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Belgian Fence Espalier Inspiration Via Disneyland

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I've written about the pair of Greenspire Linden trees that we have in our backyard that I espalier'd in the late Summer of 2017, right after we moved in a few times here on the blog - with the most recent being in May of last year where I showed the tree's buds about to burst open to life .  Here's a post from September of 2017 that I showed the espalier system that I used (wires and posts) and why I chose to put them a little bit further away from the fence than one would normally. Those two espalier'd trees are done in what is known as the "cordon" style.  Or, maybe, a "Double Cordon" or "Triple Cordon" because we have (currently) four rows of branches. Cordon is just one of the styles that are popular with the others being Candelabra and something called the "Belgian Fence". Here's a breakdown of some of the most common versions of espalier from "State by State Gardening" below.  Link to the imag

Cold Couple of Days in Downers Grove (and the rest of Northern Illinois)

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As of this morning, it has gotten down to -22 degrees fahrenheit with wind chills down to -49 degrees fahrenheit.  You can see in the image above that it appears that tomorrow early am is going to be a couple of degrees colder. But, not sure it will break the record of -27 degrees - which happened during my lifetime in January of 1985 .  I don't have any memory of the cold of 1985, but I *do* have vivid memories of the Polar Vortex of 2014  that sat over Elmhurst (and all of Northern Illinois) for two days.  It was cold those days, but not so cold that they shut down the mail.  In fact, Nat spotted our mail carrier out delivering mail and invited him in to warm up.  We had another smaller Polar Vortex in 2015 (I think it was classified as such??) and I posted about how we ended up with just a little bit of cabin fever and went outside to make a quick snow angel for like 4 minutes here on the blog . So...how cold is it today?  The United States Postal Service has suspended m

Disneyland Bathroom Hotel Wallpaper: Original Attractions

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Why not make the bathroom awesome, right?  That's what, I'm sure the Imagineers said who were putting the final touches on the Disneyland Hotel .  As I've mentioned before, you should - if you can swing it - stay there on your visit to the Disneyland Resort.   Most recently, we failed to take my own advice and stayed at a "Good Neighbor" hotel (c'mon...let's be honest here:  it was a motel). To make-up for our staying outside the 'Disney Bubble' and to kind-of recreate a special character meal we had a few years back, we booked a breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen .  The restaurant is in the convention center building that is right next door to the Fantasy Tower.  Here's a map from the OC Register that shows the Disneyland Hotel footprint . If you wander off to the bathroom that is outside of the restaurant, you enter one that is set up for conventions.  It has a lot of room.  The bathroom itself isn't worth commenting on.  But, the w

Lamplight Lounge Coaster - Added to Collection #34

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Just to make things simple here for the record keeper at the 'official' coaster collection archives, I'm calling this just one coaster.  You can see a bunch of coasters in the photos of this post and one side of them are all different, but just to keep things simple here, let's call this one coaster. And that coaster is pretty neat:  it is from the new (at least kinda new) Lamplight Lounge at Disney California Adventure. As I've posted over time, we're lounge people when it comes to Disney parks and dining.  After taking some advice from Pam at the BoG Podcast, we've sought out more and more lounges.  They don't require ADRs and you can get pretty good food in an atmosphere that we can enjoy and the kids can tolerate. This place - the Lamplight Lounge - is called a 'lounge', but it also takes ADRs.  Or at least reservations via the Disneyland mobile app - which is a bit different than WDW ADRs.  But, you get it, right?  Also, the food is

Meeting the (Unofficial) Mayor of Buena Vista Street - Donna Linn De Larria

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Add another 'streetmosphere' character to the list of folks that we've met at the Disney Parks over the years.  Today's post is about Donna Linn De Larria - one of the "Citizens of Buena Vista Street" in Disney California Adventure. She's a lot like the "Citizens of Hollywood" that greet guests at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida, but she's in California.  We met Donna and her dog Lady one morning on our recent visit.  MousePlanet has the full list and details of the Citizens of Buena Vista Street here .  From their notes about Donna , we find out that she's the 'unofficial mayor'.  From MousePlanet  and their post about all the 'Citizens ': Donna is the unofficial mayor of Buena Vista St.. You usually see her with her dog, Lady. The kids love to meet the dog and pet her of course. She is happy to give you directions to any attractions. She is also happy that women just got the vote and has no plans on

Disneyland Resort Tile Inspiration for Basement?

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Over the years, I've posted a few times on tilework done at Disney Parks.  It has been a source of inspiration and admiration both for us as we built our house and how we observe the world.  First, I covered the tilework in the Peter Pan queue in Fantasyland at Walt Disney World .  Then, I came across the tile in PizzaRizzo at Disney's Hollywood Studios .  Both served as inspiration for our vestibule tile work that we eventually incorporated into the house.  Today's post shows some tile that is the Ariel ride at Disney's California Adventure.  Turns out, this is, I think, called the San Felipe style of tile .  Think about the beating this tile is taking at Disney California Adventure.  Hundreds of thousands of people are walking across this every month.  And it looks great.  As we are beginning to think about our basement build-out, tile is something to think about and this struck some part of inspiration in me.  Now....we all know that I'm out of the c

Disneyland Park Christmastime Parks Map

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Putting this photo here in the ole' online diary to note the inclusion of this seasonal Parks Map.  I've posted other Disney Parks maps/guides including both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea here .  And a guide for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party from 2017 here .  Over the past ten days or so, I've posted some items from our recent trip to DLR but really didn't mention the trip. We've been to Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Park a few times over the years, but this trip was just a little interlude before a larger Disney-centric vacation.  We stayed for a few nights and spent a good chunk of the days at the Parks in Anaheim.  Would we do things differently?  I think so, but we decided to try something new and NOT take my own advice.  What was that advice? From this post on Disneyland in 2016, I said : If you get a chance, stay at the Disneyland Hotel at the Disneyland Resort. They really drape themselves in Walt and the place is themed to Di