House cleaning and books.

I don't know about you, but I don't think "spring cleaning" is for gardeners.
What a waste of spring!
I'm in the middle of a pretty radical "winter cleaning", November is just perfect.

In the process I went on ebay to see what I could get for all the garden books I no longer need.
I came across this listing and thought I'd post it here.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=018&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=280050152033&rd=1&rd=1
The "A to Z" alone is worth the price and shipping, assuming folks don't start bidding (it was just re-listed, no bids).
I already have it and the others aren't what I need, so they're not for me (shade gardening, Western, vegetables, etc) but it's a good deal for the right person.

I'm currently enjoying Beverley Nichols, recommended by Sempervirens (Thanks!). "Merry Hall" seemed like a good place to start.
I love the man running out to buy two urns for the pillars, when the place is a total shambles, needing everything BUT, including roofing and plumbing!
That's me. The sight of something perfect in all the mess gives me the energy to tackle the drudgeries that "should" be done first!

Acquiring some fabulous chairs for my studio (they're not even here yet), got me started on cleaning out the whole place, 30x40 feet and 25 very active years!
So much of it is now obsolete, it can just get hove out with no pain. When you're not planning to ever move again in your life and don't entertain a lot, things tend to slide, don't they?
Especially if you're mostly outdoors April-November unless you're working ;o)

How about you people? When do you clean up?

OK - I give up, who's there?

I don't think there is any way to get through the holidays without cleaning. We aren't really hosting anything, but people always stop by then. Not much to add on the books - good luck with your plans.

Al

c-c-c-cleaning? Is that really necessary? I still have gaura, nasturtium and trumpet honeysuckle blooming and the rule is no cleaning until the last flower dies. If I'm lucky the cyclamen will hold out until the hellebore starts.
Actually, I moved my studio out of the house into the new studio. No one can find me now, I'm free. Of course I have to work, work, work (Eloise) but I never have to clean again.
I'm glad you like Merry Hall.

I'm so far behind with cleaning......
I got the main bathroom cleaned this morning, just in time for unexpected visitors this afternoon, phew I lucked out. lol.
If you are looking for a good novel to read I highly recommend Michael Robotham's "Suspect". Fast paced, articulate, exciting with a climax that will keep you reading until the end.
Andy P

Ok, Al, "Dwane".

I c-c-c-can't believe you still have Gaura and Nasturtium Sempervirens! Trumpet honeysuckle, what's that!
I've had my three weeks of mourning, adjusted to inside life (oh, well, other than another 100 Narcissus mix and 25 more lilies, Van Engelen sale)
and now I have Open House and a brochure to put together, I don't want to know about your Cyclamen and Hellebores!! Fat fun they'd be under 2' of snow!!
I always wonder about "winter interest" when I look at the snow. Do you people shovel your garden paths? I can barely get the building and vehicle accesses clear, forget about hundreds of feet of grass paths!

The cleaning is incidental, the rearranging and heaving out is really what's stimulating. Real cleaning here is done by professionals. I can't afford to do it myself.
Talk to me after 25 years in your new studio, hehe.

Andy, that's too adult for me. I'm into comic books (Neill gaiman, etc.) and Tom Robbins. Crime bores the daylights out of me, articulate or no.

Here's a test-pic from my studio last year, I tried using it as a set, didn't work, but I kept the trees.

Dwane who?
Is that you in the picture & what do you do? Looks interesting.

Andy, I'm right there with you - always behind in cleaning :) Although we did have guests from Nantucket last month and I got a head start before the holidays!

Once I picked up the knitting needles last year, after many years of them laying idle, I don't read as much as I used to - except for the numerous gardening magazines and catalogs! However, I did read an interesting book this summer, brought back fond memories of the Northeast - Beautiful Madness: One Man's Journey Through Other People's Gardens http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Madness-Journey-Through-Peoples/dp/B000H5ULRK/sr=8-1/qid=1163935033/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-2946305-4565764?ie=UTF8&s=books. The author, James Dodson, is someone I'm not familiar with - writes books and articles on golf. The first customer review posted on 06/30/06 pretty much sums it up for me:

noknok, no spring cleaning here either. Don't get out of school until the end of June and I'm already behind on garden chores. Don't know how you and sempervirens, having studios, find the time to do anything.

