Tag: photos

Before and After, New Siding, Home Makeover

My new yellow house fixer-upper
My new house, as it looked before I moved in.

I haven’t been good at keeping photos coming of my new home makeover, but here is the final picture (below) and you can see the changes that have been made to the foreclosure I bought this past summer.

The old, dark yellow clapboard was rotted and gross – as you can see in the photo above that was taken in May this year. Since I couldn’t afford to have the entire back of the house sided just yet, I opted to keep the yellow color but chose a lighter shade for the new siding. The left side wall had never been painted to match the rest of the house, so now it does match.

Instead of adding green shutters (the old ones were crumbling), I chose neutral white, which may look a bit dull in comparison, but will, in the end, look nice once I have the gardens planted along the front. I’m trying to look at the big picture and I know it will take years to accomplish, but for now I know that my house won’t rot away beneath me.

As you can see, our 2 feet of snow has pretty much melted away! Yay…

The new siding job – removing the old from the front and both sides – and replacing the front door and 4 windows in the front, took 2 weeks. The guys lost one day to power outages and the freak snow storm, but they were here rain or shine otherwise and I am completely happy with their work. I would  recommend “Branchas Siding” (now called ProVision Exteriors), to anyone.

after house renovations completed
The “after” photo of my home renovations.
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Little Orange Mushrooms

mushrooms
A Cluster of Orange Mushrooms

I don’t know what kind of mushroom these are, but I came across them as I was hiking the woods around my place. Unless you pay close attention when walking in the woods, you will miss these little bunches of fungi.
One thing I’ve learned from reading about mushrooms is that they will change their look quite quickly – some of them. They may only last a few days or they can last into winter and beyond. Some are delicate and easily broken or mashed and others are as hard as a rock (almost).
As I photograph the mushrooms I see in my area, I look them up in my books for identifying and find that I seldom can discover what they are.
My Audubon “Field Guide to New England” only lists a few mushroom types and warns that at least 10 of the mushroom species in New England are deadly poisonous to eat so making a mistake in choosing can cost you your life. I will only be photographing and not picking to eat.

Year-Round Camping in Florida; Enjoying Nature While I Knit

The peaceful days of camping in the wilderness go perfectly with knitting. What could be better than having coffee outside, with knitting on my lap? We camped twice in the last month and here is a look at the knitting projects I took along.

Pam's avatar by Pam

Finding Fall Mushrooms

I bought a great mushroom book. It’s written by David L. Spahr and has awesome photos, descriptions and information concerning “Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada”.

Even though his photos are great and his explanations of what to look for almost convince me I could find these for my dinner, he warns that many mushrooms have look-a-likes that can be poisonous and I think I have found some of those poisonous ones in my yard.

But all I want to do is identify the ones I see around here, so the book is very helpful. I only buy mushrooms from the grocery store and they have recently begun to offer some new varieties like the Shiitake, Crimini and Black Trumpet which I am planning to try.

mushroom on a tree
Some sort of mushroom

I don’t know what the one in the picture above is. It looks a bit like a deformed “Chicken of the Woods” but I don’t know.

white mushrooms
Little White Mushrooms

I think that the ones pictured here are Coprinus atramentarius. The author talks about the “Shaggy Mane” mushroom and has a photo of others that look similar and I think those are like mine. He says that within a day or 2 they will be “black, inky goop”, so I’ll have to go back out into the woods to see if that’s what happened.

Pattern Review: Beginning the Magnolia Chunky Cardigan

I’m knitting a beautiful cardigan pattern by Camilla Vad. The Magnolia Chunky Cardigan is knit top-down with lace and bobbles on the body and sleeves. On this page I cover some issues I had in the beginning.

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My New Breville Juicer

My business has been doing well and I decided it was time to do something nice for myself.

Breville juicer
My new juicer!

Now that I am getting a bit older… ahem… I am trying to eat better foods and do more to keep myself healthy. I thought that the kids might like a juicer too, so I splurged and bought a juicer.

I scoured Amazon, reading all the comments on many different juicers and eventually decided that this one was affordable and had also had great reviews.
So far, I love it. My problem is in finding decent fruit (haven’t done the veggie drinks yet) to use for my drinks.
I love the apple and carrot combo and even my daughter thought it was good (after turning her nose up when hearing “carrots”).

I also love the pineapple (I cut up a fresh one), and strawberry combo.
It’s very easy to use, and must be cleaned right after use. The little mesh basket has it’s own cleaning brush and the entire thing is easy to clean, but I wouldn’t want to try it once the fruit is dried on.
I also bought a book with recipes, but haven’t tried too many of them yet.

juice drink
Apple & Carrot Juice - YUM