Home improvements

My husband and I have spent most of the day on our latest home improvement project. We are redecorating an extra room. This is a lovely old house and has been lived in and loved for a long time so some of it's spaces could use a little something. The room we are working on has a working fireplace, original heart of pine floors and three good sized windows. The bottom half of the walls and all the woodwork were painted light blue. We are changing the color scheme and adding wallpaper. More to come on this project.

Today's photo is a Lilly from my garden. Enjoy.

Warm berries

It has been a busy afternoon. My husband and I just put another truck load of wood out in the barn to season. In the autumn, we will cut the wood we put in last year. Hard labor but it will be worth it when it is cold again. We love to eat breakfast in front of the fireplace on weekends when it is cold. I can't think of a cozier way to spend the day. It is quite warm today and we were worn out after all that work.
For a treat, we found some wild blackberries that were just perfectly ripe and warm from the sun. They are a little early but the bush grows up next to the brick at the base of the house and gets sunshine most of the day. We ate them on the spot, no nasty chemicals to worry about. This should be a great year for berries. We have two or three more wild bushes on our place. None of the others are ready yet. I love living in the country.
I recently started reading "The Onion Girl" by Charles de Lint. It is as good as I had hoped. So far I have enjoyed everything of his I have read. In the introduction he mentions several Celtic musicians that I had not heard of. Can't wait to look them up. I have to work tomorrow, but I am enjoying my weekend.
My grandkitty is curled in up in the recliner. You would think she was the one who had been out working. Such a silly thing.

Wild rose

Here are a couple
more photos. Took these while I was on a walk. The lizard let me get this close, then he took off.

We are planning on camping soon, hopefully I will find more cooperative wildlife. Last time we went camping, I did not take my camera and we saw a black squirrel.

We have a lovely old VW van that we love to camp in. This will be the first time my husband and I have camped without the children since before they were born. Weird, very weird.

On another weird note, one of the bird nests on our porch was just knocked down by something. My husband says he thinks it was a black snake. Either way, the nest is empty.

Wild flowers vs weeds

Good morning, just wanted to put up a photo. I love flowers! This is a thistle blossom. The plant is currently about 2.5 feet tall. (That is nearly a meter) My Mom would say it was a weed. If you didn't plant it on purpose or pay for it, she called it a weed. That did not stop her from appreciating them, it was just what she called them. I have quite a few weeds around here and they are beautiful.

I live in the south and the climate is great so lots of things are happy to grow. People have lived in this area for a long time. It is not unusual to find a clump of daffodils, or some other garden flower, in the woods. I can picture the grin on my Mom's face, as she pronounced them weeds. She never made it to my current home, but she would have loved it.

First Try, empty nest and how I want to fill it

This is day 7 of my empty nest preview. My children are grown and they have a summer job out of town. They will be back in the fall but for now, the nest is empty. A good bit of the last 21 years has been focused on my children. I would not trade a minute of it. However, as I am reminded from time to time, I have a tendency to over mother. They are grown and one way or another I need to deal with it. I miss them, so what.
I am trying to learn to let go. Thank goodness husbands don't grow up and leave. (At least mine won't) I have been married to my best friend for nearly 25 years. He suits me just right.
My camera and my Ipod are a lot of fun. I love music too. Hopefully my posts will become more about me and what I love to do and less about my nest.
We have a lovely old house and lots of ideas for painting and redecorating. I have curtains to make and wood to gather before it gets too hot outside. As I said in my profile, I am a University Student. I have an associates degree in Nursing, as well as one in Applied Science for Aircraft Electronics. [Fat lot of good that does me :) ] I am working on my Bachelors in Nursing by taking online classes. Photo shop elements is another great time grabber, digital scrap booking is much less messy than the old fashioned kind. I can work on it for 10 or 15 minutes whenever I want and walk away without leaving a mess on the table.
So the whole empty nest thing isn't for me at least, too much time on my hands, it is strictly emotional. If that's all it is, I should be able to handle this easy, right? Especially when my husband spoils me even more. He is making homemade pepperoni pizza for breakfast. The man is a wonderful cook. I am the luck one!
More later
Kat