I Need New Gardening Shoes!
I’ve been saying that I need new gardening shoes for a few years, and yet I’m still wearing these old ones. I have a hard time replacing something until it’s completely unusable (remember those jeans, I’m still wearing them and they’re much worse now). You see my shoes still have some tread, although I slip often if the grass is wet, and they still can be worn, although not without pain. (I must add that I bought these shoes for $9 eight years ago)
But I must break down and buy a new pair, my feet ache after wearing them. In the warm summer months I often wear sandals, but if I’m mowing, if it’s wet, if I’m doing something to get really dirty, I need a pair of real shoes. I’ve been looking around trying to decide what kind of gardening shoe would be good, I was considering something like this. I have a few things that are a must for me:
1. they need to be slip on/off, I am often running inside when I’m gardening and I like the slip on/off shoes since we don’t wear shoes indoors.
2. the uppers must be made of natural materials, no plastic shoes, can’t stand them!
I thought I’d throw it out to all my readers, see if I can find the perfect gardening shoe. What’s your gardening shoe of choice?
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Spring Cleaning is for the Birds
We do all we can for our little feathered friends, trying to make them at home here at Chiot’s Run and that includes feeding them all winter long and putting up birdhouses all over the garden. This is the time of year when you need to clean out all those little birdhouses, and get them ready for the new chicks.
Mr Chiots is also going to be fixing up the little condemned birdhouse that the wrens just loved last summer. It needs a new floor, good thing we have a bunch of scrap wood in the garage, perhaps a nice new cedar floor.
I took all the wren houses down and cleaned them out. We also have a bluebird box in a side garden, it didn’t get used last year, but I still checked it to make sure it didn’t need cleaned. The bird houses we have attached to the back of the garage also got a good cleaning, we had some black capped chickadees nest in them last summer.
Cleaning out the birdhouses is an educational experience. You can see how different kinds of birds build different nests. The wrens build tiny little nests out of lots of twigs. They filled up the houses with extra twigs to make their nests a specific size. The chickadees used lots of moss and other soft items from around the garden, even a bunch of dryer lint and wool rug fuzz from the vaccuum cleaner that I put in the compost pile.
Look how cute this little nest is. This is just about actual size. This past summer I could hear the little wrens chirping away in this box.
Do you put up birdhouses to attract birds to your gardens?
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Quote of the Day: Aaron Rose
One day when Mr Chiots and I were on a walk, we spotted these dried up weeds in the ditch by the side of the road. They were beautiful in the evening sunlight and caught our eye. Not something I would notice as a thing of beauty on most occasions, but on this evening it certainly was! Often I’m inspired to take photos because of the light. Here are a few other moments that were made extraordinary by the light and moment.
Have you ever noticed something extraordinary because of the light and the moment?
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A Little Light Maintenance
This time of year I take advantage of these beautiful days to do a little maintenance. I’m not always doing gardening, I have other chores to do. The other day I was noticing that our outdoor light fixtures were getting really faded.
Good quality outdoor light fixtures are not cheap so it’s important to give them a little love every now and then. I spent a couple years looking for the right fixtures for the outside of our home and I want to make sure these stay beautiful for a long time! This past week I spent some time giving them a protective coat of linseed oil and scrubbing up the glass globes. The difference is AMAZING! They look better than they did when they were new.
This chore couldn’t be any easier, all you do is rub a light coat of oil on with a cloth or sponge. It will make sure the lights look great and last a long time, which will save me money in the long run. Sometimes a little bit of times spent in maintenance saves us lots of time and money in the future!
Do you do any kind of maintenance chores that save you time and money in the long-run?
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Taking a Day Off
I’m taking the day off today. I spent the day yesterday driving down to my grandma’s house with my mom to go through a few boxes of things. We had a good time chatting with my uncle & cousin and laughing about old memories. After eight hours driving and five hours chatting with family and we made it home with a few priceless memories in the trunk, I was too tired when I got home late last night to write anything meaningful or exciting. Never fear though, I wouldn’t leave you without some great photos to look at. We’ve been having beautiful weather here in Ohio, it’s been sunny and in the mid 60’s during the day. Our windows have been open and one of our cats, Dexter, loves it. Here he is enjoying a restful day warming himself in the sun in the open window – he’s in kitty heaven!
I figured you’d like these photos, Dexter’s a quirky cat, always sleeping with is leg off the windowsill.
Hope you’re enjoying some nice weather wherever today finds you.
