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Saturday, January 28, 2012

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
:)


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

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 

over at the Cafe

Kim Klassen Café


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!







Monday, January 23, 2012

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


Please Join In:

I hope you enjoy visiting the other ladies
and soaking up some 'sunshine'
this January day!


Saturday, January 21, 2012

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

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!
:)










Tuesday, January 17, 2012

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 


for




I hope you'll pop on over and check
out all the other beautiful old barns :)

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