Life is good at Kat's Corner.

I am having a lovely morning today.

To start with, we are on day light savings time.

We got to set the clock back last night and sleep in an extra hour this morning.

The weather is lovely and sunny outside,

but just a bit chilly (OK a lot chilly).

This wonderful old house is quite comfortable.

My trees have not quite reached this stage yet, but at least some are starting to turn.

I thought I would include this one and see if it gives mine the idea.

 I have a lovely cup of PG tips tea.
(Thank goodness for the commissary and the Internet).
Nothing beats a warm cuppa on a chilly morning.

 Unless of course, you have a Sweet Husband who makes fresh Banana bread.
This was a particularly tasty example. It was breakfast this morning.
He makes it from scratch and it is one of my favorites.

 Here is my very generous portion.
I like the crusts best.
It tastes even better than it looks.

 We spent quite a bit of time and energy last week on this.

I love a nice tall wood pile!

It makes me feel more secure.

We are putting some of that hard work to good use this morning.

Our fist fire of the season is merrily crackling away.

Warm and cozy.

Back when this house was built (around 1830), fireplaces

were the only heating option. They do a great job of it too.

Speaking of warm and cozy.

Spontaneous likes to lay in the silliest positions.

She is very cuddly this time of year, just look at that big soft belly.

I have a paper to finish for school,

I better get to it.

You know what? I don't even mind having to do homework on a day like this one.

Hope yours is as good.

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

Early post for 5 Oct 08,

I am posting early this time as I am working this weekend. Remember I said I wanted to start doing at least one art project per week? Well this week's art project was a quick and easy photo manipulation for a Halloween card. This is actually three photos combined. The kitty, is of course my Grand Kitty, Spontaneous. This particular photo is one my hubby took of her playing. The original background is the floor right next to the computer desk. The new background is a combination of two photos taken in an old cemetery in the woods. The cemetery is one of the most peaceful places I have ever found. It is not very big and there are no churches or houses nearby. The gravestones are old and much more interesting than anything new. I converted it all to black and white then added my lettering. I love my Photoshop Elements 4.
I also love this next photo. It is so full of mystery and promise. Almost anything could be around the curve, but you just know it will be something wonderful. It reminds me of something Bilbo Baggins once said ( I think it was in "The Hobbit"), about all roads being one road and all roads start just outside your door. All you have to do is put your feet on the road and go. Doesn't it just make you want to grab a backpack? Another nice thing about this photo is that since it was taken here in the South last week, it isn't nearly as chilly as the photo looks. There was just enough chill to be cozy.
Speaking of cozy, this is our wood pile after last weekend. We loaded up a pickup and two corollas with pre-cut wood. It is safely tucked away out of the elements just waiting for the temp to drop a few more degrees. We also cut up a good sized stack of the wood that we gathered last spring. Hard work, but well worth it.
If you are not familiar with the climate in this part of the world, you may think, based on our preparations, that winter here is harsh. It is not. We do have occasional ice storms. Sometimes they knock out power for several days. It never lasts long, but occasionally we get some snow. It gets cool enough to make the fire place nice. I love being cozy, I do not like to be cold. Besides, there is something very comforting about knowing that we can heat the house without power if we have to and that heat is based directly on our labor. Isn't the wood pile a lovely site?
We have several old bricks that were part of the original construction on this place. They were hand
made from local clay and some have partial hand or finger prints. When we bought this house, the chimneys were leaning to the side in a most alarming fashion and most of the fireplaces were blocked up. during restoration of the fireplaces and chimneys, we had the bricklayer reuse some of these lovely old bricks as a visible feature. Now, if you sit in the library in front of the fireplace, you can place your hand in a partial print made by one of the people who built this house approximately 180 years ago. We used the little red wagon to transport some of the bricks to a new storage location. When I saw the color of the bricks and the wagon with the area around it, out came the camera. What do you think?
I could probably do a post just on the little red
wagon and all the things it has been used for over
the years. Should I?
The last two pictures are more seasonal ones. I am not sure what type leaf this is, but I like it. The mushroom, yes, yet another mushroom, is actually two or three grown together, once again, found in my woods. I call it the teacup mushroom for obvious reasons.
Speaking of tea cups, mine is empty and hubby says breakfast is ready. Have a great week.
Kat