Nine Photos on Last Day of November 2023

I took this photo maybe three years ago and it's a favorite of one of my mourning doves sitting in the snow on my balcony.

This juvenile cardinal on my balcony railing is a summer photo.

My favorite of Missy, now departed🐾♡🐾

One of my peonies.

I copied the photo from a book and added the text myself.

A nook in my kitchen. This recessed space is under my attic stairs.

A wall in my downstairs sitting room near the sliding glass doors with the red and white draperies I put up recently to keep the room warmer.

The draperies look wonderful in person. Much better than in this photo. I have pots of geraniums lined up behind them right now to overwinter.

A night photo of my cottage. I had my back door light on by accident and got a great shot of my red barn garage too.

Most of you will be reading this November 30th post on December 1st so WELCOME DECEMBER. xo

Full Size Tin Cat Silhouette in My Window

I promised Tasha T I would post my other tin cat silouette with marble eyes. She looks out of my office pantry front-facing window. She's ready to pounce but no bird is in danger. She's especially nice this time of year with the beautiful fall leaves in the background. My red begonias are still going strong. We had our first killing frost on Tuesday and my neighbior's mums are already dead. Begonias don't care though. I wonder how much longer they will last? Yesterday it was in the high 70°s and I had my house painters come over do do an intense final mowing. I had done the front and back to the barn/garage's back edge. They did the rest all the way to the way back and everything looks lovely.

There is a lot more of the "way back" behind me in this photo but you get the idea of all the mowing and weed whacking that went on yesterday. I am thrilled. I am getting stuff done without waiting until the last minute this year and it feels so good.

Posting Friday 10/27/23 10:34 am

xo

My Happy Place Behind the Barn

This is what is hidden from view behind my garage/barn. This is where my compost bin lives (not shown) and where I do my repotting. The zinc container with the garbage can lid on top is full of potting soil and various gardening tools. As you can see, I am way behind with my mowing but I will eventually catch up. Can you believe this is the last day of May? Where did it go? It was unusually cool and very busy for me but it has calmed down a bit going into June and summer. xo

 My peonies all i bloom -- Pink, White, and Red.

Click photo to enlarge.

This photo is stunning when enlarged on a computer.

So happy.

xo

News from the Nest

I am thrilled to report I have a pair of blue birds building a nest in this box. This is an old photo but it's mine.

Another old bluebird photo of mine. I need to put up this box somewhere.

An illustrated quote I made but it's not my photo.

More good news -- Mother Robin is back in her old corner. I'm sure there must be eggs by now but I haven't looked. I was worried she wouldn't return since all of her old nests were removed when my deck was power washed last summer. Robin nests are very messy and just thrown together  and held in place with some mud. 

She couldn't decide what cubicle she wanted so she tried several before deciding on the second from the right. See all the dried grasses hanging down? I worked on pruning the boxwood in back of my barn/garage cutting back dead wood and clipping with my shears. They look so much bette and I left lots of little sticks on the ground for the birds in case they want easy pickings for nest materials. I've been busy away from home and had an office meeting this morning. There was another one after lunch but I stayed home and worked outside instead. xo

 

Welcome May (and the Sun)

Maybe I can put my geraniums out this week and turn off my heat. Sorry I have been absent but have been working on a listing and helping client get ready. All of my neighbors (except one) have already cut their grass twice and I haven't even started thinking about mine. Today the sun out after days and days of rain and it's glorious.

      

Happy May Day! This is my view on Monday morning outside my living room window looking out across the street to my neighbors barn/garage. xo

My Portrait of A Robin

Date: April 11, 2011

Robin Redbreast

Nikon Photo

I have been trying to clean up my old MacBookAir dated late 2010. For some reason, I cannot transfer the photos to the newer laptop I got two years ago. This is my favorite bird photo of all time and I'm so glad I have it again. I had to email it from my old computer to my new one. I have flocks of robins that live on and around my cottage. The same Mother Robin aways builds a nest under my balcony floor and raises at least two families. I do hope she returns again this year. I had to clean out all the old nests when I had my balcony floor power washed underneath last year before my house was painted. I had two workers power wash the upper balcony floor, my house, the picket fence, front walk, and the barn/garage too. My workers were fabulous and my Trex deck flooring looks new again after 20 years. I still marvel at how nice my house looks after wood repairs, two new coats of white paint, and changing the shutters and front door color to black.

I can vividly remember taking this photo while holding my breath and getting as close as I possibly could before snapping the shutter. I like to think this handsome bird was posing for me. xo

Good Morning Sun

Sunday morning coffee time in front of the tv watching Antiques Roadshow from Palm Springs on PBS. I haven's raised my other shade yet.

My view from the front window looking at my across-the-street neighbor's red barn. The blue sky and the bright morning sun are so very welcoming.

I hope your Sunday is lovely too.

xo

New Rooms for Old Homes / Great Book

This is another favorite coffee table book that is in my collection and is currently off the shelf and at hand. 

NEW ROOMS FOR OLD HOUSES

Beautiful Additions for the Traditional Home

by Frank Shirley

Published by THE TAUNTON PRESS

"Inspiration for Hands-On Living"

All of the books by this publisher are wonderful.

