Peaches and Plums

04/08/2010

Nashville has all kinds of flowering trees in the Spring and Summer. As a Pennsylvania transplant I was in awe our year. After 5 Springs, I’m still awed by the beauty of God’s creation and the wonder of new life springing up.

I’m so happy to have this tree in our yard. It’s a Japanese Flowering Plum and I love everything about it – the pink flower petals that “snow” off in the breeze, the sweet smell, the dark bark and the deep red leaves. It’s 3 or 4 years old and this is the first year it’s really been blooming in all its glory.

Two summers ago we planted a peach tree. It had fruit on it at the time and after a few months we enjoyed about 6 bites of delicious peach. (They were tiny.) Last year we had too much rain and all of our peaches got black spot. This year it’s flowering beautifully, spring has been mild and we’re hopefully for a good turnout this year.

Not as pretty as the flowering plum but that’s OK — because this one serves a different purpose. Each one of those pretty pink flowers has the potential to become a delicious juicy peach.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Metal Planters {a MCM estate sale find}

04/07/2010

Jason and I found this pair of metal planters at a particularly bizarre estate sale. Bizarre because it seemed like the homeowner was a gym teacher, music teacher AND an art teacher based on the huge amounts of parts, equipment, pieces and art prints.

These plants are copper-looking but probably brass. They’re a bit dented and rusted but overall pretty nice shape. Especially for $10 for the pair. We’re so cheap. We talked them down from $20.

Jason planted some of our quickly spreading blue fescue and in a few months they’ll be domes of silvery blue-green grass. Simple but I think they make a nice entrance to our patio.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Bathroom Renovation Stage 11

04/06/2010

I believe I owe you a bathroom update! Sorry it’s been a while. Things have been slowly and steadily moving along in our master bathroom renovation.

Let’s see … we have walls painted and outlet and light switch covers on. (We decided on SW Contented.)

We have a light above the vanity.

We have tile backer on the floors.

We have a towel rack on the wall.

We have robes, toilet paper and art hanging on the walls.

We have a second shower head (half) installed. It’s not actually attached to the plumbing yet. But it looks pretty doesn’t it?

Here’s our history:

Bathroom Renovation Stage 1

Bathroom Renovation Stage 2

Bathroom Renovation Stage 3

Bathroom Renovation Stage 4

Bathroom Renovation: Tiling!

Bathroom Renovation Stage 5

Bathroom Renovation Stage 6

Bathroom Renovation Stage 7

Bathroom Renovation Stage 8

Concrete Shower Pan Goes Down Smooth

Bathroom Renovation Stage 9

Bathroom Renovation Stage 10

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Forsythia in a Boylan Bottle

04/05/2010

Our forsythia bush is too small to spare a few sprigs for a vase. While walking Lucy around the block the other night my heroic husband snapped a few off branches of a huge bush in front of an abandoned house. Back home, I stuck them in an empty glass Boylan soda bottle. I love how the yellow matches our throw pillows.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Restoration: Why He Did What He Did

04/02/2010

•

A few notes from John Ragsdale‘s sermon on Restoration at Grace Church Nashville on 12-06-09. If you want to hear the whole message you can find it here.

“He [Jesus] did not go through what He went through so you and I could just go to heaven.”

The only thing the lamb had to do was have its blood drained out of it. All they had to do was cut the lamb’s throat. That’s all. They didn’t beat the lamb and kick the lamb. And spit on the lamb and put thorns in the lamb. They didn’t rip its wool out.

So why did Jesus go through all of that?!

So you and I could step back into our rightful relationship with the Father. He allowed the anger of the Father to be taken out on Him so that you and I wouldn’t just stand here and say “I’m going to heaven. Hallelujah.” or “I’m not going to hell, thank God.”

No – He did all that so you and I could be restored back to our rightful relationship with God. And then not only that we would be restored but that we would in turn begin to restore everything around us back to the way God made it in the first place.

…

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. … But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:3a,5

Whole passage of Isaiah 53. Really good stuff.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10

Today is Good Friday. I’m celebrate what Jesus has done and continues to offer us as a free gift. We don’t do anything to deserve it but He offers us a clean slate and restoration. Thank you Lord!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Phone Photo Friday

04/02/2010

Bradford Pears: you’re pretty but you STINK!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Spring is Here!

04/01/2010

There are flowering trees and bushes everywhere! I’m tempted to snap pictures the whole drive home.

