All that glitters. . . . . . .

 

Chandelier shadows

On sunny winter morning

Glitter on the walls

Waking up to another bright and beautiful winter morning. 

 I'm thankful.

Nights are getting colder. 

Possible snow is in the forecast for the coming weekend.

Little pops of color -

The amaryllis and Christmas cactus 'garden' on the dining room table - our

sunny spot - now has the cutest ceramic toadstools popping out of two pots!  

They are a gift which I'm really enjoying while sitting here awaiting new

 growth and hopefully blooms in the coming months.

 

After New Year's Eve we'll be 'taking down' Christmas, packing away

 the much-loved decorations, hoping they will make their way here

 lighting and brightening a more normal holiday season when December

 rolls around again!

Taking a little break for a few days as many of you seem to be doing 

this week.  Will return New Year's Eve. . . . . . . . . after all there's

really nowhere else to go!!!!

Take care dear blog friends - stay well and safe - and thank you for

stopping by often during this very different year. 

Your visits and kind words always make me happy. 

Hugs to everyone.

Fall Florals - October Days

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

L.M. Montgomery, "Anne of Green Gables.

I've been searching for something different to add to my dried parsley sprigs 

now featured in the dining room/my office as an early Fall floral display.

Nothing remaining in the garden really worked.  

Last week at SuzAnna's Antiques I found these dark purple and chartreuse

 green faux sprigs. No idea what they are but grabbed them, brought them

 home and voila - perfect, just the look I was hoping for.

What's on your table these brilliant Autumn days?

Wet weather and Blogger questions. . . . . .

 

Not much to say today. The very heavy rain last evening battered flowers, shrubs, 

even the big fig tree. More coming down now and all this afternoon and evening, 

so I'm stuck indoors.

 Not much new with that though. . . . . without the garden I would have been in here

 much more these past 3 months! This afternoon's distanced garden chat planned

 with a dear friend is postponed as we can't sit outside. 

So I'm here with a list of things to do and, in all honesty, none thrill me. 

 I will enjoy emailing replies to some dear friends, but anything else is not exciting.

My questions?  

They regard the new Blogger interface that will be the default for us all come end of month.

If you are a BLOGGER blogger, have you transitioned yet to the new interface?
If so, have you managed it without major problems?
If there were problems, were you able resolve them yourself?
Are you now staying with new Blogger?
Can you still revert to legacy BLOGGER - in other words toggle between the two
 for the time being? 

EDITED - 6-12-20
Here's a link to my friend Rosemary's post regarding her 
new Blogger experiences. It is very informative, and be certain to 
read the Comments which help also.
https://wherefivevalleysmeet.blogspot.com/2020/06/warning.html

Of course, like just about everything else in life in this day and age, these forced

 changes appear to revolve around use of smartphones!

Blogger's statements actually do say things such as, quote -
"Blogger's new responsive design makes it easier to manage your blog on-the-go"
and,  ". . . . making it easier to use on mobile devices."
  
I don't know about you, but I don't want to blog on a phone for several reasons,
the main one perhaps being my eyesight!  It's now just OK with reading glasses
 for a large laptop screen, but getting more difficult doing anything on a phone screen!

Any comments regarding Blogger changes will be greatly appreciated.
Fingers crossed we will all manage to make the change and keep our blogs going
 without too much upheaval.
Before 2020 is over those of us who use PicMonkey - which we love as is -
 will also have to address another learning curve to continue with them.

What a year this is - I feel really old with so much changing/happening, and now
I even have the grey silver strands to prove it! 
Have a great day - hopefully you have sunshine because we certainly don't!!!

The English Primrose. . . . . . . .

Being English 'born and bred' as they used to say - maybe some still do - I'm a 

wild primrose gal. 

When the primroses bloomed we knew it would soon be goodbye to winter.

Later, perhaps a memoir will be in order describing how we children gathered 

these lovely spring flowers from the rolling Devon hillsides - yes I definitely

look forward to writing that one.

My lovely, and very special friend Mary Ann, called Wednesday to say she was

 on her way, and bringing a little something! 

Within twenty minutes she was walking across the lawn carrying this beautiful

 spring display in a perfect for me pot. . . . . . . and I was just thrilled to bits. 

