Where Did October Go?

October came and went like a cloud on a hot day. Speaking of hot days, we had a lot of them and NO rain until the very end of the month- it is so good to be able to flush the toilet when you want to! Our month was filled with packing, moving and trying to readjust our lives away from Woodstock. Major tasks like gathering furniture from friends, markets and the "OP Shop" (like goodwill) were top of the list. Our house is very spacious and we now have furniture in most rooms. Most of my month was spent outside trying to survive the killer magpie attacks, and heal my scalp from the laceration he gave me fc#%x@! while I redid the back patio. Susan wanted to have a BIG 40th birthday party and the back patio which was a disaster when we moved in. I don't think anyone had ever addressed the water runoff issues, sealed the concrete or cleaned the mud off in ages.... so this became my task. I bought self leveling floor filler, concrete, etc and tried to patch as many holes as possible. It took me two weeks to get it a bit improved... it still could use a ton more filler, but I lost interest in getting it to look all even and settled for filling the holes that you could sprain your ankle on. After all of that, I painted it a Terra Cotta color in hopes of distracting any critical vision away from the many irregularities still in the concrete. The next improvement was to put up some bamboo arches over the top of the patio. There are some very established grape plants at the top of the retaining wall and the bamboo will give them a great place to attach to. All in all, I enjoy sitting out back now on the patio. Oh by the way the orange walls in the bedroom, living room and kitchen are now neutralized! We did have to sign an agreement with the landlord, that we would repaint the walls orange when we leave! What is up with that???

We are hooked up to public power, no solar out here, but I must admit it is great to have a full size refrig and a small chest freezer.

Before and After Photos of the Patio....