Change is in the air

I didn't realize that switching a few rooms around at our house would cause as much chaos as the day I moved into our home upon my marriage to Michael. This past weekend, after an hour into our bedroom move from the ground floor of the house to the second floor and the den from the second floor to the ground floor, I knew I had underestimated the would-be mess and the time it would take me to get things back into order! I am a firm believer that a move on this scale is a good thing every four or five years, as I have learned that this may be the only way that I will agree to purge items that have outstayed their welcome. I accomplished a dramatic reduction in the number of clothes that I have...some that I had not worn in over three years! Why am I so reluctant to get rid of things?! I can be such a pack rat, and Michael and I have agreed that we need to switch things up a little bit every few years just to force us to reduce our "inventory." What a concept!

For now, I will spend the next several weeks recovering from this move, but I find the prospect of a new routine in a new space a little exciting (I know, it doesn't take much to excite me these days). We will be building a new walk-in closet within the next couple of months, and I am enjoying planning the layout and flow of it and the adjoining art studio/work room. The changes taking place are exciting and give us something to look forward to...if we can only survive the decluttering stage!

Photo borrowed from www.alamo.edu

Autumn Moments

We love Autumn at our house! We love the brisker temperatures and football games. We love getting out our Halloween decorations and the color of the changing leaves. I even love the way the trees look, silhouetted against a "winter's coming" sky, after the leaves have fallen. When fall arrives, I can't wait for the weekends to come so that I can load my camera and my favorite photography companion, Max, in the car for long drives in the country. This past weekend, we had the opportunity to do just that. We visited Riverbend Farm on an overcast Autumn day and were not disappointed in all the beauty we found.

I am always amazed at how different the weather can be only a few miles away from our house. We may see torrential rain at home, but three miles away, it may never rain a drop! I'm equally amazed at how the colors at Riverbend Farm are still mostly green, but at our house, a short distance away, is awash in Autumn colors. These photos of our house were taken the same day we took the photos at Riverbend:

Our Molly loves to chase sticks. Can you BELIEVE the size of this one that she brought for me to throw for her? She is quite ambitious!

"Rummmm....yummmmm....yummmmm....good stick!"

Max is thinking..."Throw a stick for me, too, Mommy!"

Aren't these trees in our back yard a beautiful color?!? They're so gorgeous, I don't want to rake them, yet. I love the colors on the ground!

A view of the corner of our back porch and the trees beyond.

Max and Molly love spending time outside playing in the leaves. Here, Max is wearing his Halloween costume that reads, "Handsome Devil." How cute is that?!?!

Welcome, November

My November Guest

My Sorrow, when she's here with me,

Thinks these dark days of autumn rain

Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;

She walks the sodden pasture lane.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.

She talks and I am fain to list:

She's glad the birds are gone away,

She's glad her simple worsted grey
Is silver now with clinging mist.

The desolate, deserted trees,

The faded earth, the heavy sky,

The beauties she so truly sees,

She thinks I have no eye for these,

And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know

The love of bare November days

Before the coming of the snow,

But it were vain to tell her so,

And they are better for her praise.

~Robert Frost

A Haunting?

This time of year, all the focus is on the creepy, the ghostly and the haunted. We enjoy getting into the "spirit" of things by hosting our biennial Halloween party and passing along all the great, spooky stories of our own haunted house. Yes, my husband and I supposedly inhabit a real haunted house!!

The main portion of our house was built in 1869 by Colonel Thomas Cheatham Little for his bride, Agnes. The back of the house that now houses our kitchen was built in the 1820s and was originally a cottage on the property. Colonel Little was a veteran of the Civil War and an escort for General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Young Thomas ran away from home at the age of 16 to join the Confederate Army when word of the death of his uncle, a Confederate officer, reached him. Devastated by the news and filled with anger, he joined the war, fought with the Confederates, and was with Forrest when he surrendered at the end of the War. Thomas and Agnes had several children, and the house was passed down in the family until my husband, Michael, purchased it in 2001. He was the first person to own the house outside of the family.

After the purchase of the house, Michael immediately began hearing stories of "The Gray Lady." Since the earlier part of the century, there were stories of the solemn woman who could be seen haunting the upper hallway of the house. She was also seen at times in some of the upstairs bedrooms and a few times on the ground floor of the house. There were stories of guests' bed covers being pulled slowly off of them in the middle of the night, one woman being pushed down by an unseen force, a chair flying through a glass window. But most of the reports were simply of a lone woman in Victorian style clothing appearing in various places in the house.

