Gathering at the fireplace for some light conversation ~

To have a warm day squeezed into a rash of cold ones is a miracle these days.  I walked my gardens yesterday in short sleeves, when we had that miracle the first week of December.  An extraordinary day in an ordinary way, since occasional rain showers have not played well with the colorful carpet of leaf fall, turning it all a bit on the drab side of crispy to mushy.

To be alone in this loneliness gives one an overwhelming feeling of sadness, until footsteps are heard from behind.  Looking around, the neighboring oak leaves drifting on the breeze fall in light ghostly footsteps to follow the gardener.  A squirrel begins its lamenting eerie cries, and a fat robin looks at its reflection in the still water of the birdbath and takes a sip.

It is then this gardener remembers the most prized treasures in this lonely landscape are not only the ones that one may see, but also the ones of sounds and smells that create feelings of nostalgia of all things past, and anticipation of all things yet to come.

That is when this garden comes to life in the mind of this gardener in the season of frosty winter and sleeping landscapes.

One of the ash tree seed dams in pathway after rain storm

* Where the Wild Ones Are *

Walking the Dog.

I think Vic's baggy jeans are history after he viewed this shot.

Wellness:  I’ve scheduled appointments to set myself up for a lousy or fortunate end of the year, depending on how I wish to take it all in.  I received most of my surgery information today.  Pre-op’s a cinch.  Post-op sounds like a visit to the chambers of hell.  I called my sister to calm myself down a bit.

I’m having a bone spur removed from the back area of my right nostril, so I may breath normal, whatever that is; and also a hole between the two nostrils will hopefully be closed up.  I always have a need to know, so upon asking my doctor what causes a hole like that, he just said most likely drugs.  So what's the least likely, I inquired.

The most wonderful time of the year will come, and bid farewell while I'm re-taping new gauze across my nostrils every hour and digging into my collection of  prescribed pain killers, blood clotting products and antiseptic ointment.

Snow Men and Snow Ladies 

A little orphan I acquired bent up and missing a few coal buttons.

I love it. 

Daytime

There was a time when I could actually put together something

 that only started out as a thought in my mind;

you know, creativity.

*

Of that creativity, I still have four wreaths I've kept as my favorites.

The last attempt, at creating a new wreath, was met with disaster.

*

Put together, take apart...put together, take apart...put together, take apart...

It was a beauty in my eyes, but oh so dark dark dark, like funeral material.

I eventually had to give it up to lower my stress level :'(

It became Goodwill material, 

as my husband hardly ever throws anything away.

The book wreath...my favorite.

Christmas ornaments from when we would set up a Christmas tree

More ornaments from the Christmas tree days

My first wreath.

First year in Tennessee, Vic's employer gave us a huge canister

 of cookies for Christmas.

On a whim, I wired the lid to a grapevine wreath form, 

and a wreath was formed around it.

It always hangs above the Livingroom fireplace at Christmas.

I've been deleting the rotten beginnings of this story so many times, I'm beginning to believe Christmas just isn't in me anymore.  Yes, I managed to push myself into decorating yet another year hoping to create that feeling of the euphoria this season ought to bring, but instead I feel nothing special...just another day another day another day. 

So, what to write...

Not again...

Who needs to write when one has toys!

I'm innocent...innocent, innocent, innocent, I tell you!!!

I get blamed for everything!

Mommy found my hiding place!

Get that camera out of my face!

Did you hear that psycho calico coming down the hallway?!?

Charlotte’s been rushing at the opening gate to escape her imprisonment from my studio, so yesterday we let her break free of her bondage for the day.  Lacey promptly kicked the living daylights out her leaving quite a few chunks of grey fur at the crime scene.  Of course, none of this would happen if the grey one stood her ground, but when she turns to run, that calico is after her like a heat seeking missile.

So much drama :’(  Now my days are spent encouraging that calico to move along out of her stakeout areas into more neutral territories, and listening for that thumping sound of Lacey winning another boxing match with claws extended.  Lacey NO!!!  Lacey NO!!!  Lacey NONONO!!!  My favorite yelling phrase.