It's so beautiful and brings spring into the cottage. Planted with delicate ferns and 

yes, a perfect yellow primrose, it immediately made me somewhat homesick for

 an English spring!

Thank you again dear Mary Ann for planting up such loveliness - you always know

 how to pick the perfect gift for me and I'm so glad we are friends.

Merry Christmas to all. . . . . . . . .

It's already the morning of Christmas Eve.

Perhaps you, like me, have a busy day planned.  

We have company, including family, friends and neighbors,

 stopping by tonight to share some Christmas 'cheer' and

to exchange packages wrapped in ribbons, whilst the fire

 crackles on the hearth and seasonal music plays quietly

 in the background.

Later we'll take a drive around the neighborhood to view the 

annual luminarias that line many of the streets. They are placed and

 lighted after dark and as tonight will be perfect weather, no wind or rain

expected, should look lovely and add to the feeling of the special 

Christmas Day we will share tomorrow.

- A bright, sunny Christmas Eve morning -

Yesterday I had what I think is a brilliant idea (I don't have too many of those

 these days!). As my pretty pink and white amaryllis didn't bloom long enough

 to enjoy over Christmas, I cut off the stem, left the still healthy looking leaves, 

and added these red silk blooms that I already had in a vase! 

They add a nice splash of color to the dining room.

Also yesterday, while in a baking frenzy, I took time to trot about the garden

 to clip some pyracantha (firethorn) berries and green and variegated ivy for the mantel.

Other than lighting my red candles in lanterns on the front steps this evening, this

 completed my decorating for this Christmas season.

Time to dine. . . . . . . . .

I spent much of Sunday doing this!

Even though I had promised myself it would be a day of relaxation I just felt

 it was time to make changes and start decluttering the dining room.

So I got moving, making this chore part Spring Cleaning, part downsizing.

At this point in time a future move is always in the back of my mind. 

Meanwhile fewer dust catchers will make life and cleaning easier.

I've painted this dresser several times in the 30 plus years since I bought it

 unfinished. I still like this grayish-blue shade so it will stay. 

With all the china removed, and gently washed by hand, I replaced some

 antique/vintage items, packed others up to dispose of, and placed some of my

 everyday plain white 'French Countryside' china so it's more accessible than

 in the kitchen cabinets. After all, that's what dressers were originally built for

 before fitted kitchens hung on walls were ever invented.

This is how it looks now with everyday dishware consisting of plates and bowls for 

serving food, cups and saucers for tea, and demitasse cups for coffee, all at hand.

Some antiques remain - many picked up during travels to England and France - because

 they are special to me.  

Still other areas to work on - so I must get moving!

Night-scented stock . . . . . . .

Can you smell the fragrance?  

The night-scented stock Matthiola longipetala  has such a memorable perfume.

I haven't grown them for many years but when I find them at the store - these are from

 Trader Joe's - I grab a couple of bunches to bring home. That lovely fragrance

 immediately reminds me of my mother's garden long ago in England, a place

 I reveled in during childhood.

The dining room table is looking quite 'green' with the remaining stems of the

 amaryllis still growing. . . . . later they will be cut back and the bulbs dried for a replant,

and hopefully a rebloom come winter. 

Then there's the pot of fresh basil picked up at Lidl last week - I've been snipping

 leaves to add to recipes. . . . . . . a taste of Summer already! 

The lovely purple stocks, greenery added from the garden.

Ahead are several days of major Spring Cleaning - once the pollen is done.

This year brought an exceptionally heavy pollen season - especially oak.

Washing all the china takes time - some days I think about disposing of 

many of the dishes but haven't quite reached that point and so they remain!

Actually I enjoy spending a couple of hours washing and drying them, by hand

 of course as many are antique and fragile, and replacing them all clean and

gleaming. Many of you also collect dishware, antique, vintage, even new - I've

 seen your stunning tablescapes and china cabinets.

Scribble Picnic. . . . . . .Peter the Pretender rabbit!

