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

Looking Back: A Dozen Photos

My grandfather clock. My pantry with Dutch door closed. An early sundial on the counter before I had a microwave there. The outlet behind it was broken and I finally had it fixed when I needed an electrician for a more pressing repair.

An amazing winter golden hour. Photo was taken from the balcony off my living room.

Footprints in the snow. I walked halfway down my property a cold winter's day and these were the first prints I encountered.

One of my cardinals.

Bluebirds are my favorites. They love this corner of my balcony railing.

Geraniums on the lower level deck next to the sliding glass doors.

A favorite photo of my kitchen showing my tongue and groove ceiling.

The wreath on my front door last year photographed from inside.

A lovely notecard with a real shell on it.

My favorite photo of my cottage after it was painted summer 2022.

A nook in my kitchen.

One of the first photos I ever took in my kitchen.

I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane with old photos you have probably already seen. I had a great Thanksgiving and hope you did too. My new eyes are just wonderful after my cataract surgery. It will be three weeks on Thursday since I had my rught eye done and a month since the left one. I was a little concerned about the "floaters" in my right eye but they went away after two weeks. I couldn't be more pleased.

xo

Hunt Board & Art Wall in My Kitchen's Nook under Attic Stairs

I am standing in front of the door that opens into my kitchen off the vestibule. The Dutch door for my office/pantry is behind me. You can see a corner of my farm table in lower right corner. The shiny thing on right is my refrigerator. This little nook is another favorite area in my cottage that evolved over the years. The sideboard was my mother's and was in her apartment downstairs until she died in 2012. We bought it together at an estate sale in Madison,NJ. We toured the sale, I bought a few things, and when we got in the car I asked her if she wanted the sideboard for her room with the sliding glass door and she immediately said YES. We rushed back and bought it ($100.00) just in the nick of time before another person said she wanted it but we were already in negotiations and had paid!!!!!! My mother used it in her sitting room and loved it. I love it too! It's just the right scale for this nook with a low ceiling. The back wall is clad in old wood that was attic flooring salvaged when the roof of my kitchen was raised during the renovation. The lamps with blue silk shades came from a local estate sale. 

I have been gathering things all week for a Girl Scout Textile Drive at a nearby elementary school. I cleaned out stored linens and blankets and used clothing. The girls were young and very enthusiastic about the volume I collected. They were going to sort for the homeless and donate the rest for textile bundling to be picked up and made into rag rugs. I hope they do this again next year. Such a worthy cause and so easy to drop off. This is my favorite kind of recycling and donating.

Have a great weekend. xo

The Sitting Room Downstairs + Geraniums

I still haven't vacuumed downstairs but I will before the weekend is over. I have been busy digging up Dahlia beds and storing them for next spring. The ground hasn't frozen yet but the foliage is all black so today was the day for that chore.

This is the view of the easy chair with the ottoman.

My mother and I got this wonderful hanging shelf at a garage sale and I painted it long ago. It turned out to be the perfect thing to hang over the radiator with a thick piece of glass on top. 

The geraniums love this sunny spot in front of the sliding glass door. Yes, that's a draft dodger behind the tray designed for wet boots. It is the perfect size and catches any overflow when watering the plants.

I got plenty of exercise pulling and hauling and dumping dahlia stalks and cleaning up. The tubers are stored for the winter now. xo

UPDATE: There is a better photo of the easy chair and long chest with 16 drawers in one of my old posts below.

https://contentinacottage.blogspot.com/2021/04/new-acquisition-with-16-drawers.html

Purple Ornamental Kale: Replacing my Geraniums Outside

I put three of these in planters in my front garden after digging up and replanting my red geraniums to overwinter in front of the sliding glass door downstairs. When the long curtains are closed, that area becomes a greenhouse and the geraniums love it. I have always preferred ornamental kale to mums outside in the fall because they are cold tolerant and are still going strong long after the first hard frost zaps the mums. 

