Visitin Kat's corner

It has been a lovely week here in the Southern US.

Yes, it has been rainy and cloudy,

but it is still a great place to be.

 Daisies

My Sweet Husband gave me these for Valentines day. They lasted into this week. 

 Daisy Micro

Daisies are my favorite flowers.

 Bob

We had several visitors this week, Bob (Bob White Quail) was the first. 

This is why you need to have your camera ready 

all the time.

 Possum

This little guy (Opossum) got up a little early to say hello, we don't usually get to see them in the daylight. No, he did not let us get this close, my Sweet Husband has a good zoom on his camera. He did stick around for 10 or 15 minutes though, this is a good place to visit after all. 

 Female Northern Cardinal

This little lady came all the way up to the house. I am not a bird expert, but if I understand it correctly the local cardinals are called Northern Cardinals, even though we are in the south.

Dinner Omelet

Guacamole, eggs, cheese, tomatoes, onions, peppers and corn with melted cheese, sweet potato fries and hushpuppies. 

Just one of many reasons why this is a great place to be. 

 Pinecones on the fire

Life is good.

It is still chilly enough to enjoy a cozy fire. 

This time of year you never know how warm it will be.

 Old Barn at Sunset

See, I told you it was a cloudy week.

My Sweet Husband took all but the last photo in this post. 

I am glad he likes to share.

Spontaneous Adoration

I am loved.

Hope your week is as nice as mine.

Cheers,

Kat

Wordless Wednesday

Beautiful Things

When life is moving fast, it becomes even more important to look for beauty. When you find it, let it feed your soul, and then share it with someone else.

Seasons

I was taking pictures of Volkswagens yesterday and I almost stepped on these. A sure sign of spring. They are a lovely little surprise. Perhaps I should plant a few in my yard for next year.
Another sign of spring, the ladybugs are waking up. Did you know that they like to hibernate in big old southern houses? We see one or two at a time throughout the winter but in the spring, they wake up and need to be escorted gently back outside.

We planted this Daphne a few years back. It is a very slow grower. This is the first time we have had more than one or two blossoms on it. It lost most of it's leaves in the ice storm a few weeks ago but it is blooming anyway and if you look closely you can see that the leaves are starting to grow back. When ever we have owned a house that is important to us, we have planted one next to the front door so that visitors will be greeted by the lovely fragrance.

With all these signs of spring, I wanted to take just a minute to appreciate the last of winter a little more before it is gone. I will miss natures lace, the dark, bare tree limbs against the sky are so graceful.

See the van, it shows the scale of these wonderful trees. You can really see their graceful forms. They will be beautiful when they are covered in leaves, but it is a different kind of beauty. This seems so very peaceful.

Walking to the mailbox. Our mailbox is out on the main road. I love the walk no matter what the season. Right now you can hear several different kinds of birds singing and off in the distance, on the left hand side of the path, that little black spot is a feral kitty. We think she may have babies near by. She is all black and very shy. This is a good place for ferals to live.

On the wing, we see these guys a lot. It is rare that one flys close enough for me to capture it digitally. I wonder if it is easier for them to hunt when the leaves are not out yet?

These tiny guys like to hide when I pull the camera out. I love to listen to them sing. I took this on the way home from our walk the other day. Notice the pink sky? I am surrounded by beauty!

The sun is setting and it casts a pink reflection on the front of the house. I just can't help wanting to take more pictures. Winter is chilly, and I miss the green, but it has it's own charm. I will enjoy spring, it is one of my favorite times of the year, but I will miss winter. Thank goodness snuggle season isn't over yet.

I leave you for now with that sunset I was just telling you about. If you stand on my front porch and look off to the left, this is what you will see. Hope you like the view.

Kat

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

Abbeville Christmas

This is Jack and Bud. We met them in Abbeville SC last weekend. Each year the first Saturday of December is set aside for Abbeville's Christmas celebration. Abbeville was an important part of the Civil war. According to some locals, it was the Confederacy was born here, and died here.
The old part of town gets all dressed up and many of the locals come in period costumes. (Some businesses offer discounts to people who dress appropriately to encourage it.) Jack and Bud were kind enough (for a small fee) to give us a ride. The carriage is quite comfortable but a little chilly. The horses were friendly and so was the driver.
The lanterns were for sale in one of several local antique shops we visited. The flower is a Camilla. They look a bit like roses, but have no scent. This particular bush is the size of a tree. It was quite

cold and most of the flowers had faded but I could not resist this one.
The Burt-Stark Mansion is a beautiful old Southern house where Jefferson Davis stayed at the end of the war. It is open for tours and on this Saturday, it was free after 3:00.
Reenacters were camped on the grounds, they even had a very convincing Jefferson Davis. At one point they staged a running battle up to the steps, complete with cannon fire. We joked about the fact that it might be safer not to talk, (I don't have a Southern accent). Accent or not everyone we met was friendly.

There are quite a few lovely old houses in Abbeville and a beautiful church. Usually they open some of the private residents for tours to raise money for charity during the Christmas

festivities. This weekend they didn't. I hope they

do next year.
The Christmas village was on display in the Chamber of Commerce office. The starry sky affect was achieved simply by hanging twinkle lights behind blue cloth with a few tiny holes in it. The effect in person is quite magical.

The last two photos are of my place. I still think it is one of the prettiest places around. The second is moonrise as seen from my side porch. The first is sunset over my summer kitchen a few nights ago. Hope you enjoy.

Kat