The Office

The office has to be the fastest project that has ever gotten done around here. Just three weeks from start to finish.
I was lucky to find the exact desk/hutch that I wanted at HQ Home in Erie. I liked it so much that I bought the companion bookcase and file table.

The dresser that I had painted goes so nicely with the newer furniture.
I hope you noticed the custom made slipcover for my office chair. My sister Linda made it for me when she was here.


The only thing new besides the furniture is the Amaryllis poster and the silver desk lamp.
 
Now it’s ready for my tea and my blogging.

What fun!

We always have great fun when my son and grandsons come to visit!




Yesterday we took the boat out on the waters of the Kinzua Dam. Dan and Sadie went tubing.










Then Scott, Dan, and Sadie went for a little swim. We took a picnic lunch and ate on the shore. Food always tastes better when eaten by the water.








It was a great time.

A CELEBRATION OF FLOWERS

An Unusual Souvenir

Out in blogland some bloggers do Storytelling Sunday where they relate stories. They also suggest topics and today’s was “an unusual souvenir” That brought a story to mind.
   A while ago I had a chance to go to Provence, France with my friend Yrsa. Her cousin and boyfriend met us there and drove us all around from Nice to Monaco and all around  Provence. It was a wonderful experience and driving like that enabled us to see many sights that regular tourists would never know. We went out in the country and saw small villages and also visited larger cities. The pace was slow and we could take our time to really enjoy ourselves and immerse ourselves in the culture.
   One day we were in a small town shopping. Yrsa’s cousin and her boyfriend took a blanket and headed for the nearest park to relax while Yrsa and I explored the little shops. When we walked back to the park I noticed the plane trees that lined a large walkway in the park. On the ground was a leaf. Just a simple leaf. But to me it signified all that was right with people in European countries. They know how to stop and enjoy the moment. There is no hustle and bustle and hurry up the way it is here. Every moment is lived in the present. I got to participate in that for the week that I was there. I enjoyed it so much that when I got back to the states I didn’t want to come down from that peaceful high I’d been experiencing. I couldn’t turn on the tv or even listen to music on the radio. I had had silence. Blissful silence for a whole week and my mind was rested. For a solid week I avoided loudness. But eventually the world intruded as it always does and I was back to what we call normal here.
  But I brought home that leaf. And some other souvenirs like menus and papers in French. I glued them on paper and then added them to the bottom of a glass tray which is hanging in my bedroom. It is a reminder of a quieter time. And when I see that leaf I think of a way to enjoy life by appreciating the small things.
 

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.