I have no earth shattering bunny story to share at this week's 

Scribble Picnic . . . . . other than to say when I visited Beatrix Potter's

 beautiful 17th century home Hill Top in Cumbria, England a few years

ago, I really did see Peter Rabbit hopping about in

the vegetable patch! 

This rabbit (on the serving dish I recently purchased for my Easter table) 

reminds me of Peter so I used him to make a photo image, then edited it
 to a sketch, and added watercolor with pencils.

Then there are my gorgeous white rabbits who always hop out of their
storage boxes in the attic for Easter. I love these guys and always get a 
little sad when it's time to pack them away again. . . . . . . they do hang out here
for about a month though, welcoming Spring and guarding the Easter eggs.

So run rabbit, run - all you wonderful artistic friends - over to Michael's

Scribble Picnic today where the theme word is RABBIT of course.

Happy Easter ~ happy Spring!

Early morning in Summertime . . . . . . . . . .

Early sunless Summer mornings, following the thunderstorms and rain

of evening and through the nighttime hours, bring heavy clinging

air and windows blurred by outdoor condensation. The porch was

almost invisible today when I raised the blinds just after dawn.

The dining room stayed dark and dreary for quite a while. 

Now living without my thyroid I have to take a new lifetime medicine

on arising, with no food for two hours, which for me is OK. . . . . . but

 worst of all, no coffee either.  Let me tell you, that is hard!

Note I'm already drying some of the hydrangeas which are fading fast in the 

hot, humid garden. I also cut a few hosta seed pods and a tall gone to seed 

stem of parsley to add some height, and because it's pretty.

That's it for today dear readers. I have to take the car to my great repair guys

 and see if they can fix my high beams which seem to have died.

Then we are heading out to do a little necessary shopping in those always

 over-cooled stores.  I'll definitely be throwing on a light sweater once I leave the

 almost heart-stopping heat of the parking lots. This is just not a healthy way to 

spend the Summer, grrrrrrr!!!

Dining in Summer, and my recuperation!

We don't use the dining room much for dining in Summer - eating outside in the

gazebo is much better, as long as the thunderstorms stay away around early evening.

Yesterday, being home alone for Independence Day, which felt a little odd, I decided

 that now I'm feeling a lot better I need to get myself moving. I decided on some cleaning

 and changing things around a bit for Summer so the cottage looks a little cooler on

these hot, humid days.

If you love glass display domes as I obviously do, you have to keep them spiffy clean.

After a while they become cloudy, both inside and out, and look really awful.

Washing them is like bathing a new baby, they are round and slippery and you

 need lots of fluffy towels to wrap them in when drying off! 

I dug out the lovely heavy linen antique cloth I bought in Carcassonne some 

years back, layering the thick French linen bolster cover over it. 

Both pieces are very old and stitched by hand but still in perfect condition,

These hide the warm wood tone of the pine farm table making the room look much cooler.

On the sideboard cabinet I removed one of my big santos dolls to another room,

along with the huge antique dark leather books, and added some of my hydrangeas

 from the garden.

I baked brownies yesterday for my next door neighbors. They invited me to 

join them for a drink whilst, as night fell, we watched a little firework display

 in our cul-de-sac . . . . . . . . fortunately the thunderstorms forecast earlier 

 never arrived. 

I must thank all of you who have continued to wish me well during my 

recovery from surgery. I'm already three weeks out and doing very well.

Last Friday my surgeon 'unglued' me by removing the Dermabond from my throat.

 I now feel free again, moving my neck almost like normal.

With instructions to 'exercise' my neck a lot, treat my incision lovingly with oils and

 creams, and especially remember sunscreen when I go outdoors, I can say that I am

already seeing good progress regarding my scar. A new medication now

 required for life, and hopefully no further problems with my thyroid - well of course

 not as I no longer have one! 

Modern medicine certainly is amazing - and kudos to all the wonderful surgeons, 

physicians, nursing staff, and hospital employees who work so hard so return us to 

good health - you are the best.

Weekend flowers to welcome May. . . . . . . .

Flowers from Trader Joe's to brighten up the dining room.

 One bunch of pink snapdragon, one of white alstroemeria, and

 two bunches of light and dark pink wax flower. . . . . .all 

for $14 and some change!

I'm loving them.