Visions of Green.

The end of the day light from the West, shining

thru the oval window above our front entrance.

And the beautiful green leaves outside the of

the cottage, picture perfect in the window.

~ Chy

 

Fall Contrast.

Fall day in the mountains. A trip we took

a few years ago and I forgot about this

photo showing the green of the trees but

with one that was yellow. A contrast.

~ Chy

Fall Garden.

It's only August and usually by now the

leaves on our trees in the forest are all

turning yellow, orange and red very fast.

So far, this year, we are still surrounded

by green. Not sure why but happy that

we have a bit more Summer around us.

My flowers are starting to fade though.

I'm sure they will stop growing very soon.

~ Chy

More Green Kitchens!

I love when we come across photos of green kitchens. In 2014, when we designed our little cottage, this was our dream. But it was a bit of a concern for our Builder and his wife, who is an Interior Designer. The concern was resale value. But our thought is that we will be here for awhile, so why do a house for someone else's tastes OR what is on trend? No regrets at all and now we love to see so many green kitchens now in 2023. I feel like we started a trend, though of course our little kitchen, in our little cottage in the big woods was not visible to most people. So highly unlikely we were the catalyst for this change. But one can wonder!

                       What color is your kitchen?

                     Is it your dream or for trends?

                                     ~ Chy 

St. Paddy's Day.

After a warm shower on St. Paddy's Day,

I quickly dressed, got half way down the

stairs before I realized I was dressed in

purple and had to quickly change to green.

I went to pick up dd at her centre at the

end of the day and though she is a full

grown adult, she was quite excited to

show me the tiny leprechaun she made.

A mama can be proud at any age, right?

She did a great job helping her littles.

This year, for the first time ever, the day

was quiet and not full of celebration. My

family is Irish on one side, so we've it

has always been a day to honor. But we

had a death at hospice, so it was not in

the cards to be a day full of celebration.

Did you celebrate St. Paddy's Day?

Or was it a quiet, serene day for you?

~ Chy

Tiny Bench.

A bit of melting is happening outside,

though we are scheduled to have snow

next week. So now I'm dreaming of

green all around. Missing our tiny bench!

~ Chy

Lush and Green.

Despite the harsh heat wave (ending today, thankfully!), the landscape around us is lush and green. This time of year at the cottage is so beautiful. Except for the weeds. I'm hopeful the cooling trend for the weekend does happen so we can get caught up again. We did let the dandelions grow this year as recommended for the bees but now I want to pull them up before they turn white and seed. We also have horsetail weed that has come up in the last 2 years. I just read a great article on how to get rid of it (not pulling as that encourages more growth) so we'll be working on this as well. Living in the country, we'll never get rid of every single weed but we like to keep them at bay so our property looks well cared for. We take pride and the hard work is worth it. 

Today I'm excited to meet with our new team member this morning. She'll be integrated into our team as well as the residential care team. We are all tired at the moment as hospice care is hard work so having new energy is already proving to be helpful. I love sharing our programming and look forward to working with her. We hope to hire another grief counsellor as well soon as our caseloads are high and at the moment, just the 3 of us providing this care. I'm doing less and less counselling as my position as director entails a lot of commitment to other areas so in time, the wait for client care is going to be long. A work in progress is in place for a new team member. That will take some pressure off. 

I'm off to work out, shower, water the garden and then head in to hospice. Home in the afternoon to do more work, then an evening off to do whatever I want while dh does his radio show. No plans just yet. I should paint our granddaughter's dollhouse that I'm working on. She requested pink for the exterior. And I have to see if I have enough shingles to attach those for character. At the moment, the roof is just flat wood. The windows are opaque as well so I'm hoping I can find windows the same size to order. I hope she loves the end result. Finding furniture will be up to the mama and the papa but I may see if there is anything in my stash to get her started. I love how much she wants this dollhouse. 

Wishing you a beautiful sun~filled day.

Namaste my sweet blogging buddies.

~ Chy

Greening Up.

