Squirrel with a Genius IQ

Sadie is a hunter. She can’t help herself for that is what she was bred for. Her favorite thing to do is sit on the back of the couch looking out into the back yard to see chipmunks and squirrels. When she spies one she leaps down and runs outside if the door is open. If it isn’t she begs us to open it for her and off she goes hoping that she can catch a critter inside the fence.


But today she met her match.
Mr. Squirrel knew Sadie’s limits and hovered just outside the fence calmly eating seeds and frustrating Sadie.



Then up the tree he went only to scamper back down and tease Sadie unmercifully.

And who says animals aren’t smart?
 

AMAZING EVENT IN POZNAN (POLAND) night lanterns noc lampionów

Once in awhile you come across something so beautiful on the web that you just have to share it on your blog. This solstice celebration in Poland with night lanterns is amazing. Please enjoy.

Instant Pictures

I really know I am getting old now. Technology is zooming right by me with its Ipads and digital devices. I remember when Polaroid came out with it’s very first instamatic camera. It was the latest thing. You could take a picture and it immediately developed and popped out in you hand. What a delight to see your picture right away instead of sending the film off when the roll was full and then waiting a week for it to be developed. How I laugh at that now.
    This week my Beyond Layers class taught me how to simulate a Polaroid snapshot. Here are two of my pictures.

Pictures from Tennessee

  

Ryan sent me this picture of Sara and Sean today.

HOW DID I GET HERE?

No, this isn’t the story of my birth. It’s the second assignment in my class. How did I get to this point of blogging?
   It would have to start with my first interaction with a computer through classes at school. I was a teacher and needed to be current on technology. By current I mean that my first computer was an Apple IIe. (I know, that was generations ago). But I thought it was amazing. I put the little disks in it, and wall-ah.! I could do great things, type, play games, run teaching programs for math or reading. How far we have come since then.
    Having a computer at work enabled me to explore and use programs and become familiar with the workings of this marvelous machine. Throughout the years I was able to expand my knowledge through courses and classes. Soon I wanted one of my own.
    When the first one was delivered to my house I remember my husband throwing up his hands and saying, “I’m not learning this”. But Ebay and exploration of fishing sites soon changed his mind.
    There is a learning curve but slowly I became familiar with all the technical things such as moving folders and storing items where you could find them. Also I bought programs to edit pictures and make art. I was having fun.
   Then I learned to blog and my world expanded. Through trial and error I learned. And learned more. And am still learning.

NORA EPHRON

“The amount of maintenance involving hair is genuinely overwhelming. Sometimes I think that not having to worry about your hair anymore is the secret upside of death”..

Nora Ephron 1941-2012

We will all miss Nora Ephron. Most people would know her  as the author of Sleepless in Seattle. And she is credited on hits such as “heartburn,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “You’ve Got Mail” and “Julie and Julia”.  Her quick wit was evident to me when I read , “I Feel Bad About My Neck” and I laughed out loud. The world was better because this woman was in it.

