balance restored in st. paul!

well, at least until the republican national convention.

the weather is ridiculously nasty enough today that i have time to procrastinate indoor fix-ups by updating the house blog. just last sunday, the temp was in the mid-seventies. today, snow/wind/clouds AGAIN. kvetch, kvetch.

so when it was all beautiful last weekend, we were really jonesing to get our hands in the dirt. but, as any good minnesotan knows, it is waaaay to early to expose those poor plants to the elements quite yet. we satiated ourselves by digging up all the crappily-laid bricks bordering the gardens and re-doing them completely.

see what i mean by lack of balance?:

(these are either side of the porch on the front side of the house)



now, i'm all for eclectic design. however, the two of us are a bit too scandinavian for shenanigans like that. so, we changed it up to look like this:







and we have the south side before:


and after:





he DOES get all the fun jobs:



in birding news, we've witnessed tons of cool stuff lately. last sunday, a red tail hawk flew through the yard. the songbirds were NOT big fans. many new birds we've never seen before are stopping through on migration routes, like this fox sparrow:

and a new sighting just today, a white-throated sparrow:


most people don't get excited about sparrows. but we do. i'm not sure what that says about us.

we root for the underdog?

soundtrack for this renovation:

red-winged blackbird yelling

robin tweakin'