What A Beautiful Morning (Long Ago)

An early morning walk with Webster last summer with beautiful sun rays shining on very green grass. A preview of what's to come in a few months. Today I have blue skies and bright sun on white snow with birds singing in the background. It is actually quite nice. I put up a new feeder that the squirrels haven't discovered yet so the birds are happy. I made a peanut butter ball for them too. xo, Rosemary




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Endangered Carnivorous Plant Fears Floral Designers

Sarracenia leucophylla, the white-topped pitcher plant, grows wild in bogs and the wet pine savannas of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. The nectar-producing ‘pitchers’ of these rare and uncommonly beautiful carnivorous plants are actually specialized leaves that lure, trap, and digest insects as a means of obtaining the nutrients lacking in their infertile soil. Demand for Sarracenia leucophylla for use in floral displays has led to widespread, illegal, and unsustainable harvesting of these wild plants. Agricultural and urban development, suppression of naturally-occurring fires, and competition from invasive plant species also pose threats to the habitats of wild populations of this spectacular species. If you see these plants in their native environment, just admire them and leave them alone so they can multiply. They are spectacular, aren't they?
Source.
Photo credit.




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Smile At The Baby Animals

That little Panda looks as if he's having such fun on his toy rocker. Ride 'em cowboy. Is there anything cuter than a Corgi puppy? I've never seen one in person but I love this one. They always remind me of Tasha Tudor and Queen Elizabeth. I'll be back later. Rosemary




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Interiors, Cottages, Sheds, Hideaways, and Barns

So simple and elegant. Nice family entrance.

Beautiful, warm, and cozy.

Rustic backyard shed decorated with real wood logs.

Wonderful garden shed.

Backyard spa.

Small cottage with wonderful landscaping.

Another small cottage with old-fashioned flowers and shrubs.

A beautiful barn in winter. via

This post has a little bit of everything, doesn't it? I've been weeding out my photos and these are some I've been saving. All of the backyard sheds and cottages are from Sunset. The first two interiors and the last barn in the snow are from blogs. If they are yours, let me know so I can put in a link.




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Vegan Vampire Vamp Alicia Silverstone

She's baaaack. Alicia Silverstone will be making a movie called Vamps with the director of Clueless. I love her. She's been getting a lot of well-deserved attention lately thanks to her new book The Kind Diet. Read more.




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Life's Little Instruction Book, page 154

This is the last page. Boo Hoo. It's been such fun posting this book page by page. Shall I start over?




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Spring Bulbs Forced Indoors

Narcissus, grape hyacinth, and lily of the valley forced indoors in unfinished wooden flats that were sprinkled with fast-growing grass seed. How nice. Photographed from one of my books: Paradise Contained, Growing and Decorating with Flower Bulbs by Kathryn George and Mary Sears. Photography by William Stites.
Get started now and these spring-flowering bulbs will be ready in time for your Easter table. The lily of the valley sprig in the scallop shell is my photograph from last summer. I love the scent of these tiny flowers best of all.

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few." Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Words To Live By

My office isn't quite this neat yet but my project for today is to get rid of all the clutter. Love this work space, don't you? Great poster too. Wonderful advice.

"Work hard and be nice to people."

via


Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

12 Rules to Live By - Robert Louis Stevenson

12 RULES TO LIVE BY
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

• Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple things.

• Make the best of circumstances. No one has everything and everyone has something of sorrow.

• Don't take yourself too seriously.

• Don't let criticism worry you. You can't please everybody.

• Don't let your neighbors set your standards; be yourself.

• Do things you enjoy doing but stay out of debt.

• Don't borrow trouble. Imaginary things are harder to bear than actual ones.

• Since hate poisons the soul, do not cherish enmities and grudges. Avoid people who make you unhappy.

• Have many interests. If you can't travel, read about places.

• Don't hold post-mortems or spend time brooding over sorrows and mistakes.

• Do what you can for those less fortunate than yourself.

• Keep busy at something. A very busy person never has time to be unhappy.

Good Rules For All ~ A great piece of needlework.


Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Releasing The Bird

One day soon I hope I'll wake up to see a spring scene outside my window instead of the white stuff I'm looking at right now. We got more snow overnight, just enough to be annoying. I actually did have a bird in the house recently. It fell down the chimney and came out in the furnace room. I opened the door and he flew outside unharmed. That was a big surprise too. via




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Laptops + Fine Art = Perfect Together

I was reading blogs in my Google Reader and this cracked me up. More classical images like this are posted by a special someone celebrating her first blog anniversary. All of the women look right at home behind their laptops, don't they? Happy anniversary Sande.

Forever a blogger, Rosemary.




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Antique Wash Boards

Wash or Scrubbing Boards by unknown artists. American, circa 1840-1870. Left to right: carved and doweled pine, carved fruitwood, pine and wire, carved and doweled pine. Private collection.

Scrubbing boards were found in every laundry room in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America. Soiled clothes were soaped and then rubbed against the ridges of the board, which stood with its legs in a tub of wash water. The fruitwood board second from left is of one-piece construction, all of the other boards are jointed.

I never tire of looking at beautiful antique utilitarian items from everyday life in America, handmade to last. I'm sure these would be wonderful to touch as well. Years of scrubbing clothes by hand would have left the wood very smooth and the hands very rough. We have it so easy, don't we?

Photographed from one of my large coffee table books: America's Traditional Crafts by Robert Shaw.




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

J.D. Salinger Archives in Six Libraries

Getty Images

J.D. Salinger fans in need of a fix don’t have to wait to see what will eventually surface from his New Hampshire hideaway. The following libraries all hold unique Salinger archives, from never-published stories to caches of letters that are often as charming and telling as this hermit's fiction.

• Firestone Library - Princeton University
• Harry Ransom Center - University of Texas at Austin
• The Harvard Law Library
• New York Public Library
• Library of Congress
• Morgan Library
  
  
• Read More

Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.