Flora and Fauna

The project to fix up the little William Tripp house does not only focus on the house itself but also on the surrounding yard.  Why scare yourself with a home renovation without having added stress of wondering what the heck is going to happen to your yard.  Will nothing stay the same?  On some levels, I hope not.  But knowing that change is in the air is making me nostalgic for what I have now.  My biggest emotional challenge is the loss of the walnut tree- but you can gather that since I have mentioned it before.  It is just so magnificent.  It has been a love hate relationship with this tree from the very start.  While it is lovely to look up at from the patio and see the filigreed leaves fluttering in the breeze, the geometric patterning of the bark, the little Nut Hatch (Nutty- who else?) that I see every morning as I check my e-mails- it is also a tree with a some issues.  It's a dropper- not only does it drop leaves all summer long but it also drops those damn walnuts too.  During it's dropping peak (early fall- but I did see one treacherous little ball just yesterday) it sounds like you are living in a bongo drum for all the little green balls that fall on the roof.  Now, once dropped- where do these little spheres go.... the grass where they become virtually invisible until you twist an ankle.  One year we decided to collect the walnuts to dry out.  We had some fantasy that we would make a natural dye, like they did in the 18th century, and use it on all sorts of fabrics.  We put a few 55 gallon trash barrels full of walnuts into the garage.  Well, almost immediately we were finding these walnuts in the oddest places.  Seems that squirrels also like walnuts and are quite the little pranksters.  They gnawed through the barrel and made off with the nuts.  Little piles of them on shelves, in boxes and most cleverly on the brake cables to my bike (the area between the tire and the brakes).  Stealthfully the piles were moved each day to new and odder places.  Here's a bit of irony- I just waw a squirrel going down the side of the walnut tree with a walnut in his mouth.  I think that I won't be the only one to miss the tree!

Someone came and looked at the tree today.  Looks very promising that he will be able to mill the wood into planks for some new flooring in the house.  I am very pleased that the tree can find a home inside with us!

When I told friends that we were not going to move but rather remodel our house their first comment was "they're going to fix the driveway aren't they?".  This driveway looks innocent enough but it seems to make even the most competent driver a complete novice at the wheel.  It does not seem to make any difference if they are going forward up the driveway or backing out- there are problems all around.  The drive up is the least problematic unless you lose your oil pan on the large frost heave that runs up the center. This is a truly organic heave changing shape and size along with the seasons. 

The view coming and going

Once to the top people think to turn themselves around to get a running start forward on their way home. This too is frought with tactical errors. If there is another car parked anywhere on the top the turning radius becomes impaired with obstacles such as a wood pile and kayak to one side and a load of bricks and small stones on the other. I still have no idea what the stones are all about that Dave collected one year and lined up along the perimeter but he needs to find something to do with them. They WILL be used in this project somewhere! Won't they????

Pallet of unused bricks and rows of small rocks that have been there
so long they are now covered with ivy.

Backing out of the driveway instills the most fear in drivers.  We have had guests stuck pretty much everywhere along the journey back down to the road.  Sometimes they hit the little wall of Pachysandra closest to the house, often they rack up in the shrubs at the bottom of the drive on the right hand side.  The lamp post was hit so many times that it finally gave up and fell completely down and now lies dead in the bushes at the bottom of the driveway.  My friend felt so badly she gave me money towards a new post even when I told he that it had suffered many blows before hers.  That one was just the crowning blow to send it to the ground.

RIP

Even Dave does not seem immune to the wrath of the driveway.  Now, he won't claim responsibility for this but I have been doing a little investigation of the vehicles and I am now convinced that he smacked my car when he was backing up (probably had the radio up to loud to hear the small thud).  There is a slight dent on the passenger side door lower panel that matches up perfectly with the height of his bumper.  The small scratches on the bumper don't tell lies.... maybe he could wash and wax the car and I'd forgive him?

My ding and the scrape on Dave's bumper..... you decide.

So what is the plan for the driveway you ask?  I am not really sure but I do know is that excavators are coming to take 4 to five feet (or that's what Dave said) off the top of the driveway and make it more level.  Maybe then I won't get stuck half way up the drive every winter!  The parking area will be expanded and the asphalt will be replaced with lovely little rocks.  I say that optimistically since I have no idea what it will be like to have a crushed stone driveway.   Maybe I will curse those little rocks for getting everywhere.  But until then I look forward to having them and maybe some Belgian blocks at the intersections with the street.

This squash-like plant has sprung up in the middle of the lawn.
Origins unknown
Maybe it's trying to tell us a vegetable garden should go here next year!