xo

Converted Barn Home

♡So.Fabulous♡

My favorite feature is the sliding barn door shutters. This clever design has one cutout so you can still see outside when they are closed. I also like the enclosed steps and railings leading to the front door. I spy a screened porch too. There are many other barn homes to view here but this one is my favorite by far. Have a great Sunday. xo

First Peek: Beds on My Lower Level

Yesterday, I put my vintage flannel fish sheets on the twin beds and covered the box springs too. The hooked rugs are companions. Long ago (2003) I bought these WOOLRICH items that are now discontinued and I am loving the look of a fishing lodge downstairs. The bed on the left is one small step down to the sitting room area opposite a large sliding glass door. The door you see in the hallway leads to the laundry room. I am still sorting linens and odds and ends in the part of this room you can't see quite yet. I am not planning on bedspreads, just blankets at the foot of the bed; I love the sheets too much to hid them. I have two pillows with matching fish pillow cases to pull out for guests. The large pillows there now are almost as wide as the mattresses and don't hide the headboards so they are out for the everyday look. My mother and I bought these painted iron beds from a farmhouse garage sale in Oldwick, NJ for a whopping $6.00 for the pair. She always brought me luck when we shopped together.♡

Surprise Salmon Dahlia

What a nice surprise today.

All of my other tubers turned out to be dark red.

Today I got one dahlia in salmon.

Isn't it beautiful?

September is over today and I have moved mountains.

Yesterday I washed all my outside windows on the lower level as well as the storm door and the main entrance. I did the sliding glass door a while back. I found more things to put outside for the annual trash pickup. Everything was supposed to be collected Monday but it hasn't happened yet. Most of the stuff I put outside was picked up by people driving by. I got several things myself from my neighbors' piles. I got a fabulous large step-on stainless steel garbage can for my downstairs kitchen. It cleaned up perfectly and I can't imagine why my neighbors were getting rid of it. I really needed it too. It doesn't take much to make me happy, does it? I've been cleaning out the loft over my garage too. It's just dry storage for stuff I don't need. I have slowly been weeding it out for a long time and it's looking better each day. Will I ever finish? I doubt it! I keep tweeking arrangements I've already done but that's the fun part. See you tomorrow. xo

Plant Stand with Geraniums

I have had the black antique plant stand forever and I could never find the right place for it until last Sunday when I discovered it would fit perfectly between the sliding glass door and the window on the lower level. I already had the geraniums on the top. I picked up four more today at the grocery store, repotted them in terracotta pots, and I am thrilled.

I got the pair of aluminum chairs on the Nextdoor App over the winter the day after I got plowed out when we had 24 inches of snow on the ground. I love them in this setting. Isn't it funny when things come together after years of being in limbo? 

Morning shadows. I love the chair shadows on Wednesday morning at 10:00, looking down from my balcony.♡

Mowed Yesterday, Just in Time!

Yesterday. Back yard with blooming Wisteria. The red showing through is my barn garage. It was a perfect day, not too hot, but the grass was still wet from a Monday night rain. I waited until mid afternoon to start so it wasn't that much of a problem for my walk-behind mulching mower. Early spring grass is always the easiest mowing of the year.

Today. This is a view from the sliding glass door where the new acquisition with 16 drawers lives in my mom's old sitting room. I bought a John Deere used riding mower from a neighbor this year to do the rest of my property all the way down to the way back. I have to wait for another lesson from my neighbor so I know exactly how to operate it because it isn't like my last one. I had a large John Deere at my two previous homes but this one is much smaller and I think it's going to be perfect.

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Plants Wintering Over Downstairs

I brought in the geranium and the flowering nasturtiums over a week ago and they are both very happy downstairs looking out of the sliding glass door that gets the morning sun. I dug up the geranium that was planted in a large metal urn. The nasturtiums were grown from seeds in the center pot while the pot on the far right contains nasturtium plants I dug out of pots in my front garden on Sunday. They are still in recovery mode. I have never tried overwintering annuals but I read online that nasturtiums are a good plant to try. We shall see.

