What to Do with a Long Weekend

We found this weekend to be a great time to do our "Living Wall 2.0" project.  Here's the original "living wall" that came with the house.  We liked the concept, but didn't like that the soil kept falling out of the little cells and onto the stairs below. And some of the succulents had outgrown their spaces.

So, Erick removed the original, I painted the wall behind it and came up with a design, Erick made cedar boxes and put them up.

Boxes in place and ready for planting

Living Wall 2.0

There were lots of plants left over after we got the boxes comfortably full.  So, I planted them along the stone path on the canyon side of the house and in the yard near the front door.

Canyon side plantings:

A good example of the Serpentine soil in our area

Front yard plantings: 

We've chosen native and/or drought-tolerant plants for the yards.  Anything that needs better soil or a bit of pampering will be in pots on the decks and balconies.

We now have bird feeders on both the bay and canyon sides of the house. Here are a couple of the visitors to the one that's on a bayside balcony.

A Stellar's Jay

A Scrub Jay on the feeder

A recent early morning photo with clouds below Mount Diablo:

Progress Inside and Outside

Erick and I are getting close to having most of our space and the common areas of the house in good order.  A number of unique pieces of furniture came with the house.

Here's one we're converting to an armoire.

Here's another piece we like a lot.  It's an old media center that's located in Erick's office area. We're using it for storage.

Of course, Erick's office wouldn't be complete without the book shelves he made for our Chelsea house.  Here they are just beginning to be filled.

The living room of our house came with a large set of built in shelves - great for displaying a variety of items.

The lighted shelves in the dining room work well for my dragon collection.

Knowing Erick and me, you won't be surprised to find that plants are definitely part of the plan here.  The previous owners were in the same situation we were with regard to having to leave plants behind when they moved.  Here are some of them.

And, of course we are adding our own.

The neighbors' yards are something we enjoy, too.

Our driveway is lined with 10 planters atop the posts along the edge.  We bought 5 different sun-loving, drought-tolerant succulents for them.

Oscularia

Kalanchoe pumila

Echeveria agavoides

Artemisia pycnocephala

Dudleya farinosa

Lest you think we spend all of our time around the house, here are photos from a recent "Friday night dinner out" trip to Jack London Square.

Finally, you knew there would be some scenic outdoor photos. Here they are. Starting with a panoramic view of the hills taken by Erick's work buddy, Mark.

Local deer in the neighbor's back yard.

An unusual sunrise

Barges on the Bay (the bright orange one is easiest to spot)

Getting Settled...Gradually

In some ways it seems like no time at all since late in the evening on April 19 when we packed up the car with an air mattress, bedding and some food and headed off to take possession of our new home.

That was the beginning of three days of moving in:
Day 1 - Moving belongs from our temporary home in the urban cottage; movers packing and unloading our daughter and son-in-law's household.
Day 2 - United/Mayflower delivering the two store & move containers with our furniture and other household items from Michigan
Day 3 - Commander Moving crew of three unloading and placing the contents of the containers
A note about what made the move complicated: The driveway we share with 3 other houses is so steep at the bottom that no trucks with lift gate mechanisms can go up.  That means standard moving vans have to park at the bottom and load items into a pick up truck to go up the drive to our house which is at the top.  Lots of shuttling on days 1 and 3.

Our crew from Commander Moving. They were great!

Day 3 - Mid-afternoon

The movers finished about 1:30 PM.  Just in time for us to fetch our first out of town visitor, Glenda, who was came to San Francisco to see her grandson.  Shown here with Erick and Ziggy.

Day 4 - Getting the sewer work done that the East Bay Municipal Utility District requires when an older house changes ownership.  (Yes, that's happening by our front door.)  The work was done quickly and well, and the installation passed inspection.

Days 5 through today - We've been unpacking boxes and reassembling furniture.  Six rooms are completely in order: kitchen (we needed to combine two households worth of equipment); main floor bathroom; one upstairs bathroom; entry level bedroom and bathroom, and the laundry room.

We also celebrated my birthday and Erick's at a Kincaid's at Jack London Square on the Oakland waterfront. As you can see, the weather isn't always sunny here.  The rain is welcome, though.

The UC Berkeley Botanical Garden had a huge sale last weekend.  Erick and I went to learn about what will grow around our place and, of course, brought home a few things.

Lest you think it's been all work, here are photos that show we're drinking in the beauty around us. (First two: sunset looking southwest toward the Bay and the city; middle: clouds over Mt. Diablo; bottom: sunrise over Mt. Diablo.)

And we're getting to know the local birds.  I spotted a bald eagle over the hills yesterday morning. No photo of that one or of the banded-tail doves that Erick has seen.  Today an Oregon Junco and a Black-headed Grosbeak and a Western Scrub Jay were at the feeder in back of the house.  It's hard to pick them out in the photos, but give it a try.

Junco

Junco on the feeder tray, Grosbeak on the wood just above the feeder.

Scrub Jay

Good photo of the Grosbeak via Cornell Ornithology Lab: