Country Contemporary

A Morning Visitor...A Look Back

2012-02-08T09:29:00.014-05:00

I know it's not the norm here on CC, but just had to snap this quick photo of a visitor just outside the window in the frosty morning sun to share it here on the blog. Look very closely in the center of the photo, just to the right of the fencing, to see my morning guest.

There's nothing more cheerful than a tiny bright red cardinal to punctuate the brown February shrubs in the tree line!

I just realized that today is my late Irish maternal grandmother's birthday. Maybe this red cardinal came by to make me stop and think about her, and the eternal cycle of life - winter to spring to summer to fall and back around again - the slow emergence from the frost and cold of winter into the warmth and sunshine and renewal of spring - as the cycle begins again.

I'd have to look at some old documents to determine which birthday this would be, but I think it was at least 115 since my grandmother came here, to the U.S., at about age 18 and I think the year was 1912 that she arrived on the USS California from Northern Ireland. She was one of those who passed through Ellis Island and headed north up the Hudson River to Troy, where she met and married my grandfather. I never met him, and she was well into her 50s, I think, when I was born. She was the only grandparent I knew, and, sadly, she died of illness when I was just 9. Hers was the first close family loss I had experienced, and I remember it seemed so strange to me at the time. I'm not sure I knew what to make of it, except that I knew my mother, her youngest child, was so sad. My mom was barely 40 when my grandmother died, and I can't imagine how that loss felt for her, but she had my dad and her siblings nearby to help cushion the blow. Still, it makes me so glad I had my mom with me until her early 80s. It was a great gift for which I was grateful for every day that we could spend together. She loved deep rosy reds, too, so perhaps the cardinal's arrival this morning was another reminder to enjoy the beautiful yet fleeting things in nature and in life since, alas, nothing is forever...

On to February...or is it really early April?

2012-02-05T17:16:00.011-05:00

I seem to be on a monthly posting plan here at CC, so I'm going with it.

Unlike the snow-laden image in last month's post, this winter has continued to confound the weather prognosticators - and utterly delight folks like me who don't warmly embrace most of winter's frosty cold and snowy characteristics.

I could not be more pleased that since the aberrational late October snowstorm, we have had barely any of that nice-then-nasty white stuff this season at all, save the occasional dusting, maybe an inch or two from time to time. Just when I fear we might not see the ground for weeks, if not months, Mother Nature does a fast and wonderful 180 and quickly melts it all away. Bliss! Heaven! Joy!

As I sat in front of the trusty laptop, tapping out the latest updates here, I was momentarily distracted by some unexpected motion in the yard just outside my window. Usually, when I catch something in my peripheral vision while typing, it's one of the kitties, doing their usual "perimeter patrol," following the tree and fence lines that define the property, but not so this time. No, it was a small herd of deer - actually a small herd of relatively small deer - eight of them! - strolling across the lawn, nibbling along the way.

I grabbed the camera that sits next to my work table for just such occasions, and managed to snap a couple of shots. Alas, only one was worthy of posting - and just barely that - but at least it captured the whole gang...or is it gaggle? Either way, I was cheered to see them, late on this Super Bowl Sunday afternoon, and glad the snows of this weird weather winter remained at bay so they could easily find some fine February snacks and chow down like the rest of us on this annual football-and-food festival day.

Oh, and by the way, I'm not taking sides on this one. While I live in upstate New York, I'm quite near the border with Massachusetts, so, as it happens, home is essentially equidistant from the home stadiums of both the Giants and Patriots. That makes it a bit risky to lean one way or the other around these parts, so I won't be cheering more loudly for either. In fact, I'm reminded of lyrics to that fun song by the Scottish folk/rock band Stealers Wheel (no reference to the Pittsburgh football team) that hit the charts way back in 1973, "Stuck in the Middle with You". Forgive the artistic license, but I feel like singing (instead of "clowns" and "jokers" in the original lyrics) "Giants to the left of me, Patriots to the right..." If you're of a certain age, you surely get the drift and will start hearing the tune in your head, I'm sure. Anyway, enjoy the game if you care about it all. May the best team win and I hope no one gets hurt.

For my part, I'll be among those intently watching the magnificent new PBS series, Downton Abbey...that's Downton, not touchdown!

Cheers!

Yet Another New Year - Here We Go!

2012-01-05T15:42:00.004-05:00

It's hard to believe it already has been five days since the arrival of 2012. If that's any indication, I have a feeling a lot of this year is going to fly right by. I have no idea where 2011 went, but go it did, so here we are.

The holidays were fairly low key out here in Country Contemporary land. We managed to squeak through the last weeks of December without any of the snow that descended so strangely in late October. I'll take it. I'm not a big snow fan, and heaven knows, after Irene's and Lee's visits, and an unusually wet summer season, we do NOT need that much snow. The creeks and streams are full to bursting still - very atypical for winter, when we usually just have a minor trickle. That's when the snows of winter and their melting in Spring becomes so crucial. Well, if we see any significant snows this winter, we're going to have some very BIG trouble come the warmer temperatures of Spring.

For my part, I'm just glad that - for the moment - we have not had any of the issues that make winter so treacherous. I'm very fond of bare pavement on the roads and that hasn't been a problem so far this season. Huge relief here.

In fact, while it has been unusually warm in November and December, we've had our first real winter chills in the past few days, with overnight temperatures being in the single digits and wind chills below zero in some areas. That said, it was in the 40s last week, and the forecast for the weekend is expected to hit that level, and flirt with 50 on Saturday. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. With every passing warmer-than-normal day we have, we're that much closer to Spring, as the minutes of daylight we see continue to lengthen.

We rounded that bend on the winter equinox late last month, and no sooner did we set the clocks back in early November (now implemented blissfully a week later than in years past - I view that as a perfect global birthday gift for my personal early November celebration), and we flipped the switch just a few weeks later (well, about six weeks later) to recapture a few more minutes of daylight in late December. All of these temporal landmarks make me supremely happy...well, as happy as I can be during my least favorite season of the year.

Here's hoping that this New Year will bring us all warm sunshine, blue skies, and a few extra minutes each day to stop, reflect on our blessings, and bask in the glow of the possibilities of the year ahead.

Cheers & Happy New Year!

Wreath & Door Spray Redux

2011-12-02T07:52:00.010-05:00

It the blink of an eye, November came and went and, with the passage of Thanksgiving, Macy's parade, gorging on too much turkey and stuffing, Black Friday and the holiday season are upon us.

For years, even though my birthday kicks off the month, I was never a very big fan of November. It always struck me as grey and monotonous. The trees were leafless and the landscape seemed so barren. As I've grown older, I've come to appreciate the special "atmosphere" that November brings...a chance to rest amidst a bit of visual quiet after the colorful foliage displays of October - a chance to recover from the falling leaves and appreciate the "bare bones" of the scenery before they're eventually clothed in frost and snow for several months to come.

We were very, very lucky this November. After being bombarded aberrationally with several inches of snow in late October, November provided us with far warmer temperatures than usual (thank heavens for small favors) and a last chance to enjoy the sun's warmth. The grass has kept its bright emerald green hue and, while the diciduous trees are now completely bare, the foliage of the pines, firs, spruces and cedars remains.

I've started pulling out some of my holiday decorations. Two of the items I have at hand are a large wreath and door spray. They are quite old, actually - about 20 years now - and at one time were a beautifully fragrant combination of cut blue spruce branches combined with dried flowers and lovely velvet ribbons and bows. The wreath, which measures about 24 inches across, has bright, fire engine red bows, while the door spray has rich, dark burgundy velvet bows. The ribbons and bows have remained vibrant, of course, and even the dried elements are fairly bright still, but the spruce branches and their needles have turned from their original sea-foam blue green to a rather sad beigey-brown...and they tend to drop readily if the wreath or spray is moved even gently.

I've been reluctant to toss these two decorative pieces because they are so full of intricate detail and I have loved them through their life-cycles. So, suddenly, when I dear friend whom I'm helping prepare for a holiday housewarming party in 10 days mentioned that he wanted a big pine cone wreath sprayed in gold for his home, I had one of those "ah-ha" moments. I could carefully remove the ribbons and bows temporarily from my old items and spray them a warm and welcoming gold! They would no longer have the contrast of the greens (now beige) and deep reds, golden yellows and cream colors that had originally characterized them (and had charmed me), but they'd have a grand and elegant new life clothed in wonderful, intricate, golden detail!

I neglected to take a "before" shot (although I think I have a photo of the wreath in its original, fresh condition packed away in a box somewhere), but here's the "after" with ribbons and bows re-inserted. I couldn't be more pleased with it!

And the season begins!

And, now, for that marvelous month...November!

2011-11-19T15:58:00.006-05:00

Even though the snow in the previous post melted within a matter of days (thank goodness!), it has taken me much longer to recover from that startling shock to the visual landscape out my windows, and to my system.

I am not a fan of snow. I needed the autumn to be autumnal, not winter-like. Once the snows receded, the green grass and orange and yellow leaves on the trees re-emerged to make the scenery much more typical for early November. And now, it's nearly Thanksgiving.

While all the brilliant colors of fall have given way to the stark, leafless landscape of winter, I'm continuing to celebrate the season with a few displays of color inside the house. And I'm starting to think about the festivities of fall, the cornucopias and the sumptuous dining of Thanksgiving.

I'll be joining friends for Thanksgiving this year, having hosted more than my share of celebrations, and having no family living nearby any longer. I don't mind, in fact, these friends of many years are, in many ways, as close as family to me and that's a great comfort.

I celebrated a birthday this month. Not a monumental one, mind you, but a birthday nonetheless. And just a day before, I learned that one of my friends of many decades with whom I unfortunately hadn't been in close touch in some years, had passed away. Actually, she died quite some time ago.

It was sad news to learn rather unexpectedly, and I discovered it when I read that her mother had died more recently. My friend's passing saddened me, but it wasn't surprising news, since I'd known she'd had a long history of medical issues. Still, I'd thought she'd gotten it all under control and had gone on from the illness that had plagued her 20s - when we first met - to reach a ripe adulthood. It just wasn't meant to be a very long life, apparently, but it was a life very well lived for another 35 years, and she lived it to the fullest, as I knew she would.

She left a beloved husband of many years, grown children - probably her greatest joy and certainly her proudest accomplishment - and she left many good friends. For me, while our contact was sporadic, our friendship was constant...not one that required frequent contact, for when we were in touch, it was as if no time had passed. She had a full and busy life, and mine took me in another direction personally, professionally and geographically, but that shared experience of our young adulthood was our common ground. I'll always treasure that time we shared many decades ago and I'll miss her. I wish I had known she wasn't doing well so I could have told her how important she was to me in my young life and how much I wish we could have spent more time in touch over the decades. But, alas, it was not to be...

So as I look ahead to Thanksgiving, I think about those who filled my holiday table over the years, parents and elder family members now gone; a few dear friends now gone, too. The memories of those good times provide the frame of reference for my life. Those who will surround holiday tables now become more important to me than ever. They are the new "family," and are part of my new reality.

As you enjoy your Thanksgiving, look around at those near you. Celebrate them and the good fortune to experience a special holiday that's all about giving thanks. I know I will.

Winter in October?

2011-10-28T11:12:00.001-04:00

Well, here we are, barely one month into autum and we were slammed with a freak snowstorm yesterday (October 28), dropping about 2 inches on the ground...and it stuck! Oh, yes, it stuck, indeed. It's a veritable winter wonderland with autumn leaves still on the trees...crazy!

If this is what we get in the middle of autumn, I wonder what winter will bring?

2011-10-05T11:55:00.006-04:00

And here we are again...in the midst of yet another new season. Fortunately, I adore autumn. It's probably my favorite season of all, and here in the Northeast, it just doesn't get any better. The air is cooler - crisp, even - and, best of all, the scenery is wonderfully colorful. (Contrary to popular opinion, New England - while certainly lovely - does not have the corner on the market for brilliant fall foliage. We here in upstate New York have some of the most spectacular displays of leaves you'll find anywhere in the country...it's magnificent!) Beyond the foliage, our fine, local New York State apples are available in abundance, along with pumpkins and all manner of interesting-looking squashes and gourds. It's just the best time of year here.

It seems that the leaves, like me, are taking their sweet time in changing into their fall wardrobe this year, too. It has been fairly warm in September, and no real hard frost to start the process in earnest, so I think we'll have a longer and more colorful season than last year, when autumn seemed to arrive early and leave fairly quickly. Tonight we'll be entertaining the possibility of some frost, so perhaps that will kick-start the process. We'll see.

Unfortunately, I don't have any readily available shots of autumn color yet, but I will try to take some to post. What I have seen, at dusk, on several occasions, were the local deer friends, who have figured out that the crab apple tree at the edge of the lawn is starting to drop its fruit on the ground...perfect for an evening snack! (Of course, I haven't captured any images of the deer, either, but I saw a doe and older fawn early this morning at the edge of the adjacent field, so they're clearly lingering in the woods adjacent to the lawn.)

Here's one shot I just took (a few days after I uploaded this post) as the sun was setting. (This is the view from my kitchen window, facing east.)

Wish I could say the rest of the landscape is as brilliant as this, but it's just not that vibrant in many areas...too much rain this summer, no early frost followed by more warmth to bring up the colors, so the colors are a little on the mundane side, I'm afraid.

When I pulled into the driveway a few days ago after being out for the day, I encountered a veritable gaggle of wild turkeys strutting through the yard. I hadn't seen them in many months, but am very glad they're about, and expect to see them again as the season evolves.

Hoping your autumn is as lovely as mine in the Northeast!

California Dreamin'

2011-09-18T14:12:00.009-04:00

At this time a week ago, I was basking in the sunshine of southern California, visiting family in San Diego. After a tough week that saw certain areas of eastern upstate New York completely devastated by the relentless rains from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, that caused unbelievable damage from torrential flooding, it was a relief to leave it all behind. (Fortunately, my area and my home were essentially unaffected by the rains, but none of us in upstate feels immune when so many of us were so horribly affected by the devastation these storms wrought.)

Before I hit what is reported to be one of the most temperate climates in the entire U.S. in San Deigo, I traveled to the area of northern California - the central coast area, to be precise - that is arguably one of the most beautiful regions in the country - the Monterey Peninsula.

It's a bit of a long story why I was there, but suffice it to say I'd never been there and the area has been on my personal "bucket list" of destinations for many years. When the opportunity to go west presented itself, and the imperative to visit family began to jive with a slightly longer itinerary, I promptly added Carmel-by-the-Sea and Monterey to my trip planning. I'm so glad I did.

I mean, seriously, can you believe this incredible landscape? Now, don't get me wrong, I love the beautiful lush greenness of the Hudson Valley of upstate New York - it is beyond gorgeous here, but, I have to say, the dramatic views on the central California coast, at Carmel and Monterey, are just breathtaking. It's always impressive to be looking due west out to the Pacific Ocean and to see the waves crashing and splashing up against the rugged shoreline.

It was a relatively quick trip - out and back within five days - but I covered a lot of territory, from Carmel and Monterey in the north, to San Diego in the south. I had a great time and I can't wait to return to Carmel as soon as I get the next chance...so utterly beautiful there.

Once in a while, it's good to get out of the neighborhood and out of one's comfort zone and go somewhere new and different, or just distant, to gain some perspective, and perhaps a greater appreciation of what one has. I've always found it helpful to look beyond the familiar to find new joys in life...sometimes it's as simple as a change of scenery.

Summer Resolutions and a Labor Day Lament

2011-09-03T15:59:00.028-04:00

In keeping with what seems to be my once-monthly posting schedule, I'm back. It's September, and Labor Day weekend at that.

As it happened, I looked out at my beautiful south-facing view from the laptop desk (yes, it's on a desk, not my lap) early this morning and noticed that the gently rising sun was illuminating the treetops in the distance. The barely sunlit trees revealed just the very faintest little hint of changing color. (See the round-topped maple tree just left of center in the distance in the photo below? Oh, yes, it's definitely showing hints of a warm gold starting to emerge there.)

We had some very hot days in early July, but most of the summer has been predictably warm, but pleasant overall. The evenings, as expected in late August, have started to get much cooler, so by early, pre-dawn hours, I'm sensing the arrival of fall in the air. Not cold, mind you, it's just cool and gradually getting cooler. Alas, the leaves are beginning to tell their pre-autumn tale.

This has been a strange summer for me. Those 13 or so of you who have been following might recall that I had plans to relocate to points south. Well, as with many plans we make these days, those have changed, too.

I had some serious ambivalence about a major, and permanent, relocation to a very hot and humid climate. There was, and still is much to recommend shaking up the status quo, but, practical realities dictated that moving 1,000 miles or so from my home state, home region, and hometown (nearby) wasn't the smart thing to do right now. The emotional realities are even more compelling. I love the landscape here, its seasonal changes, its beautiful greenery and gorgeous terrain. I live in a lovely rural area that many people adore as an escape from the harshness of the urban centers of New York City and Boston. I love the history and the culture of this place and the cultural resources of this region of the U.S. There is so much right in and around my area to see and enjoy. I also realized that, bottom line, I really am a dyed-in-the-wool upstate New Yorker and a true Northeasterner. Given a choice of where to live, I would rather stay here for so many solid reasons.

So, I can report now that any relocation plans have been moved firmly to the back burner, and most likely will be removed from that "stove-top" entirely. That said, I wouldn't resist the option of spending the harshest winter months in a warmer climate. I would absolutely relish it, but I don't want to spend summer months there. It's just waaaaay too hot down south in summer for this Northeastern cold-blood!

So, I'm staying put, and I'm just as glad about that as I was at the prospect of pulling up stakes and moving elsewhere to escape the winter's blast here in the Northeast. But, my most important resource - my support system of great friends - remains here. I have no family remaining anywhere in the state, so I must say, there were a few occasions when I relied heavily upon that solid support system to assist me with a few unexpected events this summer. I'd literally have been lost (or at least seriously, and potentially expensively, inconvenienced) without them. Sure, I can make new connections in a new place, but I can't replace the good friends who go back 20, 30, and some 40 years and longer. That's really not something to dismiss lightly. They're precious resources, those great, good friends, so I don't minimize their importance in my life.

Along those lines, one of the major events of the early summer (well, late spring, really) was a significant high school reunion in late May, and the importance of lifelong connections was reaffirmed over those two lovely days and evenings. One of our 27 surviving classmates (it is, and was, a small school and a small class), a vibrant, highly creative woman, had been diagnosed only a few months earlier with and advanced-stage cancer. Still, she made the heroic effort to join us, traveling from her waterside home in Connecticut to celebrate each other and the four decades since we had graduated. She had endured the chemo, but her doctors had told her there was nothing more to be done as treatment. Needless to say, the other 13 of us who attended our reunion were so glad she felt well enough to join us, and she seemed to be very glad to be among us, as well. Although it was unspoken at our reunion - it really didn't need to be said - we all knew that it very likely would be the last time we saw her. Indeed, sadly, it was. She passed away peacefully just a week ago at the hospital near her home, and with her passing the importance of keeping one's friends close became even more profound and pointed for me. It reaffirmed that staying near where so many of my friends are located has become far more important than my escaping the cold and snows of a few months of winter here in the Northeast. Life's too short to treat those friendships so lightly.

So, enjoy your Labor Day weekend, and if you can't spend it relaxing and reminiscing with family and good friends, think about giving them a call to say hello, so you won't regret what you didn't do when you ultimately have to say one final goodbye.

Midsummer Merriment

2011-08-01T07:57:00.005-04:00

I might have the best of intentions, but it truly is a challenge to get over here to the blog to update. It's embarrassing, particularly because I, too, follow the blogs of others, and find myself disappointed when I check in at theirs, only to find nothing has changed in the past week or so. The nerve of them! I want to be entertained regularly and I so enjoy seeing what folks have been up to, whether they're well known in their professions or just recreational bloggers as I clearly am.

So, it has been nearly a whole month and I don't have a lot to show and tell here in the blog. If you've been conscious at any point in the past two weeks, you'll know that a very humid high heat wave has affected much of the central, south and eastern US. We were not immune here in the Northeast. The only saving grace is that, while it lasted several days here, this kind of weather front (or at least its very high temperatures in the 90s and, in some cases, 100+s) is usually fairly short-lived. In due course (about 4 days), the temperature broke and we were back to normal (70s and 80s during the day, low 60s at night - truly heavenly weather). We got some rain, the typical thunderstorms blew through periodically in the course of a given day, and it just felt like the usual summer story here.

I won't dwell on how it was pretty much pointless to do anything. My home, unfortunately, does not have central air, or the capacity for window A/C units (although I do have one in storage), so I toughed it out. The good news is that, unlike many homes in the mid-south and south, we have basements and that's usually - and, in my case, was - the best place to go. It was a good 10 degrees cooler down there and I have plenty I can do there during the hottest part of the day (late afternoon) in this house.

The house here, if I hadn't mentioned it, is passive solar design from the late 1980s, so, while that's grand during the cold weather months, it becomes a literal blast furnace during a very hot, humid midsummer day...can we say "sweat box"? Oh, yeah. Yes, of course, I've put drapes over the windows, but I cannot reach all of them (some are big expanses of glass on the second story of a cathedral-ceilinged space - on the west side, of course, where the late afternoon sun literally blazes through the window - and, alas, I don't have my great big, honking extension ladder available to reach them and cover them with a shade or drape. Ugh!

The kitties are also clever enough to find their way into the cooling shade of the woods adjacent to the side yard. They come back to the house for water, but they only nibble modestly at their evening food. Seems the heat puts them off their feed, too...just as it does me. Can't blame them.

So, stay cool if it's very warm where you are, and just remind yourself, if you live in an area where it gets very cold and snowy in the winter, as I do: summer is good. It's not freezing cold and there's no ice or snow to impede your travels. These are good things.

My summertime southern view:

Happy August!

Baby, You're a Firework! - Celebrating July 4th

2011-07-04T15:50:00.020-04:00

Happy 4th!

How did it get to be Fourth of July so soon? It seems like I was just bemoaning the overwhelming snows of winter, and - voila! - it's already early summer!

Every year, a small hamlet nearby hosts a mid-morning parade to celebrate our country's birthday. It's not a huge parade (maybe 20 minutes long), but over the 30-odd years I've been attending this parade, it has drawn an increasingly large crowd of maybe 250-300 people and stops traffic, literally, in every direction! Not too shabby for a tiny country hamlet that boasts only a very chic country store and cafe/gallery, a full-service restaurant and bar, and a post office. That's it. Two eateries and a P.O....and one very special annual July 4th parade...heh, heh.

Still, I love this parade. Even though it has become increasingly attended by non-locals, mostly "weekenders" (and their guests) from NYC (about 120 miles away), it's still a total laugh riot.

I took a few photos at the parade this year, but I found the whole thing wasn't quite as special as it was a few years ago when both two- and four-legged participants marched (or were nudged, reluctantly) through the town (hamlet) square.

Of all the photos I have taken of this parade, this very sweet young man with the most disdainful expression on his face is my favorite...priceless!

Katy Perry must have been writing about him when she sings, "Baby, you're a firework!" and this, um, parade "float" (?), with its handsome stuffed tiger lolling lethargically on a red-white-and-blue striped inner tube perched atop a red garden cart (I think), was teetering perilously as it made its way along the parade route. Hilarious!

The post-parade tradition is strawberry shortcake with a glob of real whipped cream to cap off the morning. Ahh, shortcake...a staple of Independence Day celebrations, and we're no exception here. I ask, does it get any better (or funnier) than a small, local parade to celebrate this all-American holiday? Indeed, I think not.

Now that I've cheered the patriots, and applauded the parade participants, I'm starting to have a craving for a creamy potato salad with egg...yeah, that's the ticket...think I'll go make some now...

Cheers, drive carefully, and have a happy July 4th celebration wherever you find yourself today.

New Visitors to Welcome Summer

2011-06-22T16:52:00.011-04:00

I've posted before about the fauna that seems to enjoy the woods and nice, grassy lawn that surround this house. There are all manner of birds, especially those fun turkeys, and songbirds, hawks, crows, and the occasional pheasant, and, of course, the deer. Deer are everywhere around here. I often see them in the morning or at dusk as they wander across the lawn and through the unmowed fields that abut the yard, but I had a special treat the other morning. Suddenly, out of nowhere was....a fawn!

This is not the fawn, but it could be its mom. I took this shot yesterday, so I'm not sure, but I've seen both. I couldn't decide if she had lost (misplaced) the fawn, but it has been a while since I've seen both together. Lately, it's one or the other, but not both.

I can't figure out if the fawn is old enough to be out and about on its own, but it seems to know that it's safe here, particularly in the fenced horse paddock (where there are no horses these days). I've left the gate to the paddock open (of course), and, today, the fawn strolled out of the woods, across the back yard (which is the view I have most of the time since it's the direction I face when I'm sitting at the computer - looking to the south and out beyond the yard and horse paddock to the distant hills), and trotted over to the far side of the little barn, around the corner, through the gate and into the paddock. I saw it re-emerge in the paddock beyond the barn, but I haven't seen it come out since then, so it might have decided to hang out for the evening here. I hope so.

This is still mom - look closely at the edge of the lawn. It's the view to the north, where the mowed area of the lawn gives up to Mother Nature. Mom likes to cruise through the tall grass there for the tastiest greenery. She comes through there often.

(In the foreground is a tall, grey PVC pipe into which I placed my trotting horse weathervane that I've had at several previous homes, although it never was on a cupola, always in the yard, usually in the little spot in the lawn where a standing clothes pole once had stood. This pipe marks the location of the well head so the snow plow driver doesn't whack into it in winter. Do you think it's tall enough?! Yikes. We get a lot of snow, but not that much! It was just a big old pipe standing about 9-feet tall, smack in the center of the driveway circle, when I moved here over a year ago, so I thought it would be fun to place the weathervane on top for a little equine symbolism and amusement. I am a horsewoman, after all...lol.)

I'll try to shoot a photo of the fawn next time I see it, if I see it. It's so adorable (from afar)...my little neighborhood baby Bambi.

Happy 2nd day of Summer, everyone!

New Toys and Belated Lilacs

2011-06-15T19:28:00.003-04:00

Regrettably, I'm still a bit slow in the posting department, so I'm just getting to downloading some images that have been in my camera for a few weeks.

In between shooting these photos and downloading them, I purchased a new laptop (finally) after months of struggling along with an ancient PC (my previous laptop having bitten the dust last summer). I can't believe it took me a year, but I suppose there's an upside to having taken my time in replacing the latter machine...prices seem to have dropped by at least 30% since my earlier purchase. That's the good news. The bad news is that my new laptop will not speak to my old PC, despite the procurement of the (supposedly) necessary cord intended to link the two and facilitate the transfer. Dang.

The result of this electronic miscommunication is that I'm slowly rebuilding my links, files, images, etc....and doing it the old fashioned way. I probably need to get a memory stick or something, but since I haven't done that, I only have access to these new photos, not to anything in my archives...at least not easily.

So, here are some lovely lilacs that bloom every May here. I cut some to bring indoors (and because I've always heard that helps generate more blossoms next year), put them in a vase and took these photos. They are so pretty and cheerful and, while I'm not a huge fan of lavender colors, this particular shade of purple is very pleasant, don't you think? I can almost smell their sweet, distinctive fragrance....ahhhhh.

Memorial Day Weekend!

2011-05-30T06:28:00.004-04:00

Well, there is literally no excuse...and many explanations. It has been a crazy few months and the relentless winter here in the Northeast just about did. me. in. Seriously. I'm not a huge fan of the frigid months, and, while snow is pretty, to be honest, it is not my favorite thing. I like my lawns and my trees green. So Spring was a very welcome sight here, when it finally arrived. We had one wonderful week of perfection in May, then a week of nothing but rain. It's one extreme or the other this year.

That said, I found myself saying more than once that while Spring was rather late in getting here, every blissfully mild day of May was one to relish because the hot days of Summer are not far behind. Apparently, we're getting a taste of Summer's best on this Memorial Day weekend, this "unofficial" start of the summer season. I've barely put away the snow shovel and my winter boots and I've turned on the fans and am batting at flies and other flying insects! Still, no complaints - I'm truly appreciative of every lovely, sunny day we get.

We have had our fair share of flooding here in the Northeast - not uncommon after a heavy-snow winter and spring rains - but what we see routinely up here is really relatively minor compared to the floods and staggering tornado damage in the midwest and south. My heart goes out to all those whose homes and lives were devastated by Mother Nature's ravages, and my prayers go to them, too. It's shocking to lose a loved one to a powerful storm, and a daunting task to rebuild one's life when everything you worked for decades to establish is blown to bits and scattered to the four winds. It seems to be a pattern lately - if it's not the economy and people losing jobs, livelihoods, and their roofs overhead, it's the winds blowing everything they have apart. If you've lived long enough, you know it doesn't get easier to deal with such upheaval, but hopefully the years have brought some wisdom and some consolation to those directly impacted by these forces and they will recover and forge ahead again.

I'll close with my apology, again, for the long gap between posts, and with a reminder that today is the day we honor those who have served our country over the generations to help ensure that we have choices in our lives and to help protect us from those who would have things otherwise in this world. Like so many, my dad served in the military - he enlisted, wasn't drafted - and went to England during World War II, and my mom worked for the Army as a civilian, too, before my parents met. It was life changing for Dad, for sure, and, dare I say, the efforts of all of our soldiers at home and abroad changed the course of history, and our lives as we enjoy them today, as a result. I am and always will be grateful for their service. Job well done.

Have a safe and pleasant Memorial Day.

Lurking Turkeys and Other Fauna of the Forest

2011-03-12T07:15:00.004-05:00

It's been a bit of a wildlife wonderland out here in the country. Clearly, the fauna of the forest are starting to realize that Spring is upon us (thankfully) and they've been making their presence known.

Within the past 10 days, a flock of wild turkeys appeared one day - maybe two dozen of them - and thought the seed scattered on the ground around the two bird feeders was the perfect midday snack! The kitties thought they were HUGE! (They are.)

They first arrived when we were still totally snow covered, but it has been warming up gradually and the snows have started to recede. It's just here and there now, but the shot below was taken a few days ago, when the gang came out to see the latest items on the lawn menu. This represents only about half of the birds...they were all around. Fun to see and watch.

Here's another shot under the hanging feeder just outside the window taken a week or so ago.

Of course, no sooner had the turkeys returned to the "house on the hill" (as I call my country abode), I spied a red fox - yes, a red fox - in the yard one evening after sundown. Clever thing. I'm sure where the turkeys go, the fox is sure to follow. S/he returned twice more - the next night and a day or two later, always after dark. (I did a quick kitty head count each time, just to be safe!) I tried to get a photo, of course, but, alas, it was too dark.

Several days later, two raccoons also were checking out the leftovers around the bird feeder after dark one night. On another evening, a scruffy-looking opossum was perusing the offerings. The word obviously is out in the local animal kingdom that there's an all-night buffet up here on the hill!

Spring is coming!

'Round the Bend

2011-02-27T10:37:00.005-05:00

It's been another month since I posted, so I am compelled to check in here, if just briefly, at CC. The phrase "around the bend" has come to mind a lot in the last few days. It has both an optimistic tone - the future, better luck, a new day, etc. awaits just "around the bend" - as well as a far more ominous one - she's gone 'round the bend, lost it, is totally wackadoodle, etc. I've been feeling a little of both sentiments lately.

Yes, the future, inevitably, is just around the bend. I think that's probably a good thing since staying stuck in this day, this week, this month, with the ceaseless winter barrage of snow, sleet, rain, ice that has assualted us here in the upstate New York region of the Northeast for the past two-plus months, is not a particularly appealing option. Oh, please, let's move on, shall we?

That said, enduring Mother Nature's winter wardrobe has left me more in the latter camp of weather-induced insanity. I have felt literally snowbound and snow blind, with the land and the sky reflecting the very same shades of white and grey. Snow has accumulated in quantities I haven't seen since my childhood. It was fun back then. It is not now. Not at all. The latest downfalls have proven to be the worst kind - relentless and unbelievably heavy, laden with moisture that, under other circumstances (read: warmer temperatures), would have been pure rain. But it wasn't rain - it was very heavy, wet snow, burdening everything in its path and requiring some Herculean, repeated efforts at shoveling it out of the way. Only the trees, shrubs, buildings, and the board fences (and the buried silhouette of my car), have provided a contrast to the visual monotony of the scene, and they're all fairly heavily snow-covered, too. Enough, I say. It must stop!

To combat the doldrums this environment presents, I made a conscious effort to provide some warm colors inside the house and, fortunately, I've tricked a few unsuspecting annuals into thinking that, even though they're indoors in pots and not out on the sun-filled deck or in the planters next to the house, Spring is nearly here. I've got a big pot of bright coral geraniums sporting five - count them, five! - fully formed flowers, along with one brilliant magenta petunia flower punctuating the drabness of the exterior landscape.

These lovely flowers are like little beacons of the season to come, fragile, fleeting reminders that after the darkness (or, in our case, the eternal whiteness), there is, in fact, new life ahead. I totally faked them out, along with a tiny part of the deep recesses of my brain that needs some assurance that warmer, sunnier days are, indeed, just around that literal and theoretical bend.

Cure for Cabin Fever

2011-01-30T09:00:00.002-05:00

It has been a busy month (when isn't it a busy month?!), but I'm taking a momentary break from the fray to share a few shots of the snow-covered terrain around the country house, an unexpected (but not surprising) visitor, and a bit of winter brilliance.

It's old, but, seemingly, ongoing news that the Northeast has been bombarded with heavy snows. There appears to be no let-up in sight either. (It is, obviously, midwinter.) We're pretty accustomed to heavy snows in these parts, but some years are far worse than others. (Last year was a snowfall cake-walk compared to this winter.) I've mentioned this before, but the good news is that we're well equipped to deal with it before it comes and throughout its duration - which is more than can be said for other parts of the mid-south and south, that are paralyzed by it, so things calm down as soon as the falling snow departs.

Here are a few shots of the most recent arrival, about a week or so ago:

An unexpected visitor strolled by with a friend the other day...it was bitterly cold, so I hope they were able to find some nourishment and protection in the woods next to the house...

