Beautiful Yellow Barn

Lately I've featured green barns and red barns. I've never seen a yellow one, have you?

It's lovely, isn't it? It would be cheerful to look at on the dreariest of days. I am supposed to have three straight days of on and off again rain but I have sun this morning. Happy Friday. xo via

Book Borrower Warning

Black is the Raven, Black is the rook, But Blacker is the rougue who returns not this book.
A wonderful warning written around 1839 in the front of an 1810 copy of Robinson Crusoe.
Have you ever loaned a book that was never returned? via

A Tulip for You

Soon there will be tulips. In the meantime, you can enjoy this animated gif. via

Webster's Shadow

I took this photo yesterday when the late afternoon shadows were very long. He kept moving and I was lucky to get a halfway decent pic of his alter ego, The Big Bad Wolf. He is fast asleep on the sofa as I drink my morning coffee. As soon as I finish my last sip, I'll make breakfast for both of us. The terrible wind we had yesterday has died down. We didn't get any snow either....yay. South Jersey got 6 inches. I am so thankful. Have a great Thursday and I'll see you later. xo

Found a Patch of Snowdrops

I found this nice patch of snowdrops on the edge of the woods. I took this photo on Webster's after dinner walk and it was so very cold. The wind has been howling but we didn't get any snow overnight and for that I am grateful. As soon as it gets a little warmer, I'm going to transplant these harbingers of spring to the front of my house so I can enjoy them more. Did the snow fairy skip over you too?

Doc Martin is on tonight!!! Yay. I'm going to catch up on Father Brown beforehand. Hope you enjoy your evening too. xo

Before There Were Birth Certificates

This is a framed birth record I have hanging on my wall in the living room. I bought it from a New Jersey dealer about 35 years ago and still love it. It is a page from a family Bible recording the 18th century birth date of all the family members. Someone kept it up until 1834 and then the record keeping fell by the wayside.

Here is a closer look. Isn't thehe penmanship exquisite? This also falls into the folk art category because of the folky angel and decorative flourishes across the top. It's a wonderful glimpse into 18th century family record keeping.

Best Baby Goose ever

I absolutely love this little gosling, don't you? It was taken by a registered nurse on Long Island and she crawled thru goose poop to get close and not disturb the geese. It was worth it to get such an adorable photo, don't you think? photo by Lisa Franceski She though this little one looked like a referee calling "Touchdown".

Lily of the Valley

I took this photo last year and I really babied my lily of the valley to urge them to spread. I won't be seeing them anytime soon because there is still about 4" of snow in their garden spot in front along my brick wall. I have snow drops coming up in another location on the other side of the drive way near the spruce trees. They are in the bud stage and haven't opened. I found another big patch in the woods where I throw my weeds. I'm going to dig them up and plant them where I can see them. It's a gray cloudy day and we are supposed to get snow after midnight but not too much, they say. Fingers crossed.

Waiting for More Snow

I took this photo two days ago and that little patch of snow that refuses to melt is still there and it's definitely "waiting for more" as my mother used to say. This tangled mess of thorn bushes and wild grape vines looks like a giant bird's nest, doesn't it? The weight of all the snow we had mashed it all down. You can't keep a good wild barberry bush down though. In no time they will spring back to life and provide good cover for small wildlife. This area is rather like Brer Rabbit's briar patch.

Wow, This is Cool

I wish I could say I did this myself, but Google did it for me. Remember when they put falling snow in one of my photos recently? When I set up a program to have access to pictures on my phone directly from this blog page, there was something called Auto Awesome. I checked it and this is what they did to several sunrise photos I took from my bedroom window. Awesome!