Sunday, March 16, 2008

Weekend Update

I'm just about done with the crud, ugh, and not a second too soon. I hate being sick. In spite of it, there's a little bit to show this week. Let's see, Monday and Wednesday I was the mom at preschool; that's always a fun way to write off an otherwise productive week. ;o) Good thing those kids are cute, that's all I'm sayin'. Wednesday afternoon we used one of these freezer balls to make ice cream. While it might seem like a good plan, Mandarin Orange ice cream tastes pretty gross. Needs a whole lot more sugar than you'd think.


I did manage to get 10 minutes of sewing in every day, and this is the result. My Done By Christmas quilt is done by Easter. It was a nesting robin - with each round (or row, for those who went that route) representing a children's story. Let's see if I can actually remember what they were: center - The Kissing Hand, #2 Harold and the Purple Crayon, #3 The Giving Tree, #4 Make Way for Ducklings, and #5 The Polar Express. I'll admit that I like my first nesting robin, the song titles one better, but I don't hate this one. It certainly looks like spring.

The biggest thing we did, though, was complete a land transaction that's been dragging on for months. Two years ago this Memorial Day, our neighbour put his house up for sale. He's not our next-door neighbour at the front, but the back 2.8 acres of his land abuts ours. He's had a few nibbles on the house, but with such high acreage within city limits (which limits what can be done with it) he's had to list the house with a higher price than people want to pay. Last fall we formally offered to take the abutting property and incorporate it into our own, giving his house a decent sized lot (just over an acre) and making us land barons. ;o) More like "top o' the tax rolls." What we are preventing with this is the sale of that house to someone who would think nothing of plopping a single-wide into what we've always felt was our backyard. It hasn't always been our land, but it has always been our view. Now it's both. And those VELCO lines that went in a few months ago? They're our new neighbours. At least they're quiet.We're still completely within city limits so, sigh, no cow. But I can put in a kick-ass garden. I'm already looking for cold hardy fruit trees.

9 comments:

Tanya Brown said...

Congratulations! Shall I now refer to you as The Baroness?

I wish more people would take action to preserve open spaces.

dee said...

Good for you. I wish we had been in a position to buy the land above us. It was beautiful. The sun set in my kitchen window daily. Now there's a McMansion(with a load of obnoxious people) and the guy clear cut the forest of trees that were up there. I wasn't aware of the town regulations at the time or I would have reported him instantly. I contemplated welcoming them with flaming arrows. Now, you're only allowed to cut 10% of old trees in a parcel. Rats!
Mandarin orange sherbet is yummy but I imagine as ice cream it might taste a wee pukey-milk to citrus ratio???
Cute quilt!

dee said...

Say, while I'm thinking of it
1. How much do I owe you for cookies
2. What happened to Zazu? Did we scare her away? I looked forward to those comments.

DebbyMc said...

That's what happened to the land surrounding my NY house before I bought it...sure wish I had those parcels myself...I'm actually the kind of neighbor people want...but they didn't know that then, darn it...Your photos in the previous post are lovely...that RWBlackbird is gorgeous!

Vicky aka Stichr said...

Congrats!!! I won't get neighbors out back either, unless a way is found to build houses over freeways.

Zazzu said...

Hey, Dee, I'm gonna go find your blog and leave some comments!

Cool aerial shot of your place, Dorothy. And smart move to give yourself some space.

Someone else wrote recently, "Fences don't make good neighbors. ACREAGE makes good neighbors." Couldn't agree more.

Dorothy said...

Thanks everyone. We're church mice now, but have no regrets. It's reassuring to know that we are the only people who can decide what does or doesn't get built there. We will cut some trees, but for now no more than the hedgerow between the field and our yard. We'll still have more than 4 acres of trees and a sometimes beaver pond that's a federally protected wetland. I consider this our own private land trust.

Bee, that blackbird IS gorgeous (but the picture's not mine.) Even more than robins I look forward to the return of the Redwings.

Dorothy said...

Hey, Zaz! (may I call you Zaz?) Nice to see you again. Go visit Dee, she's in NY - way closer to spring than at my house.

Jeri said...

Congrats on getting the land deal completed. You will NEVER regret it!