Stopping by with a rose

To all those who left comments on my last post, thank you! I hadn't really expected to be gone this long and had hoped to respond to all the lovely comments. After everything with my dad happened life just seemed to be very busy, and I felt caught up in it all, rarely even checking my email. 

For the past several days this one image has been sitting in my Photo Shop program just waiting to be edited. Finally I took a few minutes and did just that. Once it was done I added a sweet border on PicMonkey. They just keep adding new editing options and I love them all! 

I hope you've had a lovely Spring. Tomorrow we jump right into Summer with 90+ degree temperatures! Thank goodness for A/C and ice cream! Both of which I plan on enjoying : )

Please know I am very thankful for everyone who visits my little blog. Hopefully I will be back again very soon!

Wisteria

The garden is in bloom, and I couldn't be happier. I utterly love when the Wisteria bursts forth, followed by the Peonies. The two of them together bring a smile to my face every time. 


If you know Wisteria then you know it grows OUT OF CONTROL on a regular basis. During the height of summer I pretty much cut it back every week. Last week-end I knew it needed a trim as it had latched on to my double flowering Cherry tree. Rather than throw out perfectly good flowers I cut them all off the vines and brought them in, filling 3 containers.

 ~ In my kitchen~

* * * * *

I hadn't really planned on taking a month off from blogging, however, Sunday, May 6th, my dad had to go to the ER with viral encephalitis (causing a fever of 103), a stroke, and congestive heart failure. He was in the ICU for several days before being transferred over to the cardiac unit. Now he is home and doing quite well! It seems he and my mom are always going to doctors appointments but that's okay. At least they are taking care of themselves, which is a concern I've been voicing for a long time now. 

After several weeks of being home I've also gone back to work, so one thing sort of parlayed into another, taking me away from blogging. My attention span seems to have converted over to Instagram lately. It's just quick, easy, and fun!

The white handkerchief belonged to my grandfather, who passed away when I was 5 or 6 years old. The M was the first initial of his last name. We also shared the same birthday which I didn't realize until several years ago.

I've never brought Wisteria into the house before. Forewarning, always spray them for bugs first. After 3 days of being inside, well, let's just say they didn't seem so pretty anymore. Thank goodness my husband was home to take care of the situation or I would have freaked. Not to mention the cat had a mouse in the toilet the same day!

Okay, enough of that reality check. Back to prettiness : )

Wishing you all a great week-end! Looks like rain is in the forecast for us. Good for napping. Or shopping : )

Pink and spring go hand in hand

Many of our beautiful, floral trees are fading fast, but as the old blossoms fade new ones seem to come into view. 


The tulips are up and looking glorious, as tulips will do. The grass has been mowed for the first time, the baby Bluebirds will be off on their own this coming week (sad face), and all the world seems anew. 


Spring, it has awakened my soul.

After the Robins built the nest I thought for sure they abandoned it. Now she sits there through rain, wind, and cold. That's a good mother.

May you have a splendid week-end!

The pleasures of a simple Rose

Orange, yellow and Pink. Such glorious companions, don't you think?

A touch of transferware always brings a bit of elegance to any image. I wish I had more of it in the color pink. I love pink, and roses. Maybe you noticed . . .

The last image is an Instagram photo with an added texture from Kim Klassen.


Orange you glad you stopped by? I hope so because I sure am! 


Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday!

Glory be!

What a week! So many signs of spring all at once. 

* Last saturday we awoke to a foot of snow on the ground.  Totally unexpected and apparently our town seemed to hit the jackpot with everyone around us getting less. The weather forecast called for up to two inches of snow but that's about it. Instead we got a FOOT!!! Luckily the temps shot up and most of it had melted by the afternoon.

* By Monday we had temperatures in the low 70's, our first thunderstorm, and . . . PEEPERS! Two weeks early no less. Oh Joy! Nothing says spring like the sound of thousands of little frogs singing their hearts out to the heat of a warm spring day.

 * Wednesday morning for the first time the Robins started singing, loudly. I think my heart is singing too! 

photo available in both my Society6 and Red bubble shops

Instead of publishing photos I've recently shot I decided to seek out some summertime shots. They just make me feel so good. Warm and sunny are the words they bring to mind. Lets face it, enough of the cold weather. In local gardens I see plants rising from flower beds about to burst forth all the goodness they've been storing this past winter. Even my clematis is budding!


And I'll be darned if allergy season hasn't begun! 

