April flowers...

Happy Easter!

How did it get to be April already?  I just added a post...hard to believe that was a month ago.  Time is flying, but I couldn't be happier that Spring has arrived, on the calendar, at least.  It's starting to get a bit warmer here in eastern upstate New York...finally!  These aren't my crocuses (I wish), I found them on Pinterest (thank you to whoever originally posted them), but they reflect my current sentiments...bring on Spring flowers, starting with these little guys.

Even if April showers are the order of the day (or month), I'll take them if we do, indeed, get more flowers in May, and the leaves on the trees return to remind us that life is renewed, as always at this time of year.  It's such an optimistic time...can't complain about that!

I hope your Easter (or whatever holiday you're celebrating lately) is a wonderful one and spring brings you all the marvelous signs of the season we've been long awaiting!

Spring on the way...

It's nearly here.  Some people can't wait for the holidays in December.  I have more excitement for the arrival of spring.  It can never get here soon enough for me.  When you live in the Northeast, where winters can be an on-going challenge between the cold - sometimes bitter cold - and the snow - sometimes interminable snow - the arrival of the birds, the slightly warmer temperatures are a godsend.

A month ago, in early Feburary, I was preparing to head south for a very short - extended weekend, really - trip to South Carolina.  I was due to leave very early on a Saturday morning on a flight that would take me from upstate New York directly to Charlotte, NC, followed soon after by a quick flight to Augusta, Georgia, which is the largest regional airport near my destination in southern South Carolina.  I was to return on a flight that would arrive late on Monday evening, giving me essentially 2 1/2 days of escape in a warmer, if not sunnier, southern town.  Well, the heavy snows that were predicted for the evening before my departure for points south were threatening do in most flights departing from upstate New York that Saturday, so I make some quick changes that pushed my departure back by a day, to Sunday, effectively reducing my trip to 1 1/2 days.  I debated whether to cancel the trip altogether, but opted to go ahead even with the shortened duration  since some escape is better than none.

I arrived at my destination with no trouble and enjoyed most of my visit to a small, very horsey town that I'd known of for many years but had never visited.  Then, mid-afternoon of the day of my departure, I got a text message from my airline advising that my early evening flight home had been cancelled.  Cancelled!  That meant, effectively, that I couldn't leave that day, and would have to settle for an early morning flight (way too early) the next morning.  One might have considered that fortuitous, but I really need to get home sooner rather than later, which meant I'd spend the better part of the next day flying, which is never my preference when I hadn't planned to take that as a day off and be traveling.  Oh, well...not much I could do accept make the best of it, so I did.

What was significant was that it was warm - not hot - but warm at my destination and that was a joy.  I always appreciate grabbing a few days somewhere warm by the time February rolls around.  It's the best way I've found to fight off cabine fever and the "midwinter blues" that invariable envelope me by late January.  I'm usually done with winter by that point, and this year was no exception.  Just get me to Valentine's Day - and that fun punch of bring ruby reds - and I'm ready for bright green, pastels, the fun of St. Patrick's Day and anything springy.

So it's nearly here - finally - and in another week we'll push those clocks ahead another hour, I'll be leaving the office in the daylight again, which always makes me happy.  Then the warmer weather, the buds of spring blooms - the crocuses and the daffodils won't be too far behind and life will begin anew...and none too soon.

  

Lost in the Fog...

It's the middle of winter, for sure.  I took this photo out my window on a recent aberrationally warm day when the ground blanketed by snow was far colder than the air that surrounded it.  The scene was clothed in a thick, misty fog - it was strange, but quite lovely.

I, too, have felt a little bit lost in that fog...not in any serious way, but enough that I haven't been back to the blog since my last post.  That is due mostly just being very busy at work and very busy at home.  But the effect of my neglect was that I have been woefully slow at noticing that I had a comment on my last post that I only just saw.  And from a new follower, no less.  Bad blog ettiquette on my part, but I've addressed the oversight, posted the comment and thank her (I assume she's a her) for her comment and interest.  I hope to be a better blogger in 2013.  Not sure it will happen, but I certainly can strive to do better.

It is my habit to try to post at least monthly, since it's an easy thing to remember and the start of a month usually brings thoughts of the usual traditions of that month, the season, and the scenery - all the things that provide a sense of continuity and the comfort that it brings. 

The photo above, or a minor variation on it, is my scenery these days.  It's an old apple orchard, not a highly productive one, but it came in handy during the fall for a few choice fruits for pies and sauce.  It's asleep now, but now that it's February, the daylight is lingering slightly longer in the afternoon - thank goodness - and that's a hint that spring and warmer days are in the wings.

It has been cold - bitter cold - here for a while, but those days have been punctuated by occasional bursts of balmy weather - just enough to tease (or torture) us into thinking it will remain warm.  But, of course it doesn't.  Still, it's nice to be reminded that the warmth will be here in due course.  Not usually soon enough for me, though, so in order to jump-start my desire for warmth and the cheerful signs of spring, I'm heading south for a few days.  I find it's the best way for me to break up the monotony of cold and grey that so often envelopes us in midwinter.  I'll be off to South Carolina for a few days of warmth - for sure, sun - I hope, and the company of good friends whom I have the good fortune to visit.

I promise I'll be back sooner rather than later to share images from my travels.  Until then, stay warm and maybe buy a pot of blooming bulbs, like cheerful yellow mini-daffodils, to keep you thinking ahead to spring, too.  It will be here soon enough...

