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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

It's Been Fun




Three years ago I discovered
the wonderful land of
 "Blog".
 It was love at first visit.




It didn't take long for me to 
figure out how things worked
and before I knew it I was
considering starting
a Blog of my own.




I didn't have a clue what I 
was going to write about
but I did love taking pictures
and so I 'bit the bullet'
and jumped in.
 I had no idea what to expect. 





Nothing prepared me for the
excitement of seeing that 
first comment.

Many of you have the quote
"I LIVE FOR COMMENTS"
on your blogs...
it didn't take me long to 
realize how true that was.



One of the wonderful things 
Blogging has done for me
is to help me become 
a better photographer.
Funny how your view
of the world around you 
changes when you 
see it through your
"Bloggers eyes".

Subjects...details
light...shadows
FOCUS
all became much more
important to me.
And then of course I entered
the wonderful world of
Photoshop...Picmonkey
and all the rest.



Yes Blogging taught me
many things that I can use
in life outside "Blogland".

Most importantly though
Blogging opened
a whole new world of
creativity and kinship. 
 It's been wonderful
getting to know many of you
and seeing what your 
life is like in your corner 
of the world.
 

Life however needs to be lived.

I have been struggling with this
for quite some time.
Since the beginning of the year
I have felt as though Blogging
has been taking over my life.
 I'm not a multi-tasker.
I wish I was!
But I'm not.


And so I have made 
the decision to quit my Blog
and get on with life.
It was a tough decision
but I feel good about it...
relieved.

 

I will miss your sweet comments.

I will miss seeing your new
posts in my sidebar every day
but I will be visiting you
and commenting 
on your wonderful
Blogs
when I can. 

I will keep my 
 Lilac Lane Cottage
on Blogger for the time being.

I wish you all the best.

It's been fun.

Thank you everyone.  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS
Some of you may have noticed that my pictures
lately are stamped with 
Kisiwa Creek Photography
instead of Lilac Lane Cottage. 
I just wanted you to know that I do not have another Blog.
I did start a practice Blog with this name and I even
made a stamp for my photo's if I actually went ahead with it.
I then proceeded to hit a wrong button and loose my
Lilac Lane Cottage Photoshop brushes and never
found the time to make more. 
To add to my frustration once I made the practice Blog
everything I published on Lilac Lane Cottage and every comment
I have made on other's Blogs have shown up as
Maura @ Kisiwa Creek Photography.
I'm sorry for the confusion.

So
now if you see a comment
on your Blog from 
Maura @ Kisiwa Creek Photography...
you'll know it's me :)
XO
 
 



 

 

Monday, July 2, 2012

Summer Reading





I hope you are all enjoying
the summer!

I'm enjoying my "Blogging Break"
and getting things caught up 
around the farm
inside and out and I'm even 
getting time to do some reading.
 :)

Here's a book I just finished that I thought
some of you might enjoy...
it's called 
Heart To Heart / Hand In Paw
by 

This is a wonderful true story 
about an animal loving woman in her 40's
(Peggy's mother)
who moves to the woods of Vermont with her husband to build a log home and 
live off the land.

My kind of story!

However things don't always go
as planned and life isn't always easy.
 Peggy made me laugh and cry.
Through it all you come away with 
a deeper sense of how animals
are more than just our pets.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book
and it made me appreciate
how fortunate we are here
in our cozy little farmhouse
in the country.

Peggy
is also the author of
Dieting With My Dog.
 
 If you're looking for some
good summer reading I hope 
you'll consider this one.

Have a wonderful week!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Spindle Cottage

While I'm taking my "Blogging Break"
I thought you might enjoy 
watching this video of a sweet couple
from Somerset England
who LOVE to build garden sheds.
 
Talk about creative!
 
Don't forget to enlarge the video
and enjoy. 
 
:)

Monday, June 25, 2012

Taking A Break



The hot weather is here
so I'm taking a 
"Blogging break" 
to catch up on things
around the farm & in
the old farmhouse.

I hope the weather is
cooler where you are.
 :)

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Early Morning





It was a beautiful sunny morning
so I grabbed my camera
and snapped a few
pictures.

 

Starting on the back porch.
 


I'm still patiently waiting
for the screened porch
to be built.
 