These pots are too large to display anywhere else in my cottage. Every available spot is already taken on my main floor and in the attic with smaller pots of rosemary, thyme, geraniums, lavender, and more nasturtiums. I like indoor gardening and tending plants rather than leaving them outside to freeze and die. They are very beneficial for the indoor air quality too. 

I have been very busy washing all my sweaters and mending tiny holes here and there. I started out washing two by hand in the kitchen sink. Then I noticed for the first time there was a setting for knits on my 15 year old front loading washer. I decided to try it with 4 dark sweaters turned inside out. I was thrilled with the results. My washer spins everything almost dry and the sweaters dried quickly on drying racks in my furnace room. The mending is another story. I'm so glad I have so much thread but none of it is wool. I matched the colors perfectly and took little made-up darning stitches and mended the holes almost invisibly. Nobody else will even notice and I will have a fresh wardrobe of my favorite sweaters looking brand new in a few more days.

I posted these two photos on Instagram this morning. I usually don't blog using the same pics but they will be new to those of you who don't do social media.

xo

My Bedroom Curtains Drying in The Sun

I washed my bedroom curtains today in the tub and put them on a drying rack in the sun to drip dry on this windy day. Ironing was a snap and they look so nice and fresh in my room.

They are hanging wrong side out on the rack and the back sides are somewhat faded in places. The fronts are still bright as new. I made curtains for a big double sliding glass door in 1972 and have remade curtains from that fabric for every place I have lived ever since. There is still a lot of life left in these curtains made from 46 year old fabric. It is woven with no right or wrong side. If it were a printed design, they wouldn't have lasted this long. Blue and white checks forever.

I am shadow waving hello to all of you and hope you have a nice weekend. They won't look at my car until Monday. xo

Jane Seymour's English Manor: Avon UK

This is the Orangery 

An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, similar to a greenhouse or conservatory.
Set amid 14 acres of gardens and paddocks is St. Catherine's Court, Avon, a part-time residence for the British-born actress.

"Apart from Hampton Court, ours is the only house in England that has them," the actress says of the Elizabethan grass steps. A Cotswold stone wall is softened by climbing vines and plants growing through nooks. ***I had to look hard for the steps. Aren't they wonderful? Pics from Architectural Digest


Sorry I was AWOL yesterday. I attacked my four lower level windows and screens, a double sliding glass door with a screen, and a back storm door and spent the day with a bucket full of hot soapy water and a hose. I slept like a log last night and it was a day well spent. I did not do the inside windows yet but they will be a snap. Maybe later today when the sun is on the front side of my cottage. See you later. Enjoy this lovely summer day. xo

Sliding Barn Door in A Kitchen

I would like to see the rest of this lart if the room, wouldn't you.

I don't think this sliding door is closed very much. The adjoining room seems to be a butler's pantry. Maybe the door is closed if the kitchen is a mess which is probably never. via

Secret Door in a Paneled Library

The only books I would be attracted to in this library are all fake. I hope no real books died in the process. When the sliding pocket door is closed it would be impossible to detect that this panel hides a secret passage. Via

Double Decker Sliding Barn Doors

I still like this sliding barn door trend, especially on this converted barn/home. via

I woke up early after a half day of mowing yesterday and I'm almost finished with my fall cleanup. I was shocked into getting it finished after I saw photos of an early dusting of snow in Connecticut and upstate New York this week. It is unusually warm today and that's good for the trick or treaters. Happy Halloween. xo

Sliding Barn Door for Bedroom

I love this in every way. via

Rustic Sliding Barn Door on Bathroom

I think this is pretty wonderful and I like that the overhead hardware is hidden. via

Sliding Barn Door in Bathroom

Talk about a tight space! This sliding barn door is the perfect solution for privacy while soaking in the tub.  It must be covering a window, right? Otherwise you still couldn't get into the room. via