23 February 2012

Nature calls









Some springish images from a recent stop at The Nest...I snapped many other beautiful things at the neighboring Branches and The Thicket that would only load sideways (ugh!) so I'll save those for another post.  Everyone keeps talking about what a strange and mild winter we've had (no snow days!) and how "spring is just around the corner."  We were at almost 70 degrees here today.  I took Booker for a walk this evening, though, and the air was much crisper.  He dug around under some thick trees and scrub one street over and scrounged up some kind of small bone.  Kind of fresh looking if that makes any sense.  Reddish.  He wanted to gnaw it to bits right then and there but I was anxious to get back to our trashcan (seeing as I only brought one plastic baggie to pick up after him and he'd made an unusual second stop in the middle of some stranger's yard, leaving me to double-scoop with the same flimsy, already at capacity bag and someone's neon-green "Moving Garage Sale" poster that had blown down and fortuitously near the scene of the steamy crime).  Not that he's been listening to me lately, but I urged anyway, "No, Booker.  You can take it HOME if you want to, but not here."  It's like that dog completely understood what I said.  He grabbed it right up with his teeth and took off for the house at a little trot.  Carried it all the way home in his mouth then plopped in the front yard and chewed and chomped away, appearing to eat it all.  Hope that's okay.  I'm looking forward to a slow weekend with no pressing plans and more walks.  I'll take an extra baggie or two next time.

11 February 2012

Also sweet



The sun is shining but it's much colder today than it has been.  We're nestled in at home, puttering around a lazy Saturday.  A boy in his pjs with his dawg...sweet.

Sweetness

 I got an adorable surprise package in the mail today from Ryan's sweet and vibrant grandfather Earl that included an address label and note typed on Earl's typewriter and a bubble-wrapped oversized safety pin like one I have in a printer's drawer on the wall of my creative space.  I find the Sinatra stamps (Earl's favorite), the greeting, the use of quotation marks around key phrases, and the Uncle Earl at the end (he's really my grandfather-in-law?) especially endearing.  How sweet of him to think of me.  I believe he is 90 or nearly there.  He drives a Prius, has a girlfriend and a full  head of hair.  I have a feeling my Ryan has inherited his grandfather's vitality and will be just as handsome and well-dressed when he is that age.


In the middle of teaching my class on Wednesday, I answered a knock at the door to find the school secretary holding this lovely vase of flowers (why the sideways photos, Blogger, why???) delivered just for me.  A sweet surprise from Ryan.  For no good reason other than to make me happy.  The card read "I truly love you."  Am I lucky girl or what?

02 February 2012

Fairground finds






These are some of my finds from the ginormous Springfield Garage Sale at the fairgrounds last weekend.  My mom and I canvassed the entire sale and walked away with some treasures.  I've been having trouble with Blogger tilting my pictures sideways...can't figure it out and haven't been posting because of it.  Hmmm... The drawer is from the booth of a dealer out of Lebanon that I always like to shop.  The little animals aren't marked and weren't as expensive as some of the Steiffs in the same booth, but I like their tattered look and sweet expressions.  I also got a couple of pieces of silverware, a bucket, some blue Mason jars for my friend Shannon's summer wedding, a pair of chick S & P shakers I paid too much for and a small divided ironstone-ish dish.  Oh, and two pairs of knock-off sunglasses, which I must say fit me just right.  The chunky finials are from Relics where we stopped later in the day.  We had a really great time and I'm so glad my parents got to come up and spend the weekend with us.  This weekend we are looking forward to attending Drury Homecoming with some of our oldest and dearest friends.  It was 64 degrees today, I think...it sure doesn't feel like February and everyone is talking about what a weird winter we are having.  This weekend will be a bit cooler but it doesn't seem like we're going to get any snow days this year.  We could be out of school by 23 May if we don't, but there's just something about the unexpected, stay-at-home-and-be-cozy break a snow day provides.  I wouldn't mind a couple.  Preferably in a row.  Preceding or following a weekend. 

