In the Kitchen Window

I often stand at the kitchen sink, staring out at the view toward the back of our property.  From here, we see the Greenhouse, Shack, Garage, my trusty pick-up truck, and the Barn.  (I also see lots of soggy ground, because we got a whole bunch of rain yesterday.)  What I don't see, however, is much of the garden ... weird, I know.

Looking down onto the windowsill (which is 12" deep) is like my own private game of Seek & Find ... you know, those photos where the idea is to look for certain objects in a composition of lots and lots of items.

I see:  three orchids, a spiderplant, a vacuum-type wine stopper, two thermometers, a whole bunch of paintbrushes, a toothbrush, two paint stirrers, nail clippers, and a cactus.  This assortment appears to accurately represent the mess of stuff that also accumulates in my brain ... seemingly unrelated stuff that all has a common theme.  In this case, it's stuff that I use (paintbrushes, nail clippers, wine stopper) along with stuff that needs to be here (all of the plants).

(Notice that two of the orchids have flower spikes!!  They're Cymbidiums, impulse purchases from Trader Joes, and they reliably rebloom at this time each year ... despite my ignorance at how exactly to properly care for them.)

In winter, staring out the window is how I get most of my exposure to outdoors ... it's too cold most days to do as much outside as I would like to.  This window, and the one in the dining room further down this wall, have my favorite views.  

What's your favorite place to stand and stare out the window, and what do YOU see?

Trust the Tree

Imagine the scene ... it was June 2002, and my husband and I were at the end of our third trip to this house with our realtor.  In addition to the purchase price, we did what we could to mentally tally up a list of the renovations that we thought the place would need ... roof, paint removal, plaster repair, floor refinishing, masonry, HVAC, electrical, kitchen, bathrooms, the list goes on ... I think both of us were overwhelmed at the prospect.  

As we stood on the deck that day and talked about it, knowing that we had to make a decision, I kept looking at the huge tree in the yard ... imagining what that tree had seen in its life, how it sheltered the house with its dominating presence, and picturing how (or if) I would be a part of its next chapter.

View from the deck today at about mid-morning.

How could we be sure that this would be our forever home?  The tree whispered to me, I swear it did, and I knew that this was home.  

Thirteen years ago, during the first week of January 2003, three months after settlement, I put the first hammer and pry bar to this place.  I like to think that the tree had no way to know about all the additional things we would find that the house needed ... how our two-year plan to renovate and move in would stretch to five years, with a nonstop parade of projects continuing since then.  If it did know, it wasn't letting on.

It is, after all, just a tree.

Sunday Snapshot ... A Winter View

In the morning, while I drink coffee and eat breakfast, I am often in this spot at the end of the peninsula counter between our kitchen and dining room.

From here, this is the view that I have to my left, through the west-facing dining room window.

The ancient pecan tree you see has shaded the back of our house since the beginning, I imagine.  (our house was built in 1848.)  At any given time, we see a large and varied number of birds, and a squirrel or two, doing something within its branches.

My Rambler Fence rose garden is on the left, just past the driveway.  There's nothing to see there in winter, because the roses are sleeping.  In the distance, you see the winter view of our barn ... 200 yards from the house. 

The stained glass (which is where my Hartwood Roses logo came from), ironstone pitcher, and cat bed (where cats sit to watch the birds and squirrels in the tree) complete the scene.  A perfect little snapshot of so many of the things that I love, all in one image.

Used the Waterlogue app to do something artsy with the image.

Today is chilly, winter-like at last.  I plan to spend a little bit of time outside in the sunshine, tidying up one of my gardens.  After that, the afternoon will be devoted to football watching.

What are your plans for today?

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Sunday Snapshots are posts devoted to moments in time that represent glimpses into everyday life in Hartwood, or wherever else I happen to be at the time. 

Warning: This Post is All Over the Place

Sitting here trying to make sense of all of the photos I have taken recently, and it can't be done.  I'm rarely without access to something that I can use to take a picture (two cameras, my phone, or my iPad), and I have been known to take dozens of seemingly-random photos on a given day. 