   

Hard to Believe It's the Holidays

I barely had time to recover from our food-laden Thanksgiving when the spate of holiday celebrations began!  Fortunately, things are slowing down a bit and I've had a chance to catch up on some tasks, but I still haven't broken out the holiday decor in earnest...except for one thing.  I saw a nice image in the December issue of Traditional Home magazine (one of my favorites) that showed a simple planter in a deep bucket shape stuffed with evergreens and holly...so simple and festive.

Inspired by the simple elegance of the idea, I re-purposed a planter of mums (since faded) that I'd picked up at the grocery store earlier this fall.  I loved the little arch and "Welcome" sign added to the planter, so I wanted to use it again.  I trimmed some errant branches from a nearby juniper bush that needed pruning ('tis the season to prune your hardy plants and shrubs), stuck them in the pot with the potting soil left over from the mums, and added some variegated faux holly...et voila!  A cheerful little holiday greeting standing by my front door ready to welcome my holiday guests.  So simple and easy.

I'm ready now.  Let the celebrations begin!

      

Turkey Time Again?

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is upon us yet again. I adore Thanksgiving - not because it's a food fest (it is), but because it's a celebration about nothing more complicated than a traditional way for Americans to give thanks for the "harvest" - to celebrate the end of the growing season and all that this bountiful country provides to us.

I love the colors of autumn anyway - the colors of nature - golds, reds, greens, blues, purples - and how Thanksgiving gives me a chance to use them on the table and around the house.  I have to say, for all its focus on food, there isn't half the concentration on Thanksgiving in the stores than on Christmas.  The new approach from retailers for the holiday season is to start putting out the reds and greens of the Christmas holidays right after Halloween.  It's not nice.  It's much too soon, and, as a result, the Thanksgiving colors take a back seat (and less shelf and display space) to Santa and crew.  I'm not ready for Christmas decor until December and I don't want to deal with it until then.

I'm going to fight to keep the autumn colors around until Thanksgiving and just beyond.  This year, we have a full week of November after Thanksgiving before December kicks in, so I'm going to milk it for all it's worth!

I hope you and yours have a bountiful, tasty Thanksgiving holiday and you'll stop and think about how much this uniquely American holiday brings to us.  And I hope, if you can, you'll share a bit of your good fortune this season with those who don't have as much to celebrate at their holiday table this year.

  

And When October Goes...

I nearly missed a chance to post here during one of my very favorite months of the year...beautiful, vibrant, brilliantly colorful October.  Here in the Northeast, October is foliage prime-time...glorious, but just a touch sad, since the changing colors signal that summer is over and it's "time to dress for fall"...as the lyrics to "The Summer Knows" by the marvelous composer Michel Legrand (from the film "Summer of '42") remind us.

It's a wonderful song, and brings to mind all the beautiful melodies of the fall season. Two others, in particular, are long-standing favorites of mine and were combined and recorded as a medley (if you can call two songs a medley - I always think of a medley as at least three songs) by the late singer, Nancy LaMott.  They are "Autumn Leaves" (music by Joseph Kosma and Elnglish lyrics by Johnny Mercer) and Mr. Mercer's and Barry Manilow's "When October Goes".  Each is a wistful, musical gem brought to another plane entirely by the magnificent voice of Miss LaMott.   If you have a chance, check them out on MySpace or wherever you listen to and can find her music...I promise you won't be disappointed.

"The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold.... "

(And just a little reminder - as "Hurricane/Tropical Storm" Sandy bears down on the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern coast in the next few days, last year - in 2011 - we had a freak late October snowstorm on October 28.  You never really know what Mother Nature might do...just sayin...)

October 28, 2011

"And when October goes
The snow begins to fly
Above the smokey roofs
I watch the planes go by"

Happy autumn!

Summer Swan Song

Hello, Everyone!  I apologize for the protracted absence from the blog this summer.  Think of it as a hiatus for "summer vacation" (I wish).

Actually, I've been phenomenally busy this summer. Between work and other distractions, I haven't had much time, or, admittedly, much energy to check in here.  I try to post at least once per month, but this summer's demands just hasn't allowed that.

I'm back now, things have calmed down a bit (fortunately), and I want to make up for lost time.  I've been visiting one of my favorite places on the planet a number of times this summer in Saratoga. This image - a beautiful painting by Sir Alfred Munnings, one of the foremost painters of turf scenes, wasn't painted there, but it is representative of the great energy, excitement and pageantry that is found at the historic Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York.

 It's a beautiful place, in a city that came to life initially in the Victorian era, where the natural mineral springs gave rise to spas and attracted wealthy visitors from the urban areas of New York and Boston to "take the waters." 

The famous film, "Saratoga Trunk", based on the novel by Edna Ferber, starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman, tells the story (more or less).

Today, Saratoga Springs  has retained much of its Victorian heritage and is a very popular vacation destination from May through October. 

But it's the summer season, and the 6-week long thoroughbred racing meeting, that defines the essence of Saratoga.  It's world-class horse racing.  The Saratoga meeting is considered one of the finest anywhere - in the US and beyond - at one of the most magnificent, historic race courses ever built.  Next year - 2013 - is the 150th anniversary of racing at Saratoga and promises to be a terrific celebration.

If you've never been here, consider coming to visit - it's a place where lasting memories are made and, as the saying goes, "It's the August Place to Be"!