New Year's Eve 2018

Greetings, my friends.  This is an (almost) eleventh hour post to close out 2018 and to vow to be a better blogger friend in the New Year!  My Christmas tree looks about the same as it does every year, but I love it so.  My favorite ornament continues to be Dorothy's Red Shoe, purchased at the Smithsonian Museum of American History a few years ago.  It's there in the middle - a little to the left.  My bear was from the now defunct Rich's Department Store, free with a purchase (or something like that) back in the 70s.  I saw one at an antique mall last Saturday for $24.  Mine still looks new every year, since it stays in a plastic bag in the Christmas closet during the year.  

My sister and brother-in-law's home on Christmas morning, before I saw anyone.  Peaceful and quiet.  This was my late mother's wee Christmas tree that she had in her assisted living apartment.  I love that my sis puts it in her foyer every year.

Kitty Pete on Christmas Day.  It was warm enough in the Florida panhandle to sit outside with no jacket.  Pete was the first one I saw on Christmas morning.  He was lying on the kitchen table, which he is forbidden to do.  I was looking at the view out back before I spotted him.  He looked at me with no guilt.  He either figured I didn't care that he was on the table, or he didn't care what I thought.  I imagine it as the latter.  :)

Spotted at the aforementioned antique mall last Saturday.  A cardboard cutout of the King of Rock and Roll.  I texted the photo to my friend Steven, who has a partner who adores Elvis.  He replied, "I love what you've done with your living room!"  

I hope your holidays were Merry and Bright.  And I hope the New Year will be good to you.  Hugs!

Good Things Happened: Mothering, legacy and memories

 I went visiting this weekend, to see my beloved family in northern Florida.  And then my sister and I went to visit our aunt, cousin and his wife in Jacksonville on Saturday, where we also got to see a new second cousin - just five months old.  It was lovely to see his first time mom in action - so loving and happy.  This is the view of the St. John's river from my aunt's balcony - I would be out there all the time, I said.

 Neighbor Rhonda brought these peony bushes from her late mother's home in Mount Holly, North Carolina.  This is the first time they have bloomed since then.  A lovely legacy!

And this vase always makes me smile a little.  About 20 years ago, I was helping my late mom get ready for a gathering at her home, and asked if I should pick some irises from her garden for the table.  As it turned out, she didn't have a vase.  This seemed odd to me, but she just didn't.  So I gifted her this one for Mother's Day that year.  She did not seem as excited as I was about it.  And then the next time I visited, I found that she had put some Spanish moss in the bottom of it and filled it with silk flowers.  Sigh.  So it's mine now and I use it all the time - this time with purchased irises.  This might not seem so much like a "Good Things" story, but it is, because I learned from it to choose gifts that I know the recipient really wants and to remember that flowers are often best enjoyed just where they grow.

I hope everyone had a lovely day today, whether you are a mom or not.  You are special to me!

Good Things Happened: home, sweet, home

It's been days and days since I posted.  There was a minor medical issue that kept me at home for a few days - all better now.  Being at home with nothing much to do gave me a renewed appreciation of it, as seen below.

On the first day, niece Amanda and her family sent me flowers.  I can't think of the last time I got flowers!  It was thrilling.  I'm still enjoying them.  The delivery man seemed to enjoy my reaction, "I got flowers!!!"

I was looking for something else in a kitchen cabinet and found these two forgotten items.  The one on the left is a handy thing in which you can pull tarragon through the holes to strip the leaves. Stripping tarragon is kind of annoying, so I guess that's why I bought this.  It doesn't come up that often, but when it does, I'm set.  :)

There was clean out the refrigerator cooking.  Do you ever buy stuff for recipes you end up not making?  I made roasted vegetables, using carrots, fennel and the red onion that is in the bowl in the first photo.  (Yum.)  And yesterday, there was still a bunch of unused flat-leaf parsley, so I made pesto out of it.  That's it pictured above.  Parsley, olive oil, toasted walnuts and Parmesan cheese in the food processor.  I'm having some of it on penne pasta for lunch today.

And I enjoyed breakfast on the back porch yesterday.  There has been so much rain in Georgia, that the trees are nicely leafed out now.  It was cool and lovely.  And a hummingbird whizzed by a couple of times, probably to remind me about putting that feeder up.

I'll be playing a little blog catch up in the next few days.  Hope you have a good week!

Good Things Happened: Bunny, good shopping and glorious

A cute Easter treat that looked so bright and shiny in my kitchen.  "Looked" is the key word.  I needed some chocolate this week and the ears went first.  :)  

I parked in front of this beautiful loading dock door at Builders Steel Supply in Lilburn, Georgia last Saturday, when I was attending the Spring open house at my favorite antique shop up the street.  Amazing door - I wonder where it came from?