Still, I'm not a fan of the white stuff. It's pretty when it first arrives at the start of the season (just before Christmas is nice), but, after about month, I've usually had enough. There's only so much shoveling and path-clearing I (and my muscles) can tolerate. I like my roads clear and dry, too, so, not being a "winter sports" enthusiast (I don't ski, snowboard, snowshoe and I haven't skated since childhood and don't care to go there again), I'm pretty much done with it at this point. After what, according to the weather experts, has been the eighth snowiest winter on record here in upstate New York (and still counting), I'm more than ready for Spring to come - much sooner than later, too, please!

A very dear friend recently made a holiday venture of potting up some flower bulbs - paperwhite narcissus and amaryllis - that she put in pretty containers and placed in a local consignment shop for sale. I gave her a number of extra white, hobnail glass planters that I had accumulated (since I've been clearing out the family home for the past month) along with some others of a suitable size and style that I picked up for her at my local Goodwill. It was, all told, a modestly successful initiative, but what my sweet friend didn't tell me was that she also intended to return one of my glass pots, containing a beautiful, big amaryllis bulb already started in potting soil, to me as a Christmas gift. It was a lovely gesture, and the nicest part was that the visual gratification would be delayed by a month, when the stalk and flowers gradually would emerge. Emerge they did and it has been a glorious sight watching the deep, coral-colored blooms slowly unfold and brighten some of these bleak snowy days of winter:

It's an affirmation that Spring is indeed coming...I know it is.

New Year, New Look

2011-01-17T11:35:00.004-05:00

As the handful of you who are regulars here will note, in the interest of a new year and new beginnings, I've given the blog a major face-lift (blog-lift?). I loved the old design, its warm and toasty pumpkin plaid and turquoise, but with a new year comes a desire to clear the decks, clean the closets and get a jump-start on Spring cleaning.

As with a room in one's home, I wanted to shift away from things that are too fussy and pare down to a more simple, more sleek and - dare I say it? - a more elegant look and feeling. So, here, today, I give you the new and hopefully more contemporary version of Country Contemporary.

It's funny how styles, whether in fashion or interior design, are so cyclical, with things that were once new and trendy relegated to the back room and things that were, perhaps at another earlier time, so fashionable, have come to the forefront once again.

Now, as I prepare to leave, once and for all, my family's home of 50 years - a fine example of a mid-century modern ranch with international style references that was the cutting edge of contemporary style in 1958 - it has struck me as somewhat ironic that things with such classic, mid-century style and lines have returned to the forefront.

There always will be a strong affinity for the traditional home, but there is a place for "modern" in the mix. I'm not talking so much about the usual 1950s "kitschiness" as much as the low, sleek lines of a 1960s or 1970s contemporary sofa - simple, linear, and uncomplicated. I'm not a connoissoeur of such style as much as I merely am an observer of this style evolution, as one who lived through that earlier era that influenced much of my personal aesthetic when I set out on my own as a young adult.

As these trends change, so, too, does the world of Country Contemporary, the blog, evolve -- as well it should. I'll be tweaking a few more things on the blog as we go forward...eliminating some of the visual and audio clutter (I'll replace the buttons with links shortly, so you still can find some of the other blogs I admire and enjoy) and tightening up the graphics. (I've removed the music for the moment until I can find a way for it to be more seamless in presentation - it was seriously slowing down the upload at my end.)

As things progress here, I hope you'll continue to join me from time to time along this appealing, and hopefully interesting, new path.

For the (Winter) Birds...

2011-01-14T12:08:00.003-05:00

Snow, snow, snow...the latest Nor'Easter to hit upstate New York left us with a fairly substantial calling card, but it didn't deter the birds who have made my bird feeder their daily source of food. Good thing I filled it up before the last storm.

I heard on the news yesterday that it's only 65 (now 64) days until Spring (March 20). That's encouraging - only two months to go - and the daylight is lasting just a bit longer than it did two months ago. It's no longer dark as night at 5pm (always a tough transition for me to accommodate) and we've rounded the bend back toward warm sun, lush green trees and grass, and longer daylight days and evenings...aaahhhh!

I've put away most of the holiday decorations and have transitioned to just those generic "midwinter" items. I like to keep the symbols of winter - natural pine cones and some evergreens - as my literal and figurative references and decorative gestures.

The nice thing is that the brilliant ruby reds of the holidays make the transitional color thread right to Valentine's Day. It's just the shot of color I need in the house to brighten these sometimes bleak, snow-covered winter days. I've even pulled the Valentine's and Easter boxes out of storage as I plan the pieces what I want to bring out that will carry me visually and psychically through the winter and right up to the very edge of Spring.

Boxing Day Blizzard of 2010

2010-12-28T18:31:00.004-05:00

It floated in innocently enough. A few flurries here and there, nothing terribly problematic. They faded. A few hours passed, and they began again...in earnest, and eventually with a vengeance. I had run my errands on Christmas Eve and had stocked up so I didn't need to make a run to the grocery store for milk. The kitties would be happy. I would have milk for my coffee. It could do whatever it wanted out there. And, not unexpectedly, it did.

By Sunday evening on this Boxing Day 2010 - a wonderful British holiday tradition you should check out if you don't know about it (and it has nothing whatsoever to do with pugilistics) - the winds were howling like I'd never seen or heard out here in the country. The neat thing was I could literally see the winds since they were whipping the snow into a complete frenzy right outside my windows! There were moments with the way the winds were sweeping through the trees, and all around the house, swirling the snow, that it literally was like I was watching white mini-tornadoes! Seriously...their velocity and twisting motion was staggering. I was glad I was able to watch it, as if it was some kind of weird, white, Weather Channel documentary, from the safety and warmth of the house. Phew!

By morning, the snows continued, but the bulk of the accumulation was already well on the ground and roads. Other parts of the Northeast well might have been more inundated than we, but for this upstate New York region, my county and my town got the brunt of the storm in these parts, according to the local television newscasts. Twenty inches, possibly more, 5-foot drifts. It was more than enough.

The view (above) out my front door yesterday morning, after the storm had passed and the sun emerged.

For all the years (half a century-plus) I've lived here (all of my life, actually), I've seen big snowstorms and blizzards. This was one of the big ones, for sure, but I'm not sure it was the biggest I've seen. It was big enough, though. Ususally our weather here in upstate New York follows the flow of the jet stream, blowing across the land from west to east, or from the chilly North of Canada. This blizzard, was, in fact, a true Nor'Easter - a storm, whether rain or snow, that moves north along the Atlantic coast, picking up moisture from the ocean as it spins counter-clockwise and dumps its rains or snows onto the land mass of the Northeast in its path. How quickly the front moves along, and eventually, off the coast determines how much rain or snow those of us in its path, even 100 miles inland, ultimately receive. A lot in the case of the Boxing Day Blizzard.

The good news is we knew it, or at least something, was coming at least two days in advance. Fortunately, I didn't have to go anywhere or do anything and could just wait and watch and let it play out. Unfortunately, others who were traveling for the holiday weekend didn't have that good fortune. Certainly, the havoc this blizzard wreaked on the transportation system in the Northeast was significant, and will take days to untangle, but, to be honest, with storms like this, it always is. What amazes (and amuses) me is that people are so upset by it - as if they are entitled to the utmost in travel convenience at all times. Hello, folks? It's winter. It's the Northeast. It snows here...a lot sometimes. Ding! Ding! This storm was forecast, so I don't get what part of winter weather and preparation for it they don't understand.

It takes time to clear the roads, although to the credit of the highway crews in my town, in my county and in my state, they were plowing before dawn on Monday morning. In the interest of full disclosure, I spent some time in my life - more than a decade, in fact - working for a highway authority - yes, that would be government - so I do know what goes on with these operations. I appreciate those guys (and some gals) who drive the plows and clear the roads more than I can say. We take completely for granted the safety and convenience they provide and, to be honest, while the taxes we pay here in New York are the highest in the country, it's times like this, when those folks do their jobs so efficiently and effectively, that it takes just a tiny little bit of the sting out of that financial burden. In my corner of the globe, they are worth every penny we pay for them.

If you find yourself traveling in a part of the country where even a dusting of snow or ice completely paralyzes all travel for days on end, you'll know what I mean and appreciate that while it can slow or even stop us cold briefly, things do get going as quickly as Mother Nature and the resources we allocate for plows and plow operators allow - and it's pretty darn fast, all things considered.

Dawn this morning, two days after the Boxing Day Blizzard of 2010.

It's no secret that winter weather can be very tough here in the snowbelt of the Northeastern US, but we do know how to cope with it and cope we do. I just wonder why those who are caught out by it don't get that program every time some overwhelming volume of snow seriously impedes the free flow of air, rail and highway travel. With patience, as soon as Mother Nature allows, we'll get her white mess out of the way. And we'll do a far better job of managing it faster here in the Northeast, and in New York, than many other parts of the country can. You can thank me and the rest of us in New York later for our tax dollars and highway tolls at work to make everyone's trip just a little safer and a little easier.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T08:01:00.005-05:00

At the risk of having this little corner of blogland become a place where I post only on holidays, I thought I'd better upload the early dawn photo I took this Christmas morning pronto! I am here to assure you, my loyal followers (all 12 of you), that all is well in Country Contemporary-land...just the usual busy. I also have been wrestling with technical computer challenges too boring to discuss, but suffice it to say there are not enough USB ports on my PC to make uploading my latest digital photos a speedy process. (What I'm really saying is I have to remember to upload photos before I connect to the internet because I don't have enough ports to do both simultaneously...and I keep forgetting to do that...sorry. I'm hoping Santa might find a shiny new laptop leftover in his bag for me so I can escape these sad operational constraints...I'll inquire about that...maybe I'll get lucky.)

Today, however, I just did the deed, added a few more photos to the files so I could share them with you this morning. The first is the aforementioned pre-dawn (or breaking dawn) photo of this very Christmas morn here in the country. I could see it was evolving into a real beauty and deserved capturing for posterity. (Apologies for the slight fuzziness...tough to get those long, dim exposures to be clear without a tripod to hold the camera rock-steady.) The others, well, they're just for fun to mark the occasion. My little Christmas gifts to you all...enjoy the day!

Here are a couple of errant tiny reindeer looking a bit puzzled as to how they ended up outside my home. I think they got away from that incessantly flying sleigh...

And, finally, a bright red cardinal on a painted wall pocket I found last year at Goodwill for a song (I use it for displaying seasonal greens outside the door). I find it provides a cheerful crimson contrast to all this white stuff on the ground. And speaking of birdies, I did, in fact, refill the actual feeder just outside my window to the brim with oiled black sunflower seeds and a pair of peanut suet cakes last night. Now my lovely, fine-feathered cardinal (and chickadee and finch) friends will be pleased to find their favorite tasty Christmas meal awaiting them this morning. It's the least I can do for them.

And, for those of you in need of a fine chuckle after these endless weeks of holiday shopping, food prep, and just general anticipatory anxiety, I direct your attention to the wonderful blog, The Blushing Hostess Entertains, for Catherine Coughlin's very amusing take on entertaining that transient Santa person...

Merry Christmas to all!

Happy Thanksgiving...and THANK YOU!

2010-11-24T15:38:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to wish everyone who passes through here, whether just once or more frequently, a very happy Thanksgiving. I'm so very thankful for my blessings and for the ability to share the things I love and care about here in blog-land.

I wish for all of you a most happy holiday full of bountiful food and blessings to you and yours. Thank you!

Betwixt, Between...and a New Tag Line

2010-11-18T06:45:00.001-05:00

No sooner am I apologizing ad nauseam for not posting in recent weeks, and here I am with a second post in two days! Never check a generous impulse, I've heard, so just go with it, gang.

One of the things I have been thinking about lately is the name of this blog. I think Country Contemporary is still good to go here - I'm a contemporary person and I've been back living in the country, in a contemporary house, no less, for the better part of the year, so I think the title is a keeper. The tag line - "Life and Style from the Urban Home from a Country Girl at Heart" isn't so accurate any longer, though. I remain a country girl both at heart and, again now, in fact, but the urban home from which I originated the blog, and in which I actually "originated" in life from the age of about 4, is about to become someone else's urban home. That meant the tag line needed, like some of the features of that wonderful midcentury urban home, to be updated to reflect the reality of these modern times. So I changed it (the tag line, not the house, alas).

Here at Country Contemporary, the tag line is now "Life and Style from the Country Home of a Formerly Urban Girl." It's still accurate, but more accurate and current now. I've been back in the country since March and I was a bona fide urban girl, having been born and raised within city limits.

In fact, I lived in the city until about age 36, when I bought my first country home. I had been spending a lot of time in the country over the course of about eight preceding years. I had renewed my childhood passion for horses and riding that was interrupted in my teens for all the usual reasons that derail horse crazy adolescent girls - school work, extra-curricular activities, boys, etc. - and because we lived in the city, the likelihood that we'd be keeping a horse in the backyard wasn't high. I pleaded with my dad for that, but to no avail.

After an interruption of a few years, I resumed riding a bit during college, but, once again, the realities of life - working for a living and still residing in the city - interfered with the time I'd have to spend indulging in my long-held passion for equines or the ability to be near where horses needed to live.

Fortunately, in my late 20s, a dear friend gave me a gift of riding lessons at a wonderful facility in the country near where I now sit typing this and, essentially, it changed my life. More accurately, it returned me to my long-held passion and I took it from there. After about two years, I purchased my first horse with an income tax refund I received one spring. The rest, as they say, is history.

Eventually, as my career progressed and my fortunes (read: bank account) grew, I made the executive decision to move closer to my passion and farther from the office after about six initial years of horse ownership. I knew, after spending those intervening years learning the landscape and the culture of the community, that this was where I belonged....here in horse country. But for a period of about five years that reluctantly but necessarily brought me back to the city more recently, I lived, happily, here in the country for 15 years.

All the while, I kept my post office box in the country. I knew I didn't want to give it up even though I'd later moved to another country home several miles away. I've had that box for more than 20 years now and I've used it continuously for business and for less important mailings, like magazines and such, that I didn't need to receive instantly. I'd come out to the country - only about 30 miles from the urban home - periodically to retrieve the mail. The box kept me connected to the community, to my great friends of many years who are my real support system, and, most of all, to the horses. Now, since returning to live here earlier this year, I use that box as my primary address again.

By choice, after 25 years, I don't own horses any longer, but they remain central to my existence, to my sense of my identity and to my sense of calm and happiness. I know that wherever I live, I must be in or near where they are so I can see them, watch them, pat them and just be around them, and so this formerly urban girl can always remain a country girl at heart...and in reality.

Pumpkin Teapot Redux

2010-11-16T16:03:00.000-05:00

It's official. I am a blogging delinquent. I readily admit it. That's supposed to be half the battle, isn't it? Well, I'm 'fessing up. Yup. I'm not proud of it, but sometimes life just intervenes and demands that one pay attention elsewhere. So that's what I've been doing.  I'm sorry to have neglected my duties here in blog-land. I promise I will try to do better.

While I've been off the blog airwaves, I've been a busy girl. I've spent the past six weeks (yes, more than a month) engaging in an array of activities.  All the while it has been autumn, which, as I might have mentioned previously, is my favorite time...and it's my time.  One of the things I did was celebrate another year's passage. I don't feel a whole lot older than I did six weeks ago, but the calendar doesn't lie. It wasn't a "big deal" birthday - no zeros in this one - so I spent it enjoying a lovely dinner at the home of a friend who kindly invited several other dear friends of mine whom I've known for 20-30 years. I took it as an opportunity to celebrate our friendship more than I cared about acknowledgement of my birthday, and I think that's how I'll look to celebrate the occasion in the years ahead.

There were no gifts (thank goodness - I have more than enough "stuff" and deaccessioning the excess has been my modus operandi lately), but one very dear friend brought along two bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne, which was an instant treat. If you haven't had to good fortune to taste it, I highly recommend it. I think it's just about the smoothest champagne I've ever had...totally, utterly lovely.

One of the things I've enjoyed about this particular autumn is decorating my country home. Now, mind you, I'm not talking the kind of decorating that you'll see on the other blogs, with lovely tablescapes, and mantles and accessories that reflect the autumn colors - I've got some of that - but, more importantly, for me, this year, is bringing out my accumulated autumnal decorative items that I've acquired over a lifetime of house and homekeeping = the Halloween pumpkin candle holders, the little wooden Thanksgiving turkeys, the orange and red leaves, the leaf plates, etc.

A few years ago, in a fit of frustration I suspect, one of my cats had too close an encounter with a special autumn keepsake that my late mom gave me for my birthday some years earlier. It was a sweet, ceramic pumpkin figural teapot and I treasured it, because my mom was not a big "stuff" person, but she knew I liked things to celebrate the seasons, so she found it, chose it, and gave it to me as a surprise. She was like that.  One day, I hear a crash/smash and the next thing I knew, I was picking up broken pieces of ceramic teapot that had fallen off a shelf and onto the hard, cold stone of the slate dining room floor.

