More Happenings

It's been a couple of weeks since an update on what's been happening around The Frog & PenguINN. The last update described how we've been downsizing by selling, donating and tossing "stuff" that seems to have accumulated in our nearly 11 years here on the VA eastern shore.

Recent efforts have been focused on outside house projects and yard work. Luckily, we've had some really warm fall temps.

Grenville did some touch-ups on the front porch trim. It needed a freshening after the humid summers here.

He's quite handy with a paint brush and does great work.

I left him to that task as he said he didn't need help. I've learned to only ask once so it was OK with me to skip that project.

Instead, my project was clearing out the front flower beds to ready them for winter. They look pretty barren in this photo, but were soon covered up with pine straw.

Pine straw is simply fallen pine needles. In some areas, folks pay money for this type of mulch, it's free for us thanks to the neighbor's pine trees in the back yard. (No, he doesn't mind if we gather it.)  

A few years ago, fellow blogger, Possum, explained about the various names for dropped pine needles here on the VA eastern shore. Being natives of NJ, we would call them pine straw, whereas folks in different areas here call them "shatters" or "shatts." The idiosyncrasies of local language.

The wildflower meadow was the next yard project. It was tackled by Grenville and his friend, John Deere (the tractor). An earlier post late last week showed off these blooms.

Before and after shots. Pine straw came in very handy once again.

While all this outdoor activity was going on, there were a couple of observers — Percival, the front porch penguin, and Francis, the head garden frog. 

These were gifts given by a friend before we left NJ, who knew what we planned to name our home. They were the first of many future frog and penguins to reside here. All were non-living, of course, unless we include the numerous garden frogs and toads which would visit every spring and summer. But, never a live penguin.

And, in all the years of living here, these two (and others) have never helped with chores.