Days 39 and 40

Thursday morning Heather and I spent, once again, painting in the house.  We painted the ceiling of the dining area and put on the first coat of paint on the walls.  Heather also did some patching in the hallway to the laundry room.  After lunch, the weather was beautiful so we decided to work outside and attempt to build the rock walls for the remaining five garden plots.  After gathering lots of rocks and mixing up a pail of mortar we started building the wall - FAIL.  Mortar just does not seem to stick to rocks like it does to bricks.  Somehow we managed to get a section of about 18 inches long and 6 inches high to stick together but we had to brace it up with 1 x 6 boards.  Frustrated, we left it to dry and wait to see if Mike had any good ideas that would help us out.  I was too embarrassed to take a picture!  If we are ever successful, I'll take a picture of that!


This was Romeo's second day out of his enclosure and he followed us all over the yard.  He even let me pet him and Heather was quick to get a picture.

Roo, the rooster, was out in the yard at the same time as Romeo.  They did have one altercation, but I was able to push Roo away with the handle of a rake.  Once separated, they went their separate ways and spent the rest of the day exploring the pine forest and digging for bugs.


Heather has a very small tree that has just bloomed with small purple flowers.  She says it is a California lilac, but I have never seen a tree/blossom like this before.  Has anyone else?

About two weeks ago I posted a picture of the grape vine that grows up the post of the porch on the Wee Mansion.  It was just starting to sprout new leaves, and here is how it looked then.

And here is how it looks today.

There really are tiny bunches of grapes, but you really have to look hard to see them.

Friday morning Heather and I put on the second coat of paint on the walls of the dining room.  After lunch Simone came over to help with the painting.  We primed the walls and ceiling of the entry way, the trim around the front door, and the wall going up the stairway.  Thanks Simone!

Tomorrow I think we are going to concentrate on getting all the trim around windows and doors done, and maybe even paint some doors, too.