WHY I BLOG

Today I am starting a new online course with  Kim Klassen and Xanthe Berkeley titled Behind the Scenes. It is all about blogging and they will share tips and tutorials that hopefully will improve my blogging skills.
   The assignment for the first day is to write about “Why I blog”. So here goes.
    I can’t even remember how I came upon my first blog, Southern Hospitality in 2006.  I was surfing and discovered Rhoda and her wonderful decorating blog. That led me to read other blogs and opened up a whole new world to me of other women out there who are willing to share their lives online. It looked like such a good idea that I wanted to do it too.
   So I began Season-to-Season. I named my blog that because in our little town in western Pennsylvania the seasons change rapidly (sometimes in one day we can change 30 degrees). It may be cold with frost in the morning and sunny and hot by afternoon. I thought about life being like that too. How quickly one incident can change your mood from happy to sad or vice versa. I wanted to record my life. I just wanted to use the blog as a journal for me privately and to let a few select people read it.
   I was very intimidated at first. So it became a chronicle of what was going on with me and my family. I was just beginning digital photography too at the time so the two grew together. I just took a photo and wrote about it. No elaboration. Just the facts, ma’am. No editorializing. No opinions, just statements of the week’s happenings.
    After a few years I became less intimidated with people reading what I had to say. I discovered I had a voice. Putting it out there was scary even though the subject matter I wrote about was pretty timid. I just enjoyed the daily diary and taking the pictures. So I opened up the blog for anyone to read.
   It’s still mostly family and friends that take a look at it now and then, but I put a counter on it and found out that as of now I have had visitors from all over the world and the United States. I always wonder how a person from Belize came to wander onto my blog. Did they find it interesting? Did my pictures look good? The post on Summer Solstice got 20 page views. I have had people visit from UK, Germany, Canada, Russia, France, Indonesia, Brazil, Ecuador, and the Netherlands. I have had 12,505 total views from people in the United States.
    Over the years my blog got more personal as I shared things about me and my family. One of my passions is interior decorating and it’s been fun to show before and afters of the things I have created and the projects we have done.
    As I learned more about the looks of the blog itself from other bloggers I learned to change the backgrounds and add different headers to make my blog more updated. I still have a long way to go to improve the appearance of the blog, but I am satisfied with it now.
    When I started out I only blogged a few days a week and now I sometimes post twice a day. I love blogging. I have learned so much from other bloggers and am proud to be able to create my own blog each day. I had some parts of the blog made into a hardback book.
   Here is my very first post about my son’s wedding:

What a wonderful wedding! Ryan and Jennifer exchanged vows on October 21 in Tennessee. The day was sunny and the leaves were just beginning to turn. The Mountain Valley Chapel was the perfect setting for such an elegant wedding. I am so happy for both of them. They honeymooned in Cozamel, Mexico where they snorkled and Ryan went scuba diving.

DID I MENTION THE LAVENDER?

Right outside my kitchen door is my portager (my little French herb garden).

Planted there are my herbs, rosemary, oregano, parsley, and thyme.

The little cement acorn and found glass rock keep watch.


The mosaic jardin sign marks the place.

I love to plant this baby garden every summer.


But did I mention the lavender? Every since I stood in the lavender field in Provence I have had an affair with lavender..the look, the smell, the feel. This has been planted here for a number of years. At the time I didn’t know how to grow lavender correctly so I let it do whatever it desired. It spread, but it also became woody and each year didn’t look like it would survived, much less put out flowers. But each year it comes back even more beautiful than ever. Don thought that this was the year to get rid of those old ugly brown stems that crowded out the herb garden. But in my heart, I just couldn’t do it. And I am so glad that I didn’t. Just look how glorious the lavender is! When I smell it I go right back to France.

The Office 2012

Come on in. The office isn’t completely finished but here is a sneak peek.

First the room looked like this:
Now it’s become a lovely office.

The Garden in June

Our courtyard is looking exceptionally pretty now that the perennials have bloomed. The purple climatis is cheerfully climbing up the archway and the pink yarrow behind promises a full blooming season.

This is the first year that the hollyhocks have bloomed.

And the lamb’s ear is also putting out flowers.

And look at the stargazer lily. Just getting ready to open.


The annuals are also prolific this year. It must be our unusually hot summer.
These are the sights we dream of in the darkness of winter.

Neverisms

I recently started receiving Dr. Mardy’s quotes of the week which are quotes, little tidbits and things that happened that week in history. Here are his neverisms:

NEVER PASS UP A GREAT BARGAIN.

NEVER LOOK A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH.

NEVER BRING A KNIFE TO A GUN FIGHT.

and here is my very favorite:

NEVER ATTRIBUTE TO MALICE THAT WHICH IS ADEQUATELY EXPLAINED BY STUPIDITY.

His theme for the week was “Would you benefit from an attitude adjustment?”
Here are some of his wise quotes:

”If you don’t like something, change it.  IF you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”  Maya Angelou

”A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.”  Hugh Downs

”Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had undergone a change of attitude.”  Katherine Mansfield

How To Say Bonjour Correctly and My Scariest Moment Traveling

Here's another video from Sonia's Travels. Everyone ought to know how to say bonjour correctly. You never know where you will need this information.