I love this time in Spring when everything finally starts to bloom and the green is overwhelming. I love the lighter green of this season and the fresh colors of pink, blue and purple in our gardens. Fresh dirt and just a few weeds here and there so far. We weeded our veggie patch last Sunday with the hope of planting our seeds but then it started to rain early in the week and we ended up with snow! Now we wait for a few dry days, like to day, with warm air and hot sun. A long weekend here in Canada ~ Victoria Day. I was done work yesterday in the afternoon and now don't go back to the hospice until Tuesday. Even though I only go in the mornings at the moment, it's lovely to have this break as our bodies are weary. We plan to clear where our new shed will go so our neighbor can level out that spot and do some regrading for us in the front gardens ~ our front path needs to have a better angle so the water doesn't pool. And once that is done, we'll then plant our seeds. If all goes well, we may be able to build the shed deck. But it is supposed to rain on Monday, so fingers crossed the rain stays away until Tuesday. My dream for gardening schedule would be light rain during the week (no thunder and lightening) and sun on the weekends. Wouldn't that be a perfect weekend set up? 

Today was busy. A bit of a sleep in, then workouts, showers, tidy up, head off to the little greenhouse down the road from us ~ in our 5 years of living out here in our little cottage in the big woods, we've never ventured over to the greenhouse so it was great to visit today and see what we've been missing. It's quite a bit bigger than it looks from the road. We were greeted at the entrance with a purple and green gnome sporting a sweet mask. Lovely staff eager to help and so many plants to choose from. We bought a trailing vine, a six pack of pink begonias and a six pack of baby's breath. I already picked up 2 spikes from the big greenhouse in town but they didn't have anymore wave petunias for my pots. We have to go back next week as they will have more planted by then. Also looked at some sweet shrubs for when we've done the landscaping we have planned for this year. 

After the greenhouse, we headed down the road to swap out our bbq tank for a new one. Then home to unload our plants and the tank. Headed into town to pick up landscaping lights, some tree fertilizer and then to Indigo to see if my County Living U.K. Edition was in .... and it was! Over to the grocery store to pick up some fresh food, then to our bank to clear out our Safety Deposit Box. We've switched banks but have our main account and our 2 TFSA's still at the old bank. One step at a time as it's a lot to move financial institutions after 20 years. So happy for the switch and our choice for our new bank. Just a lot of work to get everything moved. 

Home to put our groceries away and as we pulled up, we were surprised to see the fridge we ordered last week sitting on the driveway. We weren't expecting it until Monday. But it's here now. Tomorrow, we'll move it in to the spot we have set aside in the garage. This is going to be so helpful when we have celebrations and need extra space for food and drinks. We chose a vintage style and hope when we uncrate it tomorrow, all is well. While dh taped a radio segment, I chilled out on the deck, reading the final chapters of my book. Dd brought dinner home and we then settled in to watch the hockey game ~ we lost. It was still a great day. 

More as we go.

Namaste buddies!

~ Chy

Hello, April.

I always love April. This is a month of hope, with the mud turning to dirt, the brown turning to green. For our family, March is a bit sad as we remember our son, as well as my dad. But April is a month of happiness. We have several birthdays to observe, including our eldest son on the 4th, and my mom and brother both on the 18th. Friends and extended family as well. I love to see what will sprout up in the gardens and spend quite a bit of time dreaming what our future flower beds and veggie patch will look like. Gardening here has definitely been a long, drawn out process, but we started literally with a blank slate. Every year, I feel better and am proud of what we've done that year. Can't wait for this year. Definitely have some creative but labor intensive plans. Going to be a great Summer. 

