Redecorating the Nest

A few months ago my fabulous writer daughter, Jess asked me if I knew anyone who would like to contribute a monthly column in the Herald on being an empty nester. I thought about it for about a week and decided that I wanted to write it! I haven't published anything since high school and that was quite awhile ago and only in the Davis County Clipper. So go to the link on my current obsessions and click on Senior Spotlight (ouch). The column ran on November 16th and will run every 2nd Monday of the month. Wish me luck on coming up with more material...and here's to my two little birds, Taelor and Cass, who have flown in for awhile.

Confucious says... patience is a virtue

After three years of living in our house, I finally found the perfect entry piece. I have been searching for something with an Asian look but everything I found was too deep, too small, too expensive. I looked at all my favorite haunts...CG Sparks, various antique stores and of course waited anxiously for the new market introductions from High Point. I found this beautiful 8' long alter table at Home Again in the mysteriously "rarely opened basement". I didn't even have to re-hang my maps so it must be perfect and it was under $200.00.

Xeriscaping is beautiful

Yarrow and pentemon

I wish I could remember the name of this shrub.
It requires almost no water and the spring blooms look like tiny flames.

My Waterwise Garden
I am so excited about my plant choices in my new garden. Even though I have researched this type of gardening for years I thought that I would be giving up some of the color that I loved in my English garden but I was pleasantly surprised this spring. I couldn't believe how much growth came in just one year, especially the penstemon next to the three yarrow plants that have been there since we moved in 2 years ago. Even Mike's tiny rock rose doubled in size.
I was able to turn down the drip volume in late summer and really save a lot of water compared to my conventional sprinkler heads in Highland.

The lavender and pincushion flowers are next to bloom along with other Rocky Mountain wildflowers so I should have something all summer long.


I regretted not saving a place for tomatoes and peppers so I shoveled out bark and ripped out weed guard and Mike brought in some beautiful dirt full of organic matter so I now have a vegetable garden in the back flower bed. I wasn't very good at raising tomatoes in pots last year.

I do miss my 4th generation peonies but Mom had beautiful blooms for Memorial Day. I also bought some from Pam Ostermiller's florist shop Tri.Fec.Ta in Sugarhouse. The starts that I transplanted from Highland to Jessica's house finally bloomed this year...the pink ones survived!

Love is the air in the form of orbs

On Valentine's Day Denise's dad and friends from the Beehive Barbershop Quartet came in to The Black Goose Design. They sang Let Me Call You Sweetheart while I snapped this photo on my digital camera. We were all teary by the time they finished. Later I saw these glare spots and almost deleted them, but it was such a great moment I thought I had better print them anyway and gave them to Denise. A few days later our owner saw them sitting on her desk and commented on the orbs in the picture. We went on a website explaining orbs and saw that they looked exactly like the images on the website. You can google orbs to get alot of different explanations, but basically it is believed, by some, to be the energy of a spirit in the form of a sphere and they can be captured on film at random times. These men had such a positive energy about them I am sure many happy spirits followed them around the valley that day. For you skeptics out there, I took another picture in the entry of the store yesterday, alas, no orbs. I guess they only like four part harmony.

Denise's dad is 2nd from the right.

Magazine Therapy

I have an uncontrolled passion for magazines. I get about 6 or 7 a month thanks to designer discounts and I read them from cover to cover. I don't like to put them away on the off chance I need to find a photo shoot I am interested in plus I like the the way they look all stacked up. My current favorites are Elle Decor, Metropolitan Home and Architectural Digest for high end ideas. For fun and young do-it-yourself ideas I like Domino. I have about every issue of Country Living since the early 80's...I know, it's a sickness. I love the mini rods I found on rejuvenationhardware.com for $6.00
I always have a stack of magazines on my nightstand...if I read too much late at night my mind gets going and I can't sleep. I found this painted glass lamp at emiliejaynes one afternoon.

I am running out of places to put them, but I thought they filled a spot nicely on my newly painted dresser that I have had for 20 plus years. I love the turquoise and I did it all with 2 cans of spray paint and 1 can of laquer!

This has nothing to do with magazines but I thought my new Oscar dress deserved some face time. I love the exposed shoulders and hot pink and red print. I matted it with handmade ricepaper. Thanks to Kelly we all looked fabulous on the Red Carpet.

Hoover Dam

We spent a beautiful 70 degree day at Hoover Dam with Daxton, Meg and Sam. After a very stressful week it was fun to walk around and look at the engineering masterpiece of the dam, the art deco structures of the intake towers and the beautiful new bridge under construction over the Colorado River. My Grandpa Hunter, who was a riveter on the San Francisco Bay Bridge would have gotten a thrill out of the half finished support arches spanning the canyon and would have been a bit jealous of the workers suspended in a cage and navigating catwalks many hundred feet above the river.
Dax liked walking (running until he falls over) around the worker's memorial. He loved the water and wanted to crawl over the wall. Meg took all these beautiful pictures.



Soon to be the new road across the canyon


Dax is happy to be out of the stroller.

Intake towers into the power plant, built in the 30's, my favorite architecture.