Yes, I am still alive. No, Florence did not destroy me. The hurricane had altered course and it spared us from the worse possible outcome. We did receive plenty of rain, but the wind was far less than expected. Most importantly the banana trees survived!

The cottage is slowly transforming. There are 8 windows which equals a lot of trim to paint. A problem I have come across is some 40 years of nicotine stains. It’s awful. In some areas I have painted 7 coats of primer and 2 coats of trim paint and yellow staining still comes through! However, it is nice to see the space slowly transform and hopefully I will be finished with painting in a couple of weeks.

The color is called Woodlawn Blue by Clark and Kensington, which is carried by ACE Hardware. I love this paint brand as it covers so nicely. This color is odd in that sometimes it will appear with a tint of green or grey depending on the light conditions. It’s quite soothing.

Things in the garden are showing signs of the neglect I have wrought upon it. This weekend past I did take a couple hours to pull some weeds and trim up some plants. It’s going to be quite a lot of work to handle once I am done with the cottage renovation, but I kind knew it would be.

The angustifolius sunflowers that are in the front beds are coming along spectacularly. I am very pleased with their first year. I did not realise how large they would become and I will be moving a few plants around soon so next year they won’t be so crowded.

Until next time…