Dreaming Of Spring

Even though it may not seem like it

to most of us...

spring is just around the corner.

It won't be long until our gardens

show signs of life.

Some of you are already enjoying

spring blossoms and flowers

but for the rest of us

we'll have to wait a bit longer.

Last spring I started work on our

shade garden

and this fall I planted

50 daffodil bulbs.

I hope they survived the dry winter.

I watered yesterday.

I have dreams of one day having

a garden similar to the garden

I planted in the city.

I shared this garden with you when

I first started blogging.

I thought I'd share it with you again.

We had built a new porch on our old home 

in the summer of 2003 and in the fall 

we put up the picket fence and arbor.

I planted the garden that fall.

This was the garden's first spring.

Above is the little garden shed we built

at the back of our old house. 

To the right..out of the picture is our

screened porch on the back of the house.

Hubby eventually built a picket fence

here and I planted a little garden

and laid pavers.

We moved before we built 

window boxes.

Flowering shrubs at the back of the old house.

We have packed that pile of rocks

3 times 

and now they 

reside here on the farm 

along with a bunch more we dug

up from the foundation that was under

the old barn. 

I framed one garden bed with some of the 

larger stones but I have more

gardens to do.

Poor hubby ;)

Hubby built my 'old' wheel barrow

out of old parts and wood.

I still have it but it's seen better days.

You can see a little bit of the 

window boxes hubby made for me

on the front of the house.

Eventually this front garden

was filled with 

David Austin old fashioned roses

that climbed over the arbor 

and the end of the porch

and many other old 

fashioned flowers.

Some survived the Kansas heat

some didn't. 

Now I'm starting all over here on the farm.

I doubt my garden will be as full as

this became but that's ok.

I'll enjoy it anyway.

I hope you enjoyed this repeat tour

of our old gardens.

Have a wonderful weekend

:)

Texture Tuesday

The Old Rose Bush

It was planted with love by someone who 

lived on this old farm many years ago.

They had dreams of seeing it grow and

flourish and thrive.

Maybe they had dreams of sweet

scented bouquets

placed around the farm cottage.

Perhaps they envisioned the beautiful

blossoms climbing up

the side of a trellis as it was

planted next to the porch.

We'll never know the story of this old rose

but I feel it is our duty...

a privilege... 

to continue to care for 

and nurture this beautiful rose

so that those who follow in the years

to come will enjoy her beauty

as much as we do.

It's TEXTURE TUESDAY once 

again and I am joining

with 

Kim Klassen

over at the Cafe

Here is the photo I used for the texture

today.

Our photo had to be centered around 

 the prompt/theme 'STORY'.

I used Kim's Simplicity texture

once at 100% 

then again at 29%

after turning the saturation down -56%

and lightness to +5

Here are the two photo's again a 

little closer together.

I wish I could figure out how

to do the 'mouse over'.

If you love photography 

and would love to try and learn

to be creative with your photo's

but you're not sure what to do....

please visit Kim's web site...you'll be

glad you did. 

Believe me...if I can do it...so can you!

Kim will start you off with the basics 

with easy to follow tutorials

plus she offers classes that will take your

plain old photo's to wonderful works of art.

I warn you though...it's addictive!

I hope you'll stop by and see what other

Bloggers just like you have created 

with Kim's textures.

Have a great week!

A Taste Of What's To Come

We had a good weekend...not much

went on but the snow/rain

that was predicted 

earlier

in the week

never materialized.

In one way I think that's great

but we really could

use a good heavy snowfall 

or rainfall to get us out of the drought.

This time of year most of us need

a good 

'pick me up'

or maybe a

reminder of what's to come.

So...I thought I'd post a few photo's

of flowers that I took here on the farm

over the past 2 years.

I hope they brighten your day!

Our Lilac Lane

One of our old chicken feeders

Old roses that were here on the farm

when we moved here.

What you drive up when you come to the farm house.

Well here are a few of my old photo's

that I hope you enjoyed looking at.

I hope they made you smile and 

maybe think about what's to come

in a few months.

I hope your day is a sunny one

:)

I'm linking with Karen for

Sunlit Sunday

I hope you enjoy visiting the other ladies

and soaking up some 'sunshine'

this January day!

Random Photo's And A Surprise From France

Our weather has been cold and breezy

so we have been home-bound

and only go out when

 we absolutely

have to.

Horses, chickens and barn cats etc

are about the only things that

make us brave

the cold.

I'm sure my family up in Canada

is snickering over this ;)

Because of the cold I haven't ventured

outside much to take photo's

so I decided to post

some of the random

inside photo's I've taken 

over the past couple of years.

Before I do that though I'd like

to show you what was in a parcel 

I received last week. 

It came all the way from

FRANCE

and was a gift from my wonderful 

Blogging friend

Catherine

She is a real sweetheart.

In the parcel was a lovely French

sugar canister

A heavy linen dish towel

And some delicious hard candy made in

the village near where Catherine lives.

Here's another look at the canister.

~ Thank you Catherine! ~

I absolutely love every thing

and I have sampled the candy

and it is delicious!

:)

Above and below are photo's

I have taken around the cottage. 

I know most of you have 

seen a good number of these photo's

or similar ones

sorry...I hope you don't mind 

me showing them again.

I hope the weather where you are

isn't too bad and that you are

able to get outside

and enjoy the

winter.

COME ON SPRING!

:)

Old Photo's And Barn Charm Tuesday

This is a picture of our old barn.

Some of you will remember the

post I did on this a while back.

It needed a lot of work

but we were up to the task 

and planned to restore it

by putting on a new roof 

and removing the metal siding

to reveal the beautiful old barn red

wood siding.

It had Dutch doors on both ends

and in the middle was a door going into

a large room that was open

all the way to the ceiling.

There were two perches

up there for barn owls.

The second time we went to 

look at the farm before we bought it

I watched 

hubby walked into that middle

door and a few

seconds later I saw a huge old

barn owl fly out that same door.

Hubby is deaf and so didn't hear

the owl or see it! 

Above is a big old raccoon 

hiding on one of the perches.

He looks small but believe me

he was HUGE.

I think he was looking forward

to a chicken dinner that evening.

Here's a few of the old barn details.

I loved this old building and working

on this post made me a little sad

as we lost this old beauty 

to fire 

in 2010.

Hubby was burning a brush pile 

on the other side of a huge metal building

that we removed the following year.

It was a hot day with a light breeze

and we figure a spark must have

drifted over the metal building

and landed on the barns old wooden

shingle roof.

The fire department got it out 

before we lost the building but

there must have been a 'hot spot' 

that both the fire department and 

hubby and I

missed as two days later a wind

set it up in flames again.

This time the fire was too 

fast for us and all 

the fire department could do

was to keep it from catching our old

chicken coop on fire and the old lean-to.

Thank heavens no animals were lost

and no people were hurt.

I felt bad for the fire fighters as 

it was the hottest day so far that summer.

I really miss that old barn.

Now there is a big open space where

the old barn once sat 

on it's old stone foundation and

our garden sits on the backside of this

fence.

Somehow the old farm lost some of 

it charm the day we lost the barn.

It's never felt quite the same.

I'm joining up with Tricia over at 

BLUFF AREA DAILY

for

I hope you'll pop on over and check

out all the other beautiful old barns :)