House 173

Doesn't this look like a beautiful ocean storm scene?  The clouds, the white-capped waves - stunning!


Ah, but don't be deceived.  This is actually a cropped photo of a dirty little secret here at 173...


That's right - the kitchen windows here at 173 have been a dirty little secret for years!  The louvred windows were probably pretty cool way back when, but the fact is, this particular set hasn't been opened since probably around 1998.  Yup, 1998.  The problem was the lever that opened them had broken long before we bought the house, and in the beginning we could push them open and pull them closed. But it came to the point that they couldn't be closed tight enough to keep the air out in the winter, so they were pulled as tight as possible and weather stripping, lots of weather stripping was used to try to keep as much arctic air out as possible.  However, that was pretty much in vain, to the point that when dinner was on the table in the winter, whatever was close…

Nephew sent a picture this weekend that, #1 - made me hungry and, #2 - made me jealous!  I'll explain but here's the picture:


The hungry part is obvious right?  I mean, as a New Yorker, pizza has always been my kryptonite, and would you look at those?  The one on the left looks like the cook had a couple too many hefe weizens but as we all know - it probably taste just as good as the one on the right!  But here's the thing, look closely below the pizzas and you'll notice some wood, and a wheel, all of which points to a barbecue grill!  I knew Nephew had built a grill house, so I thought this was a good time to post about it.  I asked nephew to tell the build-story so...here we go...


In a clear example of the difference of generations, Nephew flew a drone over his property to figure out the best placement of the grill house, in this case - the pink area.  What a great idea to use a drone, besides - don't we all want to play with one?? He sent this picture, which ma…

I haven't gotten much done yet this spring/summer.  I think most of the reason for that is it has rained rather significantly here almost every day for the last month.  I need to work on the windows, and I want to replace some of the fence panels, but the ground has been soaked and I'd probably just make a huge mess of the yard.  However, the rain has been a boon for the yard in the sense that everything is blooming and beautiful!  Here is the beautiful Moutan peony in the front yard.  It was transplanted from a neighbors yard a few years ago and this is the first time it has bloomed since!

And here are the Chinese peonies in the back yard, which Mosher graciously left for us from when her grandparents planted them at least a few decades ago!

Spring here at 173 seems to be awash in purples!  From purple irises...

To the back yard and one of my all-time favorites, the common purple lilac.  Who doesn't love that scent?

And the French lilac in the side yard...

And we can'…