A big week

So much was accomplished this week. Most of it has been posted already but in looking back I must say it was like a bee hive here all week.  The weather undoubtedly had something to do with it. After all of that miserable snow and blizzards we have had spring creeping in, and it is joyous. Today it was 50 degrees here and it can't come too soon to suit me. Everyone in this area is just soooo done with snow. I was outside looking at the damage to the shoreline from the storms, and the downed tree branches, and the big snow drifts still sitting in the yard and it is just strange. One side of the house has been accessible and the other has been, and continues to be snowed in. It is just plain weird, but I am grateful for the weirdness. It spared us much snow removal.

As spring is creeping in here I see migrating birds returning. As the last two blizzards rolled in the Red Wing Blackbirds had started to arrive and they were desperate for food in the snow. They returned to early, but then again their numbers increased by the day so it was just the unusal weather that caught them off guard as it did the humans. Last night I saw what I thought was a small flock of birds retreating to the trees for the evening, but as I watched I could see it was a huge flock of migrating birds flying through and they just kept on coming for many minutes. The flock must have reached a half a mile long. It was quite impressive. The Goldfinches are beginning to lighten up to yellow coloring too, they have been green for the winter. I had an awesome flock of them at the feeder two days ago. I lost count at thirty-five birds. I have never seen so many of them together at one. They were really suffering through the snow cover I think. They are beautiful to watch.

Now for a new change in the house. It is hard to believe but even though this house has stood for over 140 years, there was no door bell. Delivery people would arrive and we wouldn't know they were at the door. Or, friends would come by and we couldn't hear their knocking at the door because of work being done in the house. So, we have been discussing buying a door bell system. Mr found one last week and brough it home. It was not what I would have picked, but it is entertaining. It plays 13 songs...yes, 13 songs. Choose the one you want for your ring and you are in business. It has Christmas songs, and birthday songs, and a baseball song for spring...well you get the idea. It is a hoot. Mr hooked it up very easily...it is a remote system, and we are in business. It has a clock on the face of the sound box so it is very discreet. I like it, and I am grateful for it. Now at least we know what we have company! Here is a pix of the unit...no sound though...

I must say, I am loving the removal of the blue paint on the moulding in the diningroom. It has made the most positive improvement in the decor of the room. I didn't realize how much I disliked it, until my chosen color scheme has started to emerge with the painting of the room trim. Now, I am on a big push to get the room color painted. I like what is in there, but it is old and needs to be freshened up as my friend Iranna says.  That is the best way to describe this whole house. It needs to be freshened up. We were looking at hardwood floors yesterday and I think that must be done. The floors in here are soft and old and I had planned to paint them, but that is not going to help the firmness of the floor, nor the tightness of the house. I think we really need to do the hardwood floors over the random plank tongue and groove that is in here now. Paint would certainly imrove them because they are peeling everywhere...but new hardwood would be appropriate to the building and would make the place much more livable.

I just cannot tell you how much renovating these two windows has changed the feel of this house. These windows were so dirty you couldn't see out of them clearly and they were frozen in place. The filth was painful to live with, yet because I couldn't open the windows I couldn't clean them. Then last week in the blizzard one of the pains blew or fell out of the sash. Yes, that sure made the place colder! Anyway, it pushed J to do what he had been procrastinating about...and now they are beautiful. It feels so much better!