Grace,

Last summer while we were on vacation, my Sweet Hubby snapped this photo. It is evidently, what I do the most, take pictures. I was so lost in the moment, I did not even know he took the photo until we finally had them developed last week. I do that a lot these days, lose myself in a moment.

When was the last time you felt sheer JOY so strongly?

My life is full of grace. I don't mean that I am graceful (several people who know me probably just spit coffee all over their keyboards from laughing at that thought, I am a bit of a klutz) I mean that I have been and continue to be very lucky. I have so much to be thankful for.

(to see the photo I was taking go to

http://akatscorner.blogspot.com/2009/08/grand-tetons-utah-and-home.html )

I am lucky that I can share my pictures and my thoughts so easily. I am even luckier to have so many people who care about me to share them with. (Do you see the lovely yellow moth on my keyboard?) My big sister Margaret was quite ill not long ago, she is much improved. Her illness was a scary reminder of how much we all mean to one another.

We are connected by unbreakable threads, past, present and future. Family is a word like Joy, it somehow does not seem big enough or strong enough to really convey all that it means. I have an amazing family. I am loved.
Our home is warm and cozy. We have a good supply of wood stored safe and dry for the fireplace. The teapot is still full. Christmas music is playing (we get to decide when it is too early, right now, it sounds just right). Outside the wind is blowing and rain is falling, it is damp and dreary. Inside it is calm and full of love. Our home is a lovely old Antebellum house, yes, the house in the banner and in the photo at the top of the sidebar is where we live. It is our little kingdom, our refuge, a place for our stuff. Even when it is quiet it is full of the memory of laughter and music and cat hair. Spontaneous curls up to sleep and purrs.

We are surrounded by beauty and promises of possibilities.

Step out on the front porch on an autumn evening, the sky has been painted to coordinate with the trees. I have my Sweet Hubby to share sunsets and sunrises with. We have mistletoe in the oak at the end of the brick walkway. Each time one of us must leave without the other, we kiss goodbye under the mistletoe, not just at Christmas, but year round. Next month we will have been married for twenty six years. He is my love, my best friend, my teddy bear, my partner in all things. He understands me. His faith in me has kept me going many times when it would have been easier to give up. His sense of humor keeps me from getting too full of myself.

We live in the woods. Nature surrounds us. We go for walks together three or four times a week. Way back when, a decade or so ago, I took my annual fitness test for the Air Force, and failed (Yikes). We started walking together so I could get back in to shape to pass it. I did. I kept walking because I enjoyed his company and I wanted to keep him healthy, he keeps walking for me. We have been walking together ever since. When we go to shopping, we park at the far end of the lot and walk to the store (if we are together, we are usually holding hands). We walk in all the places we visit and we are in pretty good shape.

Back to the woods, I was just telling you about them. I can show you pictures and I can play recordings of the sounds, but I haven't figured out how to share the smell with you yet. Sometimes you can smell flowers, even if you don't see them right away. Sometimes, like now, you can smell the leaves and the damp. Outside the window, I can hear a silly old crow calling. We see hawks, crows, turtles, rabbits, squirrels, wild turkeys, and deer (although the deer are hiding right now, it is hunting season). We are surrounded by National Forrest.

As the days get shorter, more of our walks are in the late evening. My wonderful little camera does an excellent job with available light. Don't you think these colors are amazing? The woods are truly Mother Natures garden, a cathedral of light, color and sound.

Thanksgiving will be this week. As you can see from the sad state of poor old "Jack", Halloween is long gone. The seasons roll round again and Christmas is nearly here. Each season gives me new things to look forward to. Already there is a local station playing nothing but Christmas music and last night on the way back from Greenville, I spotted half a dozen houses with Christmas lights up.

I stepped out of Barnes and Noble in Greenville to be greeted by this site. My trusty camera was out before I knew it. The first of this years Christmas pictures is one of light. I hope your Thanksgiving is full of light and that you get the chance to feel the full magic in the words Love and Family and Joy. I have much to be thankful for, like I said, my life is full of grace.

Kat

New Blog Heading

My Hubby pointed out to me the other day that while, “1825” is when the Realtor told us our house was built, that may not be correct. The original records were destroyed in the Abbeville Courthouse fire years ago. One source, Greenwood County, A History by Ann Heard Bowen, says about our house “was built in the 1830’s by the Reverend James Chiles”. (It is interesting to note that the British Houses of Parliament as they appear today were built in 1837 and Biltmore in North Carolina was built in 1895.) I decided to change the whole banner while I was at it. The new background pattern is from the Graphics Fairy’s blog, she is on my list of favorites if you are interested.
Hubby and I had Tea on the balcony the other
morning. We sat up there and listened to the birds for the longest time. It is the most peaceful place. Someone at work recently asked why I would want to live in a place like that. I just smiled.

