No words.......................

just a pretty photograph......a memory to share....

a moment to just slow down, to savour, and enjoy!

Well.........instead of waiting until the new year to post , I still have some things to share

the last few days of this year........so I'm back. 

(our woods, a few frozen years ago)

This is the last day of fall........tomorrow, winter begins.

Although I am not looking forward to snow or extreme ice,

I still find beauty in the frozen woods 

and prairie.  

For those who love to work outside and in their gardens,

this time of year is usually a slow down time.

For me, it is the heavy work time;  it is the perfect time to "safely" work outside

and to clear garden spaces for the next growing season.

I can easily work in layered clothing and gloves 

easier in 30 degrees than to work in sweltering 107 degrees

in late spring and summer.

Also, the rattlesnakes will be very slow to strike in frigid temps, 

if I come upon one while clearing brush and cactus. 

This is also a time I love to look over garden books

and seed catalogs and dream about my future gardens 

that I would love to be able to build and grow.

So tell me......

do you do outside work when cold winter days come?,

or do you find yourself by a cozy fire and are perfectly content that way?

I would love to  hear!

Until I Return Next Year...................

Once again, my dear people,

      Merry Christmas is here,

      With holly and mistletoe

      And its good will and cheer!

With its joys and its heartaches,

      With its laughter and song,

      It comes as a reminder

      That time marches along.

Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "When Christmas Comes" (1940s)

Wishing you a very merry Christmas!

A light dusting of snow came

giving the twisted mesquite trees a powdered 

sugar icing.  By noon, it was all gone.

I decided to  dress my worn and weathered scarecrow,

Gertrude, for the holidays.

This season she is wearing a dark floral print dress

with an embellished red jacket

instead of a straw hat, I placed a woolen knit

hat on her head and then tied a pretty scarf 

around that.

a spray of holly and pine cones work as an accent

she is holding a decorative basket of pine cones

her metal cat Zoey has a festive ribbon with a bell

and this year, a chicken has joined the group.

my little banty hens, along with my lone Ameraucana hen

are giving me a good supply of eggs, much needed for the upcoming 

holiday baking. 

If an egg is broken from an outside force, 
life ends.

If an egg is broken from an inside force,

then life begins.

Great things happen from the inside!

Here's wishing you the best 

inside and out!

I feel like Edith Macefield,

 the story about the 84-Year-Old Lady Who Refused a Million Dollars and Forced a Shopping Mall to Build Around Her House

This is what our graveled drive looked like a few days ago. It has looked 

like this since 1980.  We never have had to drive through mud. 

Even on rainy days, we can walk and never get our shoes muddy.

This is how it looks NOW, after our phone company came to prepare

for fiber optic lines to be laid.

One section is thick, heavy caked mud.........

For weeks, we have been called and visited by our phone/internet

company..........telling us how wonderful and better these

new lines are going to be.  (For 16 years we have had the worse

phone line and mediocre internet with this company,

but we have stuck with them. )

The only thing they avoided  telling us is how they would 

damage a good portion of our drive.  Even worse,

they refuse to see it as damaged and refuse to fix it,

telling us that it just needs time to heal.  

I growled and screeched and let them know how frustrated angry 

I am.........doesn't matter.......

they really do not care. 

 Instead of replacing the gravel, they want to just come 

and scrape the whole area all over again........

We, in frustration, told them to keep the machines off.

I could possibly go to an attorney.......but the time 

and my lack of trust in these situations will just be

dragged out.  If anything, I can just warn others........

stand out and over the work crews like a junkyard dog and

stop their damage.!

So, this is in the front of our home............

and...........as you may remember a couple of years ago

this meadow was damaged by our electric company 

on the side of our home.......however, 

they stepped up, accepted the responsibility of their damage

and repaired and paid for damages.

on the other side of our property........an oil rig

is being prepared to threaten our water supply and

peace of mind.

It makes me angry and sad that we have worked a good portion 

of our lives and we have our home "paid" for.

Now we have to be threatened constantly with

technology and progress.....

and 

thoughtless, uncaring people

but, in all of this, I refuse to let them rob me of my joy.

December is here along with it's chilly days.  The wind blew

so hard yesterday that everything now has a thick layer of dust.

And it is a time of  joy filled days, with

Christmas music (which I love) .......

Tasty treats and fond memories.

Sara Coleridge says it best............

Chill December brings the sleet,

Blazing fire, and Christmas treat.

Sara Coleridge (1802–1852), "The Garden Year"

Do you have your tree up and decorated?  

Do you have a favorite Christmas memory?

I would love to hear!

Thanksgiving wishes....................

I think Wilbur D Nesbit's words say it best.........

"Forever on Thanksgiving Day

The heart will find the pathway home."

Wilbur D Nesbit

Here's wishing that your pathway home will

lead you to a blessed and happy Thanksgiving!

November has arrived

I love to see the cottage smoke

Curl upwards through the trees,

The pigeons nestled round the cote

On November days like these...

~John Clare (1793–1864), "Autumn"

I love early November.  The days here have been so pleasant! 