Michael lived alone in the house from 2001 until we married in 2005, and claims to have never seen The Gray Lady. Likewise, I have not seen her since moving into the house over four years ago. With that being said, however, we can report many strange happenings that we have been unable to explain. They include our dogs being locked into one room of the house when no one is home to do so, doors that are heavy and difficult to move slamming shut without any assistance and with a puzzling ease, items disappearing or moving from where we originally placed them, and a stereo blaring music without anyone turning it on, then, shutting itself off after about 20 seconds. I have many times heard footsteps in the house, thought it was Michael returning home, and then found no one in the house but me. Of course, it makes us feel a little better to come up with reasons for these happenings, and since we have not yet "seen" a ghost to blame them on, we will continue to look for logical explanations of such occurrences. It helps us sleep better at night, you see.

This time of year, our friends love to visit our house and hear all these stories. And I admit that I, especially this time of year, always feel a little reluctant to look over my shoulder for fear that the Lady in Gray will finally make her appearance!

But...until I have seen her for myself, I will continue to try to "explain away" all the odd little happenings.

I am including a photograph in this posting in which guests claim to be able to see The Gray Lady in one of the upstairs windows. Can you find her?

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween Party 2009

We held our biennial Halloween Party at the B&B this past weekend, and the costumes were so much fun! It was a great time with wonderful friends!

Lindsey & Sherry Galyen (aka Sonny & Cher) and Sister Leah and Father Jeff Mathis

Sonny & Cher...Sherry and Linsey...love Sonny's moustache!

Charles and Vickie Dorning

Matthew & Beth Bryan

My husband, Michael, the Wise Guy.

Cindy Kite

Steve Kite, aka Bobo the Clown

Farmer Dorothy Small

Suzanne Wager (Michael's mother), the sock monster, with Beth and Sherry.

Yours truly. The longer the night wore on, the more the makeup wore off.

Had to take a picture of my cute witch socks and shoes.

Bobo the Clown and Michael the Gangster talk politics, thus the expressions...

Doris Durham

Charles & Doris Durham, Michael's Godparents

My sweet gangster

"Babe, I got you Babe..."

The Last Time...

This special post is for my husband, the Auburn fan, from your loving wife, the Kentucky fan.

The LAST TIME, Kentucky beat Auburn in football:

Lyndon B. Johnson was president of the United States.

Mod Fashion was all the rage, and Twiggy was dubbed "The Face of Fashion."

Gasoline was .32 cents per gallon.

Simon & Garfunkel had just released their new song, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

The average annual income in the U.S. was $6,900.

The best selling car in America was the Chevrolet Impala.

Star Trek had just appeared on television for the first time.

Disposable diapers had JUST been invented.

A Man for All Seasons won the Academy Award for best film.

AND

I would not be born for another 8 months.

So...Kentucky "finally fielded a team!"

'Bout time, eh?

I think this is the beginning of a new tradition!

GO BIG BLUE!!!

Welcome Autumn

Fall arrives on the Domain of the University of the South in Sewanee.

O hushed October morning mild,

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;

Tomorrow they may form and go.

O hushed October morning mild,

Begin the hours of this day slow.

Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,

Beguile us in the way you know.

Release one leaf at break of day;

At noon release another leaf;

One from our trees, one far away.

Retard the sun with gentle mist;

Enchant the land with amethyst.

Slow, slow!

For the grapes' sake, if they were all,

Whose elaves already are burnt with frost,

Whose clustered fruit must else be lost--

For the grapes' sake along the all.

~October, by Robert Frost

Sewanee's campus is beautiful in the fall, and I love to watch the colors change outside my office window.

Welcome, October, my favorite month of the year.

Living Room Color Scheme Help!

When Michael bought our circa 1869 home in 2001, he inherited pink floral wallpaper in our living room. Since then, because we have no idea what the wall looks like behind that wallpaper AND because we had other home projects that were higher priority, we simply decorated to match the wallpaper. As a result, our living room rather resembles a bottle of Pepto Bismol. Don't get me wrong...I LIKE pink. I am just uncertain that I like THIS much pink in one of our main rooms. So, I have decided that it is time to address the pink room. But I am completely at a loss for what direction to take with color! We have original, antique yellow tiles surrounding our fireplace, and that is the one thing in the room we cannot...WILL not change, so we would like to tie a color scheme into that. The pink and yellow just aren't working! So, we need YOUR help! Please take a look at the room -- I took a lot of photos of the fireplace so that you can see the colors we will need to incorporate...or MAKE work. And keep in mind that I may purchase new couches, or I can at LEAST recover those that I have. Thanks for your ideas!