For this first day of April, though we are on holidays this week, we were up pretty early, worked out, showered, dressed, bed made, then we were off to pick up an item in the Big City, that turned in to three, from a lovely lady who is moving to Australia. I show them in tomorrow's post. We then headed back to our little hamlet to do some banking, then to the store to buy groceries for Easter dinner. I'm deadly allergic to potatoes, so I've never tried scalloped potatoes but can eat sweet potatoes. Trying a Martha Stewart recipe for white cheddar potatoes and hoping I can substitute okay. After we got home, we had lunch and then I realized I wasn't feeling 100%. Not sick, just super tired. So while dh did some taping in the studio, I curled up on the couch to watch a show and ended up napping away a good part of the afternoon. Clearly, I needed some extra sleep! We had a lovely dinner of breakfast, then dh headed back to the studio after we cleaned the kitchen and I went out for a walk with our neighbors. Our garbage bins have to be walked down the lane to the main subdivision road because the County won't drive their big trucks down our private road to get our bins. Our other neighbors down the lane burn their garbage but we recycle and compost and have a black bin for things that have no other place to go. It was a lovely walk and nice to catch up. I love watching their littles grow, and two out of three are now on bikes and doing so well. We are so blessed to live down the lane and in the big woods. And to have close neighbors who have so much experience living in the country. We would have been stuck a few times without their expertise to help guide us. They are priceless to us! I hope we are equally helpful to them.

Tomorrow I hope to have more energy like I did at the start of the week. I usually have one day a week where my energy wanes, and typically it's Wednesday. But that didn't happen this week, so I guess today made up for having lots of energy yesterday! Before I go back to work on Tuesday, I'm hoping to get some more of our board and batten work done, some painting, our taxes dropped off at the accountant, my mom's paperwork completed, our seeds started for the veggie patch and lots of writing to finish up. I'm already feeling lighter from some of the other tasks I've already taken care of since being home this week. Such a relief to have a list to stay focused and then tick those items off. I've even tackled a few that weren't on the list but stuck in my head as "one day, I'm gonna tackle that" and here I'm am .... done and done! The best feeling ever. 

Easter will be quiet again this year. So hard to believe it's our second celebration in lock down. We take each day at a time, have hope for this to end in time and truly wish those that don't believe it's "a thing" will adhere to the regulations so we can ALL get back to living. One day soon, we hope, we hope. Travel would be lovely again. Seeing our family and holding them in our arms. Going for dinner. No fear of talking with someone in person. These are the things I wish for. Maybe April will see this change and a return to a more freeing lifestyle again. For now, we are enjoying our extra time at home to be cozy all together, practicing true Hygge.

Wishing you a beautiful Good Friday

and a very Happy Easter this weekend.

~ Chy

Capturing: Day 11.

The green when my laptop is all cleaned

up. I do love this clean and green look. 

~ Chy

More Green.

Can you tell I LOVE the color green?

Especially a rich, sage? Yes, I do!!

My favorite glass basket above, one

of the light up bottle and the tiniest

stocking on my favorite desk lamp.

Love how they fit together so well.

~ Chy

Finally Green.

 The snow has finally disappeared and after

weeks of mud and dust, brown and muck,

we have a green landscape once again. It's

so exciting now to wake up each morning.

And even better to be driving home and

not being able to see our home through

the green of the trees. Light filters now

amongst the leaves and they dance in

the wind as it flows across our land. I

love this time of year when everything

finally blooms and grows. Soon we'll

have dots of pinks and purples all over

once the wildflower seeds start to open.

The shoots are up and soon the blooms.

Capture December: Day Eleven.

Hi everyone!

Here's my photo for the Capture December Photo Challenge for Day Eleven. Today's prompt: Green. I chose to take a shot of our tiny green wreath on the sled that is for our ongoing dollhouse project. Hope you like it!

From our house to yours ....

Sugar and Spice ....

 .... and everything nice!

We found this cute sign at the Antique Mall last week. Perfect for our new guestroom, which will be done in shades of soft pinks and greens. A very girly and frilly room all around. I can't wait!!

Spring inside the house!

Spring is slow to bloom outside.

But it's alive and well inside the house!

Pretty, fragrant tulips given to me on Friday.

Still blooming pretty on Tuesday.

Facing the warm sun streaming in the window.

Anxiously, we wait for the buds of spring

to bloom outside. Little signs have started

and soon our world will be green again!

Rain!!

After months of snow and weeks of mud and slush then dry pavement and dusty landscapes, tonight, the rain began to fall. Washing away the dirt and the dust, we are so grateful for this much needed moisture. It's so comforting to listen to the rain hit the roof and the windows. The first step to making our bleak and brown world become green again!!