My fond memories of my mom's sweet gift were shattered along with the teapot, but it was a risk I took in putting it out within reach of an errant, furry paw, so, this year, I decided to try to track down a replacement on eBay. It didn't take very long before I found the exact replica of my teapot online in a fixed price (not auction) listing, so I could "buy it now." I thought about it for a while, saved the listing to my watch list, and one day, as my birthday (and Halloween just prior) drew closer, I threw caution to the winds and bought it.

Even though it's not the actual teapot my mom purchased and gave me, it's my teapot's identical twin, so that's close enough. I still love it, perhaps even more because my mom chose it. Now I have it again in my home to remind me once a year of all the things I love about fall...and my mom.

Cheers...and thanks, mom.

Autumn's Arrival

2010-09-29T07:55:00.002-04:00

Welcome to autumn in the Northeast. While the actual autumnal equinox arrived on schedule, the changing colors are about a week to 10 days earlier than is typical for this area. Usually peak color arrives in/around the first week of October, but leaves have been changing here for the better part of the past three weeks, it has been so dry with a few chilly nights, so here we are. Suddenly, it has been unseasonably warm and balmy, so I'm enjoying the last few days of Indian summer...the temps will revert to more seasonable cool and crisp, but I don't mind. I love the warm and I love the cool...it's the frigid cold I'm not so crazy about!This is the view from my window and I can see it now as I type, although the image above is one of afternoon sun...I'm looking south and west is to the right.

I'm so very tardy in updating here on the blog, I'm afraid, and I apologize. It has been a very busy month-plus with things moving along rapidly both on the home front and in the country. I know I've promised photos of the updates to the family home (about to be sold - fingers crossed!), but I literally haven't had a moment to shoot and post them. Perhaps later this week, but in the meantime, "please enjoy the music while you're waiting..."

Wonderful Webb Weekend

2010-08-04T22:16:00.002-04:00

First, let me say I'm delighted to see a few new followers here at the humble blog. I suppose if I was a fanatical blogger, I'd be cross-posting all over the place to attract new followers, but, while I do love to write, I'm a bit flat out lately, so things have been pretty sporadic here. I intend to change that, but for a while longer, it'll be catch as catch can...so, welcome newbies, and I hope to make it worth your while to stick around.

As you regulars know, I do post about hearth and home and thereabouts, but from time to time, I make little forays into other arenas...mostly music, because that is another piece of Life that makes breathing and getting up every day and going out into the world (or staying at home in my own world) worth doing.

Last weekend, I had the distinct pleasure of hearing one of my favorite artists perform live, right in front of me, about 15 feet away. He's a household name in the world of 20th (and 21st) century songwriting and a familiar name to many who are just fans of good, solid, popular music. Yet he's almost unrecognizable to the average man or woman on the street. If he walked up to a stranger, I'm pretty sure he or she wouldn't have a clue who he was (although they'd find him a handsome fellow, I'm sure), but if they were alive in the 1960s-70s and you said to them "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" or "Witchita Lineman" or "Galveston" or "McArthur Park" or "Didn't We", it's more likely they'd know the name of legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb. I've certainly known it for years (yes, since the 60s and 70s) and I've loved the incredible musicality and intelligence of his songs - they were wonderfully sophisticated musically and lyrically, yet completely accessible and singable, a combination of attributes that never fails to grab my attention and hold it fast.

So when the opportunity to see and hear Mr. Webb perform his own works live in a very small upstate New York venue arose at about this time last year, I seized it. How often does a legend in music perform at a nearby 300-seat venue? Not very, so how could I not go? Unthinkable to miss such a rare opportunity. It was a real thrill to hear him perform and yet, somehow, I knew I had to return for the second evening of a two-night run because I find that's when I can get beyond the "newness" and the unexpected and can pick up on the nuances of the performance, and of the man and his music, to borrow a phrase from that wonderful Frank Sinatra recording. (Sinatra was a Webb fan, too, by the way, who always introduced him as "that wonderful kid, Jimmy Webb," as the writer of "Didn't We.")

When I saw that Mr. Webb was to return to the area this summer, to another small town nearby, for another two-night stint at an even smaller but very special venue, I knew I had to be there again. In addition, he had just released, on June 29, his latest CD called "Just Across the River" - a wonderful compilation of some of his best known tunes sung as duets by Jimmy himself and a handful of accomplished friends and much-admired artists like Glen Campbell, Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, Linda Ronstadt, Lucinda Williams, Jackson Brown, J.D. Souther, Michael McDonald and Billy Joel. It doesn't get much better than that - the songwriter singing his own works with such renowned artists - so I had to go to hear him perform (just on his own with a piano) again. I wanted to here his stories of these tunes and these artists and whatever else he was inclined to impart to his audiences, because he is a grand storyteller.

Here's a link to a clip with Jimmy talking about the new CD and a few song clips from the recording. If you're a Baby Boomer of a "certain age" like me, I think you'll find a whole lot here to make you smile...and sigh over. If you're a bit younger than my generation, trust me when I tell you that many of these tunes are and will remain the standards of a certain era in American music. They have stood the test of time and they are well worth hearing anew:

Jimmy Webb - Just Across the River

Yes, I'm mostly a jazz, jazz/pop and standards fan, but, well, you know good music is just good music. As Mr. Webb said in an interview recently, "There is no drug in the world that makes you feel as elated and empowered as really good music being played right in front of you."

Amen to that...and to the fine musician that is Jimmy Webb.
Enjoy.

What a Nice Way to Celebrate...

2010-07-20T12:01:00.001-04:00

Hey gang (all 11 - correction - now 12! - of you, my intrepid followers),

I don't normally post about various events, giveaways, etc., but I'm making an exception here since I just noticed that Mary over at Urban Farmgirl is hosting a 100th post giveaway this week - a wonderful gift certificate from White Flower Farmhouse (which, oh, BTW, is located right here in New York, at Peconic on beautiful Long Island).

It can be overwhelming to deal with all the opportunities to participate in various weekly and monthly events, and to sign on (comment) to be entered in other bloggers' giveaways, but I think this one is a lovely way to celebrate having achieved 100 posts on her blog. I started a year ago and I'm not even close to that total (life intervenes, alas), but I have to admire her accomplishment, and I do like her midwestern sensibility, her sense of simple style and that of White Flower Farmhouse, as well.

To sign onto her giveaway click on Mary's button below and give it a whirl!

Good Luck!

A Better Battlesh- Uh, Bathroom

2010-07-17T17:16:00.003-04:00

It has been exactly a month and one day since I last posted, so I caved to a little pressure and finally took a few photos of the newly repainted guest bath, one of three in my urban home. Strangely, this bath has more square footage than the other two and - are you ready? - it's in the basement! It was built as part of the original construction during which several rooms were created as finished living space in the basement, including a large family room with a fireplace, a guest bedroom which was at one time was my room and is currently my office, this bath and wide hall connecting them with the unfinished furnace room and another small unfinished room with a long workbench, etc., so it is a circa 1958 bath. It was painted twice since, I think, until I finally tackled it a week or so ago for a third go at new color.

The floor is the original solid black and greyish-white speckled 1-inch tile, and, unlike the two main floor baths, it actually has sheetrock on the walls. (The other baths are all tile - I mean classic, mid-century modern all tile, floor to ceiling, in baby blue and dove grey, and peachy rose pink with a hint of dove grey, respectively.) I actually like this bath the best of all in the house. It has built in cabinets (also original) topped on the counter and curved side shelves with striking grey/black/white marble-like Formica laminate. Who'd have guessed that 50+ years later it would actually be trendy again (well, almost trendy)? Apologies for the grainy quality of the last photo, but you get the idea.

I must say, after 50 years, it was fun to put a bright, crisp new face on the old bath walls, which were a sort of creamy, off white that desperately needed freshening. Given the black and white of the tile and laminate counter, and the and bright, shiny silver chrome of the vintage chrome towel bars (also the originals, in like-new condition), I had aimed for a nice, soft, spa-like light grey - a sort of freshwater pearl tone, but I think I ended up with something a little closer to battleship grey! I'd tell you the color name, but I actually mixed it myself from a gallon of an off-white and a quart of solid black - both reject cans I picked up at Lowe's for a total of $8! I just put some of the off white in an empty paint can (which you also can buy at the store - so cool!) and added a bit of black until I reached the depth of color I wanted, then I added a bit more - a little too much more, but not so much that it didn't work at all, so I just used it. Still, even though it was a bit darker than I originally planned, I very much like the effect of the darker grey. It tends to define the walls a bit more and makes the room feel a bit warmer, I think. I don't have time to redo them, so I'm going with it!

The only new items (apart from the paint) I added to the bath redo were four new door pulls I found very inexpensively, also at Lowe's, to replace the original chrome ones that for some reason just didn't quite work for me any longer:

The knob is Belwith's Pewter 1 1/4-inch Southwest style and, at $1.97 each, they just seemed to incorporate neatly both the silver tones in the bathroom and the darker shades of black and create a little visual interest on the cabinet doors, as well.

On the wall is an interesting abstract landscape I picked up a couple of years ago at Marshall's. It was inexpensive - $25 - and is essentially a photo reproduction of a painting, I think. I don't usually buy art that is so commercial, but something about the color and texture of this piece appealed to me at the time. I never really had a great place to hang it, but it's so durable (just laminated on a heavy board - no glass or frame), I thought it would work nicely in this newly painted bath. It's really just there for staging purposes, but maybe I'll leave it for the buyer as a "bath-warming" gift...lol.

I'm still hard at work spiffing up the house to show to prospective buyers, so here's hoping this little face-lift for the basement guest bath is just the ticket that convinces one of them that they just have to live there!

Progress Report

2010-06-16T18:40:00.001-04:00

As usual, I'm woefully slow at posting here, but, as previously mentioned, I'm in the midst of getting the family homestead ready to show to prospective buyers. It has been a long haul (about 3 months and counting), but I'm rounding the bend into the homestretch. I promise to post some photos of the place when it's show-ready, but in the meantime, I'll just share one of the backyard from last summer. The leaves are green again and the petunias are in bloom...enjoy!

The Purples of May - Irises

2010-05-22T13:47:00.002-04:00

I took an extra minute this morning to take a few photos of the lovely irises - purple, yellow, white - that surround the country house. I love May in the Northeast - it's the "purple month" to me - all those glorious florals - lilac, iris, rhodadendron, azalea - emerge and remind us that Spring is about bright, rich colors and renewal. So, while I continue painting at the city house (and I finally chose the color to transform the tired aqua/turquoise kitchen - yes, you guessed it -Benjamin Moore's Berkshire Beige again!), enjoy the flowers blooming in the country that greet me every morning...

Just a Musical Note

2010-05-12T16:17:00.005-04:00

I was saddened to learn of the passing this weekend of the marvelous singer and actress, Lena Horne, at 92. She was a stunning woman and she was arguably the very first African-American woman to blaze a trail to real show business stardom in an otherwise all-white entertainment business in the U.S. in the mid-20th century.

My dad was a big fan of Ms. Horne's as a singer, so I grew up hearing her voice and seeing her on television appearances in the 1960s, knowing all the while that she was indeed a very special performer. I have a lot to thank my dad for, especially with respect to influencing the musical tastes that were shaped in my childhood and which I still enjoy. I've always been a fan of what I call "Great Girl Singers" and Lena Horne was among the first that I saw on television and heard and truly appreciated.

I'm very sad that we've lost Ms. Horne, but I'm very glad I was introduced to her wonderful talents as a singer and actress as well as an activist for the rights of people of color when I was so young and impressionable. As an homage to the immense talent that she embodied, I've added a tune by Ms. Horne to my playlist here for you to enjoy and to celebrate her long and well-lived life. She will be much missed, but she always will be much admired.

Adventures in Preparing the Family Home for Sale

2010-05-08T13:30:00.002-04:00

Yikes! It has been a month since I last posted. Sorry for the huge gap, but, as I mentioned previously, I've been very busy working on getting the family homestead ready for sale. So far, I've repainted the living room, dining room and open stairway hall (leading to the basement - an original design feature).

Just before I started painting, a very dear friend of many years - a contractor who has built high-end custom country homes for more than 30 years - had a few days between projects just when I needed him, so he came with his son and colleague and took care of several interior challenges and repairs that were just a bit beyond the limits of my capabilities. (I do have a few power tools, but I know better than to tackle things that I haven't done before when there is both a time imperative and the prospect of financial return on the line! When you need first-rate quality, call a first-rate contractor!)

Here's a peek at the painting work in the living room, featuring the newly repainted walls and tongue-and-groove paneling.

The paneling, which is prevalent in these three areas of the house, was original and had been a pickled natural redwood, so it had a pale beige tone. It held up well, but after 50 years, there's just no easy way to make it look fresh, clean and crisp, so I made the executive decision to paint it. That's the sad news, but the good news is that it looks great in its new coat of Benjamin Moore's Berkshire Beige, which is the color I also used on all the window trim and baseboards. I couldn't be more pleased with the paneling here in the living room, dining room and stairway hall - it is just what the space and these paneled walls needed to look bright and new again, and the color is the perfect complement to the wall color, Moore's "Clay Beige," which I actually chose to complement the trim, not the other way around! The spaces sparkle again and that's what they need to do to make the house easy to sell.

I'm not that worried since it's a great house in a great neighborhood (location, location, location!) and I already have interest from potential buyers, but spiffing a house's appearance up as much as possible always helps maximize the sale price. Repainting tired rooms in soothing, neutral tones is a very cost effective thing to do yourself whenever you can to prepare a house for sale. Can you tell that, among other things, I've been a realtor?...lol. I've been in some pretty sad looking houses that people have put on the market in my realtor days, so, needless to say my house will sparkle in every way possible before anyone is allowed in the door to see it!

One of the other improvements that I'm making is to replace some very dated appliances. Fortunately, I stumbled upon an incredible sale last week, so I purchased a double electric wall oven to replace the old one (in that oh-so-fun chocolate brown finish that was so popular in the 1960s) - and the best part was that I got the new ovens at HALF PRICE! That was such a terrific coup, but the only trade-off is that they won't be delivered (and installed) for another month. Oh, well...it'll be well worth the wait. Then, yesterday, I went to see a stainless steel refrigerator that a local dealer had for half the usual cost of such a popular item - another score! I happened to see the dealer's listing for this fridge on Craigslist two days ago and I've done business with them in the past, so I knew they were reputable. Needless to say, I zoomed over to their showroom and bought it on the spot yesterday.

They'll bring it next week, will take away the old one (yay!) - also in that lovely chocolate brown - and even will replace a switch on the washer I bought from them 20 years ago that was broken when I moved it back here five years ago. (I haven't used the washer more than 7 years since my subsequent houses already had washers, so this one, while 20 years old and a front-loader, still has plenty of life left when I move it to my next home, or sell it to a friend who is in need of one, along with the dryer - both are in great shape.)

I won't bore you with the gorey details of removing a 500-gallon underground fuel oil tank (unused for several years) and will let the photo below illustrate, but that was one of my home improvement adventures during the past week. Two young guys and one small backhoe made relatively short work of getting the tank out of the ground (a few hours and out it came), but it left me with some regrading and remedial drainage work to do next to the foundation of the house. Not unexpected, but not exactly the most fun job on the planet. Still, a load of mulch for the planter, a layer of lanscape fabric and some nice gravel for the drainage bed between it and the house should remedy that situation.

So, as you can see, I have been going nonstop here at the homestead, but not so much that I haven't enjoyed seeing the arrival of Spring unfold over the past month. The forsythias were glorious and the lilacs and lily of the valley are now in bloom in the country, and I'm eagerly awaiting the emergence of the irises that surround the east side of that house. All things considered, life right now is pretty good.

Cheers!

A new home...for a while

2010-04-06T16:26:00.004-04:00

By popular demand, I'm posting a shot of the country house to which I've moved temporarily. It's a wonderful place owned by a dear friend who has lived out of state for more than a decade now. I remember walking around it when she was having it built 20 years ago and marveling at its post-and-beam construction.

It's a passive solar design and stays quite toasty most days (when toasty is desirable) and with just two bedrooms and two baths, it is the perfect size for me for now.

This is a view to the west. The doorway you see isn't the front entry but is the den/bedroom on the first floor.  The front entry is around to the right in this photo, on the north side of the house.   The master bedroom and bath are in the loft on the second floor, and its tall double windows are seen above the double windows over the kitchen sink, to the left of the den door, in this shot.   It has a wonderful open plan with living/dining and kitchen occupying most of the first floor, along with the aforementioned den and adjacent full bath, closets and stairway to the loft and basement.   The windows on the left side of the building in this image frame the view to the south that I posted last time.

Downsizing from four beds/three baths was the plan and this is a wonderful transitional home to give me a good sense of what I will look for later in the year as I plan to relocate permanently to a warmer climate.

Yes, folks, the time has come for this born-and-bred Yankee to follow the sun to a land with very little snow. The plan is to head eventually to South Carolina permanently before the year ends.

