Late Shadows on My Cottage

We had a much needed rain overnight and will have showers and maybe some hard rain today. I will be stuck in real estate school all day for mandatory education for license renewal. It will be a long day. See you later. I get these shadows on my cottage as the sun goes down to the west.

Bunny Eating Long Grass in My Yard VIDEO

I haven't cut my grass in over two weeks because we have had no rain. I have a family of rabbits out back and one of them likes the corner of my front yard closest to my front door. I took a short video of him eating grass there a few minutes ago.
See it HERE.

Dining Room Watercolor

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Interior design dining room watercolor.

Splash splash. Bluebird taking a bath.

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Splash splash. Bluebird taking a bath.
#bluebird #birdbath #mycottage #bestbluefriends #ig #happysunday

A Modern Farmhouse with House Tour

I love all of the exterior photos of the farmhouse pictured above. There is a very comprehensive house tour of the interior too HERE. The idea of a tour is to embrace the things you love and ignore the things you don't. If you get one good idea, that's great! Have a wonderful weekend. xo

Great bumper sticker on a Mini Cooper.

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Great bumper sticker on a Mini Cooper.
#bumpersticker #minicooper #lovepeople #cookgoodfood #ig

All of The Canning Jar Cookies

Here's the whole lot of cookies being sold as they were decorated. I think these are supposed to depict fireflies inside a jar. I used to have one on my night table almost every night when I was a kid. Have a great weekend.

Summer. Canning jar cookies.

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Summer. Very cute danning jar cookies. These must have been fun to decorate!

#bakery #theartistbaker #ladybug #icedcookies #cookies #ig #summer #canningjar #cute

New Favorite Place

Cantaloupe juice with mint. So delicious and refreshing. It was nice and thick like slush. I am going to try to make this at home in my Cuisinart. Just wonderful!

Wish I had one this morning.

I went out to lunch yesterday with my friend Kelly. We went to The Artist Baker in Morristown where everything was made from scratch. I should have purchased these scones for my breakfast this morning but sadly, I did not. Kale with Cheddar Cheese! Sounds delicious too.

Oak leaf hydrangea at A Friend's Home

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Oak leaf hydrangea at the home of my friend. She has so many of these lovely native shrubs and they are all simply covered with cone-shaped flower heads. Do want!

#oakleafhydrangea #nativeshrubs #thriving #loadedwithblooms #ig #floweringshrub #hydrangea

Large antique zinc architectural urn.

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Large antique zinc architectural urn. Was once on the dormer of a grand building in Newark New Jersey. 

#antique #architectural #salvage #zinc #urn #mine #historicalbuilding #ig #njhistory

Fabric Wall Covering + A Brass Wallswitch

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Wonderful fabric wall covering. 

Leaf Detail

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Love the raised vein pattern on the back of this leaf. Mother Nature is the best designer. 

Nice Summer Sky after Sunset

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Sky with nice clouds after sunset.
#sunset #viewfrommybalcony #summersky #scenicnj #goodnight #ig #clouds

Smoothie in a bowl.

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Smoothie in a bowl. Too lazy to wash the blender this morning. It was delicious and very refreshing thanks to the frozen blueberries. 

#breakfast #unsmoothedsmoothie #ig #smoothie

Summer Cold

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I hab a subber code. 😷  So annoying. I forgot all about the neti pot until today. They say a cold peaks on day four. Wish me luck.

#summercold #netipot #himalayansalt #homeremedy #dayfour #itsworking #holistic #mybathroom #interiordesign #ig #feelbetteralready

Juvenile Bluebirds at My Birdbath

I took quite a few photos of these young bluebirds and decided to show you more.

I didn't know they were bluebirds at first. They visited this site the day before these photos were taken and there was a lot more water in the bowl. They were quite skittish testing the depth of the water to make sure they wouldn't drown. The next day they took the plunge after the sun had evaporated the water to their preferred depth. This was thrilling to watch. I hope these juveniles come back and I'm sure they will. Have a great Monday. xo

ENDEAVOUR Tonight, Season 3, PBS

I have already set my DVR.

Shaun Evans returns for a third season of the popular PBS series as the young Endeavour Morse, before his signature red Jaguar but with his deductive powers already running in high gear. In four new films, Endeavour must deal with the aftermath of the tragic events that left him languishing in prison, and his senior officer DI Fred Thursday (Roger Allam) with a life-threatening injury.

It's on tonight in my area 9:00-10:30. It is followed by a new 30-minute series called THE TUNNEL. It's about British and French detectives brought together after a body is discovered in the Channel Tunnel. I set my recorded for that too! Finally something to watch. So happy.

Bridle Path Adjacent to My Cottage

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Newly mown bridle path. Tell your horse. I helped earlier in the year by chopping down countless multi flora bushes. 

Juvenile bluebirds at Birdbath

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Juvenile bluebirds return for a drink and a bath. Hatched at my cottage.

Great weekend weather! 🌞☀️🌞

My Saturday Morning Instagram post.
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Happy Saturday. Great weekend weather! 🌞☀️🌞

All the peonies are gone.

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All the peonies are gone. Missing them a lot. #fbf #flashbackfriday #peonies #mycottage #ig

Wonderful Fireplace Treatment

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Fine woodworking around this fireplace.

#fireplace #mantel ##finewoodworking #interiordesign #realestate #openhouse #ig #giantacorns #moulding #raisedpanel #geese #firescreen #architectural #elements

Painted Porch Floor

You know how much I love a painted floor and this one is exceptional! Happy Friday. This would be a nice place to wile away the weekend, wouldn't it? My life has been devoted lately to weeding, weeding, and more weeding. My birds are wonderful this year and I've been pulling weeds by hand. I don't spray and my gravel driveway is looking better. See you later. xo

photo source

Back View of House w/ Garden Shed

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This is the back of the main house looking toward the garden shed. Front view is gorgeous too. #realestate #newvernon #hardingtownship #nj #weichert #myoffice #countryestate #zipcode07976 #31acres #oldguard #farmland #ig

Wonderful Garden Shed

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Look inside said the garden shed. So I did. The house was amazing too.

