Showing posts with label My Cottage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My Cottage. Show all posts

Morning Sun Shining Through the Fog


I stuck my iPhone out the one attic window that doesn't have a screen to capture the sun trying to burn off the morning fog. It won't be long now before we have a nice sunny day after two days of rain. Have a great Friday.

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Staffordshire Spaniel with Paperwhites


My living room mantel rounds the corner on one side to meet the back wall. A large Staffordshire spaniel is posing there alongside a bulb forcing vase with blooming paperwhites. They are reaching for the ceiling but are still very nice and upright because of my cool (as in temperature) house.
Linking to: Small But Charming: Flowers in the Wintery House

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Webster the Snow Dog Dressed for The Weather


He's so happy to be wearing his horse-blanket coat again. You know how he likes to be wrapped up.


-click photo to enlarge-
I thought this was a nice snow pattern on one of the spruce trees out front.

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Earlier iPhone Photo with Edits


I'm still loving my iPhone camera and having fun playing around with different photo edits. Now that the brilliant fall colors have disappeared, I toned down this Japanese maple branch.

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Saturday Sunrise from My Kitchen Window


I was up with the sun this morning standing at the kitchen sink getting the coffee going. The day got off to a colorful start but quickly turned overcast and gray. As this Saturday progresses I see blue skies, white puffy clouds and some bright sun starting to appear.

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Awesome Winter Sky at My Cottage !


click photo to enlarge
The sky got very beautiful for just a few minutes and I was able to grab my iPhone, run up to the attic, throw open the window with no screen and snap away. I'm amazed at the beauty that surrounds me when I'm not even looking. 

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Patiently Waiting for Pizza

  I popped a couple of Totino's frozen Party Pizzas in the oven for lunch. My mom and I love them. We always get triple cheese and add some toppings. Today I added feta cheese, green olives and the pimentos from the salad olives. The oven was preheated to 450 and I cooked them directly on the second from the bottom oven rack for 13 minutes. I used the wooden rack puller/pusher twice.
  This was a perfect cold weather Friday lunch without leaving the house. Webster enjoyed a crusty bite from each of us. 

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Webster Says


Any day that begins with an oatmeal pan is a good one. A while later I discovered this scene in the bedroom.

Please don't put the pan in the sink to soak yet. I'm not finished with it. Is this the dog equivalent of breakfast in bed? I know this looks like a dog bed but it is actually MY bed. The wonder dog jumped up on it with the pan in his mouth.

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Rainy Day at My Cottage


At least it isn't snow. I think it will be a good day for paperwork in my office before getting my hair cut this afternoon.

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Another Paperwhite Portrait


I have two stems of fully opened blossoms and they are nice and upright like soldiers standing at attention. I am so happy they aren't drooping and don't need staking.

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My Paperwhites are in Bloom

Narcissus papyraceus
I snapped this photo with my iPhone last night just before I tucked myself in to watch the first episode of Downton Abbey Season 2 on PBS last night. I was listening to NPR yesterday afternoon and they kept reminding everyone to watch DownTown Abbey. Whatever you want to call it you should definitely try to catch this 2-hour episode or watch it online before next Sunday.
I bought 15 paperwhite bulbs and started them the week before Christmas and only two are in bloom. One is in a bulb-forcing vase and the other is in soil. The one that is blooming in the clay pot with soil has another bulb beside it that has barely started to grow. I guess they have their own internal clocks. At this rate, I might have blooms in the house all the way up until Easter. This would be fine with me because they are very strongly scented. If they were all blooming at once you could easily fall over from perfume shock upon entering the room. How does your indoor garden grow?

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Decor for the New Year.

Now that the Christmas tree is down it's been fun playing house and doing some new tabletop decorating here at the cottage.
Mother Hubbard's cupboard is bare and poor lucky Webster had to eat Cheerios and cat food with soy milk for breakfast. Needless to say he was thrilled.

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Under the Ice

There was a brief period of cold weather earlier and the birdbath was a solid block of ice. I edited my iPhone photo with Snapseed.

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Sunrise at My Cottage This Morning

You have to be fast to capture the beautiful color of a sunrise around here. It can change dramatically in the time it takes to find your camera and go outside. It's going to be a nice day getting up to the low 50s. I have some real estate showings this afternoon. Cross your fingers for me and enjoy the weekend.

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Webster Likes Winter Too

You can always get warm in the winter if your human throws a wool blanket over you after you arrange the pillows the way you want them. You can't always get cool in the summer. Life is good here at the cottage. Have a great weekend. Goodnight.

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Blue Spruce

Another of my iPhone photos of a blue spruce bough with raindrops, the only decorations my evergreen trees ever get. I so admire people who make the effort during the holidays to decorate outdoors. I give them demerits though if they don't take them down pretty soon after Christmas. I am slowly undecorating my cottage and putting the boxes away for another year. 

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Wonderland Fungus

This fungus is getting curiouser and curiouser. I wonder if it's one that Alice ate? I'm certainly not going to taste it to find out. It's been growing on a tree at the edge of my woods for quite a long time and is a perfect subject for iPhone photos.

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Bracken House | Typical of Colonial Williamsburg


The main room in my cottage is one room deep. As I sit in my living room I can see views of both the front and back. It is so nice to be able to catch the breezes when the windows are open in nice weather. My kitchen is almost the same except for the small entrance vestibule. My front door is glazed at the top and there is a french door from the vestibule into the kitchen so I can still enjoy both exposures. Then I have a hallway off the living room that leads all the way back to my bedroom at the end of the house which is also one room wide. The bathroom is on one side of the hall and the guest room is on the other. I love the layout.

I have a center chimney with a fireplace in the living room. On the other chimney wall there are enclosed staircases going downstairs on one side and to the attic on the other.

The first two iPhone photos are from a book in my architectural library:
Colonial Williamsburg Its Buildings and Gardens
by A. Lawrece Kocher and Howard Dearstyne 1976

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In The Woods Last Fall

I am trying to post some earlier iPhone photo so I can delete them from my camera roll. I took this in October before we had that heavy snow that ended up breaking so many branches in the woods. We are having lovely weather in the low 40s today and I'm looking forward to a walk or two with the Wonder Dog a little later when the wind dies down. Enjoy your last vacation day before reality sets in again.


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Forcing Narcissus Bulbs

I started forcing my narcissus bulbs way before Christmas and they are just starting to come to life. It must have something to do with my thermostat setting which is pretty low. That's fine with me because they last much longer in a cool environment.
This arrangement is right beside "my seat" on the sofa. I hope you like my first iPhone photo of the new year.

I did a little photo editing with SNAPSEED for iPhone and iPad. It was the iPad app of the year for 2011. It's not that easy to use on the iPhone bacause of the small screen but it will be awesome when I get the iPad 3 when it comes out. This app normally costs $4.99 but it's FREE for a limited time. Download it HERE. Video lessons for Snapseed HERE -- keep scrolling. Click photos to enlarge.

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