Garden ⁽¹⁰⁵⁾

Brian Bilbrey November 3, 2025

3 November 2025

Marcia's last fishing day Marcia made it out on our boat just one time in the summer just past. Bonus for her - she caught the first (and second) fishes that day. Not big, but first, which was a big deal for her, as I was usually the one to catch the first (and the most) fish in any given outing. Coming into summer, her health was already failing, and she didn't have a lot of balance or stamina, both of which mitigated against coming out on the water in a small boat. She managed a couple of other trips…

Brian Bilbrey July 22, 2022

22 July 2022

More garden surprises, but first, our front walk botanical garden: Right now, all the fun is happening at the end of the walk, where lilies and black-eyed susans are in full bloom, the lilies especially right now: Over at the far corner of the front yard, by the road, there are masses of saponaria: Meantime, Marcia has been busily doing preservation work against a bushel of pickling cucumbers - this is the result of two days of work, more to come, I'm told...

Brian Bilbrey March 28, 2021

28 March 2021

In our first week of spring, we had lows in the 30's and highs in the 80's. Fortunately, I'm using Fahrenheit rather than Celsius. I've managed a bit of yard work over a couple of weekends, and the first mowing of the (front) lawn was yesterday. Today? More rain... a nice follow-up to the 2.15" of the moistness that visited us four days ago. (Sorry, California.) This little cute chipuggle joined our household eleven years ago yesterday, having made a trip up to Maryland from a kill shelter in North Carolina the very day we brought her home. She's now…

Brian Bilbrey August 9, 2020

9 August 2020

The fish jigsaw art piece featured recently is now done and on the wall. I put on a couple of coats of clear matte water-based polyurethane on the back to seal it, and four coats front and sides. After the first coats, I used some 220 grit on the wood surfaces to knock down the nibs, and gently with some single ought steel wool for the face of the puzzle, just to give a bit of bite for the ensuing coat. All the other coats were followed by a light pass with the steel wool. Here it is on the…

Brian Bilbrey July 19, 2020

19 July 2020

The last two weekends have been full of chores, catching up on the early summer yard suffering. Temperatures had been reasonable, and there'd been a fair bit of rain during our absence. That meant that lawns, weeds, everything was growing like gangbusters. But I'm almost caught up. Some of the tomato plants are starting to produce, as are most of the pepper plants. Others of the tomatoes don't look entirely ... enthusiastic about the ONE job they have this summer. Work is ongoing for me. I'm still going into the office once a week for a weekly process related to…