Can't make these weave a cohesive theme, except that this is all stuff that I saw over the past couple of days.  There's a lot of stuff here for you to see this morning ... you may want to refill your coffee cup before you get started.

The weather has been cloudy and cooler than normal for the past two days.  Two thunderstorms on Thursday night dropped a lot of rain ... after which the sky was a beautiful shade of pink.

All that rain made the soil very receptive to weed pulling ... which is what I did all day on Friday.  My Rose Field is horrible (I'm not overstating the situation by using the word "horrible"), and I am beginning the process of reclaiming it by starting on the center aisle.  While I worked, I was distracted by dozens of butterflies flying around me ... attracted by the thistles there that are taller than I am.

 

By mid-afternoon, I had cleared my way about halfway down the center aisle.  Where there was once fallen roses and weeds as high as my shoulders, I now had the beginnings of a real live path again.  It's not pretty yet, but it's passable and I'm energized by the progress and will keep at it when I can ... I let this once-beautiful garden get into such a sorry state ... and I'm determined that one day it will be beautiful again.

Now that it's August, there are only a few roses blooming ... most of the garden is in between cycles, and everything is gearing up for the fall flush.  I did find a few roses with photo-worthy flowers on them.  It's important for me to concentrate on whatever I find that's beautiful while I work, so I stay motivated and energized to keep on with the awful job of pulling and cutting all the weeds.  At least the weather was relatively nice, and I really like working outside ... even if it's a nasty job that I'm doing.

'Country Doctor' ... I didn't see the tiny spider on the bud until I was editing the photo.

 

'Renae' on an arch in the Rose Field, blooming despite the sorry conditions.

 

'White Cap' is my BEST climbing rose!

 

 

We caught Groundhog #4 on Friday afternoon.  It was an adult, and he/she went to live with the others at the abandoned house down road.  I didn't bother to bait and reset the traps on Saturday.  While I worked in the Rose Field, The Husband was mowing for most of the day ... so the remaining groundhogs laid low because of all the noise and commotion.  I will be setting them today, though.

 

 

 

 



 

Speaking of The Husband, he is currently working on a portrait of a friend's granddaughter.  Here is the artist at work, putting the finishing touches on the underpainting ... soon to begin adding details and highlights to make this portrait come to life. 

 

 

 

I had to run to Lowes for something on Friday, and I did a bit of window shopping in the tile department while I was there.  I found the most beautiful watery blue glass tile mosaic sheets!  Mind you, I nave no projects here that I can use this on ... thought I'd pass it along in case any of you are looking to add some sparkle and color to one of your projects.

 

 

 

Japanese Beetles are still here, though I think their numbers are dwindling.  It's been a longer Beetle Season than I remember in recent years, hopefully they will be gone in another week or two.  I left them alone this year ... too much other stuff to do to spend precious time knocking beetles into buckets of soapy water.

 

Japanese Beetles on 'Perle d'Or'

 

 

My Hummingbirds are still draining my one-quart feeder every two days.  I could stand at the kitchen window, or by the feeder on the deck, and watch them for hours.  It's amazing how close the little critters let me get, as long as I'm standing still.  Took this photo with my iPad ... I was close enough at the time to almost reach out and touch the feeder.

 

 

 

The pets here are always a source of cute photos.  Dorothy and Alice like lounging on windowsills ... the ones here are 12-inches deep, so there's plenty of room for them to stretch out.  Dorothy's favorite place is her shoebox in the dining room window.  Alice is usually on the cat bed in the family room window ... for this photo, though, she was keeping me company in the sewing room.

 

Dorothy loves her shoebox so much, I don't have the heart to move it.

 

 

Cute cat lounging on a cat pillow ... perfect!

 

 

Today dawned bright and sunny, with a light breeze.  It's a beautiful view out the window, beside me as I'm sitting at the counter in the kitchen. 

