dual personalities

As usual, the week whizzed by and now I don’t remember much about it. Yesterday, I stayed home, did errands and jobs around the house, and not much else — it was balm for this tired soul. As one of my accomplishments, I mowed the lawn! That’s right, dear reader, yours truly mowed (!), and our new, lithium battery operated mower made it a delightful experience. Seriously. The machine starts at the touch of a button, is quiet, light-weight, and handles beautifully.

These mowers are a little pricier than the normal kind, but it’s worth it. We used to have a loud, difficult-to-start mower that spewed smoke and vibrated so much that one’s hands would tingle for hours after using it. The contrast couldn’t be greater. Anyway, I love the new one.

Having gotten my exercise in, I spent some time planning home improvements. We finally found someone to do ice damage repair and some other jobs. This fact and my dual personality’s wonderful bedroom makeover have inspired me to look at wallpaper for my tiny foyer. Which of these do you prefer? William Morris Garden Craft in ‘Canvas’ or ‘Blue’,

or Zoffany Rome in ‘linen/stone’ or ‘blue’?

I really love the William Morris in blue, but I’m afraid the color might clash with my dining room. And the Zoffany blue might be too bold. I’m inclined toward the neutrals. What do you think? I need to get some samples, but as these are all only available in England, it could be quite a process. Fortunately, I can enlist the aid of my kind mother-in-law and  son #2. I’ll keep you posted, although this could take months…

In other news, I discovered a really lovely song in Scottish Gaelic:

You can find the lyrics in Gaelic and English here.

And for any of you wondering how Gaelic pronunciation works, watch this. It kind of blew my mind.

What a language. No wonder it’s dying out.

Happy Labor Day!