Back cover. Mine has the dustjacket. 

The hardcover binding is plain.

Retail $40. My used copy from local bookshop $15.
Gold Seal on front dustjacket from

NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION

I did not know the term "monitors", did you? Such an interesting architectural detail for raising the roof and getting more light into a room without adding a skylight.

The pleasing addition is on the far right. Note slight color change in roofing material.

Have a great weekend. By now you know how to order used books, right?

xo

More about Monitors and Cupolas. Unknown left a comment about a monitor barn in Shelburne, Vermont. I couldn't find it but found a 1903 barn in Richmond, Vermont that was moved and beautifully restored with the monitor spanning the entire roof ridge and a cupola too! It's fabulous as is the article by KNOBB HILL JOINERY Preserving New England's architectural legacy for future generations with photographs of the entire process.

Read the article and see the amazing photos HERE. 
The barn is home to the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps.

Isn't this barn beautiful? Everything old is new again.
xo

My Pantry - Wide View and A Detail

Tara Dillard must be a mindreader. Her comment in yesterday's post requested a photo or two of my pantry as she described hers. I had been experimenting with the wide angle lens on my camera phone and it worked to get the front window (with tin cat) and the rear window overlooking my red barn both in one photo. I have a bucket bench under the rear window and the lower shelves are filled with appliances that won't fit anywhere in my kitchen cabinets. My Instant Pot, Panini Press, Steam Iron and my KitchenAid stand mixer are just a few items. I keep seldom used things there too. This room was a small screened-in porch conversion for me and I continue to love it more each day. I pay my bills at the desk and stool under the "cat" window on my laptop (not shown). Paperwork is in the files shown in right corner. More shelves below for receipts, etc.

I should have tried to neaten my stack of pans to the left of the cookbooks but didn't. The wide shelves continue to the left of the pans with more bakeware in metal and glass. The hanging "onion" light fixture with amber glass was a garage sale find and it couldn't be more perfect.

Have a great Saturday.

More Missy photos tomorrow.

Maybe some birds too.

Click photos to enlarge.

xo

Ceiling detail, the center is one flat board. The boards leading up to the center are on an angle. Quick photo to answer Lisa D.'s question.

This pitcher is my newest addition to the shelf. I bought it along with my curtain rods at the Firehouse Flea Market in September and never mentioned it.

Pam loves my drafting table desk area. Here is my old 2019 post showing this area of my "office" in greater detail:

https://contentinacottage.blogspot.com/2019/02/my-home-office-in-pantry-rearranged.html

https://contentinacottage.blogspot.com/2010/08/desk-under-window-in-my-pantry.html

Both of these links show better photos of the drafting table desk in my pantry.

The Moon Last Night with My Cottage Lights On

GOODNIGHT MOON

The moon was still low behind the bare trees in the woods when I went outside Monday night to try once again to capture it. I was shocked to see my red barn lit up and then I remembered I had just put the basement to bed and I must have turned on my outside light by mistake. Anyway, I like it! 

I turned on all of my inside lights before going outside. The inside light on the far right is my pantry that has two windows, one looking out on the front and one looking outside to the back. Next time, I will turn off the lamp at the back window. I had no luck with my camera phone on night mode. Then I turned on LIVE PHOTO and discovered this is the way to go for moon shots. I deleted all but the best shot because they take up so much photo storage. There doesn't seem to be a way to delete the 2 views that were not used. In the old days you could click to keep best photo and automatically delete the others. I have looked and looked and you can't do that now. BUT I found a work around. You can go to Snapseed and save a copy (will be saved as one still photo) or you can email the live photo to yourself and save it to your photos. These copies will be one still photo. Then you can delete the three-in-one live photo. If you are nervous, don't be. Deleted photos are saved for 30 days and you can put it back if you want. There was no reason to save this as a live photo because there was no movement. If you were photographing something cute like a baby talking on a play phone, you might want to save it as a live photo with action. I mention this because a friend send me such a photo of her baby granddaughter having a wonderful conversation on her toy cell phone😂 and most of her words were pure baby talk.

Have a great Tuesday. I hope this isn't too much information you don't understand about iPhones. A live photo magically takes three photos; one before you clicked the shutter, one exactly when you clicked the shutter, and one after you clicked, each one second apart. Then the phone decides which is the best photo. SO an iPhone can time travel and go back in time! This is the only way I can describe what I was talking about above. Hope this helps. xo

Ssturday Clouds and More

I am still getting good color in fallen leaves.

These were backlit by the sun and were glowing.

The big white fluffy clouds against the dark blue sky were a thrilling sight.

Another interesting leaf with stunning colors.

A wide angle shot while standing with my red barn to my right.

This pin oak tree is still holding on on to its leaves among all the other completely bare trees. This portion of the woods is outside my bedroom wing and the white picket fence.

UPDATE: I went out on my balcony to see if the moon was out and it was. This was taken at 6:00 Saturday evening. I was never able to get the moon with my old phone or even with my Nikon. I'm pretty excited about the pink cloud too.

I'm enjoying a rather lazy start to the weekend but I never feel guilty. Some days I work really hard and the next day I rest. Don't forget to set the clocks back before you to to bed tonight.

xo