Busy Friday Dawn Til Dark

I was up with the sun this morning.

I got my third Covid booster before lunch and did a few errands. Then I came home and did my final mowing of the year and it looks so nice.

I started with the front and mowed over the leaves with my mulching walk behind mower on a low setting. I started with the front.

Just a random photo with a nice blue sky today.

It looks better in person than in this photo. The sky is better in this photo than the second one.

I really like the clouds over my red barn/garage. I am not dealing with all the leaves on the driveway down there and I might just leave them. Not sure yet.

View of the back 40 from my balcony. While I was standing here lots and lots of robins  gathered and were happily hopping about in the nice short grass. They are MY robins that were raised here. I love them so much. I keep the bird baths filled for them and love to see them splashing around. They are such enthusiastic bathers.

That All. The End.

Have a great weekend.

xo

A few Views

A fern in the woods.

A favorite woven ceramic trivet from Portugal.

A portion of the nook wall in my kitchen.

My bathtub is to the left. 

Small bathroom art gallery.

I walked at two o'clock in the afternoon and it was a beautiful day with blue sky and very mild in the 70s. It's supposed to last thru the weekend. I am not complaining either. 

xo

Heirloom Pumpkins and Gourds, Oh My!

I had a million things to do today and was out the door at 9:30. Everything fell into place nicely because I had planned my route perfectly. My last stop was the ShopRite for just a few things; celery and vegan mayonnaise. In case you haven't tried it, Hellmann's is absolutely delicious. 

I was skeptical at first but decided to try it and this is my third jar. I love it and really can't tell the difference from the original. I'm trying to watch my cholesterol! I can't remember but I might have purchased the smallest jar for my first purchase. I love mayonnaise and always have so I was surprised I liked this so much. I have tried others -- one made with Avocado oil (didn't like) and the contents separated.

Ok, getting back to the first 5 photos -- I parked very far from the front door of the grocery store so I could walk past the outdoor plant section. They had some beautiful heirloom pumpkins and gourds reduced from $6.99 each to $.99 each so I bought 8 of the best ones and I love them. I will save the seeds for next year when they begin to get soft. The birds will enjoy them too on the stump with the weathervane. I might even try cooking the two smooth ones. Anyway they are something I'll enjoy each time I go out the front door and you get some fresh new fall photos and no leaves.

One last photo taken inside my vestibule looking outside. Now you can see this wonderful sage green grayish heirloom pumpkin on the chair. 

xo

November Already?

Raindrops on clover leaves.

Watering cans being drained before being stored for the winter.

Looking up. This is a color photo.

Interesting color in the wetlands on a cloudy day.

The green is especially vibrant today.

So many vines to photograph.

Some trees are already bare but this one is holding on.

The red really pops on an overcast day.

So many leaves. I think they are beautiful♡🍁

UPDATE: Here is an end of the day (5:15pm) photo showing deer in the back. I used the most powerful zoom lens and this is as close as I could get while standing on my balcony. They were closer to the house but ran away when I opened the door to go outside. It cleared up after an overcast couple of days and it's good to see some blue sky again.

Walk over and I'm still enjoying photographing all the stages of fall. Can't quite believe it's November already but the calendar doesn't lie. There has been a lot of fog but mild temperatures requiring just a sweater. I know I will wake up one day soon to a hard frost but we've been spared one so far. All of today's photos are right out of the camera with no further editing. I am pleased and this is saving me a lot of time. Let me know when you've had enough and I will try to find another theme. 

xo

H A P P Y 🎃 H A L L O W E E N

I took this spooky photo at 8:45am when a dense fog rolled in. That's the sun over the trees. Of course I edited the photo, but only a little.👻  

Scary Fireplace found on Instagram HERE 

Very appropriate for a fire on Halloween.

xo

Sunday Ramblings

A real scallop shell on a boxtop with shell engravings.

A scallop shell coat of arms photographed from my 

Royal Book of Crests.

This is the huge rock Lisa D. asked about next to the mushroom on the right that is now broken halfway up the stem. The rock was once sticking out of my driveway just enough to be a problem for a snow plow. My mason dug it up never thinking it could possibly be this big. It was very heavy too but he did it.

Such a beautiful dark blue sky today.💙

A remnant from the days when I had a clothesline.

Pine tree, needles, and a colorful leaf.

Puffball (mushroom) is looking rather like leather.

Puffball looking toward my house. 

Giant sycamore leaf. It's so much fun to walk through these leaves because they have such a satisfying crunch underfoot. 

UPDATE: I posted a video (my first story on Instagram) of me walking toward my house thru another patch of very large crunchy leaves with sound. If you want to watch, click HERE and then click VIEW STORY. 

Be sure to turn on the sound.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/contentinacottagerosemarybeck/2961198633422189598/

Are you bored yet? Please let me know.

xo

Two Favorite Things on My Wall

Two things I love that hang behind my seat on the sofa in the living room. The shadows from two antique decanters are added interest. The gold framed item is a little crooked and I have straightened it. Taking photos around my house lately is requiring a lot of straightening and dusting you know! The dog painting is oil on board and the dog is a water spaniel. I took the photo after dark on night mode.

This 18th century hand drawn pen and ink birth record is from Hanover New Jersey and records the birth dates for Ellis and Sarah Cook and their children. This is the way I bought it and I was told it was a page from the family bible. The angel drawing across the top was a popular motif to carve on early American tombstones.

Have a great weekend.

xo

Storybook Mushroom in My Evergreen Grove

This is Day 2 for the discovery of this most unusual super large mushroom and the interior orange color has gotten very pale, probably bleached by the sun. The cup is filling up with dry spruce needles.

Day 1: I discovered it yesterday (Thursday) and the interior color was much more vibrant inside.

Day 1: Looking inside.

Day 1 photographed in early morning light.

I took this one on Day 2 on Friday afternoon (today). It's very large and I have never seen anything this unusual on my property and it definitely belongs in a storybook. I wish I knew more about it. I'm just so happy I found it. 

xo

Photo Edits on My Phone

I tried a great feature on my new iPhone. I was just playing around to see what it would do when I hard pressed on a photo, copied, and saved to my photos. This is the first one I tried. I was thrilled that it did an exact outline of this urn, the stand, and the geranium without the background.

Here is the full photo!

I have my phone on DARK MODE to conserve battery power.

I had to do a screenshot of the first photo to preserve the black background. So I can also have a white background on the first photo but the black is more dramatic since the urn is white.

I love learning new things when I get a new device. I always dig deep(ly) and find out things some people never learn. 

This feature will bring new life to old photos that have distinct outlines like this poppy from two or three summers ago! I bought a packet of seeds to sow in late winter or very early spring so I will have them again next summer. I adore their crepe paper petals.

This portrait of one of my cast iron roosters is fresh out of the camera. I snapped him on my way out the door for my early evening walk down to the wayback. The camera was on portrait mode with studio lighting. He looks very proud, doesn't he? That's all folks.

xo