This is my Sweet Hubby!

I am working this weekend, see you soon,

Kat

Monday Morning, my favorite things

A scrap booking friend recently posted the challenge to make a scrapbook page about our ten favorite things. That really got me thinking. What are my ten favorite things? It is easy to find ten things I love. It is harder to limit the list to ten things. I ruled out people and cats, they are not things. That simplified the process a little bit, but not much. I keep mentally adding to and rearranging the list.
Lets see, there is my wonderful old house. That certainly ranks high on the list. Does the list have to be only things I have now? Our garden in New Mexico was quite amazing. How about the forest around us. That isn't mine, but I love it.
Maybe I should do a separate page for
favorite places?
My little pickup ranks quite high on the list. I have a Toyota Tacoma, aka "The Silver Dragon". It is just the right size for me and has always kept me safe. It is also quite cute.

Anyone who has looked at very many of my blog postings can probably guess that my camera is a favorite thing, as well as the computer. I spend a lot of time with both. My camera goes everywhere except work.
I am a music lover so my Ipod has a place of honor on the list. Should I include favorite CD's? Nope, that quickly adds to more than 10. One of

my current favorites is "Songs from the Labyrinth" by Sting. I love it!

My teapot is another favorite. We have, as a family, more than one teapot, we drink a bit of tea. We have the large "Brown Betty" Tea pot that we brought back from Britain, as well as a few others. My favorite is a green teapot with Japanese designs. My Hubby bought it for me as a birthday gift before we were married. The original covering on the handles wore off years ago so I crocheted over the metal bases. Works like a charm. I have a lot of warm memories which include that tea pot. It is pictured with

strawberry pancakes in an earlier post.

Another love of mine is reading. I have the

same problem with books as I do with music. How can I limit my favorite books to just ten? I will add the bookcase my Father built to the list. I was four years old and I "helped". When I run my hands across the top, I can see him sanding and I remember him allowing me to sand a bit too. He showed me just how to hold the wood and the paper. Even though I was only four, my memories of this are crystal clear. Maybe that is why every edge is rounded, I like to think he enjoyed my company. To this day I love the smell of saw dust.
Another favorite thing is actually a set. It is a

Brambly Hedge cup and saucer. I know, it is a silly kid thing, but I love it. The list grows on. The lovely old clay flowerpot in the last photo that hold Aloe Vera plants is another favorite. The mushrooms are volunteers. (Of course I will be adding a fairy to the picture soon.) I guess I will have to do some more thinking. What are your ten favorite things?

Kat

One day early

I am posting one day early as I am scheduled to work tomorrow. I don't usually work weekends but I don't mind. It is Saturday and we were surrounded by fog this morning. very atmospheric. The temperature was lovely too. I didn't even look at the thermometer. I took today's first photo from the steps to my back door. The building is an old summer kitchen.

We went for a short walk before breakfast. We had some mail that needed to go in the box. I took my camera and on the way back I got the pictures of the mushrooms and the choke cherries. I have no idea what kind of mushrooms those are but they are quite pretty with the dew drops.
The choke cherries are another matter entirely. I
remember picking and eating them up in what I
believe was Ogden Canyon as a child. I am originally
from Ogden Utah. We went choke cherry picking with some of my parent's friends and I remember Frankie telling me I was going to have a belly ache if I didn't start putting more in the bucket and less in me. I must have been about 5 at the time. I remember it was a pretty day and that I liked the fruit, but I don't remember if I ever got that belly ache.

I was thrilled when we discovered we had wild choke cherries here. That is until I discovered that they like to grow high up in the tree
and we can't reach them.....
Oh well, the birds are happy and when they are happy, they sing. We get a chorus almost all day long.

The screens on my front windows, well most of my windows, are old. I like the view from them
and how the screen shows as part of the pattern. It all adds up as part of why I love to live here. The other day this moth stopped by to visit and I of course, had my camera in reach. I initially wanted to
see how good of a close up I could get of the moth through the screen. When I looked through the lens, I saw this and decided it was what I wanted.
This old place charms me in a new way nearly every day. (Kind of like my husband. He has been charming me for more than half my life.)

The strawberry pancakes are another example of how much my husband spoils me. This was breakfast a few Sunday's ago. They taste even better than they look. I am quite lucky.
He is my love and my best friend. We have done a lot together and are planning on doing a lot more.
We both want to travel as much as possible before we get much older and we enjoy our home together. He is my biggest fan and always cheers me on. With that note, I think I will go see what he is up to. See you next week.

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