Why choose South Carolina (vs some other state)? Several reasons, actually, as I find it offers a number of lifestyle options that I have craved for quite a long time.  First, I have several friends and acquaintances of many years who either have moved permanently or who spend winters there, so I will arrive with something of a social network well started, if not firmly in place. Second, I am, and have been since childhood when I first began to ride, a horse person - it's in my DNA - and the world of horses and horse sports are an intrinsic part of the culture where I'm headed. I don't plan to own horses again, but I need to be around them and have them be an important part of any community where I live.  Third, as I approach my later years, the cost of living in the Northeast is simply becoming too onerous for me.   Fourth, I really am not a fan of snow. I've grown up with it as an unavoidable component of my environment, but those aspects of it that I found entertaining as a child, are no longer appealing. It's heavy, it's obstructive, it can be dangerous on roads and walkways, and most of all - it's just plain cold. I want to enjoy my life, not be a slave to it, so I have resolved to go where the cost to simply exist is not so confining as it has become here and where the weather doesn't torture me with cold and snow. Finally, the South appeals to me. It has a wonderful, genteel pace and a fascinating history. Quite honestly, I can make a home for myself just about anywhere, so I'm choosing the South.

Sure there are aspects relocating to the South that might prove challenging for a dyed-in-the-wool Yankee, but as with living the Northeast, there are always concessions to be made wherever one chooses to live. That's a given, but I've reached a point in my life when it's well worth it to me to trade off for good the bitter cold and shoveling ungodly amounts of snow for a much hotter summer, but a much more temperate winter. It's pretty much that simple, so I hope to be whistlin' "Dixie" with a smile before the year's end.

Happy Spring!

2010-03-28T14:30:00.001-04:00

Just a quick update mid-move. It's going fairly well. Lots to do at the family homestead and lots to do at the new digs. For your enjoyment, here's a view of my view at the new home (temporarily) of Country Contemporary:

It's a view to the south from the house...rolling hills, fenced paddocks...a landscape that I truly love.

It's a bit ironic, I think, that I've been moving from a contemporary (well, mid-century modern) home in the city to a contemporary home in the country, literally. It really wasn't my thinking when I named the blog, which was more an attempt to characterize my sense that I was, in fact, a "city-gone-country-gone-back-to-the-city" girl. But, Fate has a funny way of laughing at you, or at least bringing you back where you belong, so I'm not resisting it in any way.

Soon, the trees and shrubs will be budding with blooms. I'm looking forward to that and to the warmer temperatures that teased us into thinking they were here to stay a week or so ago. They'll be back by the end of the week, which is a huge relief, and the birds are telling us it's time!

Speaking of Spring, and birds and sweet things of the season, Mary over at the Litte Red House blog is having the perfect little giveaway to celebrate her 700 followers. We 10 here at Country Contemporary are probably her followers, too, but just in case you haven't been there, or haven't been there lately, check out her offer which continues until March 31. Hey, you never know!

Movin' On

2010-03-10T11:56:00.001-05:00

It has been a busy few weeks, with the promise of more nonstop fun in moving in the next month or so as I gradually pick up and pack up for my relocation back to the country. I've been moving boxes, the contents of my kitchen cupboards, linens and some clothing in anticipation of moving some furniture. The items not going to the country house eventually are going into storage in anticipation of another move later, so this is only the beginning.

Once I get myself and the kitties out of the city house, I'll be spending quite a bit of time getting it ready for sale. There's a lot to do between the move and the preparations, so you'll forgive me if my posts are brief and photos, well, I'll try, but make no promises about posting them.

I'll have lots to tell when the dust settles, but it will be a while, I suspect. Please be patient. As soon as I can (and when I need a break from the fray), I'll share as much interesting info and images as I can amid the chaos of the start of this next phase of my adventures in life.

Until then, as those annoying voice mail messages advise us, "please enjoy the music." I'll be back to report from the front as soon as I'm able.

No Escape from Winter...Yet

2010-02-24T09:16:00.002-05:00

While I sat happily in the Northeast, just beyond the clutches of the blizzards that bombarded the Mid-Atlantic region over the past few months, I suspected my relief would be fairly short-lived. Yesterday, the hounds of Winter reminded us up here in the NY/New England region that they hadn't finished with us quite yet, and that persnickety ground-hog, Punxatawny Phil, was right on the money. It's still snowing in my neck of the woods this morning (well, not quite woods, but close enough), but that should wind down soon.

If it was December, I'd be celebrating the fact that we'd likely have a white Christmas. Now that it's February, I'm celebrating that this accumulation of white stuff, while very pretty, isn't likely to last forever. Spring is just around the corner...I think.

Here are a few views of the latest version of "winter white."

Knowing that snow was in the forecast, I went out into the back yard the other day and raked up the last of the residual leaves that had piled up in the corner against the fence. Sitting in my kitchen, I saw them there as the last snows had melted away and they were bugging me. So unkempt! I pulled out a rake and ended up filling two brown leaf bags (for recycling) within a half-hour. It felt so good to get out an do something physical in the crisp, fresh air. It was fairly mild for mid-February - funny how high 30s can seem balmy! I even found, as I progressed, I was too warm with a long-sleeved tee and a fleece jacket under my snow coat, so I took off the coat and enjoyed how my exertions had warmed up my muscles.

Because I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of Spring's first crocus, green grass, and warmer breezes, I added a new and optimistic tune to the playlist - perhaps it will hurry its arrival along.

Think Spring!

Mardi Gras: Laissez les bon temps roulez!

2010-02-18T16:10:00.009-05:00

Sometimes my celebration of various holidays is consciously grand and expansive, like decorating several rooms in the house for the Christmas holidays weeks in advance. Sometimes it's modest, understated and somewhat fleeting, as my celebration of Mardi Gras was this year, on February 16, hot on the heels of Valentine's Day.

Unfortunately, I don't have any strings of brilliant, metallic emerald green, purple and gold beads to celebrate Mardi Gras, but I do have this fun mug that I found at Goodwill a few months ago.

It's charming and it caught my attention initially because of the rooster design. Like many people, I am partial to roosters. I'm not sure I know why - maybe it derives from my affection for a restaurant that I had enjoyed many (like about 40) years ago in southern Vermont called Le Chanticleer. I think it was the first time I realized that roosters and French country design and food were inextricably linked, and often were prevalent in kitchen design. It's that "cockadoodle-do" rise-and-shine breakfast thing, I suspect.

Whatever the reason, I found this particular rooster mug with its bright colors and confetti-esque, cheerful Mardi Gras theme irresistable. Accordingly, it became the singular focus of my "minimal Mardi Gras" celebration this year. Not being in the heart of the "Big Easy" (although I'm happy to say I have been there and I thoroughly enjoyed my visit) but very much in the heart of the frosty, freezing Northeast, I celebrated Fat Tuesday not with an alcohol infused "hurricane" or some coffee with chicory, but with some sweet, dark and rich steaming hot chocolate. It was a warm, cozy and tasty way to celebrate the evening and the best part was there was no "morning-after" effect or confetti to sweep up the next day!

Of course, what would a holiday celebration blog post here be without a little complementary musical sound track to set the tone? I give you the sounds of one of NOLA's favorite sons added to the playlist just for the occasion. So, have a seat, pour yourself a cup of coffee with chicory (or hot chocolate or whatever libation you fancy for the occasion), relax and just laissez les bon temps roulez!

My Funny Valentine

2010-02-12T11:36:00.005-05:00

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite celebrations of the year. It's not because of the red roses, the chocolates, or the other expressions of love and affection, although those are quite nice, especially if one is on the receiving end of the gesture.

No, I love it because after the quiet - and usually snow-covered - frosty month of January, a period of recovery from the visual excesses of the December holidays, Valentine's Day is a shot of bold, bright color - of brilliant crimson hearts against the stark February landscape. I just like the vibrant "redness" of it and the sentiments of warmth and affection behind it. It's a happy day for me, and even if one doesn't happen to have a Valentine to share it with, it's a little reminder that Spring and its signs of rebirth and renewal are just around the corner.

When I was a child, my father gave me a few little tokens of Valentine affection. I suspect my mother actually purchased these items on my father's behalf, but the fact that he gave them to me are the memories that linger. As I grew older, he continued to give me Valentine cards - again, I'm sure thanks to mom - but they were sweet and endearing. Both my parents are gone now, but I still have a few of the tokens that I keep tucked away in my box of Valentine keepsakes - a tiny, fuzzy, charming little bear wearing a small red heart and a pair of dear little tiny sachets embroidered with hearts - and a few of the lovely cards they gave me. They are sweet reminders of them and that lovely day in February.

From my mother, I remember vividly the heart-shaped double layer cakes she baked for our Valentine's Day celebrations. Rich, tasty, golden, butter cakes made from scratch with sweet pink, strawberry flavored frosting. I still have her vintage, old Duncan Hines cookbook with that cake recipe, but I haven't tried to replicate it yet. Maybe I will make it on Valentine's Day and revisit those wonderful, warm childhood memories of the people who affectionately launched my Valentine traditions.

To mark the occasion, I've added the beautiful standard, "My Funny Valentine" to my playlist. It's performed here by one of my very favorite artists. It's a song I learned when I was fairly young, again, thanks to my dad, who also shared with me his love for jazz and great jazz musicians. It's a fairly simple, elegant arrangment - just trumpet and piano - so haunting and beautiful, and a heart-warming reminder of a special day to celebrate love in February.

Let Them (and Me) Eat Cake!

2010-02-06T08:05:00.005-05:00

I haven't ventured into the arena of food/cooking/recipes here at the blog, but I do love to cook and spend most of my time in the kitchen (where I have the laptop). Kitchens are my favorite places and I'm so fond of them that I've even contemplated venturing into kitchen design professionally. It might happen yet.

In the meantime, however, I've been having a food craving lately. Some years ago, a local commercial bakery that distributes to grocery store chains in the Northeast offered a wonderful cake in its product line. It was called their "Nut 'n' Honey Round Cake." It was a simple yellow cake with a chocolate frosting flavored with a bit of honey and topped with walnuts. It was my favorite for years, so much so that I even asked my mom many years ago to serve that as my birthday cake. (I'm sure she appreciated not having to bake a cake from scratch - which she did periodically and wonderfully.)

The bakery stopped offering the cake to grocery stores some years ago and I've been sad about that ever since. So, this week I finally pulled together the ingredients I'd need to recreate the cake. I am not the world's greatest baker, so I opted for the easy, short-cut approach - boxed cake mix, even ready-made frosting - because I think the secret to this cake isn't in the "made from scratch" approach - it's in the blending of key flavors.

I made the cake per the package directions, only instead of adding the full 1 1/4 cups of water needed to moisten the mix, I substituted about 1/4-cup of honey for 1/4 cup of the water. (I had warmed about 1/2-cup honey slightly in a pan just to liquify it further, using half for the cake and half for the frosting.) Then, I poured the contents of one ready-made milk chocolate frosting container into a bowl and added the remaining 1/4-cup of warmed honey to the bowl, and mixed it into the frosting with an electric hand-mixer. The result was a slightly lighter and creamier (and tastier) frosting than the stiff blend that came out of the container, which made it the perfect consistency for easy spreading. If you prefer a darker color, you can always use a dark chocolate flavored frosting instead.

I baked the cake per the package directions (using, in this case, two 9-inch round pans), then, after the cake cooled, I assembled the two layers, spreading black raspberry jam (rather than the frosting) between them. (I love cakes with a tasty fruit jam between the layers.) Then I frosted the top and sides with the honey-laced chocolate frosting and finished it with ground walnuts on top. Voila! I give you my quick-and-easy version of Nut 'n' Honey Round Cake:

I'm pleased to report that this version of my favorite cake tastes just as good as the original that inspired it. Yum!

A Bright New Day

2010-02-04T11:11:00.000-05:00

To accompany my impending change of domestic scene, I've changed the header image yet again. I like this image a lot, in part, because I know the local artist, and also because it's a contemporary landscape depicting the Hudson River. It reflects some of the spirit of this blog - country and comfortable in feeling, but contemporary and current in tone - at least I hope that's what is happening here. Either way, change continues to be in the wind, so here's a bright new one to symbolize the bright new days of Spring ahead.

What Are They Thinking?

2010-02-03T15:03:00.002-05:00

Since my last post was rather a long one, I'm going to make this one fairly brief, but I need to address something that has been bothering me for a little while now.

I've had an opportunity in the past few months to be exposed to an inordinate amount of daytime television programming. It's not that I watch transfixed, it's just there in the background like a musical soundtrack (although, admittedly, not necessarily as soothing as music). It's just my "companion" of sorts when I'm working at home, cooking, cleaning, etc. I keep it turned on and around because, occasionally, there are interesting segments that grab my attention, whether on a morning news or talk program, a cooking show, a travel segment, a home renovation/redesign segment, etc.

Something I've noticed a quite bit lately is that the latter - the home renovation/redesign programs - are not always espousing what I, in my infinite wisdom and experience in life (well, okay, I'm in mid-life, so I wasn't born yesterday), would NOT characterize as great good design. At first, I questioned my reaction to some of these programs' segments. I thought, they're putting this stuff on TV, so maybe I'm missing something here or they look better in person, perhaps. But, no, honestly, I think some of the "solutions" these program hosts and/or their design "experts" are promulgating - indeed, in some cases, inflicting on these unwitting (but obviously complicit) residents or homeowners - is just unbelievably bad design.

Most of my objections surround the programs that purport to create great spaces out of found and repurposed materials. I think it's a wonderful concept, but, more often than not, I think the designs and the projects tackled are just plain lame and badly executed.

One needn't look much farther than the options on the blogs one finds online (not mine, but some of the ones to which I've linked) to find far better concepts, workmanship and finished products. What is with these TV folks?

I'll confess, a lot of the design work that I find unattractive is often executed by much younger folk - 20- and 30-somethings. They mean well, I'm sure, but it makes me wonder what the producers of these programs are thinking? Indeed, I'm wondering what these designers are thinking. It's as if they've just stepped out of design school, but still seem to have the work ethic of students and none of the, as they say on Project Runway about errant fashion designer candidates, "taste level."

I'm inclined to say this stuff ain't brain surgery, but, in some ways, it is complex and shouldn't be diminished. I can say some of this with impunity because, among other things, I was an art major in college, I've done work professionally that involves making aesthetic and space design decisions, and I'm also a licensed realtor. I've seen and done a lot in the big world in which some of these types of projects exist.

Making hard choices about shape, size, line, color, texture and placement is not for the faint of heart and takes time and careful thought. The problem seems to arise when the designer looks for the "quick-and-dirty" solution, as we used to say in the printing production business, one that doesn't cost much. Unless it comes from a place of solid perspective and the ability to reference those efforts that have stood the test of time as good interior design, the results often look like...well...you know.

What scares me most about this "instant" design approach that the television media, and some print media outlets, are foisting upon us is that unwitting viewers who ascribe some sense of intelligence and authority to this programming might be inclined to view it as worthy of emulation. All I can say is, don't go there. It's not necessarily, so don't try this at home! If it looks cheap, it often is cheap (you've heard the one about the quack and the duck), so while it might appear to solve a problem expeditiously, it isn't necessarily good design, it's just a fast solution...and not usually a very good one. If it is done on a "dime," look very closely and beware. Good stuff visually (or functionally) isn't necessarily about cost, but there is an aesthetic price to pay if you assume anything can be done cheaply and it still will be viable visually.

As with everything you read in the newspapers, take what you see on some of the television design programs with many very large grains of salt and don't believe, just because they put it on the air, that it's worthy of design credibility. As the Gershwins wrote in the song from "Porgy & Bess," it ain't necessarily so.

Sometimes Things Change...Really Change...Forever

2010-01-28T19:50:00.010-05:00

Perhaps I spoke too soon in quoting the French phrase in my last post about things changing yet staying the same. Sometimes they change...and it's really big change...and they don't stay the same...ever.

When I began this blog in earnest, it was this house, this place where I grew up and to which I returned five years ago when my mother's health began to fail, that was the focal point. It was with wildly mixed emotions that I came back here. I'd left this house, for good I thought, a few decades ago, at the age of 22, never expecting, or necessarily wanting, to return here to live. I was more than ready to go, eager to strike out on my on and create a nest for myself.

Although my mother was quite sad about my leaving the family home and her loving care, I was moving only about 10 minutes away, to my first home of my own. I lived there in that cute 2 bedroom Cape for 13 years, until the call of the countryside, where I spent a good deal of my time, had become so compelling, that I sold the first little house and bought my first house in the country, about 25 miles away. I loved that house - a prim, side-hall colonial with 3 bedrooms upstairs and lots of interior shutters on the windows - in a picture-postcard, little historic hamlet. It was a perfect first country home and I stayed there for seven more years.

I loved living in the country. It was only about a half-hour from town, from my parents and work, so I was never far away or out of touch, and I commuted daily for another decade or so. During that time, I began to crave just a bit more privacy and a bit more of the countryside to myself, so I sold the first country house and moved to a small farm. Very small, comparatively, only about 3 acres, but it had a charming 3-bedroom house tucked down a quiet lane off a dead end, with a long driveway lined by mature old maples, surrounded by woods and fields and the two other neighbors no closer than shouting distance, at most. Best of all, it had a huge (seriously huge) old barn and small adjacent fenced paddock. Finally, once the stalls were rebuilt and the fences repaired, I could bring my horse home, and, eventually, I did. It was the culmination of a life-long dream.  For me, it truly was heaven.