Today is super push to find the dining room. Still have two kids at home and a mother locally who comes to Thanksgiving dinner. Have to have a table and a walkway to it for Mom.

My foxgloves are still blooming too.

My studio was supposed to be the basement, but it's not reliably dry enough, so I dabble in stained glass in the winter months, mostly in a classroom at the High School. Most of my equipment is packed away. What with teenagers, a nearly full time job, and my mother's needs there's not much time for a studio in the winter anyway.

As for books, Just received The Garden Color Book and am using it to plan "cottagy" gardens for the spring. And, I'm recently enthralled by Gabeldon's "Outlander" series which should keep me pleasantly entertained for the season.

Oh, and I still have bulbs to plant.

Dwane the tub, I'm dwowning.
That's my DD and BF (and Dogboy) in "Faerie" outfits, I'm a costumer. Here's the item in context
http://www.moresca.com/shopping/product_details.php?id=318
from the '05 flyer, shot off a trampoline. We can't seem to make enough of these things!

Debbie, DD is an avid knitter, she wants us to keep Icelandic sheep. My bookkeeper is chairman of the NY Sheep and Wool festival, I'm surrounded! Since it's impossible for me to watch someone knitting without doing it, we now have a lot of scarves floating around (I don't have time for the elaborate stuff my girl makes). TV around here means we either knit or rip thousands of petals off silk flowers, to be assembled for the Faerie stuff.
I'll have to borrow the Dobson book from the library. The book links don't work, for good reason, you're signed in! Sounds interesting though, I looked it up.

Candy, hope you find your dining room, hehe. Indian Summer's over, so you can't barbecue!
If you're bored by Friday (and Mom) stop over, our Open House starts at 11 AM. Bring the kids, we're usually considered pretty cool by the peanut gallery.

I'm trying, I'm trying. I really am trying to clean house. Really. It is just very, very hard when it is sunny outside or/and when I have internet connections. sniff. Handy hint - have a folding table to use for eating on when guests come!

When our days are nearing their end, how many of us will look back and wish we had spent more time doing housework?

Dave - are you nearing the end of your days?

Well, you caught my daughter's interest. She wants a Cotte Dress. Peanut Gallery they're not, 18 and 15. Merrill has been fascinated with Renaissance for years. I don't think I'll tell her where you are until she gets a job.

Al, Just this one.

Actually, I might wish I'd done it more, Dave.
I suddenly know where all my tools are (if you don't know where it is you don't have it). Working tonight is almost alarmingly friction-less.
As far as what you eat on, the best meals in my life have been eaten on saw horses.

noknok, thanks for the heads up re: the link for Dobson's book. Looking back at my post - I can't figure out what I was doing - unfortunately I can't even edit it this morning - so I'll give it another whirl - try this:
http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Madness-Journey-Through-Peoples/dp/0525949356/sr=8-2/qid=1164014127/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-2946305-4565764?ie=UTF8&s=books

well that didn't work either - when I hit preview the link looks fine, but when I send it - it goes crazy??? And still won't let me edit it - "too many edits today"???

Dave, I will NEVER wish I had spent more time doing housework - not this day, not yesterday, not tomorrow, nor when my "days are nearing their end" - LOL

noknok,
Trumpet honeysuckle is Lonicera sempervirens our native honeysuckle, my favorite vine. I have long ago run out of garden space, up is all the real estate I have left to use.
Reorganizing is an ongoing process for me in a small space, I am determined not to allow the studio to get out of hand. If something new comes in, something else is purged. Can you hear the slight anxiety underlying that strong declaration? As one of the "You people", that shovel the garden pathways - yes, I need winter interest. Can't you train the sheep to eat the snow in a line along the pathways? I vote you get the sheep.
candy,
Just take over the dining room for your studio, with no dining room you don't have a table then you have to go to someone elses house. I also tried the basement for a studio, it was rather bleak,
YCat,
You still have to move things around to fit the folding table. Those things seem to disappear for weeks.
rcn46,
I like the Dobson book suggestion.