Isn't the image above beautiful?! It's a seed catalog cover and is available at the Smithsonian Institution Library. Their selection of old seed catalog covers, and backs, are amazing to look at! Just the art alone is incredible. Permission for their images states: 'Smithsonian Libraries provides free and open access to its digital images and the images may be freely downloaded for personal, research and study purposes only'


That said I plan on printing two of them out and framing them for my kitchen. The above cover is one of my favorites! I'm sure if you go looking you'll find a favorite too. And if not you'll love browsing through them just for the history.


Lastly, if you didn't know, and are interested, Kim Klassen (love her blog and photography style) is hosting a FREE Photoshop Skinny-mini eCourse. It's a 10 part course to help you learn a bit more about Photoshop CS or PSE. I signed up, will you? After all if there's one thing I love about blogging it's that we can always learn something new. To register go here. The course starts tomorrow so you better hurry! Don't forget, it's FREE!!!


As always thank-you for visiting! Sending good wishes for a wonderful week : )

Roses and Pears

Recently my husband brought home some of the most beautiful roses I've every seen. It's hard to believe they actually came from the grocery store since they appear to be freshly cut from the garden. 

And the smell ... oh the smell, seriously amazing.

I love the way these came out, soft and subtle.  More of what I've been aiming towards in my still life images. Practice is an understatement.

I want to thank everyone who left well wishes for my husband and daughter after their skiing accident. Elise was very sore for several days. The pain that started out in her neck radiated down into her back, but within a few days we were at the gym where she did some very low impact cardio. It's been just over a week and she is back at 100%, thank goodness.

As for my husband, his shoulder and ribs were sore where my daughter slammed into him, but he healed up pretty quickly. My husband said he'd like to go skiing one more time this spring. Hmmmm .... I'm not so sure about that. Maybe if he leaves Elise at home.

All I know is I'm loving the warmer weather we're having! Our snow cannot melt fast enough!

 Are you looking forward to the time change? I know I should be but getting up in the dark again is such a drag.

When I shot the photos above Luna expressed a lot of interest in what I was up to so I thought you might like a little look into what was going on behind the scenes . . .

She'll eat almost anything. Luckily she looks cute because at one point she had a piece of petal in her mouth! Sorry, no picture of that.

One thing you want to be careful of is those fangs. They're long and sharp. And she's not afraid to use them. Trust me.

I hope you enjoy a wonderful warm Thursday where ever you are! Here in NH we're headed for the 60's!!! Yippee!!!

* The top two images are now available on Redbubble and Society6

Snow day in Kittery, Maine

I know, I never post twice in one day but I really wanted to show you a few shots I took on my way home from Kittery, Maine yesterday afternoon. The snow had just begun to fall so I wrapped a small towel around my camera and tried to capture a few pretty images. Shooting in the elements is definitely not ideal though.

Although it looks like fog what you are seeing in the distance is actually snow

Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse

Just look at this view and you know it's New England. Off to the left you can just make out the Wood Island Lifesaving station.

History is everywhere you look along the coast of Kittery

Isn't this little post office the best? Ahh, the good old days.

As much as I'd hoped to get out in the big snow we had today, it just didn't happen. The roads were bad and I was feeling lazy. Besides, feeling the Bluebirds, Cardinals, etc. was a full time job!

Snow, birds, and bit of drama

Yesterday afternoon the snow began to fall. Something we haven't seen much of this winter, and I'd kind of hoped we wouldn't see again! But, it's New England and there's no telling what's next.

Although it doesn't really look big enough, this is actually a Hairy Woodpecker. Photographing them can be tricky since they are much more timid than the Downy Woodpeckers.  Such a pretty lady she is.

Gotta love the Bluebirds! They've been eating up the Zick Dough for a the past month. Lately they've also been fighting like cats and dogs but once the snow arrived, so did harmony.

As for the drama portion of this post ... Tuesday my husband and daughter, Elise, went skiing. While on a black diamond my husband stopped to see where my daughter was. Turns out she was right behind him going almost 40 mph (we know this from the Ski Tracks app my daughter has on her phone). All my husband remembers after that is seeing pink before my daughter hit him full force, causing her to go flying through the air and land on her head (with a helmet) and shoulders we believe. Instantly my husband ran to her and took her down to see the medics who determined she was okay, but they still rested for a bit in the lodge and had something to eat before continuing to ski for a few more hours. Ya, I know : /

By Tuesday night Elise felt sick to her stomach and had a terrible headache but no vomiting or other concussion symptoms. Finally she ate a little yogurt and some toast and which calmed her stomach but yesterday morning when she awoke her neck was really hurting ... bad. Unfortunately I had to go to work so I called the doctor from my cell and they said go straight to the ER. Since I wasn't home my husband took her where they x-rayed Elise's neck only to have it come back with what appeared to be a line through the 3rd vertebrae. The doctor assumed it was a shadow from the trachea but he couldn't be certain so a CT Scan was ordered. Long story short (and maybe it's a bit late for that) Elise is okay. Nothing is broken but she has to wear a neck brace as there is plenty of swelling, soreness, and stiffness. Needless to say my husband is quite sore too. All will be well in the next few days though. Phew!

