bye-bye big bing cherry tree

Dang, I nearly forgot about this blog! It was intended to document happenings around the St. John's Bungalow. Anyway...

The big rotten bing cherry tree came out the other day. It was rotted more than I thought so I feel much less guilt over having it chopped down. Some of the limbs were mostly hollow and the trunk was cavernous ... more pics to come.

It's a bit chilly tonight, compared to last weeks weather, about 42 degrees. I was expecting a heavier dose of rain today but it never materialized. There was a bit of hail downtown, so I heard. And the revised forecast for the weekend is sunnier instead of all rainy...woohoo!

This weekend's project will be to sort through the crates in the basement and hopefully get it organized a bit more than it is now. I brewed a batch of Vagabond Ginger IPA this past weekend and will be racking it into the 5 gallon glass corboy for secondary fermentation...having a cool basement should improve my beer brewing, I think.

added 3.27.07: well, now the stump and roots have been ground out. And it appears that a few bits of chipped wood shattered my bathroom window...ah well, a small price to pay for piece-of-mind.

No rain today!

Incredible weather in PDX today, of course I was stuck in my "closet" at work. The thermometer on the back porch read 68° at 6pm...very nice. Right now it's 56° outside and the same in the basement. Looks like tomorrow will be partly cloudy and more rain possible by Wednesday, continued rain until Saturday.

one week until one hour more

The weather is changing! Warmer today, 50° outside right now, but still colder than San Diego. My basement is consistently 54° and I'm hoping it'll stay cool through the summer. My first summer in Portland was anything but cool, 104° when I drove the U-Haul into town.

Anyway, next weekend will be my first weekend of tackling projects around the house. Gotta start unpacking and getting organized, finding frequently used items is becoming more time consuming than I like. Will also change out some of the incandescent lightbulbs for compact-fluorescent.

Speaking of bulbs, I have yet to determine the variety of bulbs sprouting around the front and back yards....kinda' fun. I've begun laying out a garden for the spring, mentally at least, still have a few more important tasks before getting into gardening. No need to rush, have a few weeks of frosty nights ahead. Spring will be here soon enough but I am anxious to get some seeds sprouting in preparation for my garden make-over. Hostas, foxgloves, cosmos, herbs and coleus will be abundant this season. Being new to the Northwestern climate, I won't be spending much hard-earned money on seedlings at the local nursery...this will undoubtedly be a learning experience for me.