Our neighbor across the street has 2 beautiful flowering trees in his front yard that we get to enjoy from our living room windows. The left is a magnolia, the right is a flowering plum.

We also have a couple of small Japanese flowering plum trees in our yard. This one is flowering more this year than it ever has before!

And some new pictures of our little mid-century modern ranch with our golden yellow forsythia beautifully accenting our front door.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Vegetable Garden – Building a Raised Bed

03/31/2010

As I mentioned yesterday, we loosely followed Pioneer Woman’s plans to build a raised vegetable bed. We started out with six 2″x6″ untreated pine boards, 8′ each. (Cedar lasts longer than pine but since we’re not sure if we’ll keep the garden here for the next 10 year, pine will be fine.) We also bought a box of deckmate outdoor screws and a package of 18″ pine stakes.

After sawing two of the boards in half (to 2″x6″x4′), we predrilled holes in each end of the 8′ boards using a simple template. I held the boards together while Jason drilled the screws into place. First level of the frame is built.

We decided where we wanted the bed and then Jason mowed the grass down low in that spot. Next step, pound the stakes into place and screw the frame to the stakes.

The second tier of the walls can be assembles right on top of the first tier, which is now secured to the ground. First, Jason screwed the corners together, then fastened the top tier into each stake. This prevents the boards from warping and bowing. We hope.

PW doesn’t mention doing this but we like to create a barrier between the yard and the new garden soil so the grass (and WEEDS) don’t grow up through. A layer of black trash bags will do the trick.

Next step: DIRT. We bought up all the top soil that the Home Depot had sitting out – 11 cubic feet. I wanted to get at least 16 cu. ft. so we’d have 6″ of fresh soil. To fill in the other 5 cu. ft. we grabbed a few bags of Moo-Nure fertilizer and one bag of Nature’s Helper which “Saves Water / Retains Moisture” (I have no idea what it is.).

Clever bar code placement.

Jason mixing the cow poo in with the top soil and magic water saving stuff.

Here are our greenhouse frames (cold frames) made from old windows. We also have glass windows to set over the top to seal out the cool air. Hopefully the peeling paint is not toxic…

And here are our finished raised vegetable bed.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Vegetable Garden – Planning

03/30/2010

It’s our fourth summer at this home and we’re putting the vegetable garden in it’s third location to date. This year we decided to building a raised bed for the first time, 4′ x 8′, roughly following Pioneer Woman’s instructions.

Originally I was thinking of doing a square foot garden – giving us space for 32 plants.

But Jason, my green-thumbed husband, said a square foot is not big enough for some of the things we wanted to grow – especially tomatoes. And we didn’t really need 32 different plants. Plus, we have 2 cold frames made from repurposed windows that we decided to use as greenhouses in the vegetable beds during the early spring months. There’s around 3’x3′.

Here’s the plan we came up with:

We’re starting watermelons, brussel and basil seedlings in the greenhouses for now. The cold frame on the left will be home to: strawberries, red bell peppers and green bell peppers. (We decided not to do chili peppers again this year.) The frame on the right with house: better boy tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, grape roma tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. Between the frames we’re going to try out brussel sprouts for the first time. Along the front of the left frame we’re planting romaine lettuce and along the front of the right frame, arugula.

I’m very excited! We’ve never done strawberries or brussel sprouts or romaine lettuce before. We’re trying sugar baby watermelons this year. Besides this 4’x8′ planter we also have a young peach tree and raspberry bush that we have high hopes for this year.

In case anyone is wondering …

Planted from seed:
sweet basil
sugar baby watermelon
brussel sprouts
romaine lettuce
arugula/rocket

Purchased plants:
strawberries (pictured above)
red bell peppers
green bell peppers
grape roma tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
beefsteak tomatoes
better boy tomatoes

4 Comments | Art, Art: Cooking, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

A Jeré Tree?

03/29/2010

Could this be an original Curtis Jeré wall sculpture? I have no idea. Perhaps unlikely, but definitely possible. Whatever it is – I love it. It’s a mid-century modern sculpture of a tree. That’s enough to make it welcome in our home!

Jason snagged this at an estate sale a few weeks ago for $25. The vendors didn’t know anything about it. It’s unmarked and missing a few leaves. It’s also big—bigger than I thought when I first saw the photos online—about 25″ tall and sticks out about 6″ from the wall. We haven’t yet figured out where to hang it.

What do you think?

You may recall our friends scored a Jeré wheat sculpture while we were visiting them in Cincinnati over New Years.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

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