ArtStreet is a yearly festival in downtown Green Bay that attracts juried artists from across the nation. We went there yesterday both to have some fun looking at the various art media and to see if we saw anything for Stephanie. A couple of times I wanted to Facetime Steph with possibilities, but art is such an individual thing that being there is still the best way to select something. While we were at ArtStreet, however, we did find some treasures for which we really had not been shopping.
A couple of years ago, a potter at ArtStreet produced a large pot whose purpose was to hold kitchen utensils (spatulas, wooden spoons, etc.) next to the stove. The artist had painted a palm tree on the pot, and since that was the "theme" of our newly-purchased house in Florida, I bought it. I also picked up a much smaller pot with a palm tree that I use to hold pens and scissors in the corner of the kitchen.
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| These pottery items will fit in well with our Florida decor. |
Yesterday, we came upon the booth of the same artist who continues to paint palms on various items. We ended up buying a mug, a chip 'n dip plate, a spoon rest, and a small wall vase all in the same palm tree motif. I have the perfect spot on the wall between the kitchen and dining room on which to hang the wall vase, and the other items will come in handy as we continue to cook and to live in Florida each winter. Getting pottery shipped down there may be a challenge, so we may see how much we can actually take in our carry-on luggage when we fly down in October.
We had dinner with Lindsay and Chris last night, and they mentioned that they wanted to remove the overgrown bushes growing in front of their house. They wanted to do the work next weekend. This morning dawned foggy and cool with a promise of rising temperatures and humidity all week. I suggested to Rick that perhaps we could go over and start the work this morning while the weather was still cool enough to work outside.
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| While Chris and Owen were at the store, we trimmed away the branches of the first bush. |
Today is Chris' last day before school starts tomorrow, so he and Owen were home. Chris said that he had to go to the grocery store, so we let Owen and him leave before we ventured over to their house. While they were gone, we took our large pruning shears and had most of the first bush down before they ever came home.
Their bushes are terrible. The limbs are all twisted and entwined, sometimes going back into the soil to root themselves all over again. Although only two bushes were planted next to their porch, those bushes covered at least eight feet of territory.
Once the main branches were cut out, we put a towing strap around the roots and tried to pull out the stump. Ha! No go. Rick and Chris had to do quite a bit of digging and snipping before the truck was able to extract the huge first root out of the ground. The second root was smaller, but it still took more effort than we had originally thought.
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| Even cut up, the brush made a large pile at the curb. |
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| The stump of the first bush shows just how tangled the roots were. The stump itself stands much taller than Owen. |
Since Chris said to just pile the brush and roots at the curb for the village to haul away, that saved us a lot of time. We actually were home before 11:00 a.m. which was well before the temperatures really started to rise.
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| Rick and Chris work on digging around the roots of the second bush. |
We'll try to tackle the third bush tomorrow. If we can do one bush a day, then this weekend we might have only the two stumps to pull out.
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| Rick smoothes out the soil where the first two bushes once grew. The third bush awaits our attention tomorrow with the fourth needing attention the following day. |
Getting the stumps out and a few of their other trees trimmed should put them in a good position to greet the fall and the winter. Then they will have the winter to decide what they want to plant in the spring.
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