You don't have to move anything around if you open the table in a pathway through the room. If it is wide enough to walk through - it is wide enough to sit in!

I like that Sempervirens. New studio, no dining room table to clean and no cooking! Viola!

Dave, if my days were coming to an end, I think I'd feel pretty guilty leaving this mess to my DH and kids. Maybe, anyway.

Noknok, finding tools is good. I can only find my gardening tools in the winter when I no longer need them. And if I turned my dining room into a studio, I wouldn't have to hid all the stained glass stuff and I'd be able to find it (in theory anyway).

YCat,
Pathway? Where?

Ya gotta go to the refrigerator and the bathroom (not necessarily in that order) sometime. There is your pathway.

I like Dave's philosophy! Here we have far too many books (especially cookbooks) and this winter I'll go through them and make decisions.

Cleaning windows is my favorite interior job but outside I'm still bleach water deep in cleaning dahlias, still have alyssum, coleus, dusty miller, petunias, pelargoniums, CHERRY TOMATOES, roses (Graham Thomas looks so wonderful in November) and the daylily 'Pretty Gaudy' has bloomed last week and three other times this month, with more buds to go. One more daylily (one of ours) with two scapes and about 40 buds - keeping my fingers crossed since it once bloomed for Christmas.

Cleaning is boring!

Candy, bet your kids would not feel the same way!

Dave, Umm. They'd be sad. Then they'd be mad cause they'd have to get rid of all the stuff!

Almost done. Here's the new sitting area in my workshop.

Here's another area in the shop. I'll have to find out what all that stuff under the work tables is. Overlooked it until i saw the picture. Same thing happens in my gardens all the time; -I miss it, but the camera doesn't.

Wow, you've been busy! Looks like a great place to work... or relax, no, no, I mean work.

Nice room. I love the lamp!

I second the love on the flower lamp!

Thanks! I made it out of old clothing rack pieces, pipe, wire and some fabrics, all on hand except the wiring components. It was pretty tricky but a lot of fun. the top swings wide.
This is the first overhaul since 1992. At that time I was the bookkeeper as well, things HAVE gone in the right direction!

Here's another angle, including some of the machines, we actually do work in here too Candis ;o)

I've been slowly making my way through the book recommendations from the Finally thread. I like to actually see the books, particularly the picture books before I purchase any. One of the Thomas Hobbs, Garden Gallery - Little and Lewis, and Succession Planting -
Christopher Lloyd are all on my list.
I found, online, an interesting book called The Wild Braid; A Poet Reflects on a Century of Gardening
by Stanley Kunitz,( previous Poet Laureate) with photos of his garden. It contains the poem " The snakes of September", a wonderful poem I heard on the local public radio station. Any one seen this book? A book a little off the gardening topic is also poetry by Kunitz called "A Celebration " with Robert Motherwell (elegance) and Philip Guston (grit) listed as illustrators! I can't imagine this juxtaposition. Have any poetry lovers or artists seen this book? It is out of print and I'd have to order used, sight unseen, and I am expecting this great clash and slip and slide of images.

So is the cleaning and organizing complete and the reading starting for anyone yet?

This message was edited Dec 1, 2006 6:12 AM

sempervirens, I read every night. Fantasy fiction. It's about going somewhere else and shutting out real life. I particularly like epics because then I can have familiar characters that I return to over and over. Gardening books I mostly buy for reference and read them piece meal, a little here and there. As for cleaning and organizing Noknok has me over a barrel. I found the dining room table and its actually still visible. But I'd much rather research and read and learn things than clean my house. What about you? You prefer poetry? The Stanley Kunitz book sounds lovely.

Nok, What a gorgeous wood piece against the wall in your workshop!!

I washed the couple of windows that I look out of - so I guess Fall cleaning is complete for me! As soon as I get the cold frame planted I can start reading - no - I have to do Christmas presents and mail them to family on the West Coast, make something for everybody at work for Christmas and then I can start reading!
Edited to add that I have to run down and clean up the basement and dust the furnace because the service guy is coming tomorrow and I want him to think that it will last through another winter. It has made at least thirty - no reason to stop now.

