Yep, like I predicted, that frost a few days ago croaked the nasturtiums.

One moment they're all, "Woo HOO, look at us. Admire our frantic flowering. Aren't we pretty? Aren't we? You may worship us."

And the next moment they're, "Wait, WAS THAT A FREAKIN' FROST? ACK, EEK, ARGGH."

Then they go into this elaborate death spiral thingie, clutching their chests, and reeling around like some two bit B-movie actor before they turn brown and die with a loud thud.

Wusses.

My perennials, bless their pea picking hearts, continue to blossom. The frost the other day barely bothered most of them. I look at them and I immediately want to start singing "Macho Man" and doing Village People moves.

What can I say? I have a rich inner life.

Barring insanely cold weather or a foot of snow, I could have flowers for another three weeks. I try not to gloat as I drive by other people's gardens, the dead gardens of the poor misguided souls who only plant annuals, who have not found The One True Gardening Path, The Way of the Perennial.

I try not to gloat.

Really, I do.

Fortunately, whatever tiny sliver of superiority I might feel is quickly dissipated when drive up to our house.

Yes, it's official, we're well on the way to having the Goofiest Roof on the Planet.

Resale value?

We don't need no steenkin' resale value on our home!

All the rafters are on, the strapping is in place, and about half the tin is on. I have to tell you this roof is even weirder than I feared because the darn thing is, for want of a better word, swoopy. The little cardboard model was NOT swoopy. The roof itself, from certain angles, looks as if it has wings and is ready to take off, eh.

When my spousal unit asks me what I think, I reply with one word:

"Interesting."

It is a very flexible word, don't you find?

If my husband was building this roof for a client, he would have only built it to code and it would have been done by now. Unfortunately, when he works on our home, he lapses into Extremely Anal Carpenter Mode, which means he way, way overbuilds this place.

For instance, he has done buckets of extra nailing, put anti-hurricane strapping on the rafters (we do NOT, repeat NOT live in a hurricane zone), treated the rafters and strapping with wood preservative (no one does that) and cut all the edges of the tin by hand instead of with a power saw because it will do less damage to the edges of the metal. He is handcrafting the roof, as he has done everything else in this place.

When I was younger, this would have driven me mental. Now I've come to realize that Paul sees our home almost as an potter sees a lump of clay. It's a creative project for him, he shapes it to his vision. I guess you could say this cozy but very odd little handmade home, situated in a rather impractical place, is very much a reflection of the man who built it all with his own two hands.

Interesting.

There will be further bulletins as events progress.