there is a kitchen in my den.

No, really.


The big box in the centre, the one that says DOMSJÖ, that's the sink. Next to it, the open box, is full of hinges. The two piles next to that are, I think, drawer innards. Everything else is cabinets and doors and suchlike.

All in all, 112 pieces. They cheat a bit, though; every hinge is a "piece," so that open box is technically something like 30 pieces.

IKEA was (still is, I think) having a sale, and you know, I could never resist a sale. (Joke. Mostly.) Although — we bought everything all at once, including some appliances, and I did nearly choke at the bill. It's not the most I've ever paid for anything (hey, we have a house. And a car), but those things involved loans and bank managers and monthly payments. This was just us, our savings and a conveyor belt full of stuff. It was a little ... breathtaking. Literally.

But hey, come on. You must have known this was coming. It's been over a year since we've ripped up any floors in our house. Our crowbars were getting itchy.

one last hurrah

This morning it really felt like fall — not even early fall, but fall fall. I love early fall: the cool, crisp mornings, the earlier nights, that feeling that you're stealing time when you stay out, trying to catch that last light.

I hate actual fall. It's cold and dreary and I can never find anything to wear. I've dug out my wool socks but it's too warm for sweaters, too, so I freeze in my t-shirts (even the long sleeved ones), or boil in my t-shirt-plus-jacket. This morning I woke up before the dawn, and when I left the house I saw leaves — note the plural, not the singular — drift to the ground, and when I got to work I was still cold, and so: it's fall, actually fall. Unhappily so.

In any case, I really wasn't expecting to post about the garden again. I mean that in a good way: I have, as mentioned before, nothing that is an autumn bloomer; everything is supposed to go into dormancy soon. I suppose the cooler (but still sunny) days were good for them, though, because the garden has actually been blooming: one last hurrah before winterfall.



The 'PowWow Wild Berry' echinacea. Two blooms means that it's not a fluke, I think. It's not as wild and fervent as it would be at, say, the height of August, but then, what in the garden is? The echinacea is a repeat bloomer, and can bloom into October — but generally only when it's established. So this is a good sign.

And the 'Amber Sun' roses, after a period of dormancy — I had stopped deadheading because I wanted the bushes to start preparing for winter — well, they had a little resurgence, too.



And so did 'The Fairy' roses, which haven't bloomed consistently since late July, but now have masses of buds.



And finally, I saw this on the last remaining rose, 'Graham Thomas.'



I took this picture last week, and the bud hasn't opened, so I hope I'm not counting chicks prematurely. This rose is the only one of the five that didn't bloom, which is already a much better average than I could have hoped for. It still seemed reasonably healthy, though — and it has a branch — vine? — that is reaching near five feet, its nominal grown-in height, so I think it will be fine. But flowers would be lovely. They are — they should be, I am hoping that they will be — a buttery yellow.