For The Love Of Stone

What is it about stone homes and cottages that makes

us love them so much?

They are stone buildings...hard and cold!

Is it the feeling of permanence that we get when we see those beautiful stone walls and chimneys?

How can a building so solid make us feel all warm and cozy?

Maybe its the quaint shapes of some of the structures.

In some cases maybe it's the simple lines with texture that we admire.

Love the roofline of this cottage above and the texture of the stones. Can you imagine how

the ceiling in the upper bedrooms would be!

This beautiful stone house above may be plain but look at the wonderful texture and colors of the walls and the random use of stone size!

Love that fence too.

Una Bhan Tourism Co-operative Society

The curved wall and roof is so different.

I love unique...how about you?

Kingsley Daniels

Look at the texture in those walls...how do the stone masons make the lines level when they use different sizes like that?!

Photo by Feliciano Guimaraes

Now this is one I wouldn't want to live in but I thought I'd throw it in because it was so different. It's in Portugal. Look at that cute little window above the door!

channel4.com

Now I could live here for the rest of my life.

Imagine sitting out on that deck and looking out at the water with a cup of coffee or tea in your hand watching the sunrise in the morning. Or how about a wonderful glass of wine watching the sunset?

Awesome.

I hear the loons already. 

Even if stone houses look a little cold...I wouldn't mind one bit if I could come in and sit in front of something like this....

telegraph.co.uk

Or this...

multifuelwoodburner.co.uk

And of course this....

Photo from the movie The Holiday

Oh yes...I could LIVE in front of this warm fire

in this cozy cottage even if it isn't real.

How about you...would you enjoy living in a

stone cottge?

Maura :)



(All photo's taken from the internet. If any of these pictures are yours and you would like me to delete them or add your name please contact me and I will gladly do so.)

Cottage Hunting in England

I am sure that I'm not the only one who feels that selling my house and then searching

for another is an adventure.

To me and I'm sure to many of you ...it's the

'thrill of the hunt'

that makes it exciting.

You never know what sweet 'treasure' is

out there waiting for you to call it 'HOME'.

My sister in England ...and her husband are

trying to sell their home and move

closer to their children and grandchildren.

The kids live in a charming little village

far enough away from London to feel

like they are in the country but just

20 minutes on the train and they are in the city.

Can you imagine how exciting that would be...hunting

for a little cottage in a small English village that is close

enough to travel back and forth to the city for work

or just to shop for the day!

Oh my.

I know my sister doesn't find this as exciting as I do

but then she's lived in England all her life and has

worked in London since she was a teenager.

I guess the 'adventure and romance' of the whole experience isn't quite the same for her.

That's ok...what she lacks in adventure...I'll make up for

with excitment!

When I think of English cottages I think of cozy little homes with wonderful character like the home my sister lives in now.

I think one of my favorite 'visions' of the perfect cottage

is the one found in the movie

The Holiday.

Have you seen it?

 

The cottage from 'The Holiday'.

The Entry

I love the front door.

The Living Room

Another view of the living room

The kitchen...love the fireplace and those blue cupboards!

The little library. I love all the built in shelves.

The bedroom..love the bed and fireplace.

The bathroom. Think of the wonderful 'soak' you could have in that tub!

I doubt very much my sister will be looking for a

cottage in the country like this one but I'm

having fun dreaming about it.

Good Luck Sis!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Maura :)

All photo's are from Hooked On Houses

Cats Bees Digging Holes and Dust storms

Oliver

It's been busy around the farm this past long weekend.

Now that we've sold one of our farm buildings Mr Fixit has had some major work to do moving water lines etc as the bladder tank for water to the house was in that building. This morning he moved it to the house.

The building we just sold is 40'X180'

Thank heavens the people who bought it will be taking it down!

If you think this one his huge...we have another building that is 30'X240'!

Earlier this weekend he borrowed a 'trencher' and dug trenches all over the yard for 'risers' which are where we get water to water the animals or gardens etc. He put in 5 so we should be in good shape for keeping the lawns green next year. He also ran a new water line to the house.

Thank heavens for our tractor with the backhoe and friends with trenchers!

So now the yard is a mess with trenches that need filling and dirt all over the place plus for the last two days the wind has been howling and we got a good taste of what it was like during the dust storms of the dirty 30's.

What a mess!

I thought I had closed all the windows but unfortunately one was open about 3 inches...so now there is dust everywhere in the house!

Oh well I may as well wait until all the work is done and then do my fall cleaning which is a pain because I cleaned the house from one end to the other before we went on vacation last month!

What was left of our barn after the fire

Last Wednesday we had some fellows come and take away all the metal that was left on the farm by previous owners and what was left of the old barn after the fire. They were here 3 days and they should be back today to pick up the remains of the barn. I'll be glad to see the mess gone so we can move on from here. I really do miss that old barn.

Despite all the mess and work it's been a nice long weekend.

I managed to take some pictures around the farm and some fun ones of the cats. So I hope you'll enjoy the pictures seeing what we've been up to.

Lizzy can sleep anywhere

Poor girl wasn't happy I woke her up to take her picture

We have a bee hive in our corn crib. We'd like to restore it so this winter we'll try and move them to a manmade hive outside. We don't want to loose them though as they keep all the fruit trees well pollinated. While hubby and I were laying water lines I heard a noise and looked over to the corn crib and this is what we saw.

I guess the queen must have been moving around in the wall so they were stirred up.

They soon settled down.

I went out to take pictures of all the dust but got side tracked when Olly came out to see me.

He's such a goof ball!

Handsome fellow.

So I look forward to another week but at least a short one. The weatherman is predicting a 30% chance of storms over the next few days so we'll see if he's right this time.

Goodness knows we could sure use it.

Until then...I need to get outside and back to work filling trenches in this beautiful cool weather.

I hope you have a wonderful week.

Maura :)

Our Old Barn Caught Fire

It's been a sad day.

 Today (Wednesday) my husband phoned the fire department and asked for permission to burn our brush pile. It was a pretty calm day so they said for him to go ahead.

I guess a spark from the fire floated up over our metal building and landed on our old barn with the wood shingled roof.  The only one on the property.

By the time he saw it was on fire it was too much for our hose so my hubby told me to call the fire department. We live 7 miles from two towns so it takes a few minutes to get here but they still came mighty fast. In all we had one smaller fire truck, one tanker, one larger fire truck, EMS (for the firemen) two police cars and one police truck along with numerous other pick up trucks of volunteer fire fighters.

It was a teary time for me as I watched it burning.

We had planned on restoring it one day.

But...no one was hurt, nothing of value other than the barn was ruined and as far as I can tell all the chickens are accounted for. The silly critters were behind the barn when all this was going on!

Anyway all is well...we're a little shook up but grateful it wasn't the chicken coop or any of the other buildings we have things in and most especially it wasn't our home.

Yes we have a lot to be grateful for.

I hope your day is a good one

Maura