 

 

 

Temperature is cool, and it looks like it will be a perfect day to get back to work in the Rose Field.  Having made such good progress out there for the past two days, I'm excited to get back to it and see what else I can accomplish. 

 

Happy Sunday, Everyone ... it's a beautiful one here in Hartwood!

 

The Morning After

It snowed almost all day yesterday.  The temperature hovered just above freezing, and the snow melted and packed as it fell, lowering the accumulation total.  It's difficult to say exactly how much snow we got ... the wind was blowing a gale, and we have drifts in some places and little or nothing in others.  If I had to make a guess, I'd say that there's 6 to 8 inches out there. 
 
It sure is pretty, looking at the view from my spot here at the kitchen bar counter ... Ruby thinks so, too.

 

 

We lost power for about four hours during the worst of the storm.  There are folks west of here who are still without electricity ... my parents, first and foremost.  I will check in on them shortly to see if their power is back yet.  If it isn't, I will offer them our generator ... it's enough for them to run lights, refrigeration, and a heater.

 

I changed my mind yesterday, and I worked in the basement instead of in my sewing room.  I'll show you what I was working on when I finish it.

Snow Day

The calendar says that spring will be here in a couple of weeks, but Old Man Winter still has a trick or two up his sleeve.  Over the weekend, the weather guys started warning us about a potential major winter event.  It's not 'potential' anymore, folks ... it's here, and it sure is a pretty sight outside the dining room window.

 

 

It started to snow here in Hartwood at about 10pm. The worst of it is still to come, as the heart of the storm moves from west to east.  Thankfully, this storm isn't going to give us anything close to the snow totals that our New England friends experienced last month.

 

The red dot on the map is Hartwood, on the line between the 8-12" and 5-10".  Who knows how much snow we will eventually get.



 

Today is a good day to work upstairs in my sewing room, to try to reclaim it from the dumping place that it became during our master bedroom closet project at the first of the year.  Working on one of my favorite spaces, warm and dry, as the snow falls outside ... it should be a good day.

There ... That's Much Better

Last week, Tara Dillard posted a photo and posed a question that struck a nerve with me.  She said, "You think we don't see the grill killing the views?"

photo:  Cote de Texas, via Tara Dillard.

 

 

I looked up, and from my perch on the barstool at the kitchen counter I saw this:

 

 

 

How could I have been ignoring this for the entire five-and-a-half years that we have lived here? 

 

It took less than a minute and a half to remedy the situation.

 

 

 

The grill is now to the left of the doorway ... still convenient to use, and out of my line of sight.

 

Tara calls this "The Vanishing Threshold" ... making the inside transition to outside as seamlessly and beautifully as possible ... and vice versa. 

 

Hey, Tara, thanks for the virtual kick in the pants! 

Snow Day

The temperature here has been below freezing for the past two days.  Overnight, a small storm system dusted our part of the country with about an inch or two of snow.  It's light, frozen snow ... delightfully soft.  I had no problem sweeping it off our deck steps, so the dogs can safely get down to the backyard to do their 'business'. 

From where I stand here in the kitchen, my dining room window view is really beautiful!  No winter whining, for sure, when I can stand here and look out at this ... from the warmth of inside the house, of course.

 

 

Just to let you know, I added this photo using the regular Blogger photo uploader ... instead of having to switch back and forth between 'compose' and 'html', like we have had to do for the past few weeks.  I guess Blogger finally got to work and fixed whatever was broken.

 

Have a great day, Everyone!

(remember, No Winter Whining!)

Enjoying the View

Yesterday afternoon, I took some much needed time to rest.  I sat in my favorite chair in the family room, worked on a sweater that I am knitting, watched a program about Titanic on the History Channel, and enjoyed the view.

I played with this photo using PicMonkey ... I like the Museum Frame effect.

The windows in this old house of ours are huge (I can stand in them, and I'm 5' 7"), and they are placed high on the walls (which captures wonderful tree and sky views).  The windowsills are favorite places for the cats to sit and watch birds or to nap in the sunshine ... as demonstrated by Alice.

Have a happy Sunday!