22 January 2012

Tweets

I've been feeling a bit stalled lately...more lazy than productive...but the wheels have been turning nonetheless. Instead of putting away the folded laundry or packing away the Christmas trees and decorations I've temporarily stashed in the guest bedroom, I stand at the kitchen window, watch the birds at the feeder and note how bare the woods look out back, so brown and brittle with the busy gray road visible through the branches a few hundred yards away. In the summer the woods are so lush you can't even see the ground beneath the trees or the creek down the hill, but in the barren winter I spot foam cups and cardboard and bags that have blown from our trash or someone else's and tell myself I should trek out there with a bag and pick it all up while the temperatures are still unseasonably comfortable. But I don't. The little birds are much busier, and while there are a number of cardinal pairs that stop by, I find it sweet that my favorite little regulars--chickadee, tufted titmouse, downy woodpecker--all arrive in shades of my favorite color scheme...black and cream and gray and white. The round mourning doves huddle on the wrought-iron railing, and the back deck itself is a mess of seeds and gifts the little birds leave behind, but I don't guess I mind. If I'm not inclined to chase after the paper cups in the woods I'm probably not going to sweep of the unused deck any time soon.





Perhaps when the grass is greener I will put together some variation of this adorable project I spotted in the recent Country Gardens magazine. I know just the place here in town I could get the mini fence and other accessories, and I'm thinking the metal washtub I brought home from my Papaw's barn a few years ago, already rusted through a bit in the bottom for drainage, would work just as well as the wheelbarrow.


I've also been contemplating creating some button art like these found on pinterest and etsy. I'd like to do the word Love or Home in a script font with all white/cream buttons on linen then have it inserted in an old black frame I have, no glass. Some of these versions look stitched and others glued. I'd be going with the latter. A whole word might be too ambitious, too...not sure. I asked the boys at the flea market last week if they'd seen any jars of white buttons in the booths (of course I see them all the time until I am looking for one) and they both offered to bring me some from their treasure stashes at home.






I watched Water for Elephants yesterday afternoon; the book gave me so much to think about when I read it last year. I just couldn't bear the scenes where August mistreated Rosie so I skipped those and might have missed a few things, but I liked the movie and loved Reese's look. Tonight we'll be cheering for Ryan's 49ers in the NFC Championship. He's loved San Fran since he was 11 or so and this is the first football season I can remember in our 15+ years together that the team has done well. He's loyal, that one. I am making guacamole and cupcakes for the occasion...better get to it. Go Niners!

03 January 2012

Book {Nook}

Ryan and Macauley surprised me with a Nook Color e-reader on Christmas morning. I am an avid reader and thought I'd only be content with old-fashioned paper pages, but I'm loving this little thing. I went to Barnes & Noble and got this vintage graphic case for it by Jonathan Adler. It's got a linen lining and fits my aesthetic.

I haven't discovered all its features yet, but I have been reading and doing the crossword puzzle app, which is quite addictive. The first book I downloaded was The Dovekeepers, one I'd seen in a couple of magazines. The cover and title appealed to me. The story is not at all what I expected, but I think I will like it. I read several screens in bed Christmas night and enjoyed the story but was a bit confused. Then I realized that I had inadvertently scrolled over to page 234 of 287 or something like that and had been reading in the middle/end of the book the whole time. I will work my way back to this one.



I saw The Blind Contessa's New Machine several weeks ago at Target and also loved the cover. This is a short novel and the first I've finished on the Nook. The story is inspired by the invention of the first typewriter. It's worth reading.

I've since moved on to The Paris Wife, a book I've been wanting to read for a while now. I'm just a couple of chapters in and like it so far. Purchasing a book on the Nook is far too easy...Ryan was sweet enough to set it all up for me and I can just click away and the books show up immediately. I need to investigate the Nook Friends application you can use to lend/borrow books to and from other users. I resisted the idea of an e-reader for a long time, but now I don't know why. I'm totally Nooked.

02 January 2012

Time/flight


Time to put away the holidays and head back to school tomorrow...these luxurious days flew. I will miss the twinkling lights illuminating the house at night, the waking up with the whole day stretching out before us. Everyone seems to be looking forward, making plans for themselves and 2012...perhaps I should set some goals, too....

22 December 2011

Silent night
































So relieved to be on "winter" break from school finally...I've been in my sweats (see my reflection in the ornament for proof) and on the couch since 3:47 p.m., soaking in the peace that comes with a clean, sparkly house, all gifts wrapped and ready, talk of flurries on the late news, and time to just be still and warm...





sleet against the windowpane,

or maybe a mouse in the wall...



I listen...

but silence knows no direction



outside,

heavy pine boughs,

deep in the woods

so quiet, so still

a deer steps



inside, warm,

the sound of a cat's paw

disturbs very little

as it hunts in a dream

silent as sleet




"Silent Solstice (Winter Becomes Maine)" by Denis Dunn

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