It will happen one day...
too many other things
need tending too
before the porch reaches
the top of the priority list.
:)
 

Now on around the corner
to the Annabelle hydrangeas
along the front of the house.

They're struggling where they are
but I'll keep working on them
and hopefully one day they'll
be happy there. 
 


The wagon is near the arbor
and front gate. 

We have to do a bit of work 
in that area yet but it will
get done when the porch 
and new sidewalk go in.

One day 

;)
 

Now we're over to the veggie
garden. I've been waiting
for free mulch for a couple
of months but I got an email
this morning that they have some
...now they just need to let me
know where it is!! 


 
One day I hope to have most 
of the garden area covered with mulch
to help keep the grass and 
weeds out.



Right beside the veggie garden
 is the chicken coop/garden shed.

My favorite building
here on the farm.
 

It's a neat old building.
 


Now we're over to the little 
orchard. We have two pear trees
an apple a cherry and two 
plums. We had two peach
tree's and another cherry 
but they died. All the 
fruit trees are old.
I don't know what I was doing
when I took this top photo...
I sure wasn't thinking of focusing!

 

This is the other pear tree above,
it's a different kind of pear.
These get a brownish
skin on them. 

We've never been able to enjoy
our fruit trees 
because the trees were let
to grow too tall over the years
(not by us)
and just when the fruit is
ripening...the birds come!

They seem to know when 
we're not home because we've
never seen them do it
but we know it's them
because before the fruit is ripe
they'll come in flocks as if to 
test how ripe the fruit is.

Then I think they send out scouts
to see when we leave the farm
for the day.

Then they fly in for the 'kill'.

I'm sure of it.
 


More shots of the coop/garden shed
along with one of our other 
old buildings.
 

Finally we're back to the porch
and the Trumpet Vine
that you just can't kill.

This old vine was growing up a
dead tree right in that spot
when we moved here 3
years ago.

We cut the tree down
(it had termites)
and dug up the vine....or
so we thought.

Now it grows up 
the eagle weather vane
and is taking over the 
old porch.
 

I don't really mind...
I may just let it grow along the
new porch...one day.

I hope your week is a good one
so far.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Amish Barns & Changing Times


This past weekend
hubby and I
took a little trip to
Amish country to have supper
at the 
 Carriage Crossing Restaurant
in Yoder Kansas. 




It's not far...only about
20 miles away
and it's a pretty drive with 
a few rolling hills.

Most trips we are 
rewarded by seeing Amish 
buggies traveling down the road
but on this day sadly there were none.



We thought we'd do a bit of shopping
in the little town before we ate but
by the time we got there
the stores were closing.

It was 4:30 on a Saturday!

It's a sleepy little town
but the restaurant stays open
until 9pm.
 



The only two buggies we saw were
tied up to hitching posts but 
there were a lot of tractors in town
with trailers attached
and a large group of Amish enjoying
a meal under the roof behind
the post office.

 


See the tractor with the home made trailer
behind it in the picture above? 
 The Amish seem to be using this mode
of transportation more and more in this area.

Inside you will find chairs benches or
automobile seats that can be removed.
We even saw a child's car seat
in the back of a horse trailer pulled by 
a tractor. 

This day we saw a tractor
with no trailer
carrying an Amish family consisting of
mom dad and at least 4 children
driving down the road.

They were all hanging on to something
and to each other.

I felt a little sad to see them
traveling this way instead of in their
buggy but it was about 94 that day
so maybe it was their way of 
saving the horse from the heat. 



We enjoyed our supper and 
headed home.
 


Along they way we pass a tiny
Amish church and graveyard.

I was told by a sweet Amish lady
one day that this was a 
church that was holding to the old
ways. They were not allowing
rubber tires on their tractors or
any farm wagons...they must be
metal. She said the congregation
was declining. 

There is a larger Amish church
closer to town and I suppose
this is where those that 
want to 'modernize'
attend.
 


The old church




I realize that certain things make
life easier for all of us including
the Amish...
but to me it would be a sad day
if we no longer saw
these sweet people traveling the
roads with their beautiful 
horse and buggies.

It's nice to know that there are
those out there who still
live that simple old fashioned
way of life.



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