I snagged these two wine glasses for $3.50 each at the open house.  My sister has a set that she bought in Germany years ago.  I always liked them, so wanted to take these home.  She says they are Roemer Glass, made to drink sweet wines from the Rhine region of Germany.

And finally a glorious sunrise as I stepped out of my car at 7:15am yesterday morning, as I got to work.  Such beauty in the midst of an industrial area got my day started out just right.

Thank you for visiting today.  I'll be around to yours in the next couple of days!

Good Things Happened: Early morning, crisp and rare treat

Things have been quiet here, which I never mind.  So here are three random good things from the past few days:

 An early morning visit to the dry cleaners before work.  The sky was so gorgeous.  I love this time of morning, right before things get crazy.

The crisp beauty of the red and white flowers on these plants at my work place (not sure what they are.) 

When I was traveling with my family a few weeks ago, during one of the airport stops, niece Abby said, "I wish I had a fountain drink as big as my head."  We agreed there is just nothing like a Diet Coke from a fountain (a rare treat for me, since I don't think it's good for you.)  So this is the photo I texted her last Saturday, when I was out and about and especially thirsty, with the caption, "So I got a fountain drink as big as my head."  :)  

I hope your weekend is full of delight, my friends!

Sunrise, friends and flowers

Watching the sun rise from 30,000 feet last Sunday.  Niece Amanda snapped this photo with her dad's phone and kindly sent it on to me, since I was not in a window seat of the plane.  We were traveling to celebrate the life of a beloved family member (my brother-in-law) who has passed away - gone too soon. 

My sister lives in a neighborhood with close, close friends.  A number of them took in out-of-town friends and relatives for the night since her house was already overflowing.  The couple I stayed with have this adorable English bulldog, Bella, who was wearing a Cornell hoodie.  She posed like that until her "mom" told her she could move.  And then she got a cookie.

Sunrise on Monday. Their home overlooks this lake where migrating birds have been flocking.  The lady of the house looked out one morning and it was filled with swans.

This is a primrose plant that the owner of my company gave me when I returned to work.  I hope I can keep it alive - it looks a little finicky, but I love it.

My brother-in-law was such an interesting man and quite fun to be around.  He loved children and reading to them especially.  His favorite book to read was Dr. Seuss's tongue twisting book Fox in Socks.  I can just hear him reading this part at the end:

Now wait a minute, Mr. Socks Fox!

When a fox is in the bottle where the tweetle beetles battle 
with their paddles in a puddle on a noodle-eating poodle, 
THIS is what they call...

...a tweetle beetle noodle poodle bottled paddled 
muddled duddled fuddled wuddled fox in socks, sir!

Fox in socks, our game is done, sir.
Thank you for a lot of fun, sir.

The magic of Christmas

This Christmas season has been so nice and busy that I didn't get my post done before heading to Florida to spend the holiday with my family.  An attempt to post from my iPad was a big fail (for some reason.)  As I was wrestling with it on Christmas eve, kitty Pete visited me on the couch and gave me an inquiring look, "Don't you want me in your lap?"  Of course I did and put the iPad aside and felt great peace in watching him relax, his head growing heavy as he fell asleep.  So finally, here are some favorite photos from the last two weeks:

My tree almost didn't get put up.  I do love doing it, but couldn't find the energy for a few days, so the boxed tree sat in that spot.  My Richie bear came from the now defunct Rich's department store in Atlanta.  I'll leave it up until New Year's Eve.

I have a good mix of ornaments and love each one.  The glass Santa there came from the estate sale of neighbor Susan, who passed away earlier in the fall.  I wanted something to remember her by and told her family I would write her name on the box that holds the ornament, so I'll always remember.

 This was my mom's Nativity scene, with its porcelain figures.  The terracotta angel is something I added.  It's sitting on top of my "Kneeling in Bethlehem" book by Ann Weems - a gift from a beloved friend several years ago.  The angel card was hand painted this year by another beloved friend this year - I plan to frame it.

There was a quick trip to my hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia on December 16, where I spotted this adorable mailbox for letters for Santa.

The main reason for the visit was to attend the national wreath laying ceremony being held at the veterans' cemetery where my late parents' are buried.  I got to lay one at my dad's grave in honor of his World War II military service.  They would all have one by the end of the day, but I like to do it myself when I can.

And then it was on to Florida last Sunday, where the stockings were hung by the chimney with care.  

My sister and brother-in-law have a zillion ornaments and a big tree, but opted to just put up my late mother's little tree that she had had at her assisted living apartment.  The grandchildren helped hang the ornaments and were quite proud of it.

Great niece Kloie left homemade cookies for Santa and a personalized drawing of Rudolf.  He was good to her, as he was to all of us. 

