Juddmansee.com

The contractors spent today working on our new HVAC system. They removed the old boiler and excess ductwork from the basement. Brian can stand up without bumping his head in several new areas of the basement. I’ve been told this is only temporary, as they contractors will be installing a more efficient branching scheme tomorrow. […]

In the garden, we have three roses growing. The big climber that has been most robust in the past seems to be taking the year off (note the dead looking rose at the right of the photo below). One small rose that we thought was dead, but replanted anyway, is growing! I think it’s reverting […]

Our amazing string of sunny weekends was forecasted to end today. And it did – it’s now pouring thundershowers outside. That meant we had to do some weekday and early morning work to get everything done before June 1. Tuesday the spruce tree disappeared! Brian said the tree guys cut off the lower branches, climbed […]

Last weekend we did a little work the yard to keep our momentum going, mostly defined the beds and moved the extra sod to the two bare areas. One area was where the bees built an underground hive a couple years ago, so there’s a valley in the lawn. The other area was under the […]

Another weekend of good weather meant more time in the yard. This weekend’s activities chipped away at the preparation of the backyard. The beds along the patio all had brick edging. I pulled that up and was ready to pull up more bricks around the garden when I realized it would be a good idea […]

As many a spring initiative has started strong and whimpered out when schedules got busy and weather got worse, we thought it was important to continue working on landscaping a bit more since our last post. The tabblo has been updated with more pictures. The holly bush bonsai project was conducted Sunday April 20. I […]

We’ve had two really productive Saturdays in a row. Last weekend we wanted to go hiking to celebrate the offical end of Brian’s lyme disease (he took the last antibiotic that morning) but Hurricane Noel caused the weather to be steady rain, wind and cold all day, so we turned our energies to the Rumpus […]

First: The Sox won the AL East today. Almost as good as if they’d done it yesterday (when Dan and I were at the game, and the date I had predicted back in March that they’d clinch. Pretty close though.). Probably even cooler, since Sox fans who witnessed tonight’s win stuck around to watch the […]

We’ve been missing Project Runway. Between Heidi Klum continuing to generate baby Seals and Tim Gunn leaving the Parson’s School to join Liz Claiborne, the show has been on hiatus. We happened onto a preview of Bravo’s new spin-off, Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style, and then watched the first episode. In this format, Tim is […]

I like Brian’s name for this Tabblo. Anyone know what’s growing on the caterpillar?  Is that his natural skin, or are some other little insects attacking him?  Or laying eggs on him? Is he going to eat all my tasty tomatoes, or will he balance the fragile ecosystem of our back yard?