Corner View: January Colors

I had to think about this topic.

Sometimes I know immediately how I will interpret a topic,

but this wasn't the case this week.

I took a few photos of inside the house.

The only ornaments that are still out 

are these antique ones of my mother's.

I put the Christmas reds, greens, and golds away

 and added more of the pastels.

I like the effect.

{This is the first year I have had them out, even though I've had them for about seven years.

The ornaments were kept in a trunk for many years--am not sure where that is.

One of my brothers has expressed interest in them,

so this summer he and I will go through and divide them.}

I keep my snowmen out until mid-February.

They are mostly in burgundy,dark green, and white/cream, 

with a touch of sky-blue and deep-red.

This time of year, the outside colors are muted blues and browns

illuminated by the snow and with the evergreens adding a touch of color.

Even most of the birds that visit are of muted tones

like this little guy that flew in when I was snapping pictures.

(The view is from our living room bay window.)

However, a lone redbird honors us with his bright presence.

Isn't he cute with a seed in his beak and a bit of snow clinging to it?

He likes to run back in under these branches and eat his seed.

Then he scurries back out, grabs a seed, and hides once again.

(I did finally see his mate, but wasn't ready with the camera.)

Such are the colors in Southeast Ohio in January.

For more corner views on this topic,

hop on over to Francesca's Fuoriborgo.

Finally a post on Christmas 2013!

This was during our family Christmas celebration

the Sunday before Christmas.

Doug and his children (Addison, Peyton, Dillon) are on the left.

Sara, her husband Jory, and their two children(Aaron and Abigail) are on the right.

This is quite different from last year --- so much more room!

Aaron loves cake and it is a rare treat.

I think we have established a tradition: photos of Aaron each Christmas

savoring his cake(we celebrate his mom's birthday also).

This is him last year.

Here we are gathered around the table for dessert.

Presents have been opened 

and the chili, corn bread, and salad have settled.

I like this one because we are all laughing.

Here is Miss Abigail exploring our home

on their second visit.

She had changed so much from last year---

talking was the biggest change.

She does that A LOT (love it!)

In the above pic she has the dog's reindeer ears on with her big red bow.

I brought out one of the dress-up suitcases

and she put on this kimono.

She kept the reindeer ears on, of course.

We bought her a red hood for Ohio winter weather.

Thankfully, the brutal polar cold had not hit us yet.

Sara's dad usually picks them up

and I take them back.

We try to have lunch at Max and Erma's in the airport.

One last pic before they leave.

This was Christmas Day.

Corner View: A Good Read

The topic this week is "A Good Read."

I came home the last two days to packages waiting for me.

I had ordered three books in hard copy--two were only offered that way.

and the third I thought I might want to share with colleagues,

so I didn't go the Kindle route.

Two of them I read about in our newspaper.

It has a weekly column on the latest "good reads."

Last week Facing the Sunshine and Avoiding the Shadows

by Becky Johnen

was listed in the "Good Reads" ( not really its title) column.

Since education is undergoing immense change

and that change is causing all kinds of stress,

I thought this book might help.

The following book was recommended in a weekly column

by a naturalist.

{Several blogs have had an influence on me 

in motivating me to get more in touch with nature.

One of those is Susie's blog "Just a Moment"

I have been following it for several years now.}

Anyhow, Gone for the Day sounded like something I would enjoy

and something that might motivate me to have even more contact with nature.

The author Ned Smith is long gone, but his field notes and sketches,

as well as his newspaper columns, remain.

This was a book published by a nature organization back in the 70's.

It is still popular today.

However, the book actually being critiqued and recommended

was the book another naturalist put together

of hundreds of more notes, sketches, and articles by Ned Smith.

I decided to order the first one and then possibly get the second.

This is the catalog from which I order books for my grandkids.

The selection and details of each book are awesome.

The books have become part of a special collection

my daughter keeps for her two children.

The Amazing Machines is a set I got my grandson Aaron and it has been a huge hit.

For more views on "good reads," hop
on over to Francesca's Fuoriborgo.

Corner View: Darkness and Light

This was our house during the Christmas holidays.

Our house is set back quite a bit from the road,

so we have lots of privacy.

However, you could see it as soon as your rounded the bend in the road

with its white lights and the Christmas tree.

Our neighborhood went all out for Christmas decorations---

Three-fourths of the subdivision had Christmas lights on their houses.

A fiend of mine drove out in our neighborhood on a whim Christmas eve

and later told me that nowhere else in our small town

were there so many decorating participants in a concentrated area.

I enjoyed walking our dog and looking at the lights.

Most lights are down and put away now.

Ours are.

M. took advantage of a warm spell(30 degrees -ha!)

and took them down and put them away until next year.

(It is now 6 degrees out and was down in the negative digits---

no school for the first two days of this week.)

I like how these photos show the light smack dab in the middle of the darkness--

thus I thought these would work for the topic "Darkness and Light."

Our front entry is actually on the side of the house.

The front door opens up into one end of the long living room

that takes up the entire front of the house.

There is a beautiful bump-out of bay windows

and that is where our Christmas tree went.

The folks before us installed bright lights

to help in getting from the garage to the house..

M. now remembers to switch them on

 if I'm not home by 5 PM;

I had difficulty one night because of the total darkness

and he was gone so the house was almost completely dark 

on the inside too.

The lights coming from the first floor are from two large windows

in our kitchen.

They are on each side of a Vermont stove,

which right now is working quite hard

at keeping the kitchen warm.

This photo shows the beam of one of the large outdoor lights.

You can also see the light from our master bedroom's windows.

I have not been writing much on the Internet--just have been bogged down 

with the other stuff of life,

and often when I have a moment of quiet, 

I retreat into a good book.

{I'm presently reading the 4th installment 

in the No. 1 Detective Ladies' Detective Agency series.