All Done

The computer desk is assembled and I am so happy with it. I went to Erie yesterday and picked up the bookcase and small file side table to match. (Another project for Don). Can’t wait for the room to come all together.

"Paris: People Watching at a Cafe"

I found this video on the web.  How I wish that I were there!

SUMMER SOLSTICE

Welcome to the longest day of the year and the official beginning of summer. I was a teacher for 35 years or so and oh how I looked forward to putting away the books and having three months of free time. Well, it wasn’t exactly free time considering there were classes to take and many things to do. But just having sunshiny weather always brought a smile to my face. Do you have a favorite summertime memory?
   Here’s mine. I was in my last year of college at Clarion University of Pennsylvania. I went during the summers so I could finish up as quickly as possible so I could get married...Don was serving in the Navy at the time. When I reported to my dorm I discovered that there had been a fire and the dorm was going to be closed for the summer. My sorority sisters and I were out of home for 3 weeks. What to do?
    One of the girls had a cabin on the Clarion River in Emlenton which was a little over a half hour away. She called her mom and since I had a car all five of us decided to go there. What a delightful time we had! Since I was an art minor I was taking an oil painting class. That meant no homework!! Yippee! I was free to swim in the river all day and sunbathe. The radio speaker shouted outside as we sat on a raft and whiled away the time. I even remember the song that was so popular then:  “I can’t get no-o, satisfaction!” by the Rolling Stones.
   When I think of carefree times this is the memory that always comes to mind. Do you wonder what I looked like way back then?
I’m the blonde in the middle with the flowered sweater. 
Here’s a little closer picture..sorry about the blur.
And here is my sorority picture:

Those were the days, my friend!

Landscaping Plan

I’ve been photoshopping a new landscape plan for around the house. I didn’t care for the one that the landscaper offered so since I know what I want I’ve been working on it all week. Here is the idea I have for on the end of my house .  What do you think?

This is the front:

And this is my idea for the back space:

I am not a professional landscaper and this photoshopped image is not the greatest, so use your imagination.

ALWAYS BUY PREASSEMBLED

“Fasten two long right cabinet rails (KK) to the right end (a) and two long left cabinet rails (LL) to the right upright (E). Use a Gold 5/16” flat head screw (RRR) through the first and third holes in each rail.”

That is the beginning of step 5 out of 31 steps it takes to put together my new computer desk.  Even with explicit directions it’s a daunting task.

The winds of change are blowin’

It’s seems that there is a lot in motion here at the Karrasch household. Things are leaving and new things are coming in. It started with the departure of a player piano that didn’t work and had been in residence in a back bedroom for more years than I want to tell you about. After Don’s valiant attempt at repairing it he finally had to cut it up and pieces and remove it. That must have sparked something in him because before you know it he had someone from a junk yard come to our house and take away an old red Porsche that we had sitting on the other side of the garage for more years than I want to tell you about. since we were on a roll I convinced him that we no longer needed our hot tub since we barely used it anymore. Off it went to a new owner leaving an empty room. Not being one to let a room sit empty I quickly decided to make it into my new computer room. 
   On a trip to Erie with my sisters we found flooring, a beautiful floral rug, and a computer desk with hutch, bookcase and file table. Don finished the floor today and we put back the dresser. I hand painted this dresser many years ago and used it in the sunroom.

  I can’t wait until the other pieces get in the room!  P.S.  The picture are yet to be hung. I got the silver desk lamp at Marshall’s. It will be on the computer desk when it gets in place.

Happy Father’s Day

He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.  ~Clarence Budington Kelland

LEWISTON KITCHEN TOUR

Hey all you lovers of tablescapes, pretty dishes and beautiful interiors. You should have been with me yesterday when my sisters and I went to Lewiston, NY (above Niagara Falls) to the kitchen tour. I’m the one on the left with Diane in the middle and Linda.
We weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside the homes but I took some on the outside. Isn’t this home magnificent.
A wonderful stone porch overlooked the Niagara River. There were a lot of amenities like this outdoor fireplace.
This house had a beautiful white kitchen and lots of room inside. Here is another tablescape at a different house.