconfigured where the flowers were on the deck last year.

Usually, this corner is flowers. I had zinnias in a pot to the left, as you're sitting, of the chair. I bought that mesh table because Pilchard likes to sit on the ottoman to the right of the chair where the ground feeder rests. That didn't leave a spot for me to put my book, my tea, my cross-stitch projects. So another table was in order. I wanted to sit and watch the squirrels to the left when they feed on the tree stump.

Mainly, changing where I sat was a function of sunlight. It's at my right side and back, instead of my left side and front. So that left the south side of the deck free for the organization of plants.

By the time I got the plants outside, due to chilly weather, they'd spent a couple of weeks in a box and in the sink getting watered.

They were leggy and a bit awkward. I wound up losing three of them. But that taught me when I order this year, delivery can't be until May 1st. April weather is just too dicey and I need to be able to put these out within a week of arrival. 

The rest recovered nicely. 

The wave petunias, grown to cascade over the side of a pot, lasted until early September. I have to quit ordering primrose. As pretty as they are, they do not blossom for me and don't do well in pots on my deck. They are akin to pansies in that they don't like hot weather.

I don't like the strawberries I ordered last year, but I can't remember what the name of the ones were I ordered the year before. Maybe I should forego strawberries as the squirrels get to them before me. The geraniums were a bit leggy when I put them outside, but a trimming back made them nice and bushy.

This was a nice arrangement. The birdbath, however, was not used nearly as much as it had been in previous years. I don't think creatures felt safe. One of the issues is that the gutter is bent to the south of the door and when it rains heavily, water cascades onto the deck and anything below it. I'd move flowers to that section of the deck, but they would be drenched and probably destroyed by rain. I have a problem, as it is, with squirrels digging in my plants.

I think I need to move the birdbath closer to the deck steps this year. I also have to put the pot on the railing up onto something to allow air to circulate under the pot. I don't have enough of those plastic things I use under deck pots. I have had them for years and don't know if I can find anything like that anymore.

The moonflower, datura, which goes in the pot by the steps, didn't do as well as in the past. The alyssum did wonderfully, but the moonflower just didn't grow very big. I missed the giant trumpet blossoms and the intoxicating fragrance. The area around this pot has been cleared, but this year, landscape fabric and mulch is going down in this location. It's near the air conditioning unit and that area is going to be cleared so the unit is free of weeds for air circulation.

So the temperatures are going to be in the mid to upper 40's this next week. The back yard is a swamp. I'm itching for spring to get here and for flowers and plants to brighten the yard again.

Beverage:  Assam tea

Deb

Things I See - Exploding Eyeballs Edition

I was in a space some time ago where this was the wallpaper in one of the rooms.

I've been trying to think of something complimentary to say but I simply cannot. This was on all four walls. If this had been a bedroom, I could not imagine sleeping here. I have no idea of the age of this wallpaper.

I just put this out there for you to look at. I see a lot of design which inspires me, but I also see a lot which befuddles me, completely and totally.

Beverage:  Assam tea

Deb

Look Up

How many of us look up? Seriously. When you're going from point A to point B, do you look up, straight ahead or down? I have to admit I tend to look down. I've reached the age where not falling is a thing to be savored so I watch where I walk. And, I find a lot of loose change, but there is so much above our heads which we don't see because we look straight ahead or we are looking down. Here is a case in point.

Is that not a different ceiling? It was in the entry of a building where I had a couple of inspections. The building is over 100 years old. I have no idea if the ceiling is original and lovingly restored, or something from a later renovation. It's just different.

Here is the ceiling of the area outside the elevator on the floor where I had inspections.

I was told this is gold leaf. This is not original to the building but was added in the 1920's. You can see the edges of the thin sheets of gold. 

Finally, this was the ceiling of a room I inspected.

Granted, I would notice things like this because I get paid to look at the floors, walls and ceilings, but it made me realize that looking up gives you more beauty than your narrow down or across focus. I wonder what other ceilings I've missed.

Beverage:  Hot Cocoa

Deb

The Things I See - Public Space - Part 4

One final note on Old St. Patrick's Church. One weekend every summer, the intersection of Adams and Halsted is closed for "The World's Largest Block Party". I remember when they held their first one. It was to raise money to fix something in the church. Membership had declined and the Archdiocese of Chicago was considering closing the church. The block party was touted as a way for the city to recognize the historic significance of the church and to support keeping it alive. I think the party stretched over a weekend. Now, it's just one full day, but proceeds still benefit the church and its attached school.

At the time of the first block party, the neighborhood was crumbling. I'm thinking it was early 1980's when they did the first one. In my 17 years with Vibra-Tech, I've seen huge redevelopment of the area around the church. There are groceries and restaurants and condos. Channel 26, WCIU, is here. Oprah's old studio is a half-mile away. That site is currently being redeveloped. A lot of the seedy bars have been removed. A hotel is going in up the street. Greektown starts immediately south of the church and there are many restaurants which have come into that area.

Across the street is a park. The park contains a statue.

On this day, the benches in the park were full of people eating lunch, reading, listening to music, looking at their phones, etc.

The statue, a gift from Chicago's sister city, Galway, Ireland, is meant to represent the Irish immigrants who left their homeland and came, specifically, to Chicago. These immigrants built and maintained this church.

The green space to the north and east of this statue had children playing. Every city needs these kinds of spaces. There is a parking lot to the north which I can see becoming redevelopment material at some point, given all the construction in the area. But this space won't be developed. That's good.

Beverage:  Assam Tea

Deb