Gloria's Fairy House

This is the story of a special present to celebrate a very special birthday for a very very special person. This is the story of Gloria's Fairy House.

For her birthday this year, I tried something I've never done. I built her present, I didn't cook it.

It started about 18 months ago when we got new windows for the house. I salvaged some of the old windows before they were taken away. I think they were original to the house when it was built in the 60's. So they have some history with the property.  I also picked up a couple more from an architectural salvage place called Second Chance in Baltimore.

The six-pane windows were from the house and the square two are from Second Chance.

The first step was to build a solid foundation. I tried to cut down the spindles to use as legs, but they were too flimsy to support the project I had in mind. So, I came up with an alternative to be sure the Fairy House would be solid.

With a base built, I turned to building a box to mount the windows. Pretty straightforward DIY stuff, but still new to me since I'd never tried anything like this before. The closest I had done was putting together IKEA furniture.

Here you can see the new base and the frame for the roof pieces.  I actually used my high school geometry to calculate the size of the roof frame based on the size of the two windows I had for the roof. 

After the frame of the house was built, it was time to attach the windows.

Windows attached!  And I even included two hinged windows to allow for easy access to the interior.

I was feeling good about the project. It did end up being larger than I had envisioned and is really too big for the spot I was thinking about putting it out front of the house.

It was done in time for her birthday and I moved her Fairy Garden from under the bushes by the front door to the new Fairy House under the cherry tree in the backyard.

I don't know if it was more fun for me than for Gloria, but I really enjoyed tackling it and having a successful project done in time for Gloria's birthday party.

Happy Birthday my love and thanks for all the magical moments we've shared over the years we've had together.

Bloom Day - April 2015

I've got blooms again after a long winter.  I haven't tried to participate in the garden bloggers Bloom Day posts since last fall.  But now that I have something to share, I'm going to start posting again. If you haven't heard of it, Bloom Day is the 15th of the month and is a chance for garden bloggers to share what is in bloom. It is hosted by May Dreams Garden blog - an entertaining and fanciful blog full of the exploits of her garden fairies.

I recently got a new camera and have been taking a lot of pictures as I learn the new capabilities of the camera. So, I don't want to limit myself to just pictures from one day. In my reading, one of the suggestions is to take time in post processing to capture the best image, much like it would have been done with film, in judging the exact time in the chemical baths o set color, contrast, exposure, etc.  I am taking more time and do not want to rush through a batch of snapshots when I already have a collection of images of the same subjects. So, I am going to expand the concept of bloom day to include images of what is currently in bloom, but that might have been taken before the 15th of the month.

So, on to the early bloomers in the garden this year.

Cherry Blossoms

This is iconic in the Washington DC area.  The Cherry Blossom Festival is a perennial rite of Spring as the weather finally starts feeling warm and people come out to the national mall for weeks of events celebrating the cherry blossoms.  I have two ornamental cherry trees and these pictures are from my trees; I did not go downtown to face the crowds when I could just enjoy my own yard.

Forsythia 

Some other early bloomers are the forsythia bushes.  The sun is reaching the west side of the house and the forsythia bushes are sending out their own bright beams of yellow. I have memories of forsythia at my parent's house, so I really enjoy seeing the forsythia in bloom at my house now.

Daffodils 

The third messengers of spring in our yard are the daffodils.  They were the first green we saw as we were trying to get over the late snows this year and a late ice storm.  We were looking for some sign of growth and saw the tips of the daffodil leaves breaking through the brown.  The daffodils are up now and we are beginning to see sprouts for the irises, buds on the dogwood, the red maple, and the lilac.  They're coming, but right now I'm enjoying the early bloomers.

I am not planning on repeating last summer's project of semi-monthly garden panoramas. I have the pictures from last year printed out with a diagram of the yard in a binder for reference purposes now.  I might try again in a few years as the garden changes and grows in the future.  This summer will be close enough to last year that I don't think I'll need a new set of images.

Family pictures (sort of...)

In March, I got a new camera, and of course I had to start testing out the new capabilities of the camera and needed willing (or not) models for my efforts. In the last month, I've gotten a lot of pictures of the kids - our four rescued cocker spaniels. Three of them came from Oldies But Goodies Cocker Spaniel Rescue and one from Tired Dog Rescue

Truman

Truman has been with us the longest and is finally enjoying his spot as the senior member of the pack.  We call him our James Cagney because he is the smallest one, but he's the alpha - he's feisty.

He's very protective - especially of Gloria, and he's the one who gets the whole gang barking in the morning when he decides it's breakfast time (never mind what Mommy or Daddy, or the alarm clock say.)

But he doesn't like rain or snow very much.

Jacques

Jacques came to us from Tired Dog Rescue in Mississippi. We call him our southern gentleman. He had one eye removed, and the other is almost blind from glaucoma, so he doesn't go running with the others when they are let out. He is a quieter soul and makes his way around, but not in any rush.

 He's a beautiful boy who loves to sit on a lap (Mommy or Daddy) and get loving and give kisses.

I caught him shaking his ears - and then trying to be cool; like it never happened.

Buddy Bear

Buddy Bear has been with us the least amount of time (by a couple weeks less than Jacques.)  Buddy is funny because he's so mellow that it can be hard to get a picture of him with his eyes open. If he's standing still for more than just a couple of minutes, his eyes stat to droop and he's getting ready for a nap.

He had just gotten a haircut and was outside running around. 

Truman and Buddy Bear checking out some traffic on the street and making sure that the yard was safe.

OK, he's been sitting still for long enough - time for a nap.

