This past week was another busy one, and even this weekend has been full, with workers here engaged in two projects as well as a full house at the Cottage.
Work continued on the restoration of the Grigg barn this past week. The new siding and new roof look spectacular, even having attracted positive reviews from a passerby who has evidently been observing the work from Rt. 250 and decided to come up and pay Bobby a compliment!
Donnie and his brother, Wayne, were here toward the end of the week, cutting, raking and baling hay in the southwest, northwest and north fields as well as some of the smaller areas like the floodplain area south of Stockton Creek and the field just below the north side of the main house.
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Cipriano and his assistant began the reconditioning of the fish pool between the parterre garden and the main house and have been working on it both days this weekend. They brought a large tank in which to store a lot of the water, the surviving fish, and the plants, and moved everything over to the temporary, above-ground pool on Friday. Work on the cobblestone surround has also begun, and the stones are being stacked for storage on pallets on the south lawn as they are removed.
Patsy has found that she can no longer maintain her landscaping work here at Ramsay, and has recommended a friend, Connie, to continue with plantings and garden maintenance. Connie began work on Tuesday, and her first effort was to create the herb garden in one of the raised beds in the greenhouse ruin. I had bought all the plants at Milmont the previous weekend, and they were awaiting transplant into their new homes. Connie incorporated several "found" items in her design, and extended the garden to the sunken area in what was the greenhouse proper. She calls the sunken garden the Mediterranean garden, because many of the herbs we associate with Italian cooking are there.
She re-purposed plants she had removed to make room for the herbs by incorporating them into the center feature of the raised bed and in the elderly watering can perched on the wall of the sunken area.
We hope everyone who stays at Ramsay and likes to cook will take advantage of these beautiful herbs, both the ones in the new gardens in the greenhouse ruin and the ones flourishing in the vegetable garden. All plants are labeled with their tags in case help is needed in identifying them. Connie also did some weeding, watering and deadheading of flowers around the main house later in the week, including a major clean-up of the flower beds next to the entryway into the mud room. This week she will be "refreshing" the little garden between the driveway and the Carriage House (which I call the Secret Garden), as well as further cleanup in the area around the outdoor fireplace near the Cottage.
There was a somewhat violent thunderstorm here on Wednesday afternoon, which fortunately did not cause any major damage, but did blow down a number of limbs and leaves from all the trees. Connie and Kyle did some major cleaning up on Thursday and Friday, and will complete removal of piles of debris tomorrow.
Kyle was here several days last week, and continues to keep all the trees along both driveways watered, as well as helping with the mowing and maintenance of the front pastures along with sundry other tasks as needed.
The landscape painting class was here last week, with their easels set up in various places, mostly on the lawns around the main house.
Painters from John's crew were here prepping and painting all the new carpentry on the south portico as well as some roof-repair painting on the front porch of the Farmhouse.
Guests arrived for a weekend stay at the Cottage on Friday afternoon. Stephen set aside his contractor/project management hat and put on his innkeeper hat, and greeted them when they arrived, and gave them orientation for the area and directions to their weekend wedding-related events. I had done the breakfast and supplies shopping Friday morning, and Sherry had everything fresh and clean for their arrival. The guests, who are from Texas and New Mexico, were thrilled by the Cottage and the site as a whole, and are already planning a return trip. Stephen is now giving them a "Gator tour" of the farm.
Stephen will see the guests off and begin mowing in the new paddock, and Donnie and Wayne are literally "making hay while the sun shines!"
Tomorrow will begin yet another busy week at Ramsay.
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