Camellias for Christmas

We hit 80 degrees this afternoon on this first day of winter. The Camellia bushes are blooming all around the yard. Turns out there are hundreds of Camellia varieties. Check out the American Camellia Society for a wealth of information on these gorgeous flowers. I remember my dad, who grew up on a farm in Cairo, GA in the southwestern corner of the state, bringing back Camellia cuttings in his suitcase from winter visits with my grandmother, who had big lovely bushes beside her Cairo home.

These pink beauties were the first blossoms I discovered by accident while taking a shortcut across the front yard a few days ago.

The biggest Camellia bush is in the side garden and looms above the wall that runs along the right front side of the house. These blossoms look like some kind of double variety. Ms. Marley, do you know what kind they are?

The bushes off the back porch are a dark pink variety. Here's the first blossom that finally unfolded this morning after yesterday's rain.

This speckled blossom didn't bloom until mid-January in the front yard but isn't it a nice addition to the camellia collection?

Warm Christmas Wishes

I pulled out the Christmas boxes yesterday afternoon and we decorated the living room to Tony Bennett's Christmas tunes. Our little tree is perched atop my antique desk and creates a soft glow in the corner of the living room at a dog-safe height.

Autumn to Winter

The last of the Japanese Maple leaves are falling and although daytime temperatures are mild the nights have been chilly. Nothing like Reno, mind you, but overnight temps will be in the low 40s tonight and could dip even lower tomorrow night. Flannel sheet weather.

Two remaining leaves hang onto the Japanese Maple tree just off the back porch.

An early morning iPhone photo taken at the S&S Gentilly Trailhead,
part of the Bulloch County Greenway Project,
a couple blocks from the house. 

Project on Skidaway Island

Okay, this isn't about the house or the neighborhood but it is about a lovely place 70 miles east of here. I am helping the director of Georgia Southern University's Applied Coastal Research Laboratory update his website. The lab is on Skidaway Island southeast of Savannah and most of the island is private and gated. According to Wikipedia, the island's Landings Club is one of the largest gated communities (waterfront homes and six golf courses) in the country. The 2000 census shows the island's racial makeup was 97.57 percent white and the average age was 61.

However, the lab shares a beautiful 700-acre campus without gates on the north end of the island with Skidaway Institute of Oceanography that was established in 1967, when Robert C. Roebling donated his cattle farm to the State of Georgia for a coastal marine research facility. The Roebling family made a fortune from its wire cable business and from building bridges including the Brooklyn and Golden Gate.

Three photos merged into one image of the Applied Coastal Research Laboratory, tucked behind the old silos.

 Stratocumulus clouds along a convergence boundary (I know this because I live with a climatologist) taken from the dock at Skidaway Institute of Oceanography.

Family visit

We had our first family visit this Thanksgiving week. My daughter, Jessica, and her boyfriend, Tony, arrived Monday night from Boston and stayed through Friday morning. What a great visit! When we weren't out and about, we spent a lot of time lounging around the kitchen table. The house feels a little less alive now that they're gone.

Jeffrey is on the mend after suffering a high ankle sprain playing basketball a couple weeks ago. Olive thinks she is helping him rehab when really she is just stealing more lap time.

Pecan picking

This one is more about the neighborhood than the house. Statesboro is full of pecan trees. We don't have any pecan trees in the yard but many of those on Georgia Southern's campus are huge and they've been dropping loads of big, beautiful nuts. On a windy day the pecans fall with a soft thud and the picking is easy. Lately I've been stuffing extra doggie bags in my pocket just in case I'm walking across campus and the wind begins to blow.

I cracked and shelled these to make chocolate chip cookies for my Daddy-o's birthday on Nov. 5.

Trees in rain

A gentle rain fell early Thursday afternoon intensifying the beauty of the changing leaves.

Tub transformation

Patches of turquoise were underneath the white coating that was chipping off the tub in the master bathroom. Not many business are listed under "tub refinishing" in Statesboro but I managed to find David Ranew, owner of Tile-n-Shine, who spent more than four hours on the transformation.

First he scrapped off the chipping white paint and then applied a JASCO remover that had to sit for a while. Next he cleaned off the remover and then lightly sanded away the last of the white stuff. Success! He said it was the first time in 20 years of work that he stripped a tub without reglazing it.

Here's the tub on October 2, the week before we moved in, and here it is today:

 

Changing colors

The leaves on our trees and vines are shifting colors so I've been wandered around the yard on this warm Monday morning to try and capture the beauty. The temperature is 70 and it's not even noon. I'm sending warmth to my Reno friends who are commuting to work in temperatures just above freezing.

First autumn fire

Nights have been in the 40s the past week so we decided to try out the fireplace Saturday eve. Very cozy. Arlo love it, too. He lost interest in his bone, stretched out and fell asleep.

Small stuff

I found replacement burner knobs online for the stove top from a great website: partselect.com
They arrived today, shiny and a perfect fit. Now we can turn on the burners with ease. If you look closely, the older knob on the bottom right has a chipped shaft. That last sentence sounds as if I'm obsessing on the small stuff. I'm not, really. Okay, maybe just a little.

Here's the stove top where those knobs are now functioning fabulously, right next to the ovens. The black-framed mirror in the alcove not only adds light but Marley says it's also good feng shui because it allows the person cooking to see behind themselves, which keeps them safe and serene. No sneaking up on the cook!

Deck progress and porch pals

Mitch and Rob scrubbed mold and dirt off the wood and railings on the back deck Friday evening. They spent this morning painting and completed more than half the deck and should finish up by Monday eve.

On the porch outside the kitchen, Jeffrey took an afternoon sunshine break with Miles, a Border Collie/Newfoundland mix Jeffrey rescued nine years ago.

Front to back

I realized I hadn't taken a photo showing off the front of the house. I merged three photos into one thanks to the magic of Photoshop, taken yesterday in muted morning light. And here's the back view again from my first posting earlier this month.

New blooms follow rain

Two days of rain are over. No more acorns falling on the roof making funny plinking sounds. All the moisture brought out some new blossoms in the front yard.

I thought the pink blossoms might be azaleas, but Shannan says they are vinca. These dainty blue flowers appeared from the potted bush next to the front lamp post. Ms. Marley identified the blue flowers as a plumbago plant. It's one of her favorites, she writes, "because of its dependability, beauty and lack of need of care." That's my kind of plant.

Marley also says the flowers I thought looked like peonies are actually confederate rose, a hibiscus or rose mallow plant. If we're lucky the pink, red and white blossoms will keep on popping.

Roofing repairs

Handymen Mitch and Rob teamed up this past Saturday to put a facelift on the front of the house. A couple of the fascia boards had rotted and they discovered the underlying board in the corner needed additional protection from further water damage. They sealed it with metal flashing, nailed the new boards in place, painted them and then painted all the boards along the front. Mitch took a paint chip to Lowes and they match it perfectly.

Mitch practices a ballet move while stretching over the prickly plant in front of the carport.

Olive's adventures

I've been disconnected for more than a week while switching internet providers. Nice to be back online!

Olive was barking her little head off last week in the lower corner of the backyard. Much to her delight, she discovered a turtle. The barking didn't seem to faze the turtle, who was (fortunately) lumbering along on the other side of the fence.

For those of you who haven't met the mighty Min Pin, here she is exploring the rock wall that runs along the back deck outside the kitchen. Behind her is a big drop to the back yard below. Olive, get off the wall!

Change of view

Over the next couple days we are leaving this view looking out the kitchen door into the back yard in Pooler, GA:

And moving 43 miles west to Statesboro for this view:

We are feeling mighty grateful.

Backyard beauties

Three things stopped me this afternoon in the backyard. Marley, these are for you.

What was in there?

Marley's things have been boxed up in a couple different rooms in the house and also in two outside storage sheds. She is wondering what has been packed - and what the heck is where.

Below is the middle room and closet downstairs. Big boxes are full of books, says Tammy, and some are marked "Scott's clothes."  The suede wrap-around chair is also in there but hidden from view.

Below are snapshots of the storage sheds when we first opened the doors. Image on left is the shed beside the carport and right is the back shed that I snapped with my iPhone so the quality isn't great.

A vertical view of the back shed showing stuff stored above including an oriental rug, lamps, rocking chair and more goodies. I loaded in the office chair and white cart moved the box from one corner to atop of the printer/stand.

Kitchen items are in these boxes in the living room.