This message was edited Dec 1, 2006 9:48 PM

candyinpok,
I found the Stanley Kunitz books when I googled literary garden on B&N. I do need some really good garden books to get over winter withdrawal, otherwise my tastes in reading material vary widely . I also listen to audio books while working. I haven't tried fantasy fiction in a while but do recall enjoying " The Last Unicorn", not sure of the author maybe Peter Beale- more charming then epic.
I actually do have a dining room with table but don't tell anyone- I like Ycats style- as long as there is a path.
My winter garden project will be to redesign my small fence line garden with native vines, shrubs and small trees to cover the new playground the school put in. I have very little left back there between moving things for a construction project and the school clear cutting all the Stryax I had limbed up and allowed to cover the top of the fence. It looks completly bald now. Edited to ask for suggestions.
noknok-great chairs and space.

This message was edited Dec 2, 2006 3:21 AM

This message was edited Dec 2, 2006 6:09 PM

Um, tall and narrow? Evergreen would be good since in the summer there won't be kids there. I don't have an answer to what to use, however. But then you'd have a nice blank green slate against which to stage other plants. Also not delicate in case they're playing with balls back there and they get kicked over the fence. Looks sort of shady, is it?

The fantasy fiction began when my children were school-aged and I began working in the school. I was assigned to read "Lion, Witch and Wardrobe" with a reading group and became enthralled. Until then I'd never considered sci-fi or fantasy as desirable reads. I read non-fiction and biography. We went through the Narnia series, the Harry Potter series and then I began searching for material to continue the trend and expanded into my own adult reading experience. I have a strong preference for the historical fantasy, not other sorts of sci-fi and I've also read a lot of straight historical fiction of late. Just so long as it's not contemporary. I need an escape from contemporary issues, hence the historical aspects. They issues are the same of course, but the context is different. Guess it's like changing the siding on a decaying building, it looks better because the outside looks different.

Sempervirens, you could borrow them all at the library and check them out first?
That's what I'm going to do with the Staley Kunitz book. Whatever they don't have they
bring in from other libraries.
Some of them may give you ideas for your fence. How about one of those variegated ivies?
They do well with low light and really brighten up a place. Mixed with Virginia creeper they
can be spectacular in the fall. I have lots of that for SASE if you need some.

I gave all my surplus garden books to a gardener friend, I get visitation rights as long as he still
has them. Sort of having the cookie and eating it. He has lots of shelf space.
The rest went to Salvation Army.

Thanks Dave, I got that (in pieces) for 150 bucks when I bought the house. It was hard to tell
exactly how tall it would assemble, I got lucky! It's packed with trims now.
I did get those huge cobwebs that the camera found, and I'm touching up that badly masked
door tonight.

YCat, hehe, me too, I only clean the window that looks out on my bird feeders!

Candis, oh boy, have I got a list for you! Ursula LeGuin (the sequels to the "Earthsea trilogy"!)
and Mary Stewart's Merlin books (The Chrystal Cave, etc.) for the fantasy department.
For historical fiction, Dorothy Dunnett "The Lymond Chronicles" ("The Game of Kings", etc.)
That'll keep you from cleaning all winter! You have to give it a bit to start, her english is very dense,
but it's really worth it. There's a very sweet book by a Shellaberger (?) called "The Prince of Foxes",
and all the "Brother Cadfael" books by Ellis Peters, "Kristin Lavransdatter" by Sigrid Undset,
and scads of others I can't think of right now.
If you'd like, you can borrow them from me, Neighbour, but the library should also have them all.

Noknok,

I've already read Mary Stewart and Ursula LeGuin. I'll look into the others. I buy a lot at the Amazon site, used books. Thanks for the offer of loans. Right now I'm reading George Martin's latest book A Feast for Crows. Then I'll go back to Gabaldon's series. That one seems pretty good.

Are the Ivys evergreen?