I was supremely happy, if periodically challenged, at the farm - something was always breaking. Such is the way with old houses and old fences, but the horses (mine and a friend's), the kitties that I brought there or that were born there, and I were all content there. It was one of the most wonderful times of my life. But, as I said earlier, sometimes things change. Of course, things always change, with predictable inevitability, as time passes.

About 15 years ago, my dad had died at 81 after a long, sad battle with Alzheimer's disease. My mom, who had cared for him at home entirely by herself (her preference - she never wanted anyone else involved) at home, was 11 years younger than Dad. She always had unfathomable depths of courage, strength and stoicism. You'd swear there was pioneer or Puritan blood in her somewhere. She also was the personification of the phrase "quiet dignity." Incredible stuff to witness, but sometimes you're too close to see or perceive it as it's happening until you have the perspective of time. So she was on her own here for another eight years after dad died. But, as I said, sometimes things change and they don't stay the same.

About six years ago, it was becoming apparent, as mom approached 80, that she wasn't as physically strong, or healthy, as she had been. We talked about her moving out to the country with me, since, by then, I had stopped commuting into town and was at the farm. She seemed open to the idea for a while, but when push came to shove, she finally confessed she didn't want leave her home. It had been built by my parents and she had lived here for all of its nearly 50 years of existence. As I mentioned in an earlier post, she always said it was my dad's house, but, really, it was her house. Now, when faced with the prospect of leaving it, she realized she couldn't abide the idea that someone else - a stranger - would be living in her house. That, for her, was unthinkable. This place was her safety and her security. As with many decisions she made, I didn't fully comprehend at first, but eventually I came to understand.

So I made the hard decision to sell the farm, lease a barn nearby with my friend so our horses could remain as stable- and pasture-mates, pack up 15 years of my country life and move back to the city to be with mom. I knew as I had watched her gradually decline over the years that I probably wouldn't have that many left with her. There were no other family members left in the area and my mom and I were very close. If I had to give up a lifestyle that I enjoyed for a few years in order to help her preserve the one that she had worked all of her life to create and maintain, well then, of course, I would.

Fortunately, the real estate market was still strong in 2004 and the farm was such an appealing property, I accepted an attractive offer for it 10 days after I put it on the market. That was a huge relief. The even better news is that I've remained in touch with the very nice woman who bought it, who renovated the house exquisitely beautifully (something I wasn't yet able to do, but had hoped to), so we socialize periodically. That means I get to visit my former home occasionally, genuinely admire the transformation the place has experienced, and smile with enormous satisfaction (and just a little relief) whenever I'm there. Sometimes you don't want to go back to your former homes and sometimes you do. That's one I always enjoy entering.

So I moved back into town to live with Mom - the house was plenty big enough for the two of us, and while the adjustment to the city noises was jarring for me for a few months, I eventually settled in, the kitties - shocked at not being allowed out - eventually settled in, as well. She would never say anything, but I knew Mom wasn't well, so they were precious months - just over two years - that I spent here with her before she died.  After she became so weak and finally admitted she was in great pain, she agreed to go to hospital, where she remained for two weeks. There the diagnosis of a terminal illness that I had long suspected was confirmed, but she and I soon made the decision to skip any extraordinary or invasive treatment or a nursing facility, and I brought her back home.

Mom knew, having lost her sister almost a decade earlier to the same intrusive illness she suffered, that the available treatments were neither curative nor palliative and, for her, they not worth the inescapable discomfort. She knew she was dying and conventional medicine did not offer sufficient quality of life and she didn't want any part of the healthcare system's dictates that assuredly would have robbed her of the quiet dignity and privacy that she spent most of her life cultivating. I, too, knew well that it was her right to decide and that, above all, her home was where she wanted to be. There - here - she could slip slowly and quietly away in the place that had always been her sanctuary, without any intrusions from the rest of the world.

I also knew, having cared for many large and small animals - patients that cannot speak - for most of my adult life, that I certainly could do what was necessary to care for one frail mother on my own here at home, and there was no question that's what I would do. One day, one of the visiting hospice nurses who stopped by to check on Mom even asked me if I was a nurse. She told me she inquired because she was impressed with my calmness and capabiliity.  She said most people can't deal with caring 24/7 for a loved one who is bedridden and dying. It just seemed to me that you simply do what needs to be done. It's been entrenched in me for decades that it's not an option to abdicate caretaking responsibility for one's pets, so it wasn't a huge stretch to do the same with people I love.  It was then that I finally understood so clearly why it was so important for Mom to care for my dad here at home, on her own terms, when he was ill and failing. I was gratified and relieved that I was able to do that for her, too, so she could die quietly, just as he did in her care, at the one place that had been so special to her for so many years.

All of those inevitable life events and changes brought me to today and a decision I'd been mulling for a few years since my mom died a few years ago. I've been here on my own for a few years and had become fairly comfortable again here in my childhood home. I fill any space I'm in, and this one has been no different.

While I could easily stay here, the reality is that it's far more house than either I need or want going forward. While I'm not anywhere near old enough to claim Social Security, I'm no spring chicken either. I've shlepped heavy water buckets twice daily through two feet of snow when the hydrant in the barn froze through the winter. The bigger a house is, the more there is to do to take care of it. Houses are like people, the older they get, the more you need to do to keep them humming. I have felt increasingly that I want to lighten the load, downsize even more, and finally head toward a more temperate climate, especially in winter. I know I can deal with two feet of snow, or whatever a house of this age and size throws at me, but I just don't want to. Been there, done that, and I have other things I'd rather do with my time and money, although I won't suggest I'll never lift another paintbrush or screwdriver, or indulge my passion for design or decorating again. I just don't want to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of a house or its issues. It has to be manageable for me now, and a decade from now. This wonderful sturdy, mid-century modern ranch that has only ever been home to my family, is now at the point where it needs more attention than I want to invest in any house, and while I have filled its spaces, it is a place that always was designed for more than one person. I need to be free of it and to free it to house warmly another family for its next half-century. I'll just keep with me the good memories of having grown up and lived here, as I have with my previous three homes.

So, it is with more mixed emotions that I'm preparing the family homestead to be sold. Earmarking furnishings and household items that were purchased by my parents - my mom, mostly - either to be stored or sold or donated or tossed. The painting work I've been planning ultimately will not be for me to enjoy, but to prepare the house for sale instead. It's always the way. Everytime I tackle a kitchen-related project, I end up selling the whole house, so maybe I'll re-do the kitchen in my next house right away so I can enjoy it a while longer. Either way, I'll chronicle the work and the progress, since we've come this far together. When it's all done, it'll be a way of taking a virtual piece of this place, that has been so special to me and to my parents, with me always.

As for where I'm going, well, I have a destination firmly in mind and a plan to get there, but it's a process, so I'd rather let that play out over time. Suffice it to say it's a good bit warmer there and less harsh in winter than the frosty Northeast, and there are horses there, because it would be unthinkable for me to live in a place where they, and the countryside that surrounds them, weren't nearby. In the meantime, the kitties and I will be heading back, temporarily, to the countryside nearby that I love for a little while until we make the "big" move later in the Spring. It seems appropriate to move during the season of new beginnings. These next few months will be my next big life adventure, for sure. Wait and see.

Sometimes things do change..and they don't stay the same...ever. The reasons for thoses changes can be good or bad, or sometimes a little of both. Whatever the reasons, it's the one thing about life that doesn't change.

The More Things Change...

2010-01-13T09:01:00.003-05:00

The French have a wonderful expression, "plus ca change, plus ca fait rien" which translates to "the more things change, the more nothing happens" (or, figuratively, "...the more they stay the same").   (Sorry I'm missing the accent marks, but they're not copying from the source...oh, well.) I am reminded of it because I was out over the weekend running errands and decided to finally use a gift card to a local True Value hardware store that I'd been given for Christmas...several years ago! I knew I would use it on paint, but wasn't sure at the time what I would be painting. Now I know.

So I stopped in at the hardware store that sells my favorite Benjamin Moore paints in search of the perfect "greyge" - that wonderful combination of grey and beige - a light taupe - that I've loved since I painted the living room that color in my first house, 30+ years ago. I'd seen the color in a magazine spread - Glamour or Mademoiselle, I can't remember which - paired with fabrics in a strong rust color and I loved the way it gave a warm, cozy and calming ambience to a tiny New York City apartment bedroom. I still have the page from that magazine in my files.  The color worked for me then, and it still does.

I found just the right color for my first living room (painted by former occupants a dusty rose pink at the time - yikes!) in the collection made by Pittsburgh Paints. It was called "Deep Twilight." I loved it in that living room for years. I could change the colors of the upholstered furnishings, drapes and rugs, but they always worked with that wonderful wall color. I still love it - just dark enough to be a statement, but not so dark that it is overpowering, but I hadn't used it since for an interior space. The styles and rooms of my two subsequent homes made color statements that were already well established when I arrived and I was not so invested in remaking their spaces.

Eventually, however, about 10 years ago, I needed to repaint the exterior of my small, traditional farmhouse in the country. Its stark white clapboards, while brilliant and classic in their day (early 1800s), had been repainted (and perhaps even replaced), but the years had taken their toll and they had become a shadow (a sort of dusty, dingy shadow) of their former crisp, white selves. With matching white (well, dirty white) trim, there was nothing notable about the house's appearance or architecture - it all blended together, obscuring the special features that distinguished the mouldings around the doors, windows, rooflines and porch from the siding. That's when I decided the white clapboards had to give way to my favorite warm and toasty taupe and I'd refresh the trim with a warmer tone of ivory.

Off I went to the paint store with my old taupe paint chip in hand to find a Benjamin Moore color that was as close as I could get to that wonderful "Deep Twilight." I found it in one of Moore's "America's Colors," a warm tone called "Berkshire Beige" (code number AC-2 - click on the link at the color name to check it out). It seemed appropriate enough as the house was just a few miles from the border where the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts were located - I liked the reference to the region nearby. So,  up it went on the siding and - voila! - the house became more inviting and the newly painted bright white trim details suddenly popped out, defining more clearly the house's cheerful Colonial roots and its subsequent folk Victorian embellishments. It was a resounding success.

Ironically, the style trends of the 1970s have, in some ways, re-emerged in the past decade or so. Neutral tones - what I'll call the "Pottery Barn palette" - again serve as pleasing backgrounds with strong accent colors now favored, whether black, navy, a rusty barn red or rich pastels, etc.  So I thought I'd go check out the latest in the contemporary color palettes over the past weekend to see if I could find a rich, new greyge/taupe hue to use to renew the kitchen walls of the midcentury modern ranch that has been my home for the past five years and my family's home for more than 50 years.  The old, dingy aqua - the only color this heart of the home has ever known that was so trendy in its day - finally has to GO! Seriously.

I perused the choices - dozens of them - and pulled sample chips from the racks and scrutinized them. When I'd finally narrowed the options, I stepped over to the rack with the aforementioned "America's Colors" and re-examined my old favorite, Berkshire Beige. I held it next to the other chips and, don't you know, when it was all said and done, I went with Berkshire Beige yet again! Nothing else is quite like it. Other deeper taupe choices would have been too dark in this room that only gets sunlight from the east in the morning, and lighter tones just weren't colorful enough and wouldn't set off the light, natural maple wood that is hidden beneath the age/smoke/grease-darkened finish of the cabinets. (Their restoration/rejuvenation is another major project I'll be tackling in the near future as well, after I paint the walls.)

I haven't started painting the kitchen yet, but, yes, I'll take some photos of the "before" stage before I do, so you can see the transformation. I have no time frame in mind, though, and work and other imperatives take priority at the moment, but now that I finally have the color decided and the paint in hand, it won't be too long before I break out the dropcloths, rollers, and brushes, so stay tuned.

"Plus ca change...."

More Musings on Plaid: An "Aha" Moment

2010-01-02T12:28:00.006-05:00

You know how sometimes you make choices - in this case, aesthetic choices - because something appeals to you visually? Well, I just had a light bulb, "aha" moment about the new plaid background on my blog. I chose it originally because it was bright and cheerful, but, actually, I was hoping I'd find a more traditional tartan...you know, something with navy blue, a bit of deep red, hunter green, etc., because I love those jewel tones woven together to create a handsome plaid pattern.

It occurs to me that I choose those deep, rich tones in many areas of my life and have done that for years. When I think of plaid I think of wool and warmth, of traditional homes and cozy firesides, stone walls and pine paneling...all that good stuff that speaks of hearth and home. They are the colors of "tradition" - plaids going back centuries - often found in the historic 18th- and 19th-century homes found throughout the countryside of the Northeast, and they also are prevalent in the world of horses where I have "lived" emotionally since I was a child, when I first began to ride, and literally through much of my adult life lived in or spent in the country. There are traditional plaids often seen on horse blankets, riding vests, and other forms of horse stuff, or "equestriana" as I call it, that have always "spoken" to me visually. They represent a very real sort of comfort and happiness for me.

So when I came across this particular blog background plaid, I embraced it, in part, because it was the only one offered *free* on the Designer Blogs site. It combines tones from nature - sun and sky, grass and earth, spices and fruits - and it seemed to be suitably cheerful for my blog page. Then, just a few minutes ago, I had one of those wonderful, "aha" moments. I realized that the colors of this particular plaid reflect the tones that defined my house since it was built. I know this because I grew up here as a child.

My parents had this red brick ranch house built in the late 1950s - it's shown, snow-covered in the image on my header - and my dad worked closely with the architect to create a creative but functional design for his young family. My mom always said this was my father's house since she was too busy with two young children - I was 4, my brother was 5 - to focus too intently on much of its structural design. Indeed, it has a semi-open interior plan with a soaring, 14-foot cathedral ceiling over the living and dining rooms and a hallway illuminated by clerestory windows above the open stairway to the finished basement. There also are certain features - especially the huge, three-flue chimney clad in a decorative, light beige brick that defines and distinguishes the living and dining rooms that is suspiciously reminiscent of the turrets of a castle. It's definitely very male..."A man's home is..."...yup, Mom, you got that right.

Still, a childhood friend of my mom's told me a few years ago that even when she was a child, my mom dreamed of having a house with lots of "built-ins" and, indeed, she got them in the design of this house. There are modest built-in blonde, natural maple bookshelves and wall cabinets in mine and my brother's former bedrooms (now guest rooms and/or my sewing room), built-in closets, and a built-in laundry (behind doors in the kitchen - my mom wanted no part of schlepping clothing and bedding up and down stairs).

My mom lived here for nearly 50 years, so while she always asserted it was Dad's house, it was, and still is, for me, really my mom's house in many ways. After the house was built, she made more of the aesthetic choices, especially in its furnishings and paint colors. My mom had a fairly clear sense of her personal style - she preferred clean lines - not too much make up and jewelry that was elegant in its simplicity. She chose simple furniture pieces that weren't necessarily Danish Modern, but echoed its classic lines, which suited the design of the house perfectly. She also was not a "stuff" person - she didn't want to have a lot of "things" cluttering up the rooms as decorative items, only an occasional pottery dish on a buffet or end table. Even though she was an artist earlier in her life, there were few prints or paintings adorning the walls, except, of course, occasional small works of "art" that we created in school, but they usually were displayed in the kitchen. Mom preferred to let the design of the house, its clean, uninterrupted walls, be the stongest visual feature. She was of Irish and German descent, but one might suggest she had a very keen Scandinavian design sensibility. (I also know she was practical. She knew well that more "stuff" sitting around on walls and tables meant more cleaning and dusting - not something she wanted to increase if it could be avoided.) Still, like most of us, she clearly was influenced by the finishes in the house and they informed her color choices for drapes, upholstery and paint.

That's where this blog background plaid comes in. Much of the house reflects the use of natural materials -

there are paneled, tongue-and-groove partition walls in a grainy wood that has a warm, pale beige tone. There are natural slate floors with smokey blue, aqua and green, charcoal grey, toffee and plum. The kitchen cabinets are a light blonde maple and all of the hardware on doors and drawers, and on all of the door knobs and hinges throughout the house are a copper tone - pretty trendy stuff for its day. Clearly, the colors inherent in this house are very much like those in the blog background plaid! The plaid emphasizes the darker and medium earth tones, with the blues, greens and cream as accents, whereas the house tends toward the lighter tones with the darker hues as accents.

As I contemplated the warm hues of this plaid - here comes the "aha" moment - I realized that it could serve as the basis for reinvigorating the color palette here in the house. I need to bringing things a bit more up to date and into the new millenium, but at the same time preserve the essential elements - the simple, elegant bones - of the house. It's a midcentury modern ranch that just needs some freshening up, a careful makeover, but not too much "make-up." It needs an infusion of new life, and I need to add a fair bit of my own style, which is a blend of traditional with modern. I have already done that to some extent, but I have wrestled with how to address the kitchen color, especially, since it is still sporting its very tired pale aqua blue, circa 1969, I think. The aqua color clearly needs to go (sooo 1960s), but I have been reluctant to make a firm color choice because it needs to be the right one for the space and for the house. I want the room color to be warm and calm and also complement the wood cabinetry (which will be addressed eventually, as well), and the adjacent space - a former screened porch, now enclosed sun room (with the same slate floors as in the foyer, hallway and dining room, natural red brick side walls, a natural wood door and window trim surrounded by pseudo-wood paneling that also likely will be painted) that is an extension of the kitchen's dining area and leads directly to the back yard.

