Home Sweet

I call my blog Kat's Corner, because it is about my little corner of the world. Our house plays a big role in my life, this particular episode is all about the house. Back in 1983, we lived in a little apartment in Ogden UT. I remember one afternoon we were daydreaming with a "United Farm Catalog" there was a place for sale with an old house that needed work and a couple of acres. It bordered on a National Forest, can you imagine how nice that sounded. There was no way we could afford it at the time and we were getting ready to spend a couple of years moving around with the AF anyway, but it stuck in my head as an ideal. Move the clock forward to 2002. Our couple of years in the AF turned into a career and it was almost time to get out. No more moving every few years.
We must have looked at over a hundred houses, none were quite what we wanted. Then my Sweet one found a house on the Internet. It boarders on Sumter National Forest (no, it wasn't the exact property we looked at all those years ago, this house is much prettier). We hopped into the van and drove up to look at it. The house had been on the market for quite a while and had not been lived in for over a year. The front porch was buckling, the roof was dreadful, and most of the fireplaces were boarded up. The well wasn't even working. We fell in love, good thing too, as this house needed to be Loved!
Between the time we signed the contract and the time we were ready to move in, we went to the bookstore. My Honey was looking at a "Country Living Magazine". He called out, excited, across the store, our house is in here! What! Our house was one of the four houses chosen to appear on their for sale page. (Yes, I still have a copy, two as a matter of fact).
Our house was either built around 1830 by the Reverend James Chiles, according to "Greenwood County A History" by Ann Heard Bowen.

We have replaced the roof, fixed the porch and

repaired the chimneys. As well as a lot of other things. There is always something that needs to be done. It is a big house and it is full of love.
The first photo is of course the house from the front, next "tea on the balcony". Third is a view of the side of the house and fourth is a view from the side. Five is a photo of our bees. see the piece that isn't painted? That is the entrance to their home. If you look close to that you can see some of the bees going in and out.
Six is the summer kitchen and smoke house. Seven is the view from my kitchen window. Eight is part of the back yard. Nine is one of the newest members of the family, this lion is part of a pair that recently moved

onto the front porch. Ten is a fresh batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies just waiting to be cut and enjoyed. They were very good. I am afraid they are gone now. Eleven, last but not least is an old canning jar that appears to have something in it. Could be almost anything. It isn't a firefly, they are not that bright in the daylight. (I might have had a little help from photoshop to put it in their.)

Now it is time to motivate. My day is rapidly escaping. See you soon.

A John Denver Morning

It is what a friend of mine calls a "John Denver Morning". The weather is cool and crisp with a bright, clear quality to the light. Of course the fact that we live in a forest and are surrounded by pine trees, just adds to the John Denver mood. The Rocky's are famous for the Aspen trees but there are a lot of pines too. Mostly Ponderosa Pines and Lodgepole Pines. Here in the Piedmont of South Carolina, we have a lot of Loblolly Pines. They are also referred to as Plantation pines. (No, I don't know this kind of stuff, I had to look it up. I do however have the books to look it up in.) The local pines do not look or smell quite the same as the Rocky Mountain pines, but when the sun shines through them it still makes me happy.

We may not have Aspens, but we do have Shag Bark Hickorys and big old oaks with garlands of mistletoe and Ivy. We also have quite a few Cedars that smell oh so good even when they have not been cut.

The Rockys dwarf the Smokey Mountain range by size alone. The two ranges are very different. If you camp high in the Rocky's on a summer night you will think you can touch the stars. The sky seems to be a big bowl turned upside down. It is the deepest cobalt blue and it is just barely out of reach. I have never seen the stars so close anywhere else. The air is thinner so if you are not used to it, it can literally take your breath away. The first two photos this week are tree photos I took here in South Carolina, one of our Shag bark hickories and a Big Loblolly Pine. I may have posted the pine photo before. I quite like it.

The next two photos are the Rockys. I took them last summer on vacation. Then I re posted one of the Smokey Mountain photos from early fall for comparison.

I was born and raised in the Rockys. Ogden Utah is quite literally built in the mountains. Driving through there in the winter when there is snow on the roads is quite an adventure. You can not get from here to there without driving through some high mountain passes. (That is why we don't visit in the winter.)

Back to my point. This lovely morning reminds me of the Rocky's. (Although they are a bit colder than us this time of year.)

Yesterday we drove to Greenville for the day. (We listened to John Denver on the way.) We went out to dinner at The Indian Palace on Pleasant Ville Road. The food was just right. I had a non vegetarian Tali, spiced mild. I would strongly recommend it.

Thursday we were in Augusta for an appointment at

the VA. On the way home we stopped at Earth Fair to pick up some cheese. Jennifer was there and she as always helped us pick up some delicious treats. It is easy to be brave about trying new cheeses when they let you taste them before you make up your mind. We wound up with a "Tilsit German" an aged "Pecorino Pienz" and a "Hirtenkase Rustic". If you like strong cheeses, you should try these.

Another one of my favorite things this time of year is Citrus fruit. They are not to expensive and they sure perk up my mood.

The penultimate picture is the best way to start a weekend morning. With a good pot of tea.

I have been experimenting with different ways of presenting my photos on the blog. That is why they are framed and not all the same. Please let me know what you think. Which photo is your favorite? Should they be framed, or unframed?
Last but not least, a picture of me.
Have a great week.
Kat

Mood Improvement

This list started out as "Ten things that improve my mood as the days grow shorter." However, it grew so fast, I didn't see any point in limiting it.
1- Snuggling in on a cold morning.
2- Walks in the woods. (With camera and Hubby of course.)
3- Holiday specials on TV.
4- A good book that I have not already read by one of my favorite authors. (I recently found an Agatha Christie I had not read yet "N or M" Pure Bliss!)

5- A great book that I have read before and

loved. (Anything by Charles De Lint, Anna Mcaffery, Mercedes Lackey, Agatha Christie, Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown, and many more.)

6- Traveling and seeing new things with my family.
7- Having someone tell me I helped them to feel better.
8- A fire in the fireplace.
9- Sitting on the balcony when it is warm out.
10- Writing in my blogs and reading other peoples blogs.
11- Reading my collection of Christmas Magazines. (I only save the Christmas ones,
I have some going back into the 1980's. Even the

adds are fun.
12- Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit.
13- Rain on my metal roof at night.
14- A lovely cup of hot tea. Today it is "PG Tips" a British tea we are lucky enough to be able to obtain from the Commissary. It is shown here in an Old Russian Tea Glass with scenes commemorating the launch of Sputnik by the former Soviet Union. (Do you remember Sputnik? How about Sky Lab?)
15- Hot Chocolate.
16- The sound of our clocks chiming.
17- Christmas music. (I will start out early in the
season with it on my Ipod so I won't make the

family crazy before the day actually arrives.)
18- Candles, not the scented ones, just the lovely soft glow.
19- Baking cookies. (Need I say more?)
20- A purring cat.

I keep thinking of more things to add, like the Frankencense and Myrrh my sweet hubby will soon be burning to scent the house, or vintage buttons, or finding a dandelion to photograph in November. So even though I really do not like to be cold. I love this time of year.
What improves your mood when the days get darker?
Kat

P.S. In the new issue of Artful Blogging, (The magazine that got me started on this lovely pass time)I read about http://shabbyscraps.typepad.com/ and how her husband did not like her dress form. Several people sent photos of their dress forms and she was able to convince him. Well, my dress form holds a set of Sixteenth Century Footman's armor. I posted a photo here so she could see it.