Funny how it brings back memories of that first Christmas with Charlotte.  Vic was overseas, so it was just me and my household of pets…a quiet but loving time.  Sometimes when I look back, I say it was the year I had no life.  Of course, I really did have a life…just not the one I had in mind for myself.

The year was literally spent domesticating two feral adult cats and five hissing feisty kittens, through freezing cold, then sickness, then wellness exams and shots, then learning to play with interactive toys with me, then finding forever homes for the kittens and our home for Charlotte and Austin.  It was an overwhelmingly stressful year, but it finished out so beautifully.

Looking back to the Christmas when I wrote about Charlotte's life, I read – “She laid on the couch curled up with her brother as the furnace kept the room nice and warm.  A terrier sat by the fireplace, and a kitten the age of her own hide in the tall cat tree; while the not so nice one laid on her persons lap and the last one was under a bed.”

If one knows cats…anything can go wrong at any time, and that not so nice one a few months later became Charlotte's tormenting bully, and my studio room was gated to create a sanctuary for her.  Yesterday hence, the gate is now left open during the day and closed after dinner giving her an evening of safety and relaxation.  Believe me, Lacey is a full time job trying to create some tolerance in her.

In a household where the husband doesn't cook well on his own without help, it will be a quiet Christmas dinner from Marie Callender of Steak & Roasted Potatoes, and Lattice Apple Pie.  We wish you all  a lovely season that brings a smile to your face and happiness in your heart.

With love ~

Yvonne & Vic

Dustin,

Lacey,

Charlotte & Austin

This post is linked to:

Saturday's Critters

My Corner of the World

Just Letting Things Happen

Shutting Down

Two new chairs ordered early March and received early November...

just in time for winter :'(

'Sparkleberry' Winterberry berries

Most plants you have seen before...these are just later in the fall

Fothergilla and American Senna seed pods

Soaking up the sunshine in the cold 40's!

Happy Birthday, Dustin!

14 years old (approximate guess) November 20th

Euonymus americanus

Distortion through a screened window

Backyard

Yellow -  Summersweet, Red -  Dogwood, Orange - Fothergilla 

At the base of the large bird bath

Aging Winterthur viburnum berries

In the middle of the Joe Pye Weed

Winterthur Viburnum

There’s nothing like the coming of night to dull the memory of a day filled with icy cold sunshine.  Inside the heat is turned up high, the Italian bean soup is bubbling in the Dutch oven on the stovetop, and a cup of hot Ghirardelli double chocolate warms the hands and sends the mind to that quiet place of one’s own self.

Second week of December a test is scheduled for me in order to aid in diagnosing the cause of vertigo and other symptoms.  Just before Christmas nasal surgery is scheduled with a follow up after Christmas.  I might write in December, but I’m not too keen on spending time creating a Christmas post filled with stories, art and holiday magic.  It’s way too much work when one isn’t at their best.

I’m beginning to relish bird feeder and bath routines as the earth succumbs to falls frosty breath, and the deep freeze the approaching winter is laying upon the land.  You don't really believe that, do you?  To hibernate in my house would be a welcomed pleasure, if I was not so wrapped up in the life my garden protects.  I walk my garden year round…she hides nothing from me.  

The grackles, mourning doves and cardinals among others are eating more and more sunflower hearts as the evening temperatures drop below freezing with a few nights of deep freezes into the low twenties coming this week.  I’ve also found traces that an opossum is feeding on the seed I scatter along the ground for early morning feeding.

I’ve wished Christmas decorating to finish before Thanksgiving, and surprisingly it will.  Years of decorating every room of our home has given way to modestly decorating the living room and dining room.  Decorating never occurs the same way twice, and I find that invigorating, but deconstructing it all after the holiday is another story.