Now I'm sure the colors of that blog background and how they reflect the tones already found in the house probably are the subliminal reason that I was drawn to this particular plaid. They're the same colors, but re-ordered and presented a bright new way...de-emphasizing but not abandoning the blue, green and beige pastels and bumping up the rich earth tones - cinnamon, ochre, plum, taupe - aha!

Now I finally have a much better sense of how to proceed, which colors to include and where to use them...and, if they were still with us, I think both Mom and Dad would approve.

'Tween Week: Mad for Plaid and Jazz!

2009-12-30T09:23:00.007-05:00

It's 'Tween Week (I just made that up, actually) - the week between Christmas and New Year's...kind of like a "lost weekend" only it's a whole week! I'm catching up on things after the run-up to Christmas, which wasn't too crazy, fortunately, and trying to organize (using the term quite loosely) for the shift to yet another year. After a half-century plus of these things, I think I've got a fairly good handle on what the New Year holiday signifies - and what it doesn't. Still, like Spring, it's a time for renewal and looking ahead - infinitely preferable to dwelling too much in the past. Don't misunderstand, I do embrace the past, heritage, tradition, yada, yada, yada - some of it is quite lovely and gives a warm and fuzzy feeling - but some of it, well, not so much, so better to move on and - as with riding horses - it's important always to keep the momentum focused on moving forward.

In that vein, I'm having a little "Mad for Plaid" celebration here, as you can see from my new background. I just stumbled across the most delightful blog, Designer Blogs (see their button to the right also). These nice ladies do custom blog design, and although I'm not quite ready to go there full-throttle just yet, they also, very generously, offer a selection of free backgrounds. I'm a bit of a plaid madwoman - love the stuff, especially traditional tartans - and was thrilled to see this very cheerful "Journal" design in their array of free backgrounds, so I've snatched it. I especially like the color combination in this plaid, warm, toasty and cheerful, with a shot of light blue to accent.

To complete my somewhat limited blog renovation, I've changed up the music selection yet again. I was pleased to come across one of my favorite newer holiday tunes, "Merry Christmas in Love," sung by the wonderful Renee Olstead. This snazzy, jazzy charmer with a bit of a "big band" feel is the title tune from the 2005 holiday film, "Christmas in Love," with music by Tony Renis and lyrics by Marva Jan Morrow.

Things that tremble, tingle
Like a bubble full of rainbows
Then crack
Sizzle, sing and whisper
When the shadows lace the moonlight with black
Things with silver lining
Sparkling tinsel twinkle, shining
With waving, whispy willow wings
That breathe a song of Christmas time dreams
Things that glow and glisten
Eyes of children when they listen then burst
Things are touched
The wistful wish of watching someone else succeed first
Days dingle, dangle
With a million parts I'm tangled to
Satin stars that spangle
And those Christmas bells that clangle
Our dreams
I'm dreaming of Christmas
To you, merry Christmas
Dreaming of a merry Christmas
To you, very merry Christmas
Galloping and gliding
Santa Claus his sleigh we're riding in
Bringing joyful tidings to the dreamers who are lying below
Talking of daydreams
Wishes and moonbeams
Let it tremble, tingle like a bubble full of rainbow and light
When you came to wake me and to wish me merry Christmas in love
Christmas in love
I can tremble tingle like a bubble full of rainbow and light
When you came to wake me and to wish me merry Christmas in love
Merry Christmas in love

A well-known young actress, I've enjoyed Renee's marvelous singing voice for several years now and it's very exciting to see her success continue to evolve. (She was just 15 when she recorded this cheery holiday tune! Scary talented!) I'm a bit late in sharing it on my playlist, but this tune seemed to capture the happy spirit of the holidays, so I included it here and will keep it on the player for a while. The second selection, the standard, "A Sunday Kind of Love" is from Renee's debut CD of a few years ago. (I also highly recommend her latest CD, "Skylark," produced by the legendary David Foster, who also produced "Merry Christmas in Love." It's a treat! ) Being something of a connoisseur of what I like to call "great girl singers," having grown up hearing so many from the jazz/standards era through the pop/rock era, Renee struck me immediately as a very special young talent - the real deal, with some serious pipes! Hope we'll all see much more of her, and hear her terrific voice for years to come. Finally, I've included another selection from the legendary Al Jarreau - "Since I Fell for You" - a classic from the American Songbook sung by Al in his inimitable style.

With that, I'll work on more updates in the course of the next few days, but if I don't get back here before Friday, I thank you for reading and following my musings here, hope you all can take a moment to clink elegant crystal flutes filled to the brim with a fine, vintage bubbly, and offer my very best wishes for a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

Cheers!

A Little Touch of the Holiday Season

2009-12-23T11:50:00.003-05:00

Most of the time, I write these posts on my laptop sitting at the kitchen table, looking out at my back yard. I love being in the kitchen, the heart of the house for me and for my mother before me, sitting in this chair at the table, yet connected through the expanse of windows and door that provides a wide view of the outside world to the small bit of Nature just beyond them.

While the masthead above is of the snow-covered front of the house, most of the exterior photos in my earlier posts were taken of the lovely, big maple trees in the back yard as their colors changed from emerald green and deep, rich garnet red to the bright yellows and oranges of autumn. Through these windows, I watch the squirrels, the birds and the resident chipmunk that routinely chirps loudly when ever he (or she - not sure) sees one of the cats inside the window, peering out menacingly at them, studying their potential prey (but never the twain shall meet, if I can help it).

Now that winter is here officially, the scene out back is looking pretty stark - a bit like an Andrew Wyeth landscape. It has its own kind of appeal - revealing the time of rest and recovery of the trees and grass, preparing for the renewal of springtime to come - so I don't mind that it's fairly bleak, as winter is inclined to be.

Yesterday, though, I decided a shot of bold color was needed to brighten the landscape and help celebrate the holiday season. I haven't decorated much inside the house yet, so I'm not quite feeling the holiday spirit. I grabbed one of the round, rich green wreaths that I store from season to season, attached a bright red bow, took it outside and placed it on the old green bench under one of the sugar maples that I can see readily from the warmth of my kitchen.

Today, as if on command, it began to snow...just a light dusting (I hope), adding even more holiday flavor to the scene. I'm starting to get that holiday feeling. Maybe now I'll pull a few more decorations out of storage and start decking the inside halls...just in time for Christmas.

Winter Solstice Serenity

2009-12-21T10:44:00.000-05:00

I just noticed on the calendar that today is the winter solstice - the day when we have the least hours of daylight (or according to the online information I came across, when the earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun...um, okay).

With the glow of the holidays twinkling all around and snow-covered winter scenes blanketing much of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic thanks to the past weekend's winter storm (which, fortunately, managed to avoid my area of upstate New York - phew!), I thought I'd share an image of this beautiful painting, "A Quiet Stream," circa 1890, by Albany native Walter Launt Palmer (1854-1932). Some things may change, but the serenity of a magical rural landscape in winter endures.

How Sweet It Is!

2009-12-20T14:08:00.002-05:00

Ah, that illustrious line from the late Jackie Gleason...and so relevant to my latest thrift store adventure. I was "cruising" my local outlet looking for more little bargains to re-sell on eBay when I was stunned by an item I found hidden in a sea of glassware. As it happened, a few months ago I was doing something at my kitchen counter where I keep a group of circa 1970s glass canisters that I use for the usual storage purposes - flour, sugar, coffee, tea, etc. I had purchased these Scandinavian-inspired canisters - sleek clear glass with cork tops and wooden spoons - new. It was the 1970s and I think they were among the first items I ever purchased deliberately for my own home. Prior to then, much of what I had used was inherited from the great aunts whose charming 1940s Cape Cod style house I had purchased and occupied as my first home as an adult. Trendy as mid-century modern might be now, the 1970s was the era of new, post-mid-century modernism and clean lines, simple, elegant design, and lots of clear glass and whites accented with bold solid colors were all the rage - think Marimekko from Finland, Kosta Boda from Sweden, Dansk - with a lot of natural elements - pottery, big green houseplants, etc. - you get the idea. Well, I admired these simple glass canisters with their natural cork tops and wooden spoons at a local higher-end gift shop and eventually purchased them. (I don't recall now what their cost was, but they were pricey even then, so I suspect I waited until they went on sale!)

Back to standing by my kitchen counter a few months ago - I don't recall exactly what I was doing, probably fumbling around to make coffee one morning and - whoops! - the glass sugar bowl slipped from my grip and broke into several pieces on the floor. Dang! This nice bowl, with its cork top and wooden spoon matched my canisters. In fact, it wasn't necessarily intended as a sugar bowl - it looked more like a jam jar, with its straight sides - but it was the right size so I've used it for sugar for several years after I broke the bowl I originally used that was a small replica of the canisters' traditional milk can shape.

Knowing the canisters' provenance, the bowl was now a "vintage" item, so I wondered whether I could find an exact replacement. I checked the listings on eBay just in case. There were some similar pieces, but they weren't quite the same as these canisters or my bowl, so they just weren't right. Not finding anything that pleased me, I resorted temporarily to putting a few cups of sugar in a clear plastic container just for convenience, while keeping the rest of the sugar supply in the larger glass canister for storage, as usual.

As I wandered about my thrift store the other day, I was looking for a small, clear glass votive candle holder for a ceramic candle lamp I purchased recently that lacked a votive candle when - whoa! - there it was...a small glass container with straight sides and a loop for the spoon that was literally identical to the one I had broken! There was no cork top and no wooden spoon, but no matter, I still had those, and the price was maybe $1.99. Ecstatic at my incredible luck, I quickly plucked the glass bowl from the myriad wine glasses, vases and crystal bowls that surrounded it and placed it safely in the basket of my shopping cart.

Who would have guessed I'd ever find that particular bowl in my own neighborhood, at my favorite thrift shop? How sweet it was...and is, yet again.

Merry Christmas to all!

Let It Snow and Al Jarreau

2009-12-07T10:27:00.002-05:00

Well, we finally got our first decent dusting of snow of the season over the weekend. Some accumulation was predicted and, no, my new masthead photo is not indicative of the result of the weekend's snowfall. That was from a few years ago when we were really inundated with the white stuff. We did get about three inches or so...just enough to make driving a bit treacherous (I know, I was headed down the interstate in the midst of the worst of it), but not impossible. The good news was that I reached my destination in good order and more or less on time.

I enjoyed a little "B&B" weekend of sorts. Spent a few hours with friends in the country on Saturday, then headed south to Putnam County to meet up with other friends who have the most charming historic house on the Hudson River. It's a jewel box of a house, with a panoramic view of a lagoon, the river and a mountain on the far shore. Heaven! We headed down to Peekskill for a wonderful dinner at a restaurant in a former grist mill - the food was "hand crafted" as the menu indicated, so everything was prepared meticulously to order...and simply superb. Then it was off to a concert by legendary jazz/R&B vocalist Al Jarreau and his impressive band. The set list was a blend of Mr. Jarreau's hits and some holiday tunes from his 2008 holiday CD. Afterward, he signed copies for audience members and while they had run out of inventory of his CDs, I waited in line to say hello and quickly share with him a little story.

I had first seen Mr. Jarreau in concert at Saratoga (NY) about 25-30 years ago. I remember the evening vividly because he was riding the crest of the wave of initial mainstream success after some of his great tunes were released and had become popular radio hits - tunes like "Mornin''" and "We're in This Love Together." Great stuff. But beyond the music, which was terrific, Mr. Jarreau was perhaps the first popular entertainer I'd seen who had such a profound rapport with the audience that it was palpable, and thrilling. I had seen many concerts in my young life even at that point - rock, jazz, classical, etc. - but I'd never been part of such a special, magical concert experience as that one. It was so enjoyable - and impressive to me - that, over time, it set the standard for me for everyone and everything I've heard since in concert, and it still is. Then, on July 4th of this year, Mr. Jarreau was the headliner in an afternoon and evening of free concerts celebrating the holiday in Albany. I hadn't had a chance to see him in concert in the intervening years until then, but I made the effort to see him that evening. He was as good, if not better, than ever. (I've added a few samples of his music to my player here, so you can enjoy him as you read.)

When the chance arose recently to see him again in concert over the weekend in Peekskill, I jumped on it and my friends were keen to join me and hosted my wonderful weekend visit. It was a terrific performance (with an equally enthusiastic audience) and it was such a treat to meet and share with him on Saturday evening, for the first time, how special that his concert was for me so many years ago, and how the memory of it has stayed with me throughout the years as an important benchmark of high quality and specialness. He was so gracious as he listened and responded to me cheerfully, "Well, you just keep on coming back!" Indeed, Mr. Jarreau, I most surely will.

Black Friday's Cool Coup

2009-12-03T11:44:00.002-05:00

While I had no intention of venturing out into the retail fray on infamous Black Friday, I happened to find myself at the nearby thrift store while I was running an errand to the post office. The parking lot was fairly empty, which surprised me, so I decided to stop in to see if they had any items that would be suitable for re-sale on eBay. I've had good success finding great items there that I've purchased very inexpensively and resold on eBay for a decent profit. It's a great resource and I get to support a worthy enterprise that is run by a well-known nonprofit organization, while earning a few dollars at the same time. Every little bit helps.

I learned upon arrival that there was a storewide sale in progress - discounts on clothing and holiday merchandise, in addition to their usual weekly 50% discount on items marked with a specific color of price tag. The color changes each week and this week it happened to be pink. Armed with that information, I began to scour the housewares shelves for potential re-sale items. I noticed that a group of dinnerware items - some salad plates, cups and saucers - marked with the "mse" (Martha Stewart Everyday) mark bore the price tag color of the week. I had seen them before and admired them, but, even though they were quite affordable, I didn't want to buy for myself. I strolled down the next aisle and - lo! - there were the matching dinner plates. I picked them up, looked at the price and started to do the math. All told, there were 16 pieces in the store, a complete service for four, including dinner and salad plates, cups and saucers - all in perfect condition. They made their way into my basket and out the door for a mere $12 plus tax! They are a calm and cozy taupe color, octagonal shape, with a simple raised dot pattern around the border, and make the perfect dishes for everyday use.

I've been using these dishes for about a week now and I love them. Happy ending all around. Oh, and I found some great stuff to re-sell on eBay, too. Happy holidays!

Bountiful Birds

2009-11-26T06:36:00.001-05:00

When I lived in the country, I often saw numerous wild turkeys. They would stroll by the window with their offspring (chicks?) and be essentially unfazed by the other critters - horses, cats. In fact, I'm sure they came by often because of the cornfield behind the house and would pick through the droppings in the horse paddock, looking for undigested remnants of corn in the sweet feed in the horses' grain mix. I also think one of the "guest" horses, a dear, half-blind, chestnut gelding that I'd known for years, was quite intrigued by, and enamored of, the turkeys. So much so, that one day, when the snow had weakened the already questionable board fence, he leaned over it, straining, I'm sure, to see the turkeys that were wandering nearby, that the rail dropped on one end, leaving just enough from for him (and my own horse - his accomplice) to literally step out of the paddock and go for a bit of a jaunt. Of course, they chose that moment because I had just left for the post office and wasn't there to interrupt their hiatus from confinement. I blame the turkeys, but I still liked them.

I love scenic turkey images, especially vintage ones, perhaps because they remind me of that idyllic life on the farm (when I wasn't chasing after errant equines)...like this cheerful holiday post card I picked up on eBay a few years back.

Have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Bye Bye, Birdies

2009-11-20T13:16:00.001-05:00

I sold the last of my turkey plates today. I bought eight plates and a large matching platter at a country auction about 10 years ago, I think. I used them on a few Thanksgivings, but, over time, I lost my fondness for them. They were made in Japan and probably dated from the 1940s or 50s. The pattern, by a maker known as L & M, is called Country Fair. They have a kind of retro, rustic holiday charm about them.

But my taste really leans toward the more traditional decorative wares of England, with finer details and a more elegant, less casual appeal.

So I've sold the last of the plates on eBay, along with the platter and they're off to points across the USA - to Colorado and California, Ohio and Oklahoma - to grace other Thanksgiving and holiday tables.

They were fun while I had them, but I'll use the proceeds to purchase plates that I really love...maybe of different patterns, but I think there will be turkeys on all of them.

More Falling Leaves...

2009-11-09T10:55:00.000-05:00

And more Monday morning embarrassment from this corner of the globe. I'm just flat out busy, so I regret the lack of time to add pithy comments or interesting insights into the state of the universe, or at least my backyard. So, since I haven't got much else to share today, I thought I'd provide just that - more from my literal backyard. One of the two great maple trees in the back yard seemed to think it was supposed to be the last hold-out of the fall, clinging desperately, and belatedly to its bright yellow (turned from green) leaves. They finally have started to give up the ghost over the past week, and now there are more on the ground than on the tree, but I've captured a bit of their evolution, so here's a view of the changing scene. What was a beautiful golden canopy over the yard is now a yellow carpet on the ground...sigh.