I wish they would stay this way all of the time!  My husband, Sophie dog, Taboo Kitty

and I have been enjoying leisurely afternoon walks.  The wild brush is turning 

into a colorful canvas.

The mornings are very chilly and often covered with thick fog

My thoughts are turning to the woods where I want to 

start to work on garden spaces

The new banties have started laying the tiniest of eggs

yet, I still have vibrant and lovely zinnias in the flower garden

with whimsical creatures enjoying it all

My thoughts are also turning towards the holiday 

foods that I want to fix for our Thanksgiving 

gatherings. I am keeping the menu

simple with every one's usual favorite foods

but I am also going to make at least one 

decorative pie. This one is peach

and this one is cherry. 

We have wood stocked up for the fire place

and I am waiting on word from my children 

to see who will decide to fly home for 

the holidays......my heart is hopeful to 

see them all.

So tell me.........

how is your weather?  What are your Thanksgiving plans?

I would love to hear!

There is a lovely old house.........in Vermont

that I saw on a website.........and it is for sale

I love our home that we have.......and will never move from it.

But , I have to admit...........these lovely, lonely old places, call to me and

tear at my heartstrings and I can easily imagine living

in them.  

There is also a lovely poem I found ........on the Internet

that fits my feelings perfectly

so, I share this with you today.

“A Quiet Place” by Flora Turrill

Let me find a little house

A home with pretty views

Where evening sunsets 

Lace the sky with glorious pinky hues

Let me ponder memories

And watch the flowers grow

A while to sit and daydream

Some seed that I may sow

Let me find a little house

Placed far away from town

To seek out Nature's luxuries

Upon the unscathed ground

Let me live a humble life

Beneath cerulean skies

For golden is a life well spent

I pledge to treasure mine

Tell me......is there a lovely place that,

although, you love where you are,

still steals your heart away?

I would love to hear!

The grounds are showing their beauty.......

from the long Zinnia gardens

I have planted here and there........

Their many vibrant colors

and large blossoms, bring me much joy!

I planted them around Gertrude this year......

as you see, she looks very worn and tired from 

a long hot summer

The brush and landscape are also showing 

their own signs of beauty. This bush

produces little white fuzzy pods every year

The white and yellow wild daisies are also in bloom

Even the moss covered mesquite tree has it's own beauty.

A vibrant bumble bee adds to the color

The only thing I cannot see beauty in.......is, what

is happening to the pasture next to us

I used to be able to take the prettiest photos of

wildflowers, morning sun rise, and late evening moons

now large growling machines, are ripping up the earth,

and soon our peace, quiet, fresh air , and possibly our water

will be contaminated with an oil rig.

They are closing in all around  us.........

making my soul very sad.

So I cling to the beauty that surrounds our home,

hoping it will last through what we know as 

"progress"

and I try to think upon this quote

“The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions,

 and not upon our circumstances.” 

 Martha Washington

Yesterday morning, I had the scare of my life and a close brush of

a terrible thing to happen

I have been frustrated with the storage shed where I have all differnt kinds of things stored  ,  because the varmints have pushed all of the plastic tubs over and are in there. I did not want to go in there to clean it, but yesterday  morning, something was just bouncing along the walls.  

I also wanted to get my plastic nursery crates for my plants.  I opened the doors with a shovel.......nothing came out.  My plastic bag of crates had holes from rats and was lying at the door. I picked up the plastic bag and carried it out.  I laid it on the ground and started pulling out the crates from the ruined bag..........then I reached to pick up the last larger plastic planter.........and I heard a slight rattle.  Before I had time to think, out popped a rattlesnake's head and missed my arm by an inch! He was in that bag all of the time as I carried it out!

As I have told you in previous posts, we are run over with

the now dangerous Mojave rattlesnake that does not rattle to let you know 

it is there. It only rattles after it is on the attack.  They are more of a pit viper with

the poison being 16 times as deadly as a cobra.

It then came out so quickly and I was swinging the shovel as it kept striking at me.   but I finally managed to give it a good whack.  It shocked me so much that 

I almost fainted and was shaky after I had made it back to the house. 

Anyhow, the shed and the well house, which I was going to go after when I got the shed cleaned is going to wait until freezing January.  I am now too scared to poke my head in there!

I feel so very lucky to have not been bitten. 

On a happier note......my rose moss is blooming in 

all brilliant colors

and the morning glory blooms so pretty in the morning hours.

Several little hummingbirds have been such a delightful 

entertainment in the morning and late afternoon

My new little banty hens have grown big 

enough to run along with my little roosters, Gus and Tex.

They love their new little hens!

 The little Mille Fleur chicks have the

most whimsical feathered feet

and they are colorfully speckled

I have one little Sebright hen and she has a lacey 

lovely look to her!

So tell me.......

what is happening in your backyard?

Remember, if you are going through storage,

be very careful!

************, 

 and in answer to your questions  about the little bantams and chickens being in danger from the snakes,  yes, rattlesnakes do find their way into the chicken yard, luckily, the chickens do have high places to jump up to perch on, however the snakes can still crawl up anything.  I constantly check my chicken yard, chicken houses and nests during the day, and then I go out late at night to check because the snake crawl at night worse.