Photographing my garden in November has been an exercise I almost gave up on.  Finding those special moments in a bleak windy landscape consists mostly of a drippy nose and numbing fingers and the disappointment of not much to choose from over and over again.  Hopefully I didn’t disappoint too much, and the spirit of fall at Little Fourth Acres photographed somewhat well. 

Euonymus americanus

American Sweetgum Leaf

Some little critters breakfast

It's 37 degrees...let me in, crazy mommy!!!

You can take photographs some other year!

May Thanksgiving Day

realize your warmest expectations.

This post is linked to:

My Corner of the World

Saturday's Critters

Reflections During the Season of Falling Leaves

Some of the days in November

carry the whole memory of summer

as a fire opal carries the color of moonrise.

These are the days I especially love,

when the air lies soft and quiet

over the dreaming earth;

It is a reflective and thoughtful time.

     -Gladys Taber, "November"

                                    Stillmeadow Daybook

Morning Dove Feather with Rusty Blackhaw Leaves

Leaf from "Appalachian Spring" Dogwood 

Cardinal Feather

Northern Oak Leaves turning yellow, then orange, then brown.

About half of the brown leaves will cling to the tree throughout the winter,

then drop to the ground in early spring of the next year.

Worn out Dove or Mocking Bird Feather

Vic removing Sweetbay Magnolia.

I saw one growing as a multi-stemmed small size twenty foot tree

in a botanical garden thirty years ago and bought one to plant.  It struggled, and I moved it every few years until it was finally happy.    

Mine grew as a single trunk shooting upward into the white ash tree canopy, 

and competing with it for air space.

A hard decision finally deciding to remove it.

Looking from center back yard towards the patio.

Fothergilla gardenii with leaves beginning to turn yellow, 

then orange, then red.

A few fall blooms from Corky Daylily

Type of crane fly

I love clear wings outlined...almost like clear leaded glass pieces.

A company of Trooping Crumble Cap mushrooms

briefly making their appearance after rain storm.

Leaf-footed Bug taking a drink at the ground level cast stone bird bath

Goulimyi fall crocus with swamp sunflower

Hover Fly

A cold week of bleak speculations has left me eager for my appointment next Tuesday with an ear and nose specialist.  For over two months I’ve suffered from out of the blue occurrences of ears plugging up in seconds and losing my sense of balance for a period of time.  This has always happened while in the house, and it is a struggle to make it to my bed and crash out until my head quits ringing and my ears pop.

The last time, I jammed my thumb into the hall wall as I tried to steady myself long enough to make it to my bed banging my head against the wall in the process.  I woke up four hours later with a bloody thumb from the nail cracking into the quick.  I’m pretty sure I passed out when I reached my bed, because I remember nothing else happening before I woke up.

Today I began not feeling well late in the morning and laid down in case my ears plugging up would happen next.  I grabbed the lip balm next to my bed to moisten my lips and woke up four hours later with the lip balm still clutched in my fingers and my lips quite dry.

It has been a bit scary, and I have such a fear of this happening while driving or outside in my garden, that I rarely do anything by myself.  It’s a bitch, all this fear and dread.

I have nothing positive to write about.  It will maybe freeze tonight, and my dog Dustin’s kidney values have gotten a little bit worse.  These photos I took mostly the last weeks of October when my dizzy spells stopped for a brief period.  Most I deleted as crap, but these are okay.

People like to think of November and winter as dismal and dreary, but there is good in any month of the year, if one sets their sights on finding it.  May you find your late fall full of warm cozy moments amidst the chill of frosty morns and frozen sunshiny afternoons.  

I’m planting fall bulbs of Dutchman's Breeches, Byzantine Gladiolus, Turk's Cap Lily, General de wet and Clusiana tulips.  Oh, how I hate planting bulbs in the windy freezing weather, but I'm crazy enough to do it anyway!  How about you?

Listen...

With faint dry sound,

Like steps of passing ghosts,

The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees

And fall.

Lacey...chillin' out

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My Corner of the World