This Year's Favorite Things!

These are a few of my traveling baskets! Wait until you see my collection of traveling totes!! When we travel there are different baskets for different parts of the trip. Picnic basket for the room by the highway. I take my own coffee maker and Grand Marnier.  A picnic basket for roadside dinning. The rest areas, off the interstate, are actually very nice stops along the way. Of course there is a basket for snacks inside the truck. Apples, waters, ice teas and cookies help keep the driver fortified while speeding along!

How bout that hand carved and hand painted lady bug brooch? We try to stop at Money's Folk Art, off I 75, on our road trips. Always find something that cannot be found anywhere else. It is a stop where imagination rules in the hills of Kentucky.
    

This years tree was magic. We rolled into town, early in the afternoon, and Steve makes a beeline to buy a Christmas tree. The tree farm was running out and Steve snagged one of the last to be had! Of course it is a perfect fit. All the ornaments and lights came out and wrapped themselves around the branches! Now if they would just put themselves away!!

The last day to reflect on what it means to travel and visit all the favorite spaces, in time, for this year. 

Happy New Year to all.
 God Bless you and yours in the year to come. 

 

Middle Of The Week

Between the holidays!
Cement statuary on my table. Found a winter arrangement and some sunflower seeds. 

A lack of cold air and precipitation makes for a brown Christmas! 

Bells of Christmas wreath and a pair of black figure skates from South Carolina hanging on the front door for some holiday cheer!

Lynlee made the charcuterie plates! Perfect for a cracker and blue cheese ball with a deviled egg and some black olives and pickles for a snack. 

Hand written recipe for fruit salad. This dish is so refreshing beside the prime rib and twice bakes!

To keep the memories of holidays past, alive, I use my grandmothers glassware and my mothers sterling. Seashells and candlesticks from Florida Thanksgiving. 

Today I start to put everything back in it's place. A bit of to and fro and it's all washed, polished and put back into the corner cabinet.

Humming along thinking what the New Year! is going to bring.

 Is it too late for snow?

Another "Florida" Painting

Another "saltwater watercolor". 

 What I like about painting is the color! I used Case For Making, handmade watercolors, from San Francisco. I like the pigments used in creating these paints. The pigments are mixed with distilled water, glycerine, honey and gum arabic as the binding medium. Interesting mix! I never even thought about what watercolors were made with. 

 

Novotny Rd Sunset

Shortest day of the year! 5:01 on a Thursday afternoon. 

Rolling home from Traverse City errands. Look Steve! Quick, drive up Eagle Hwy and turn left on Novotny Rd. 

Now turn left onto the two track to cherry orchard! 

On top of the world! The sunset is magnificent. Can you see the moraines crisscrossing the land? I see Lake Leelanau, Whaleback, Pyramid Point, Clay Cliffs and the sun setting on Alligator Hill. It is a shame that I did not have my big girl camera with me. This was a long shot for my phone! 

I feel blessed to have watched the sun set on this Winter Solstice afternoon. 

 

Do Not Raise Your Head Off Your Pillow

Happy Birthday Nonnie North! November 30th was my grandmother's birthday. When we were small we would all jump in the car and drive "up-north" to visit her! 

When we slip into bed, at night, we turn off the lights and open the curtains wide so the sunrise will wake us up!

This way we don't have to lift our heads up off the pillows.

Try catching the sunrise, over the Atlantic Ocean, thirty days back to back.

A different break in the clouds every dawn.

Just like in the movies!

The sun comes up out of the ocean and parts the cloud cover in bits and pieces like a kaleidoscope. 

The spectrum of colors.

Wrapping around the top of the dune.

Takes a full hour to view.

Starts out a deep purple.

Majestic.

Thank you God.

 

October 2023

Then there is fall. Where all the colors are enhanced by the rain. 

My white Birch tree turned a blaze of yellow just like the guy said it would! This is it's second fall and the color did not disappoint. 

The moss, on top of the round house, is lush and green from the cooler temperatures and all the drizzle. 

Our Burning Bush came alive! The leaves were such an entrenched red. 

Three ole' Jack-o-lanterns, to be carved, all in a row. 

The last four weeks have had sensational color up and down the county roads.

Interesting thing, thou, the leaves under all the color are still a bright green. So it starts from the top and works it's way to the bottom. Funny how that happens!

 

Ok, This Is The Day!

 

Peace Rose in the garden. Wait! Where did July go? July flew by. It is the busiest month I know! 

July was busy growing a garden in my yard.

July was also busy growing Omena Cut Flower's garden as well! This memorial bouquet was just leaving when I spotted it in the back of this vehicle. Just beautiful. Will go to a celebration of life. It was a celebration of flowers. 

Lilies in the garden. You can see them from the kitchen window while doing dishes. Happy orange is what I call them!

Sitting on my garden bench is a huge pot, full of geraniums and yellow Petunias.

They all wave at Steve, in the kitchen window, even the ferns are waving at him. They love that he goes out and feeds the Hummingbirds. 

July is garden month. Everybody wants to shine. All the pretty colors. What a painting to be had!

Purple Delphinium. 

More flower paintings. This has been the sunniest July. Happy flowers happy me!

How many shovels does one girl need? I bought one more! A red one! Small heads, good for weeding.

The beach days count is on! Keeping track one rock at a time!

August eighth already, where did the time go? I'll let you know in the next blog post. In the meantime, enjoy this beautiful summer we are blessed with. It is a beach day and I am on my way!

All The Way From Evart

Nothing to see here! I will say that the excavator did a fantastic job of leveling the space for the barn. 

Honk honk! We are at the top of your driveway Mrs. Scott.

Look what we brought you all the way from Evart Michigan.

We're going to wiggle this barn off this trailer.

First we need to put some wheels underneath.

Then we will drive it down the driveway with the Skid Steer.

Backing it down the driveway.

Coming around the bend!

Snugging it into the clearing.

Ramp is down and the wheels are off.

Inside view. They put the big window in for us. We had the window leftover from taking our commercial building apart, in Suttons Bay. 

The whole interior got painted white. Steve and I are thinking of painting the floor with large, black and white diamonds.

She measures 16 x 20'. 

I love the roll-up door. So easy for me to open and close.

Always wanted a covered garage sale stall!

One day it was a vacant lot and the next day a full size barn was standing there!!

Can't wait to see what Steve and I will do with it!