Turning Almond Milk Bottles Into Candlesticks

Inspired yet again by all the arty crafty things I see on Pinterest, I decided to do something with the shapely almond milk plastic bottles I seem to accumulate. So I stripped off the plastic labels from three Califia almond milk bottles and took them outside to paint them with some silver spray paint I'd recently acquired for $2 at a going-out-of-business sale at a nearby hardware store (Brookland True Value) and that was leftover from another project (spray painting used light bulbs as Christmas ornaments). Over a couple of days I did about two coats of this nice shiny silver spray paint on the bottles.  I then inserted some plastic candle holders I'd kept from a floral centerpiece that someone had once given me (yes, you can find a use for all those bits and  pieces you are hoarding!) and after also spraying them silver, put some bright orange candles in them. The candles I got at T.J. Maxx on sale, ten for $4!  I also weighted the bottles with some stones on their insides so there'd be no tipping over! Two of the candlesticks  I put next to my fall floral display in the dining room and the other one got a bit more gussied up with a green ribbon and silver paint sprayed fake flower for a kitchen shelf. I'm quite happy with these ornaments and know I can change out the colors, candles and embellishments once Christmas, Easter, St. Valentine's Day, or a birthday comes along. Who'd have thought painting ole plastic bottles and keeping them out of the dump could be so fun?

Signs of the Times in the Neighborhood

There's all kinds of signs in the neighborhood

while the big dig is going on -- from "underpinning and foundation," "road closed," "sidewalk closed ahead," to "dead end" and "detour."  I've also gotten used to orange traffic cones, orange speed signs in the alleys and just a plain lot of orange and white striped signs.   I suppose we just have to put up with it while the work goes on.  It didn't used to look like this around here.

Stressed Out in #Bloomingdaledc by The Public Works

Detour sign instead of tree

Huge concrete truck lumbers onto quite side street

Large sheets of metal covering up huge holes

Lately, I've been feeling quite stressed out by all the public works in the neighborhood. I can't figure out if it's all the water tunnel dig, or gas pipes being moved, or other utility work, but it's all becoming a bit of a nightmare.  And, it's not just the bright orange and yellow plastic things -- signs, pipes, vehicles, worker jackets but it's all the big lumbering vehicles and the ever-changing lanes and roads and alleys being worked in, or the increase in heavy service trucks.

Steel plates & graffited toilets & orange cones

Huge equipment, mysterious yellow barrels

And for another thing, it seems like every time I leave the house during the day I encounter some kind of blockage:  this might be a slow-down due to having to drive more carefully over the large metal plates that are mysteriously appearing in some alleys and roadways (and what huge holes lurk underneath them); it might be a temporary "road closed" sign forbidding me to enter a street I used to routinely use;  or it might be some giant concrete carrier or truck blocking the road, trying to turn a corner or grinding its gears going over the speed humps of our quiet residential street. Some of them are even 18-wheelers (yes, I've counted them) who seem to have got lost in the "Bryant Street Detour" and are attempting to get somewhere. Who knows what an 18-wheel behemoth is doing driving westbound on Adams Street for instance, or why another two-tonner is attempting a U turn on First street.

 

giant coils of yellow plastic pipe & orange cones

I want to also mention the increasing number of helicopter flights by police, park police, news stations and others (that I have been unable to identify their origin). Their noisy circling over all the development is adding to the nervous tension that I now feel as I try for some peace in the garden or on the deck. I'm sorry to say I just give them the one-finger salute as they disturb the rose pruning.

Diggers and drillers and more ORANGE things

Oh no, another street closed!

Maybe it's also the sight of the large blue toilets that the road crews must have that now also have graffiti on them, or maybe it's all those orange cones and orange nets and signs taped onto trees, but I'm finding it all GETTING ON MY NERVES. Did I mention all the added dust and litter -- since street sweeping has been suspended -- and grit and grime?  Did I mention the 2 a.m. drilling digging sounds from McMillan site?  This Bloomingdale neighborhood is no longer the quiet outpost it used to be. We're living in the middle of a giant department of public works project and it's exhausting.

