One of my greatest winter pleasures is seemply thinking of how wonderful it is--and how blessed I am--to have a nice cozy warm living room to enjoy.  (A lot of this attitude probably stems from those years as a poor college student afraid to turn up the thermostat, some from reading so many pioneer-era stories, and some from actually camping or ( Read more... )

I have no roses to try this, but it was something I just read about and thought others might be interested: You can make lasting rose-scented beads from a puree of rose blossoms! When prepared in an iron vessel, the puree turns black--but retains the lovely rose scent--and then you let it dry to form a clay-like substance from which you form beads ( Read more... )

"I used to love this cottage home, because it was so quiet, and in the summer time so delighting to me. I believe I received some of my very first lessons in the love of nature in this place.

It was a charming summer or winter retreat. If the sun shone warmly down anywhere, it was here. If the wind blew kindly anywhere, it was around the snug ( Read more... )

It is a cool, cloudy, wet day after an earlier morning rain. Such days were made for warm mugs of coffee.

I've been working overtime at work on a project due to be completed Thursday. I took some pieces home today to do some rare weekend work. (Usually I reserve my weekends for recuperation from such weeks, but deadlines must be met.)

( More about lawn and garden, this way . . . )