Thank you for spending this time with me.  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  I'll be visiting your blogs this weekend.  Happy New Year!

Blue morning, giving thanks and family time

A little catching up to do - I haven't posted in almost a month!  Going backwards, starting with last Saturday morning.

Last Saturday morning - 7:30am - the view from my front door.  A blue morning in a winter wonderland.  We are not accustomed to snow in Georgia.  I can't think of the last time it snowed.  It was glorious while it lasted. 

 It was already melting in the afternoon, once the temps rose.  Snowmen were everywhere, but my favorite was this little one on the table in front of Five Guys.

Not to worry - I was sitting completely still when I snapped this photo on Friday afternoon, during the harrowing ride home.  Georgians don't know how to drive on snow, y'all.  It took me two hours to go 20 miles, but it was lovely to get a fire going and have a little sofa nap later.  AND to wake up to that blue morning the next day.

Thanksgiving Day was spent in Fayetteville, Georgia at my cousin's house and the extended family.  Because my immediate family was coming together from Atlanta, Virginia, Florida and Mexico, we stayed at a hotel the night before.  I didn't realize how starved I was for family time until we were all together.  Favorite moment:  a smiling older couple from Detroit, Michigan were also staying at the hotel and just before they got on the elevator to go up to their room, they spontaneously jitterbugged for several seconds.  We applauded.  It was that kind of fun night.

 My cousin's home has lots of space, indoors and out, for the 40+ family gathered together in Thanksgiving.  We convoyed to my sister and brother-in-law's farm in northern Florida on Thanksgiving afternoon.

Thanksgiving crafts by two great-nieces on Friday morning. 

And all the little ones got a tractor ride on Saturday, before everyone drove away.  A lovely few days.

Next week - holiday magic.

Good Things Happened: black and white photo challenge

A few weeks ago, one of my friends sent me a photo challenge on facebook:  "7 days. 7 black and white photos of your life.  No people.  No explanation."  So I did it and posting them here, too.  I liked the way black and white changes the mood of a photo.  A couple of them were just throw away photos that looked as if they told a story, when changed to black and white.  I followed the rules for the facebook challenge by not giving any explanation, but I'll give one here.

I was waiting for my typical-for-a-Friday-night take-out Chinese food at my favorite little neighborhood restaurant when I read the facebook challenge on my phone.  Photos of my life, I thought.  No time like the present, and lifted my phone for this shot.  The challenge did specify no people, but I decided that meant no friends or family members.  I love the way these three at the restaurant always hustle around getting orders ready.

The next morning, this old friend who can't walk easily anymore, was being pulled on this wagon-like device by his owners.  The look in his eyes as he gazes at his "mom" just exudes love.

 The Saturday before that, in Black Mountain, North Carolina. This is one of those "throw away" shots that worked out well in black and white.

 I posted this one in color in August.  I only noticed that leaf, there in the middle, in the black and white version though.

 And I posted this one from the September retreat weekend in color.  It got the most accolades on facebook.  Love those shadows on these old pews.

 On the sixth day, I was getting ready to head up to the mountains with my sisters, and was outside watering the plants, when I noticed this little tree frog.  It hopped out of the plant I was watering and took refuge on this rail.

And on the seventh day - this lovely view of the Hiwassee River.  I never get tired of this scene and loved the misty look of the black and white photo on that morning.

Special treat, special girl and new stickers

Beloved great-niece Kloie was full of pent up energy during the recent hurricane that passed through their area, and spent some of her time inside making a card for me.  I loved that it was addressed to Aunt Lynn.  She knows I love dragonflies and always incorporates them into her correspondence to me.

Dragonflies ARE awesome.  I quite agree.  I love her so much, too.

And I finally ran out of the "teacher" stickers I put on my calendar when I exercise.  So I went to The Schoolbox and bought more - frogs, sea creatures and owls.  It's the little things....

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, my friends!

Good Things Happened - the beach, the cake and the dog

My annual trip to Pensacola last weekend to celebrate two precious little boys' birthdays, included a first stop at the beach last Friday for Gulf shrimp and gazing at the white sandy beach and shopping with my sister.  There are pelicans on the poles in the water if you can see them.

The view from the back bar window of Peg Leg Pete's restaurant.  It would be fun to live on that intracoastal waterway, I think, and paddle along in the water in the middle of the day.

The joint birthday party for my three-year-old and five-year-old great-nephews had a pirate theme.  The next door neighbor made this spectacular cake.  There was a water slide in the back yard and all the wee ones had fun.  No one talked like a pirate.  :)

The living room looked like Christmas morning in the aftermath of the party.  Hank, amid the presents, is one of the most loving and sweet dogs I have ever met and he never forgets his Aunt Lynn.

Thank you so much for coming by.  I have missed some of your blog posts, but plan to catch up.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.