I know...the right side of the secretary needs SOMEthing...paintings? Decorative plates?

We can't figure out what this is...cast iron? Or brass? It has a gold-coppery tinge to it. Any ideas?

These creamy yellow tiles are original to the house. These and the fireplace cover will stay. So how do I go from pink to this? And what colors should I put with it? Help!

Words for a Saturday Morning

Freedom

Home

Contentment

Family


The weekend looms in front of me with
all the promises of time
and opportunities for renewal.
I am among everything I love.


I am happy.


Vivaldi, the scent of coffee, the overflowing basket of laundry,
my barking dogs turning circles at my feet, the sound of the rain on the windowsills.


I am happy.

Two Branches of One Tree

Grow old along with me
Two branches of one tree
Face the setting sun
When the day is done
God bless our love
God bless our love

Grow old along with me
Whatever fate decrees
We will see it through
For our love is true
God bless our love
God bless our love

Happy fourth anniversary, my Dear Husband.

Every moment of this journey with you is a blessing and a true gift, and I love you with all that I am or ever hope to be.

Couple photo courtesy of richerresourcespublications.com.

Lyrics from Grow Old with Me by John Lennon

Never forget.

A Moment's Perfection

Peonies
This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
to break my heart
as the sun rises,
as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers

and they open ---
pools of lace,
white and pink ---
and all day the black ants climb over them,

boring their deep and mysterious holes
into curls,
craving the sweet sap,
taking it away

to their dark, underground cities ---
and all day
under the shifty wind,
as in a dance to the great wedding,

the flowers bend their bright bodies,
and tip their fragrance to the air,
and rise,
their red stems holding

all that dampness and recklessness
gladly and lightly,
and there it is again ---
beauty the brave, the exemplary,

blazing open.
Do you love this world?
Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly, and exclaiming of their dearness,
fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?

from New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver

My love for flowers has been with me since I was a child. I distinctly remember visiting my great-grandmother who, at the time, had what seemed to be a huge green yard snuggled between the mountains of Southeastern Kentucky. What I remember most about the yard was the abundance of flowers, daisies, roses and tiger lilies, one of my personal favorites. I remember one of my older cousins telling me, "Did you KNOW that if you put flowers in the freezer, they last FOREVER?" I was amazed at this valuable information, so when my great grandmother wasn't looking, I slipped out to the yard and cut all the blooms off of every flower. I went outside with a pair of scissors and a basket and filled the basket to the brim with colorful blooms. Then, I quietly climbed the steps to the back porch, opened the lid to the huge deep-freezer, and poured all the blooms inside on top of frozen foods. Once they were inside the freezer, I remember arranging them in just a way that would allow me to see each and every type of bloom.

It must have been some time the next day before my great-grandmother noticed the blooms in the freezer, but I remember vividly her calling my name and asking me "why in the world" I had cut all her flowers! I am sure I explained to her my desire to save all the blooms forever. I think she probably showed a great deal of patience with me that day, for what I remember is that she explained that if I wanted to save flowers, I should wrap them in a piece of plastic before putting them into the freezer...but most importantly, I should only cut ONE of each type of flower.

My other grandmother had peonies in her yard, and I thought those were the most amazing flowers I had ever seen. I marveled at the full and perfect blooms in pinks and whites, and grieved for them when, after such a short time, those perfect blooms died away. When I bought my first home, I was fortunate enough to inherit a 60 year old garden filled with peonies! Truth be told, I think it was those flowers that made me realize that house was meant to be mine.

This past weekend, I visited my now 93 year old grandmother, and her yard still is full of peonies. During one of our conversations, she reminded me now was the time to transplant them, and if I wanted to take some to my home in Tennessee, I was welcome to dig up a couple of hers. Out I went in the pouring rain with a shovel and my poor husband to dig up those precious treasures. Michael kept reminding me how little room we had in the car for the ride home, but I had to find a way to fit them inside. I explained to him how I have loved these flowers since I was old enough to walk, and he somehow found enough room for them.

Today, I transplanted the peonies, and I can hardly wait to see the first blooms! I know that after transplanting, the plants may not flower for a couple of years...but I am hopeful. Something transplanted with so much love will surely put on a great show.