Wide Open Door

And then, after six years,  finally some action....

 Once there was a time we needed a cat flap for 'our' stray cat Mobli.

Our back yard was Mobli's territory.

He already lived here when we moved into the house in 2006.

Just now and then we spotted him because he was very shy.

He left the premises as soon as he spotted or heard us. 

Then one day I noticed he was wounded and lost weight quickly.

It was obvious he wasn't able to take care of himself,

or at least as good as he normally did, so we intervened.

We started to feed him, bond with him and 15 months later he was on my lap.

We couldn't invite him into the house itself because of our two indoor cats.

If you want to read all posts about Mobli, find it here

Mobli was such an adorable and cool cat! ★

Already it's been six years since we lost Mobli.... time for action.

Some adjustments before filling up the gaps...

Painting isn't the biggest amount of work but preparation is.

I'm really glad with the result. The colour is a blueish/lavender grey.

Dependig on the weather and light the colour varies.

I might change the colour in spring to a bit darker tone.

The door needs a second paint coat but if it will be done next spring... (smile)

Front Door

This won't come as a surprise... I've been painting again.

There is still some cleaning, weeding and planting to be done.

But first I want to start painting the biggest door of the house.

To be continued...

after

 before
(I should have taken a before photo when the ugly brass handle was still on!)

the welcome committee :)

First Frost

The first frost hit us overnight.

We have a bunch of tender plants so yesterday we ended up moving
treeferns, pelargoniums and African lillies to a safer place.

Hunting Mobli

 It looked like he caught something so hopefully this wasn't the end of our Frits.

But it was something much bigger! Mobli is doing such a great job in our garden.

It seems obvious he has specialized in mole hunting :-)

Wood work

My kenderman has been working outside.
He is been sawing and cloving his butt off :-)

Some of the wood (the wood from the Black Alder, European Alder or Common Alder) has an orangy colour.
I love the smell of sawnwood!

IHS

We were never able to read what was on this stone until today.

This morning the sun was still standing very low when I took this photo.

Importing the photo's into my laptop, I suddenly discovered "IHS"!

Searching the internet I found it's a Christogram.

A medieval-style IHS monogram meaning Iesus Hominum Salvator ("Jesus, Savior of men" in Latin).

Funny joke because we are both atheists.

But then again according to the internet IHS might also stand for the International Headache Society :-)

Bricks

One of the reasons we bought this house is the brickwork.

The house itself is only 12 years old but because of these bricks it looks much older.

The reclaimed bricks and also the colour and the width of the grouting, works for us.

You can still see some pieces of straw left in the loam.......

Some layers of lime plaster.......

Some stones have traces of a fire.......

Sometimes you can even see some fingersprints left in the brick  :-)

Yesterday is gone

Only six weeks ago

Gardening again!

The weather is getting better now.
Preparing for springtime.