#gardenshed #realtoropenhouse #love #gardening #dowant #ig #weichert #myoffice

Just a lovely geranium leaf. 🌱🍃🌿🍃🌱

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Just a lovely geranium leaf. 🌱🍃🌿🍃🌱

Rosemary topiaries in training. Learning from the mother plant. 🌱🌱🌱

Newly planted Rosemary root cuttings in old miniature cast iron urns getting some early morning sun on my balcony.

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Rosemary topiaries in training.
Learning from the mother plant. 🌱🌱🌱
#rosemary #cuttings #roots #startedinwater #free #topiary #ig

Ladies in Lavender -- DVD Movie Recommendation

I watched this movie over the weekend and LOVED IT. For some reason I decided to look in the Foreign Films section at the library and it was filled with movies made in Great Britain in English with no subtitles. I was so happy!

Maggie Smith and Judi Dench are wonderful as is the story and the scenery. Look for it at your library or find it on Netflix. You can thank me later! Click the second photo to enlarge and read the description. xo

Best realtor open house food ever.

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1WMPxY3 Best realtor open house food ever. Catered by @slamwichscratchkitchen in #madisonnj Thanks to Laurie Getto of @fiedler.real.estate Nice Harding Township house too. #ig #realestate #openhouse #catered #slamwichscratchkitchen

Long view in my cottage of the English landscape.

via Instagram http://ift.tt/24N3Bjn Long view in my cottage of the English landscape. #oilpainting #royalacademy #markfisher #england #ig #mycottage

I actually posted a close view of this painting at lunchtime today on Instagram but I forgot to include the code to make it post on my blog. You can see it here and read the title on the plaque.

A Gorgeous Mansion

This architectural wonder is really beautiful, isn't it? It's not too big either. I would love to see the interior. The outside is elegant simplicity. See you later. xo via

Peony Friends

I figured out a way to automatically post my Instagram photos to my blog so my readers won't feel left out. I used an app called IFTTT which stands for If This Then That. You create "recipes" to trigger an action. I created a recipe to automatically post any new Instagrams to my Blog. I know many of you don't subscribe to Instagram. Now you can enjoy my photos the minute they are live. This saves me the step of having to repost to Blogger. I continue to enjoy learning new things! Have a great Sunday.

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Princess Charlotte Waves from The Palace Balcony

She's a natural, isn't she? Prince George looks puzzled. What a beautiful family!

Something's funny here. Wish I knew the inside joke. It was quite a day in England with The Queen's 3-day 90th birthday celebration and Prince Philip's 95th birthday today. It was also Princess Charlotte's first public appearance from the Palace Balcony to an adoring audience. Both photos from Vanity Fair. Read more here.

Blue Spruce Looking Blue

I just posted this on Instagram with a copy to Twitter. I just figured out a way to show you too by taking a screen shot with my phone. The new growth on this tree that I planted about 22 years ago looks really blue, doesn't it. I moved a number of trees to my cottage from my former house where I had a farm assessment and over 300 trees planted as saplings. Have a great weekend. xo

Peonies Nearing End of Their Season

Lovely Monet quote.

My drooping peonies after Sunday's hard rain. I cut back the ones that were beyond saving and this is what was left.

The white ones are singles and they weathered the storm much better than the pink mop heads.

I keep replacing the blooms one by one when they start to shrivel. They really are nice in the house when they get too heavy outside. How does your garden grow?

Good Morning from My Cottage

My pink peonies have too many petals to stand up to a hard rain like we had late Sunday. I pruned back all the ones that couldn't be saved yesterday. The singles in white held up pretty well. The singles in red did not.

My outside chore this week is hand-pulling weeds from my driveway. Not fun. I like doing it really late in the day since I'm not fond of direct sun. It is very pleasant outside today and I haven't had my central air on for quite a while. Now I'm off to see what kind of breakfast I can whip up. xo

History of Queen Elizabeth's Eight-Decade Love of Corgis

Ten-year-old Princess Elizabeth and her corgi Dookie at 145 Piccadilly, her childhood home in London, 1936. By Lisa Sheridan/Studio Lisa/Getty Images.

The Queen has kept corgis even longer than she has known her husband of 69 years, Prince Philip. In 1933, her parents, the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (later known as the Queen Mum), acquired the royal family’s first corgi, named Dookie. On her 18th birthday, in 1944, Princess Elizabeth received a corgi of her own, named Susan, who tagged along on her honeymoon, three years later.
There is a delightful slideshow and more corgi history at Vanity Fair. I was quite surprised to learn that nobody else inherited her love for this breed. Others find them annoying to say the least.

Peonies in My Garden Before The Rain

The red ones and the white peonies are singles and can handle the rain pretty well.

The pink ones with more petals get very heavy when their heads fill up with water and they droop to the ground. The rain hasn't stopped yet and luckily I picked a big bouquet of pinks early this morning and they look lovely in the house. The lamb's-ears pictured here are volunteers that planted themselves. I like the contrast of their silver-gray foliage against the deep, dark green leaves of the peonies.

I've had a very enjoyable day being pretty lazy and it felt really good. I never feel guilty when I have an easy day, do you? I earned it! I just checked and there's absolutely nothing on TV tonight. I hope I can find something interesting to watch that I have saved to my DVR. I don't have any DVD discs from the library either. I'm sure I'll find something. Enjoy your evening. xo