Precious

Now let me introduce our Diva. Precious is the lady of the group and she is a DIVA. Along with Truman, she is one of the ones to start the whole pack barking.  She loves, loves, loves racing out the back door and doing circles around the back yard.  Along with her not liking to stand still, her coat makes it a challenge to get good pictures.

Oh Daddy, are you trying to get another picture?

I am definitely her person. When I go to sit in my recliner in the evenings she is jumping into my lap before I'm even sitting down.

So these are the key Rescue elements of my Rescue Garden who are with us now. Their predecessors have crossed the Rainbow Bridge, but we'll all be together again in our Father's house.

Late Winter Update on What's Growing

It's early March now and we have been weathering the storms, and I haven't been posting much to the blog recently. But I have still been poking my head out and taking pictures.  But mostly when I look outside lately I see variations on this:

 

Not that that is bad, but any thoughts of spending time outside doing anything other than playing with the snowblower gets a chilly reception.  Of course, I could look to the other side of the yard...

I have been able to find a few things growing though.

My crop of ice has been renewing and growing steadily, I'm afraid that it's an invasive species and will overtake my native plants.

The boxwood in the front yard show significant signs of being overwhelmed.

Under the ice are cherry blossom buds. I hope they were not damaged by the glazing ice.

This is the Red Maple in the backyard. I'm afraid the ice is invading and overwhelming everything. 

I did see the rosemary bush trying to make it through its first winter. 

I guess I'll retreat to the inside and enjoy...

A fire in the fireplace.

Christmas Trains

I was reading about some different photo techniques for some Christmas pictures. I saw a couple articles about using a shallow depth of field to throw the background out of focus. Specifically a background of lights, even more specifically - Christmas lights.

So, I had a technique, but I needed something for the foreground. Something appropriate for the holiday season.  It didn't take me very long to get some ideas. There's not much more appropriate than model trains to create a nostalgic atmosphere.  My father worked for railroads all his life, so we grew up with real and model railroads. I've had model railroad engines and cars as long as I can remember.

I grabbed some of the pieces in my collection and headed for the living room, where the tree was available as a backdrop.

I started with a Western Maryland Railroad steam engine.  I like this picture so much that I've made it my desktop on my home computer.  A model steam engine with blurred Christmas lights - I am really happy with this foray into a new skill. Particularly since my father retired from the Western Maryland at the end of his career, this is a special photo for me.

I also got a picture with the coal tender.

From there I moved onto something a little more modern from the Baltimore and Ohio line. My father didn't work for the B&O, but is was part of the Chessie System that also included the Western Maryland.  This is a classic look from a lot of old movies.

And with a second diesel engine attached.

These are all HO gauge, but I do have 2 O gauge (the size of Lionel trains) that were gifts from my mother after my father retired. The two O gauge cars are from the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway (M&St.L) and the Great Northern. These were both railroads where my father had worked.

Well, I grabbed the Great Northern boxcar and tried the new technique on a larger (and brighter) subject.

I guess I need a larger tree for the backdrop - but it still is a neat picture to me.

Last summer, Gloria and I found a Lionel set of Chessie System equipment in an antique shop. I tried it out last summer (with Gloria's permission) but I couldn't get it to work.  So I didn't know if it would run, and I had promised not to get into it until Christmas, so I didn't know if it worked, and wouldn't know until Christmas.

I did some research online about what might be the problem and possible solutions.  Christmas came and I had to wait until the middle of the afternoon to be able to play with my train set.  At first it didn't work. I tried a couple possible fixes, but it still wasn't working.  I was running out of options, but still had a couple more things to try.  I was finally able to get it running and had to get pictures. But pictures wouldn't capture enough, I had to get a video of the train moving.

Be sure to watch this to the end (it's only 49 seconds) to see the blooper reel at the end. In the blooper you can even see the engine making smoke. (Don't worry, it's the smoke that the train is supposed to make - there must still be some residual of the smoke mix in the smokestack.) 

So the Christmas trains have had a very eventful holiday season.

Father Christmas

Santa, Father Christmas, Pere Noel, Saint Nicholas...

I've had an affinity for Fr. Christmas for a very long time.  One of the first things that Gloria ever did was when I asked her to help me make  a costume along the lines of Fr. Christmas.  I was in a historical group and was making a holiday outfit that also works very well as a Fr. Christmas costume.  I'm 6'4" tall and I was making a floor length red velvet gown with huge sleeves and fur trim. I needed help with the hem since I could not mark and pin it while I was wearing it. So I asked for her help and she pinned the hem for me on one of the first times we spent some time together.

I still have it and try to find opportunities to wear it - but there are not a lot of social events where a man can wear a red velvet gown.  I did use it for pictures with the furbabies last year.

It's even more impressive when I'm standing up and I'm not in front of a red background - but you can get the idea.

Now onto the collection that comes out for Christmas.

The heart of the collection is displayed on the piano.

They range from rustic woodland santas to velvet and satin formal Fr. Christmases which I sure the original Bishop Nicholas would never have recognized. If you look closely, there are even two bagpipe playing santas on the left.  My Mother used to love Santas as well and many of these are presents from her, and some of them were hers.

But the santas don't end at the piano, they are taking over the house.

The sleigh is nice and I like the action of the reindeer taking off. The other Santa is actually a set of Russian nesting Santas.

Meanwhile on the wine bar, a couple of European feeling santas are  hanging out.

They just feel so "right" on the wine bar in a Tuscan themed kitchen.  And of course there needs to be a train - that one's a cookie jar. And the fuzzy santa in the middle is a wine bottle gift wrap canister.

I went looking for a better picture of my suit and here's one showing a bit more detail. It was at our office party 2 years ago.