Spring Has Sprung!

It’s almost here! The most wonderful time of the year … NO, not Christmas …COTTAGE OPENING!

With spring comes cottage opening! Recently, while visiting my Sister & Brother-in-law, we went up to check on the cottage. Now we can be fairly sure that we won’t be walking into any surprises. Read my previous post to find out how we’ve made cottage opening less stressful.

Now we can allow ourselves to just be excited about getting back to our paradise. Now, it’s more about making sure I don’t forget anything we’ll need when we get there! My mind is turning instead toward projects. I have (at least) three projects in mind: one inside and the others outside.

I’ve been trying to convince Brian to let me paint the upstairs in a better colour. When we first took possession of the cottage everything was dark brown panelling. First we painted the guest room, then the living/dining room and lastly upstairs (our bedroom). We love the colours we’ve chosen downstairs but the upstairs didn’t turn out as expected.

The colour I thought we were choosing for our bedroom and my office area was a restful light green shade. What we actually got is something of a bright sea-foam green/blue. It’s a mixed blessing that the walls are short upstairs or that colour would be downright aggravating. It’s just enough colour for us to know we don’t like it but not enough for us to change it. That makes it very hard to justify taking the time to change it. This week the conversation turned to “well if we won’t paint, can I change all the accessories to help tone that colour down?” That may be a possibility.

The main outdoor projects are: a compost pile, changing some plantings around in the garden and a planting beside the driveway.

The compost pile has been on my mind for a long time. I dread the thought of throwing my kitchen green waste into a garbage bag for the dump. I have gardens that would love the composted goodness! We already have a small pile of garden cuttings at the back of the property. It’s tucked into the woods by the Bunkie and since there’s no actual food waste in it, we’re pretty sure most animals won’t give it a second sniff. I’m guessing we’ll have to change location for the new compost pile.

I’m most concerned about attracting animals to the new pile. Actually, skunks are my main concern because, well, they can seriously smell things up! Is it weird that I’m more concerned about a skunk than a bear? Racoons are another concern but not as critical since they strike me more as a nuisance than a risk. Please tell me I’m not wrong!

This will be the year I give it a good honest shot. I asked a few Facebook friends and neighbours if they have any hints for composting in the area and boy did I score! One of them actually wrote a book about it and was happy to share some advice. I think I have some reading to do. Thanks to Dee Cherrie and Tom Ashman of Rural Rootz for the start!

I’d also like to move some plants around in the garden. I’d like to plant some bird friendly shrubs by the front deck. I currently have a row of Echinacea there but they don’t grow fast enough to be in a prominent spot like that. In fact nothing seems to grow very fast in our garden. All of this means more research! It’s surprising what a difference there is between our old garden in the city and the one only 3 hours north. My usual favorite groupings just don’t work at the cottage.

As for the planting by the driveway, who knows what will end up happening. While it’s a perfect spot for some nice low maintenance shrubs, I think I’ll most likely be lucky to get it tidied up a little this year and maybe install a small feature of some sort. This is another one of those “not great but not bad enough to fix” situations like the bedroom colour.

And then I think just sitting on the deck or going for a hike sounds way more enticing. After all, it’s THE COTTAGE; it can’t all be work. There’s fun and relaxation to be had!