Playing Catch-Up

2009-11-02T20:22:00.000-05:00

Now I understand how other bloggers feel when they've missed many days of posting! (I also sympathize with the followers of selected blogs - I know I'm always eager to read the latest posts of those blogs I enjoy, as well.) I have a few excuses, one not so fun (being under the weather for a bit), and one much more fun (traveling), but I promise I'll play catch-up as much as I can over the next few weeks, but with one caveat.

I have much work to do here at home that has been delayed because of the aforementioned reasons, so I have to jump-start the tasks at hand before much more time passes. Perhaps I'll post some photos of befores and afters, since the time has come to spruce up the city home and make it a shing jewel of modern design. We'll see if I can pull it off with little time and even less money!

In the meantime, I've continued with my homage to autumn - added another tune to the playlist, removed a couple of others, but I'll be working on that in the weeks ahead, too. And, to entertain you visually, here are a few more autumnal images taken in the 'hood over the past week or two.

Thanks for hanging in...I'll try to make it worth your while for sticking around!

The falling leaves drift by my window...

2009-10-24T20:36:00.000-04:00

Autumn leaves, a wonderful ballad originally written in 1945 by two Frenchmen, Joseph Kosma (music) and Jacques Prevert (lyrics), with English lyrics by the great Johnny Mercer. My neighborhood is now a sea of golden, orange and russet leaves. On my way home from errands this afternoon, I spotted this stand of maples that I pass routinely, but today they were so striking in their autumn attire, all golden with dark trunks soaked from the day's rains.

The falling leaves drift by my window,

The autumn leaves of red and gold.

I see your lips, the summer kisses,

The sun-burned hands I used to hold.

Since you went away, the days grow long

And soon I'll hear old winter's song,

But I'll miss you most of all, my darling

When autumn leaves start to fall.

My little neighborhood street kind of looks like a boulevard in Paris, doesn't it? I love autumn.

A Chill in the Air

2009-10-16T19:48:00.002-04:00

Autumn has surely arrived - the colors on the trees are brilliant - and the weather has been unseasonably cold. It's gorgeous, but I've paid the price for the weather and the season, I fear. I came down with a typical cold myself, so I've been out of commission, I'm afraid, or I'd have done an autumn tablescape for Tablescape Thursday, and tried to write a bit about some other things. Instead, it's mostly been five days of sneezing, sniffling, aches, coughing, and all that nasty stuff. I promise I'll get back to posting more often as soon as I catch up on life in and around the house, but in the meantime, just enjoy the music I added to the blog a week or two ago. It's some of my favorite music, musicians, and composers. In fact, I think I'll pour myself a little glass of sherry and have a sip while I enjoy the sounds, too.

Cheers!

Tally Ho! Tablescape

2009-10-01T12:23:00.007-04:00

Taking a cue from yesterday's post about my trip to Kansas and chance encounter with a majestic grey horse in the heart of the hunt countryside, I pulled a few things together to mark the start of autumn with an equestrian themed tablescape for Tablescape Thursday (see Susan's Between Naps on the Porch - linked here and also found in my list of links - for more of the Tablescape Thursday tradition she started, along with links to lots more that other bloggers have submitted this week).

I've pulled together a red and black buffalo plaid placemat, which always makes me think "hunting," over a red/black woven mat (sources unknown) and a Royal Worcester bone china English teacup and saucer with horses and hounds and inscribed on the inside of the cup with "To A Very Important Person." I found it several years ago at a horse event trade fair from a Vermont antique dealer, I think. It's always fun to celebrate and honor a special dinner guest by serving them with this unique teacup.

To the left of the cup is a lovely crimson cotton napkin with a contrasting beige cotton binding from Martha Stewart Everyday for K-Mart that I picked up at a tag sale (!). Holding the napkin is the piece I initially thought of when envisioning this tablescape vignette. (I know it's not quite a full-blown tablescape, but I'm gradually working my way up to that, while trying to do something applicable while squeezing in myriad other demands on my time.) It's a bone china foxhunter napkin holder, one of a set of four greys and four bays (brown) horses, each with a red-coated rider, by RPA (Phillipines). I know I mail-ordered them some years ago, but I can't recall who the retailer was - probably one of the equestrian gift shops in the mid-South. These rings are such fun and always inspire comments at dinner parties when I set the table with them.

Beyond the napkin holder is a crystal decanter that I inherited from an aunt who also was an avid horsewoman. The decanter label, a wonderful little Coalport bone china piece made in England and purchased from Thomas Goode & Company in London, indicates the vessel is filled with sherry, so I think of this setting as an afternoon tea - a bit of tea to warm weary bones and a sip of sherry to warm the soul and ease the transition to evening as the sun sets on a long day of riding to hounds in pursuit of "reynard" (the wily fox). To the right of the teacup is a beautiful etched sherry glass, one of my grandmother's glasses. She was the original horsewoman in the family, having ridden in Ireland as a child - the tradition continues!

The small, wrought iron candle holders were a housewarming gift many years ago and the fanciful hunting print with a charming little verse shown in the right corner used to hang in my bathroom (!) when I lived in the country. (It already had some water damage when I bought it, so I had it framed and matted to mask the damage and withstand the intrusion of moisture.) Fortunately, it didn't suffer from the exposure and it's now out of the bath and awaiting a decision on where to re-hang it.

The verse reads:

See the hounds begin to feather:

There's a touch by all that's good!

Hark! they're getting fast together;

Now they thunder down the wood.

Leap oe'r the brook; don't stay to look!

Ride at the gate; you'll be too late.

Cheers! And tally ho!

Sunflower State

2009-09-30T09:21:00.004-04:00

With apologies, I've been away from blogging for a bit because I was traveling, making my first trip to the Sunflower State: Kansas! Had a wonderful time visiting my good pal (and horsewoman), Susan, who moved west two years ago. Susan has a lovely small farm where she keeps her horses. The late September weather was absolute perfection - sunny and mild with a gentle breeze - I couldn't have asked for a better climate for my first visit.

Okay, I confess, while I was taking in the magnificent heartland scenery, trying to get a sense of this rural landscape - rolling and expansive in comparison with others more familiar along the Eastern seaboard - I occasionally glanced warily at the western horizon. This is acknowledged tornado country (hello, Dorothy and Toto) and it's a reputation that is difficult to shake mentally, especially if you've never been there. Those forces of nature are not to be trivialized - they're scary and dangerous. Gazing at the sprawling landscapes, it was easy to see how the openness of that vast terrain is an inviting playground for a madly spinning twister.

But enough about that. There were no tornados (although, apparently, there was a raging thunderstorm overnight one evening that neither Susan nor I noticed) and the weather was grand.

We toured around the region and went to look at a horse for sale nearby that Susan had heard about and thought might be suitable for a mutual friend back here in New York who is in the market for a new steed. (The gelding we saw turned out to be quite special, so much so that both Susan and I could envision owning him! No decisions yet, but we were glad we made the trip to see him.)

On our return, we made a few stops, including a visit through the "hunt country" of northeastern Kansas. Here's a shot I snapped of a handsome foxhunter - probably Thoroughbred or TB-cross - near Louisburg. For Tablescape Thursday tomorrow, I'll use him as my inspiration and do something with a foxhunting theme. Stop by for a stirrup cup of hunting port!

We also visited by the Louisburg Cider Mill, a charming complex southwest of Kansas City that was just gearing up for a harvest festival over the weekend, including a corn maze (ubiquitous these days), and craft vendors, etc. We were a day early, so avoided the crowds and still had fun shopping in the gift shop. There also is a restaurant/cafe adjacent to the shop and the mill has a mail order business as well. I decided to purchase a small packet of private label garlic powder (I had run out at home) in a plastic zip packet. Only later did I realize how much the odor of the contents permeated the packet! It was a short visit, so I had a suitcase that was small enough to be a carry-on bag and I had visions of garlic odors wafting throughout the planes on my return trip! I double-bagged the packet in two ziplock bags and hoped for the best. No one noticed (at least I don't think anyone noticed), so it wasn't as much of an issue as I feared.

We grabbed a cup of fresh-pressed cider for the road (tasty!). The visit gave me some food for thought (literally and figuratively) about a Kansas lifestyle as I contemplate my options for relocation. Not sure that I will move, as I do love my area of the country, but it's no secret that taxes in New York are the highest in the country and I've never been a huge fan of snow, so I've been contemplating other parts of the country as alternatives.

In all, it was a great trip and a wonderful visit with my friend. I'm looking forward to returning soon to experience more of the Sunflower State's attractions.

Tablescape Thursday: Homage to Oaks and Acorns

2009-09-17T17:44:00.006-04:00

I know I promised I'd post photos of my newly planted chrysanthemums...well, better (a little bit) late than never. Here's a bit of floral autumnal splendor, even if the leaves aren't yet keeping pace with the overzealous mums.

Then, of course, there are the acorns. A veritable deluge of acorns! I don't recall in the many years that I've lived in this home, both growing up here and returning to live here five years ago, that there were ever so many acorns. The one, tall, handsome, red oak tree that towers over the house seems to have triple the usual amount. The squirrels and chipmunks are in acorn heaven. I am not. Scattered on the driveway, just in front of the garage, they are like ball bearings underfoot. And my car, which sits parked under the shade of the grand, old, acorn-spewing oak, is pelted routinely, as if the target in some sort of mysterious game for urban rodents. Five points for the hood, ten for the windshield, and jackpot if one hits the emblem just above the grill? We are not amused.

So, in an effort to make peace with the oak, the acorns, and the cheeky resident rodents, I gathered up a few of the bombarded acorns and made them the focal point of my first (ever!) Tablescape Thursday. With all due respect to Between Naps on the Porch (where I believe this delightful weekly trend either began or at least is well and truly celebrated), I give you my homage to oaks and acorns.

A Drive in the Country

2009-09-14T09:52:00.005-04:00

A friend and I took a classic "drive in the country" over the weekend. We had planned the outing for a few days, and, after considering the directional options, we settled on the village of Sharon Springs, a charming small village in Schoharie County, about 20 miles from Cooperstown (which everyone knows as the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame) in the east-central region upstate New York.

There is tremendous history in this region, which is in the heart of the Mohawk River valley and identified as the Central-Leatherstocking tourism region by state's tourism industry. Schoharie County is farm country - rolling land, characterized by fields and woods and the babbling Schoharie Creek that feeds into the Mohawk to the north. The area was long known as the "Breadbasket of the American Revolution," as it has some of the richest, most fertile soil in the world. The name "Leatherstocking" also should give a significant clue to the area's past - it's the region that author James Fenimore Cooper immortalized in his renowned "Leatherstocking Tales," including the story of "The Last of the Mohicans."

The village of Sharon Springs has a somewhat more recent claim to fame, since it was in the 19th century that the community boasted the most popular natural spas in the East, if not the entire country. Thousands of visitors flocked to the region to enjoy the mineral spas and stayed for extended periods at one of the dozens of grand hotels built in the village.

The American Hotel, Sharon Springs
(historic postcard)

Over the years, the area lost a lot of its appeal as competition from the mineral springs in Saratoga, about 80 miles to the northeast, siphoned off its prominent Social Register patrons like the Vanderbilts, who soon migrated to the southern Adirondacks for the additional attractions of that area, including the historic race course. By the mid-20th century, the New York Thruway (the first of the country's superhighways), about 20 miles north, diverted traffic and left Sharon Springs, along US Route 20, to wither.

Today, the village is experiencing a very gradual rebirth. It still struggles to attract visitors, but Cooperstown is the major lure in the area, and the summer season is prime time. There are energetic entrepreneurs who have invested significant amounts of time and money to restore some of the village's architectural treasures. The American Hotel (pictured above and below) is one of the few of the remaining grand hotels - a historic gem that was in great disrepair, but was rescued by a pair of gentlemen from New York City several years ago and serves as an anchor in the village's evolving rebirth.

My friend and I strolled to the Black Cat Cafe & Bakery for lunch, just across from the American Hotel. We had a delightful time, chatted with the cafe's ebullient owner, and learned a bit more about the recent renaissance the village is striving to achieve.

Alas, we were a week too early for the village's Harvest Festival, but it promises to be a big event. Some folks in television production with ties to the village are taping some content for the Discovery Channel, so perhaps Sharon Springs soon will become the newest destination hotspot in the region. It has so many of the ingredients that make for a delightful visitor experience, but it doesn't suffer (yet) from that polished-to-death, trendy-beyond-words ambience that sometimes renders a cookie-cutter sameness in character to so many other "quaint" villages. Sharon Springs oozes its share of quaintness and charm, but it's not totally pristine and, as an afficionado of the qualities of historic villages that make good travel destinations, that is, in my view, a very good thing. It's a real place, with real challenges to offset its assets, but with great potential, and it has great heart.

The latest buzzword of the moment seems to be "authentic" and Sharon Springs is certainly that, not at all contrived, just striving. I'm hoping it'll get more good media attention, and more visitors, but not so much that the essential qualities of the place become obscured. With the kind of energy, enthusiasm, and creative thinking these entrepreneurs are demonstrating, along with some thoughtful local planning, there is no doubt the village will get there. The travel industry is always looking for new products in the form of "new destinations" - even ones like Sharon Springs that have been there for decades, waiting to be renewed and rediscovered. I'd certainly choose to visit a wonderful, real place like that over any newly created charming village any day. I'll be rooting for Sharon Springs and definitely will go back to visit from time to time to see how things are progressing.

Mums are the Word

2009-09-11T12:07:00.000-04:00

Here's an early autumn view of a country backroad in the area where I lived for 15 years. I still spend time there - it feels more like "home" to me than anywhere I've lived and most of my friends are there, or near there. It's a very special, beautiful part of earth.

I remember years ago that one would see "back-to-school" and fall fashions in the stores by August. It made me crazy. I think it was mostly because it was 80-90 degrees outside, yet we were being asked to contemplate wools and tweeds and plaids. I love them, but not in the height of summer!

I don't know whether it was the passing of a few decades or simply the fact that I don't spend anywhere near as much time in retail clothing stores these days as I did when I was a teenager (hello, Internet and online shopping!), but the merchandising schedule of mainstream retailers doesn't bother me anywhere near as much now. Instead, I notice the harbingers of autumn in the grocery stores, where I do find myself frequently and where the seasonal displays of hardy chrysanthemums are the first retail signal to start preparing for chillier nights and cooler days.

I bought some gorgeous garnet mums a few weeks ago in anticipation of the new season, and I picked up some bittersweet orange mums earlier today. Tomorrow, I'll replace the fading leggy pink and purple petunias shown in my title photo above, and I'll consolidate from three separate planters and put what remains of the best of the remaining petunias together in a single pot as the last hurrah of summer. I'll put the mums in their place of prominence and group them for as bold a color display as I can manage. I'll take a photo when I've got them in place, so you can see how gorgeous their rich and rusty colors are.

I'm never happy to see summer go, but I have to admit this particular transitional time between the seasons is one of my most favorite times of the year. It's still balmy, but the heat and humidity are gone and the hints of crisp fall weather are in the air.

I love autumn best and here in the Northeast, it doesn't get any more beautiful. I think I'm ready. Oh, and did I mention that mums are the flower for my birthday month?

Ready, Set...We Have Lift-Off!

2009-09-06T13:41:00.004-04:00

Hi, everyone! (Um...is anyone actually out there?)

I started to set up this new blog space on the Fourth of July to celebrate Independence Day, but it took me two months and two days to get back to it and fling it out there into the ether...and hope it finds some interested readers.

Who am I and what am I doing here? Well, I'm a grown-up female person, a former art major who eventually became a writer/editor, photographer, stylist, and marketer, who always enjoys being creative, so I'm exploring new outlets for my creativity. As for this blog venture, initially, I wanted to create a place to share thoughts, ideas, and especially images of things that appeal to me. I don't have any particular agenda and it's not necessarily intended to be a play-by-play of my life (heaven forbid!), but I hope it will be an outlet for expression related to things I enjoy: home, design, decoration, arts, crafts, creativity, cooking, antiques, flea markets, garage and tag sales, etc. - you get the idea.

Lately, like a lot of folks in blog-world, I've been a long-time reader of home/design magazines and found myself seeking online alternatives to magazines like Country Home (sigh) and Cottage Living that I so enjoyed, but which have folded in the past year or so as a result of this challenging economic climate and our rapidly changing reading/viewing habits. I've come across a number of blogs that appealed to me, authored by some very creative people, so I thought I'd give it a try and see what evolves.

I grew up in an urban area of upstate New York, and live (once again) in a mid-century modern home (which will be the subject of another discussion to be posted later), but big parts of my heart and soul are entrenched in the countryside nearby, where I lived for 15 years, played for at least 25, and continue to enjoy whenever I can. Fortunately, my access to the pleasures of a rural landscape is no more than 30 minutes away in almost any direction (one of the truly great benefits of being in my urban area), so I can get a regular rural "fix" quite easily. Thank heaven for that!

Welcome to my new space and please feel free to comment since I'm hoping the communications here won't be only one-way - I'm all about the exchange and sharing here.

I'm still learning all the bells and whistles of blog creation, so please be patient with me as I ramp up my learning curve. Thanks for stopping by...hope to see you again soon!