And if that wasn't enough, in the midst of the ER drama my older daughter texted me and said her boyfriend messed with her fish tank and killed all her fish. And she doesn't buy cheap fish! *sigh*

Despite everything going on in the teenage world the Bluebirds seem quite content to have a little something to eat on a cold day. As was I when we went out for dinner at Petey's last night ; )

Into the blue

If you've been around my blogging long enough then you know I love time spent by the ocean. It always brings me a great sense of calm. The waves, the gulls, the endless views ... for a moment in time I can feel completely weightless of all the daily burdens. 

Maybe just for a moment you can feel that way too

This has been such a delightful February, weather wise. And though snow was predicted yesterday it didn't materialize. Instead, last night as I lie in bed, for the first time in months I fell asleep to the sound of rain beating on the windows. It was a welcome sound making me think of peepers. But the peepers song is at least a month away.

I know I'm not supposed to love the gulls ... but I do

And the dogs, because no beach is truly complete without a dog

Do anything, but let it produce joy

~ Walt Whitman

I thought I'd add a little mosaic of a few Instagram images from the past couple weeks. I'll be linking up with Mary for Mosaic Monday. 

Are you doing anything special this Sunday?

Forsythia

Good Monday to all! 

Did you have a nice week-end? Maybe get a bit of the snow that fell in the South? Here in NH the weather was beautiful with absolutely no snow. I think most New Englanders are enjoying the mild winter but we also know Old Man Winter could throw us a curve ball right up until April Fools Day! Oh how I hate it when that happens.

 Two Sundays ago I cut some Forsythia from our backyard to bring in and force. On Valentine's day, last Tuesday, it finally started to blossom. Here it is almost a week later and their golden-yellow petals are still gracing my windowsill. I thought you might like a peek.

The board behind the flowers and canning jars is a piece of driftwood I found at the beach last summer. I love that it's so weathered and beat up with nails still attached. My husband also found a piece of driftwood which was slightly longer and thinner but I haven't figured out where that one will go yet.  Over by the mason jars you'll also see a clear, almost beehive shaped container. That holds my dish detergent. The container was only a few dollars and I found it at Homegoods. So much more attractive than a plastic bottle, don't you think?

Last month I decided to put away my winter hand soaps and bring out the summer scents, given to me as a gift last year on my birthday. They're made by Just Naturals & Co and I love them both! The foaming soap is Summertime Breeze while the lotion is Ginger Lemongrass.  Oh goodness they smell divine!

Mixed in amongst the Forsythia on my windowsill are a few sprigs from the double-flowering Cherry. Just yesterday I noticed tiny buds beginning to appear so I'm hopeful they too will grace my kitchen in the coming weeks. And if they do you know you'll be seeing them here ; )

XoXo

Last night while checking out the at the grocery store, the girl who was bagging my groceries asked me if I was a Valentine or a Black Heart. I said, 'Excuse me?'


Apparently people are now having Black Heart parties for their single friends. Did you know that?


When the girl told me she was a Black Heart I told her she should be a Valentine as there is always plenty of Love to go around. She was probably thinking 'Yeah, right. This woman's a nut!' Ha!!

One of the wonderful reasons I Love Valentines Day is that the tide of seasons is beginning to change. We can feel Winter wane as Spring begins to push in with longer days and warmer temperatures. This year it definitely feels like Spring is knocking down Winters door! It's saying, ready or not here I come!


As I type this post the Cardinal is singing his song, the Bluebirds are eating Zick Dough, we have several American Goldfinches, and small flocks of Robins are beginning to arrive. I wouldn't be surprised to see the local Sugar Shack set up this week to start getting ready for business, but that remains to be seen.

The Rose speaks of love silently
In a language known only to the heart

A little Instagram Love made from the Red Stamp app and then edited with the Squaready app. I LOVE Instagram <3



And if you were my older daughters boyfriend . . .

. . . this would be your Valentine. Screws, wire, nails, staples and all the rest. Love comes in all different forms ; )

Yes, sometimes Love can be a little scary.