Some bits

Blogging these days, not only involves taking photos with manual focus, but loading those photos onto Matt's laptop and sitting on my neighbours' front porch to steal (with their permission) their wifi.  Right now, it's dusk and mosquitos abound.

So, guess who arrived in VT at least a week early?

 She arrived in a box on our doorstep...

and inside was another box...

 and inside that box was....

 LUCY!  with a brand new head!  There may have been a few tears, because she doesn't quite look the same...

But she has beautiful shiny hair and she still has the belly button Ella drew on her in second grade and the nail polish she painted on her fingers and toes.  So she's still Lucy and the tears lasted only a few seconds.

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Today the rain finally stopped.  I have been wanting to take photos for a few days now, but it's been so wet and grey.  The house is a bit of a mess, and there's lots to do in the garden (and inside), but I wanted to take a photo of this:

 The stove thing we dug out of our basement last summer and someone was going to take it (leave it out for us, he said), but he didn't and I love the rusty patina and would love to find somewhere for it to live more permanently .

 This is the mess out the front of our house right now...the new portico looks good, but today was the first day I was able to get out and paint it. The grates for the stairs had got a little rusty over winter so they also got a coat of rust killing paint.  The path needs some weeding and some more stones, and once I've finished with the portico, I can finally finish landscaping around the front.

 And while I was out and the light was nice, I thought I'd take a few more photos.  The old place across the road is still there (just) and still unused.

 Looking up the back to our shed.  It's been fun going in there and pulling stuff out.

 Back across the road: the river is really high right now after all the rain we've had.  It's like rapids.

 No swimming in there right now!

I love the warbled reflections that the old windows in the place across the road casts.

 And the light that time of night is glorious.  I'd love to be able to go inside to take some photos....

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And lastly, we dyed Ella's hair again today.  The first two times it faded SO much, you could hardly see anything.  She's happy with it this time (let's see how long it lasts) but I told her she needs to wear contrasting clothes.

 (damn that broken lens!)