Nature Shots

Alright, sadly, still no progress on the house. I've either been too busy on weekends, or the heat has been insufferable.

To pass the time, I thought I would share some recent photos I took while at work. As most of you know, I work at a high-end custom kitchen/cabinetry shop. The shop is on the same property as my boss' home, and the property is several acres. He keeps the vast majority of it in very good shape, and I decided to walk down to the woods the other day on my lunch break (since the heat was not too bad that afternoon).

I purposefully avoided photos that included the shop or house.


The main "lawn" closer to the back of the property:





The first little section of trees are all trimmed low, then there's a stream with a metal bridge to cross it.







Past the bridge, the small shrubbery is all trimmed (quite far in), but the ground has full coverage in low plants, mostly ferns, and a ton of spotted jewelweed (see lower).



Jewelweed (not yet in flower). The juice from these can be used to counteract poison ivy/poison oak.





My favourite shot. It looks like light is shining up onto the branches (like with a mirror or something reflective), but it's coming from the top, and through the leaves.







I have Monday off (for Canada Day), so hopefully I'll do something productive.

Weekly Update

Oh wow, apparently there's a whole new look for the "New Post" page. It seems so vast and spacious. I'm not sure if I like it yet, but it's alright. I tend to dislike changes, but I think I'll like the extra room to see more of the text as I scroll up/down to edit.

Ok, so I haven't posted in a while. Not because nothing's been happening, but because I have either lacked the time or the motivation. With that said, I have something like 18 photos to post. So this might end up being the norm for me. One long post a week, with the occasional one in between.

I've been sick with a fever since Thursday night, so Friday was completely unproductive. Saturday, I did manage to do a bit of work (details farther down). Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, I had a dentist appointment and I skipped the entire morning from work (since it would have cost me an insane amount of $$ to take a taxi twice). So I got a bunch of drywall and small jobs done. Unfortunately, I have another dentist appointment next Wednesday (25th), and probably a few more after (if I can afford it). I apparently need 8 fillings. O_o! My bank account is crying. And no, I have no coverage or benefits at work.

On that morning, just outside my window, I saw a lovely sight. There was a whole bunch of lovely black and orange butterflies on the porch. I counted at least 5 of them. I took photos from inside, but when I tried to go outside to get better shots, they all flew away :(







My friend Gen (who is oddly terrified of moths and butterflies) said that they looked like "Painted Lady" butterflies, but I checked, and those are very similar, but they have a lot more pattern to their wings. These are fairly common, and a Google search shows that these are even found over in Europe (but I didn't find their name).

AHA! Red Admiral.

Here's some of the drywall I did (started). This is in the L Room.



I realized a week ago that I never showed a picture of the fully scraped ceiling in the L Room. This was a lot of work, but I'm a perfectionist, and I wanted to remove the chunky/lumpy coating of mud so that I could straighten-out the old ceiling before installing the new drywall over top. I also moved the light fixture location to be centered with the window. You can probably see all the added screws with washers, which pulled-up all the sagging portions of the ceiling.



On Wednesday, I made a side trip after work to visit a friend at work. It's her last day in town before she moves to Timmins, Ontario (which is something like a 6 hour drive north). I wanted her opinions on what mattress I should buy (since I'll need one once the master bedroom is finished). On the way, I stopped in the nearby woods to photograph the trilliums. They were just starting to open, so I got a lot of nice shots with some that were partially open/fully open, or just starting to open. I also found some Red Trilliums (aka Stinking Benjamins). I had something like 20 photos, but I trimmed them down to 6.

The White Trillium is Ontario's provincial flower. I absolutely love them. I have a photo (somewhere in an album) of my friend Meghan in a forest packed full of large trilliums.







This pair was a slightly lighter red than the previous ones I saw. There are pink varieties, but they are much lighter than these, so these are still Red Trilliums.







Around the same time (Tue-Wed), I received the parts to finish my two incomplete light fixtures. I was happy to finally cross these off my to-do list.

New canopy (I tried to antique the brass as much as I could, but it's still too shiny, so I'll leave the rest up to time (natural oxidation).





This is a random shot of the upstairs hallway shade.



This one was only missing the brass tube at the top, which I also antiqued.





Lastly, yesterday I finished the office built-in, installed it, and filled the voids with insulation. It's ready for finishing or trim.



It looks like it's too short from the top and bottom, but I made it to be the same size as the original window opening/casings would be, to keep things consistent.

I also think it's been a long time since I posted a photo (last year, maybe), so this is me. The photo was taken this morning. I need to shave.