monarch butterfly

A monarch butterfly chrysalis 'hatches'.  According to my friend Phil who gave it to me, this is the last generation of the summer and this butterfly will return to winter in Mexico.  Previous generations of the year live only about a month as they move northward, but the last group flies south. Time lapse is one frame per second.  This video is one minute long  = 1 hour.

1980

Some forgotten pictures I took sometime in the late 1970s, to 1980.  Oak Hill has since been restored of course.  Fifth and Walnut still stands vacant and unrestored.  The Cracker Factory is gone.  The Brewery is gone.  And little did I know when I took the picture that I would be carting that urn from the basement to the Carriage House some day for display!

update on uncle john's

Tom Acevski is now one week into the renovations for Uncle John's Restaurant on the Square.  Owner Nick Tanchevski is happy with the progress. 
The windows on the second and third floors have been repaired, the transom window glass replaced, and brickwork completed in the entryway.  A major transformation is taking place inside also. 

world coverage

News coverage of the damage to Mansfield's Shawshank tree has been global.  Here's a tally of news outlets picking it up so far.
The Guardian.  UK
Mirror.  UK
San Francisco Chronicle
Newsday
Daily Mail. UK
iNews880
Yidio
Shockya
Ecorazzi ("Green Gosip")
Gather
Zee News.  Mumbai India
Cinema Blend
UPI
411mania
TMZ
San Antonio Express
Spokesman Reviews
KSDK
Huffington Post
Detroit Free Press
Forbes
Telegraph.  UK
AP
NewsMax
New Tribune. Tacoma

uncle john's

Nick Tanchevski poses this morning beside the cast iron column exposed as he begins the renovation of his storefront at 18 S. Main Street in Mansfield.
The City of Mansfield Historic Preservation Commission held a special meeting on the site Monday afternoon to approve the first phases of his project.  Architect Tim Alexander, working for Nick, presented plans and alternatives depending on what would be found beneath the cover-up metal and wood installed over 50 years ago in a previous remodeling. 
What was uncovered was astounding.  "The most elaborate cast iron column I've ever seen in Mansfield" said Dan Seckel, Commission member and longtime preservation architect. 
So what else is there to be uncovered?  Beneath the yellow awning and behind blue enameled panels are transom windows that are slated for restoration.  How high the column goes, and the condition of the brick and stone above it are yet to be seen.  These areas will be exposed shortly as Nick peels back the more recent layers.

upright elephant ear

My ear:

springtime lawn renewal

The results so far of replacing the lawn at Oak Hill:
     Nothing short of totally burning off the old grass, crabgrass, and weeds and covering with two inches of topsoil will work to suppress the reemergence of crabgrass and weeds to some degree as the new lawn comes in.  Simply scorching crabgrass seedlings works to kill them, but this is not effective on older, established crabgrass, which seems to be reemerging regardless of how deeply it's buried if it wasn't totally burned.  I have yet to understand how crabgrass is called an annual, when it seems to survive through our winters here.  
    At the front of the cottage using the burn and bury method, the new lawn has come in weed-free except near the porch and daffodil beds where it couldn't be totally burned off.   The hillside to the east was only partially burned and scorched selectively, and less topsoil was added.  The result has not been nearly as good. 

crabgrass update

The front yard at the Cottage is coming along nicely and the east hillside is just starting to green up.

crabgrass

At Oak Hill Cottage we needed to start over with the lawn at the front and east side of the house after removing some shrubbery and other work that required replacement of large areas of the lawn anyway.
The idea of using roundup to kill the grass and weeds, then reseeding, sounded reasonable.  The results were not the best, to say the least.  What transpired was that the spring weather was perfect for all of the dormant crabgrass seed in the soil to sprout much faster than the grass seed that we sowed. 

Crabgrass seedlings.

After a couple of weeks looking at a nicely greening up lawn that was 90% crabgrass, I decided to take on the challenge of getting this done right.  I got a large propane torch and 6 yards of topsoil...burned the crabgrass and buried it under an inch or two of topsoil, depending on the area.  I burned off the front yard pretty completely including the thatch...less on the side yard where letting the clover survive here and there will be a plus. 

Side yard showing crabgrass burned off and starting to cover with topsoil.

What crabgrass looks like after it's been scorched.  On most of the front yard I burned everything including the thatch, and covered with about 2 inches of topsoil.  This is on the side yard where I was less aggressive with the torch.

The front yard is just starting to green up as I was working on the east side yard.

On windy days the straw dries out and blow away on this slope, so I tied it down with twine and sod stakes.

more flora

Mahogany irises

Japanese irises

Tree Peony

 The tree peony in my yard is fabulous this year! 

architectural comment

Just a quick post to get this blog up and running again.  I noticed this building in Galion for sale on the MLS and thought it was worth a comment.  The form and the parapet gables give away its beginnings as a Federal style mansion, inn, or commercial building from the 1830s perhaps.  At some time in the 1870s or so it appears it was updated with Italianate windows and brackets at the eves...an unusual combination.  For sale at 87,900 by the way.