White Paint on My Cottage Preview

The primer is on the cottage. I am going to love having a white house. I love the way it looks from afar.

Here it is a little closer. The white trim on the barn/garage has been primed too.

Here it is from the driveway side. The garage is on the right. I have the very best painter/carpenters and I am so lucky to have found them. The four of them work so well together and they really know what they are doing. I am so happy -- I just wish I could keep them. Smile. Now I am ready to clean up the kitchen and tuck myself in and watch BROADCHURCH on BBC America. Good night all. Click photos to enlarge.

Turning Over A New Leaf

Just a quick morning post to show you I'm still alive. Not much red yet in the leaf turning business. Mostly brown and yellow. See you later. Have to get this show on the road before my home repair/painting workers arrive.

My Scary Cottage

I was looking at some very old photos on my iPhone deleting many of them when I ran across this night shot of my cottage against a winter sky. It looks like a Halloween cottage for sure. All this photo needs is a witch on a broom riding past the moon. Another day with carpenter/painters and so much was done. I am thrilled. It's looking a lot less scary in the daylight around here. Good night. Pooped. 

Blue Chickory Flower

Snapped with my iPhone yesterday. It's the only chickory flower blooming at this time after a whole field full in late summer. I'm loving the square photo format on my camera phone for images like this.

The Life of George Eliot - A Most Dangerous Woman

Looking forward to seeing this play next week at the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ. I photographed this wonderful graphic ad in a restaurant last week.

"This world premiere explores the extraordinary life of Mary Ann Evans — better known by her pen name George Eliot. An outcast living a socially unconventional life, Evans was forced to write under an assumed name, not only to escape having her work judged by virtue of her gender, but to avoid having it judged by virtue of her scandalous life. Ironically, her success as George Eliot only led her deeper and deeper into a world of secrets and deception."

The play will give new meaning to this incomplete set of books in my bedroom bookcase. I bought them long ago for their bindings and now I might even read them!

Praying Mantis

Too tired to post. Carpenters came at 8am. Left at 6pm. Mountain have been moved. More wood on the ground than on the house. Just kidding but it was amazing how much damage this poor cottage had to its wood. Two front fascias have to be replaced. Using Azek this go round. Gutters had to be removed. More later. I don't think I ever showed you this photo of my praying mantis. Good night.
PS...Click photo to enlarge. It really is an alien. My Photo

Courtyard Patio w/ Flagstone Hopscotch

I found this photo on the MLS when I was searching sold properties near me. Isn't this a great idea? Look closely and you will see the impressed numbers on the stones arranged in a hopscotch pattern. I grew up loving this game, didn't you? Jacks, jump rope, and hopscotch were my favorites. This patio is perfect for all three. my image upload

Square Chestnuts

Fooled you, didn't I? The chestnuts aren't square but the photo is. That's one of the cool new features of IOS7 on my iPhone. You can choose regular, square or Pano before you take the picture now. I chose square for this one and didn't have to do any playing around with photo editing afterwards. My workers are here now taking down gutters, sanding, and who knows what else. I was out with Webster earlier and saw him eating the chestnuts, shells and all. I hope they aren't poison. He seemed to be enjoying them immensely. Checked, they are not toxic to dogs, cats, or horses. Mine are American Chestnuts.