It is called The Full Cupboard of Life.

The series take place in Botswana

and thus transport me to a different world.}

However, I always try to participate in Corner View.

Check out Francesca's place for more corner views.

They will be up early tomorrow.

Corner View:Adult Blankie

The topic was chosen by me.  It was to be 'adult blankie' for that something that we have kept and find comfort in.  I gave an alternative topic in case it was thought that the blankie one might be difficult.  Well,

it 'got lost in translation' because the two were strung together somehow-at least in some cases.  But that's one of the cool aspects of corner view: we interpret the topic as we see fit and thus bring uniqueness 'to the table'.

My 'adult blankie' is a sweater - actually three sweaters. They all belonged to my father who was 6'3" and around 300 pounds.  I am 5'6" and nowhere close to 300 pounds, so the sweaters do not even remotely fit. But I wear them anyway.  I keep one in my locker at school (pictured to the above), one on the back of the bathroom door here at the farm house, and one on a hook in the hallway of our trailer at the lake(I don't have a pic of it).

The one at school I put on when I am cold and have not layered up for the day so am in need of a extra layer.  I also wrap up in  it when I put my feet up and take a quick nap before driving home.

I wear the blue one pictured below over whatever I am wearing around the house. I have it on over my pjs as I type this(I stayed home from school today).
I have just recently started going through the memorabilia of my parents ---particularly my dad's sermons.  I can now do it without being rendered useless by tears.  I have held onto things that I should have sent to a brother so he could organize them (dad's sermons).  I just couldn't 'deal' with the sorting and packing and letting go.

The sweaters never bothered me like the other things did.They have always simply brought comfort---thus the 'adult blankie' topic.

I am late in putting this out and Francesca has moved on to another post.

However, you can still access corner view and see how everyone
interpreted the topic.  Click on Fuoriborgo and visit.

[I usually have jeans and a t-shirt or pjs on when I wear the blue sweater.  But I wanted to get a picture and did not want it to be me in my pjs.  So I had my husband take one of me when I got home from school yesterday.]

corner view: view on my street

If you had driven on our street past our house two weeks ago and had been very alert, you would have seen this 'guy' over in our front yard.  My husband's nephew, who he consulted, said that the buck was just getting a bit of a rest during mating season.

This is the view from our living room looking out 

over the front yard and field

to the house across the street.

Here is that same view

after it began to snow last week.

This is the other house across from us.

Every house in this addition has to be 

on at least an acre for leach bed and septic tank rules.

The home you're viewing

is on two or three acres.

(We have eight.)

For more views on streets from all over the world,

go to Francesca's Fuoriborgo

.

Corner View: Pets

We have had a sister and brother set of cats

for ten years now.

A friend rescued the pair

with me in mind.

It was a perfect match!

They have moved with me from Seneca Lake to Cincinnati

and to two different homes in Barnesville.

Hopefully this farm house is their last move

and ours too!

Scruffy loves to sit in window sills

or curl up in just about anything.

George isn't a 'curler' - he prefers stretching out when he rests.

For the past year his favorite reclining position on the couch is

upside-down!

We recently added a dog to our family.

We adopted her from a Siberian Husky rescue.

The woman has a waiting list from animal shelters

but can only handle six at a time.

I saw Ginger online at Howl at the Moon Siberian Husky Rescue.

The rescue home was about an hour from us.

One evening Mike and I drove there after making an appointment

to meet Ginger.

We bonded immediately.

She came right to me and licked my face.

The lady was surprised because Ginger had never done that before.

Ginger is a one-year-old red and white Siberian Husky.

She has the brown eyes of the breed, not the strange blue ones.

She had had everything done and was micro chipped, crate-trained,

and housebroken.

We took her home that night 

and she fit right in.

We love her.

And I especially am happy now that I have 'my dog'.

She lies on a blanket on our couch,

but prefers Mike's old jacket.

In the above picture we are both happy:

the couch is covered and she has her comfort coat.

With a bought bone the first night here.

In our front yard last night

after the "big winter storm" (not so big that first day).

The cats have had a time adjusting.

They were not thrilled,

but have resigned themselves to Ginger being a permanent part

of our household.

I think they hoped she'd go 'home' after a few days,

like my son's dog does after we have dog sat.

But she didn't!

They have stopped hissing at her and will now rub noses.

But neither one will curl up next to her yet.

I think that will eventually occur.

For more corner views on pets,

please go to Francesca's Fuoriborgo.

Corner View:Favorite clothes

My favorite clothes are my skirts.

I prefer wearing skirts and simple tops

to wearing slacks.

I grew up wearing dresses/skirts

and my first year of college was at a strict, Christian school

where pants were not permitted for daily wear to classes, the library,

and even the cafeteria.

A routine was born and it has remained.

It's much harder to find slacks that fit right

and a skirt is so 'forgiving' of those areas

that pants reveal as being less than satisfactory.

These colorful skirts are worn throughout spring and summer

and I'm still wearing some now that fall is here.

They are much cooler than slacks in the summer heat.

This one is a bit more tailored

and thus cannot always be worn (when an extra pound or two shows up).

My only button-down one.

It has a full skirt, but the button waistband doesn't like extra pounds either.

I have most of my fall/winter skirts out.

My two basic ones are a brown and a black (not shown) suede-like material

that are wonderful 'boot' skirts.

This is one of only two a-line skirts.

I prefer the fuller ones.

It is wool.

For more favorite clothes from around the world,

head on over to Francesca's Fuoriborgo.

Corner View: Self-protrait

Today's topic is "self-portrait" or "selfie."

I took these last night after a day of teaching.  

Our best mirror is in the downstairs bathroom.

Selfie: holding the camera and aiming for my face.

For more on this, go on over to Francesca's place.