Sunny Sunday

Sunny with a caveat.

We had two-and-a-half inches of rain last night–more rain than we needed, and now my yard is once again a swamp.

To make matters worse, Word Press is doing funny things today, so I’m not sure how this post will turn out. But.

Here’s a fern baby from my Japanese painted fern. It was a single frond when I moved it from the north side, and seems to be doing well. The full-sized ferns I transplanted died the day after being moved–upsetting because they were a few years old and very beautiful. I’ll be happy if this one survives, which it seems to be doing.

Well, I have a lot more to say, but Word Press just isn’t working for me. I keep getting a “Recover Web Site” message and I’m not sure why. Does anyone out there in Word Press land know?

Egress

For all the years I worked from home in a basement office, I had fire on the brain. With my horror-story sensibilities, I’d ask myself how I’d get out of the two foot by three foot window that–frankly–no one had ever opened.

Thus began the “egress discussion” that Jim and I would indulge in every six months or so. How to get out of the basement? This year, we finally decided that we’d look into getting an egress window dug. The impetus? HGTV. Of course.

We found Foundation 1, a local company and last week, they came out to hand dig around the foundation and put in a window. Here it is, Day 1.

We kept hoping it wouldn’t rain and, except for a light sprinkle on Day 2, we got lucky.

The prep for this was to utterly destroy my north bed where I had ferns and hostas. I was able to transplant most of the ferns–newer plants. My Master Gardener friend, Linda, graciously gave a home to the baby hostas springing up all over. Sadly, I lost the five-year-old Japanese Painted Fern, which had multiplied times three. I did save one of its babies, so there’s hope.

We did find a few frogs in the basement at the start of Day 2. Hmm.

Here is the window at the start of Day 2. A hole in the wall and a big pile of clay. That clay is a bit of a caveat on a five-star review. I can’t plant in it and the pile is high around the window, supposedly keeping out water. Since it rained an inch the day after the window went in, and our basement stayed dry, maybe there’s something to that. We’ll see if it settles as promised.

And the finished project at the end of Day 2. Of course, we still have to fix the interior wall, but we now have an escape hatch, complete with ladder.

A temporary but significant mess. And noisy.

We always say that this project is the last project. Maybe…

Windy Sunday

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Sunrise, Sunday morning. We’re expecting four days of rain. Meanwhile the temperature’s dropped and the wind chill is in the 30’s.

I’m a little worried about my tomatoes even though they’re protected by buckets. And so glad I waited before putting out the Ophelia eggplant.

Meanwhile, it’s a good day to stay inside and write.