Sylvia's Simple Shots

This is the first time I found Foxglove in the neighborhood.

There were quite a few in a side flower bed.

I found this lovely light purple color and bright pink ones as well. 

I am so lucky to have neighbors who are flower growing.

The Cliff House by RaeAnne Thayne is a book I finished this week.

Daisy an Beatriz Davenport lived with their aunt Stella in Cape Sanctuary after their parents passed away.  She has provided a good home for them with all they needed.

Beatriz pushed the boundaries, got in trouble, married and had a baby way too young. Daisy was quiet, sensible, rational, and financially prudent.

They still live near each other.  Bea with her daughter Marisol. Daisy had married and her husband passed away after a few years and she was left his house overlooking the ocean.

The ex-husband returns with the man who saved his life and they each cause ripples in the these girls' loves.  Stella is surprise to find a man she gave up when the girls came to live with her has returned to Cape Sanctuary.   Most of the story lines were good. 

It was an exciting day on Wednesday June 4 2025 because I took possession of my new to me home.

I worked with a great agent who was with all the way through hoops and loops but we got there.

I have a lot to get done before I can move in.

Oh yeah, the Stanley Cup Final starts today as well.  

I know its going on but I don't have time for it. 

 

We will see what the final outcome is.

There were a few things I found left behind that were interesting.

Mirror tiles still stuck to the walls.  Many things were left on the walls when removed left a gluey mess.

A baseball, a guitar pick and even a 100 hundred dollar bill was found when the carpet was removed.

There was a lot in this place so I am not surprise not all of it left with the tenants.

There was not so great stuff left behind as well.

There was food in every corner of the kitchen.  

Most surfaces had oil, greasy spots, and evidence of cooking left behind.

The drip pans in the stove were just replaced rather than trying to clean them.  The clean up when I lifted the top of the stove was liquid, crusty, and totally disgusting.

Every inch of this place will need to be cleaned.

The possession date had been pushed back two days to allow for cleaning. I am not sure what was cleaned.

I am grateful the plumbing for the sinks was done.

I had the door rekeyed as well as the mail box key replaced.

Just a safety thing to ensure no one has keys laying around for my place.

I only received one FOB for the building so I had to purchase another.

Mark was nice enough to deliver one to me.

Great job.

This product was recommended by my sister to clean the not so clean tub.

Scrubbing Bubbles worked so well.

It is taking a lot of elbow grease and my right arm is very sore.

Lots of cleaning cloths, paper towels and cleaners.

The kitchen cupboards came out great after having a layer of oil and grease removed.

The laundry room had a layer of liquid laundry soap in the corner I scrapped off with a 9 in 1 tool.

I was very disappointed when I could not find a way to turn the shower on to rinse the tub after its first go round of cleaning.

After getting in touch with the inspector Colin he explained that it was a ring on the spout that diverted the water to the shower.

Who knew?  Certainly not me.

I tried it the next day after the second scrubbing session on the tub.

Success! Thanks Sarah and Colin.

I took all the baseboards off around that disgusting carpet.  

That was the preparations for the carpets to be gone.

The carpets are gone!

The adhesive and the gunk is also gone.

The crew of Joey and Mario did a great job.

On to painting before the crew comes back to install the vinyl floor.

The 2 man crew of Ben and Andre arrived early Saturday morning and we got to work.

I was just able to keep ahead of them to get all the glue off the walls where stuff had been stuck to the walls.  The grease stains on the walls from who knows what.

They will be back next week to finish up.

I am a hurting and exhausted person.  

Sunday is a day of rest so I can continue next week.

The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline was a book I finished before the insanity of this week started on Wednesday.

Vivian Daly, an Irish immigrant lived in New York in 1929.  Within less than a year of arriving there was a fire in their building and most of the family was lost. 

Vivian finds herself on a train heading west to find a new home.  She has several. Some where she is abused and some where the adoptive parents were loving and supportive.

Molly Ayer is 17 years old who has been in trouble with the law. She is assigned community service as a consequence.  She comes to help Vivian now and elderly widow go through the keepsakes and stuff in the attic.

They learn from each other and come to be family in a way. Great read!

Treated my aunt to supper.  

I picked up pizza from Famosa and it was delicious.

She has been very supportive and stored some of my stuff for a couple of years while I was trying to sell my condo.

Very soon all my stuff will be on the move.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

The Black Capped Chickadees were having breakfast the other morning in the small sunflowers at the park. These small sunflower seed heads are the perfect size of Chickadees.

I bet they would like to squirrel away supplies for the winter when they are so plentiful.

The squirrel tried to get to the sunflower seeds but the stalks were not strong enough to hold him up.

 

This book is the one I finished this week.   It features many lost classics as recommended by authors who share their stories about the book that got away, lost, or otherwise has not seen a lot of reads.

It's Concord Grape time!  I look forward to these showing up in the grocery stores.  It is something I usually share with my sister.  Not sure it will happen this year.  I think we had them as kids because if the price was good Mom would buy some.  

I decided to make small cloths to disinfect my camera everyday when I return from my morning walk.

The risk is small because no one touches my camera but I may touch a rail or something else that could be contaminated.

I thought Rubbing alcohol would be the most effective cleaner but it can be a bit hard on the rubber parts of the camera.   The easiest is simple soap and water on a cloth.  

I bought a microfiber cloth which I sewed the edges and cut into 16 four inch cloths.  These will be used once and then laundered just like my masks and gloves.

Bleach solution is effective as well and will likely be used for door knobs, etc.  I had been using cleaning wipes but they are not all made the same.  They need alcohol or bleach to be effective for the corona virus.  I have yet to find a bottle to store the cleaner as you need a soft plastic bottle.  I have not had any success storing bleach solution in a spray bottle cause it just corrodes the metal parts in the spray mechanism.

I made a trade with my aunt this week.  She asked did I want a denim cushion cover?  I initially said no but reconsidered.

Of course, it needed to have sunflowers.  She has an embroidery machine which does creates these beautiful designs.  The original design has quite a bit of brown but I ask that she replace it would green.

It fit the cushion on the sofa perfectly because I had measured ahead of time.

I gave a about an inch of solid card stock. She did not want brights so I gave her jeweled tones, neutrals, and a few metallic.

So happy to have some of the card stock walk away.

I created a mosaic featuring Alium seed pods with a Scarlet Flax in the center.  The third one is the seed pod of the Chinese Globe Flower. I photographed them last year but I did not have any idea what the flower was.  I paid attention this year to see what the bloom looked like!  Last year I thought it was a Hellebore.  But now that I know what it is it is still not possible to find a photo on line of the flower's seed pod.

The Flicker Macro Monday challenge this week is the Dutch Tilt but in macro form.  This is a technique where you tilt the camera to create tension when viewing  the photo because we like this to stay on the horizontal. You can check out my Flicker Photostream (smpics) to see what I submitted.

I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #97 and

Mersad who hosts Through my Lens #258.