Cranes looming over

More heavy equipment blocking quite residential street

Workers in orange, yellow with STOP/SLOW signs

Summer Garden, BloomingdaleDC

June was a terrific month for flowers in my city garden this year. It seemed like everything bloomed profusely all at once. Not just the day lilies and the Asiatic lilies, but the pink and the white roses, as well as the biggest hydrangea heads in several years, not to mention the petite little orange nasturtiums that I am very happy about as this is the first year I really got them to flower after growing them from seeds. And now we are in July, many of them are deadheads or getting very wilted as the heat is so much for them.  But the flowers have been wonderful so far even though we are now only enjoying crepe myrtles and tube vine and some honeysuckle which I will photograph soon and add to this page.  I just love having tons of flowers in the garden. 

Summer Garden with Flowers

Nasturtiums

Yucca

 I really do like to have something flowering all the time in both the front and back gardens and this June I've had bright orange and yellow nasturiums for the first time, the big white bells of the Yucca cactus, some glorious orange and some red tiger lilies and a lot of pale yellow to orange day lilies. I like all my flowers and each year the yards are slightly different as it seems the sun and how much I water them really affects whether I will have a lot of blooms. Also, I use some plant food and some kitchen things to feed them. But right now, there's lots of flowers and I'm very happy. My neighbor thinks I'm an expert gardener; I'm not. I actually quite lazy and only grow what grows easily. I just can't be bothered to fuss too much, after all weeding is backbreaking and I only want to be doing it once a month.  And I only get around to cutting the grass once a month too.

Golden Asiatic lilies

June back garden with day lilies

Hazardous Unfinished Roadwork on Adams St NW

tar messes up sidewalk ramp

big thick sheet of metal on sidewalk

At the beginning of winter the city had started work on replacing some gas pipes and then when it snowed they stopped the work. Well, it's now spring and we have to put up with the unfinished work. Not only is there tar tipped into the wheelchair ramp on the sidewalk but also a huge sheet of metal obstructs another walkway. Even the roadway is blocked with a heap of tar causing difficulty for people trying to park their cars -- and it's not like we don't have a problem with sufficient parking spaces -- and there's a couple of orange safety cones just left in the road, now crushed by cars but littering the road. This unfinished work is both an eyesore and an obstruction for many users and local residents wonder when the work is to be finished.Or at least, when is it going to be cleaned up?

Serious Crash on Route 7 East, Virginia

When I drove home from Leesburg, Virginia today about 5 pm traffic was tied up for about 45 minutes. I suspected an accident but hoped it was just back-up from all the construction going on around Tyson's Corner or maybe just heavier-than-usual Christmas shopping. But about 25 minutes into the 10 mile-an-hour crawl, I saw flashing blue lights and orange blinking lights up ahead and knew that some accident had occurred. By the time I got to the site of the accident they were cleaning it up. The car that had been impacted the most -- that is destroyed-- had been hoisted onto a tow truck. I think there had been ambulances and maybe a fire-truck or two. Apparently a lot of gasoline or oil had been spilled so there was a small crew pouring sand or gravel onto the liquid and then shoveling it up. I couldn't look too long but I was astounded and shocked by what little I was able to see as I drove past (and snapped this photo quickly!). Of course, right after, the road was totally clear and I was able to speed home, at normal speed, you can be sure.  What can the sight of the remains of an accident do for us but remind us at the very least to drive more carefully, more respectfully of each other and to pay closer attention.

Toilet on the Street

This is what the corner of our street looks like for the past eight weeks as the workmen have been replacing some gas pipes. A big bright blue plastic toilet is the first thing you see when you turn into the road.  Not the tree, not the nice stone wall but a big you-can't-miss-this white-roofed Jiffy John. And it's a very nice street corner, overlooked by a cemetery filled with crosses and dead bodies. Of course, the workmen have to have a facility, but did it have to be situated right on the corner? And did they have to litter all the sidewalk with orange safety cones and leave curling yellow pipes scattered about. I suppose I should stop griping about this as at least they have stopped drilling and excavating in the morning and no longer wake me up as I mentioned in my previous post called "get me out of the drilling and digging noises" where I grinched about the machinery, dirt and noise but this street work is just going on too long.