a gypsy caravan

wordless wednesday-silly girls

a new home

We are surrounded by boxes but we are very happy. There is room to stretch here and people are beginning to unfurl. This home was built in 1870 and was the farmhouse of a 65 acre farm. The floors are not level, the walls are not new, there are funny quirks about this house but there is a deep charm and hominess about it.  I am in love with this place. I have taken a few photos of some of the interesting architectural details. Going to post them here and then get back to unpacking. : )

Under stair storage closet.  The woodwork in this place is quite fabulous.

Bedroom doorknob

Closet hardware

That wall was patched and painted prior to our moving in. It is now quite a lovely stairwell. 

Garage mandoor hardware.  Can you tell I am a sucker for old hardware? Just something so intriguing about it. I like to imagine the person who made it, probably by hand or at a very small factory in those days following the Civil War. There is a house three doors down the street that has no door knobs but only lift-up latches because the man who had it built was a Civil War soldier who came home and lost both of his arms in an "exhuberant, post war celebration" (which most definitely must have contained fireworks). Can you imagine coming home well and healthy only to blow off both of your arms celebrating your homecoming? 

An Amish buggy that is sometimes parked in our carport. The man who drives it is the maintenance man for the Historical Society whose grounds are in our back yard. Right now his horse is lame so someone drives him in a blue pick up. 

Hope you enjoyed the photos! Time for me to get back to the boxes. 

God bless,

Rebecca

mudpies and catching up

Summer has come and gone. I have written and rewritten posts summarizing our last few months but they all sound pale and faint compared to the real thing.  Our summer was like most of our summers--equal doses of fun and relaxation. My favorite day this summer was mudpie day.  Annie made mudpies while Chris and Mary swam in the river.  Tess stayed on the shore and skipped rocks with me.  We did so many other things but this day stands out as a magical, lovely moment that I will remember when I am old and grey.  (Well, older and greyer than I already am. :) ) And rather than continue to try to describe it in words, I will just post the photos. 

Other highlights:

• trips to the zoo
• the county fair
• knitting on the porch
• lots and lots of drawing and painting
• watching and feeding the birds
• raising 8 baby rabbits and selling them the week of fair
• family photo walks and posting on Instagram
• days at the beach swimming and searching for beachglass
• baseball and soccer
• garage sales and lemonade stands

Our summer was rich and memorable. We recently planted mums near the front door and put out scarecrows and pumpkins. Fall is in the air and I am happy because it is my favorite season of the year.  I love it when the air is cool and crisp and the heavy humidity is gone.  It's nice to be able to wear a sweater with a pair of jeans and be comfortable.  

I hope all of you had enjoyable summers.  I hadn't checked google reader for a couple of months and when I returned, there were 534 posts to read.  I'm embarassed to say that I marked them "all read" rather than try to catch up.  I hope to be better at keeping up with reading blog posts. Happy Fall! :)

Love, Rebecca 

lately

Last Christmas, our local Best Buy was running a one day sale for a free iPhone. I guess because the iPhone 4 came out, they were giving away the 3GS for free.  Because I qualified for an upgrade, I went ahead and stopped in for mine.  

I really never expected that I would love that phone quite as much as I do.  Aside from the organizational genius that it is, the camera on the phone is far better than the one I have been using for the past few years. I've been using quite a few photo and editing apps.  

Subsequently, I've gotten hooked on Instagram, which is sort of like a pictoral facebook, without the annoying high school drama that sometimes takes place.  All photos loaded onto Instagram must be uploaded from a mobile device.  So, technically, they are supposed to be taken with an iPhone but many folks take them with a DSLR and then sync the photos from their computer to their phone to post on Instragram. As I am getting older, I am finding myself talking a lot less but still appreciating the connection with other people.  There are some really talented people posting some beautiful photos on IG.  

Anyhow, I have posted several series of photos that I thought maybe I'd share here for those of you who are interested.  I have always envied people who can take beautiful portraits or lovely landscapes.  I have never been very good at the "big picture" but seem to be able to pick out textures, colors, shadows and patterns in things.  So that is what I find fun and interesting these days.

As many of you know, we moved out a bit farther into the country last spring which makes for quite a bit of rural photo fodder. So here are some up close and personal tractor photos, for those of you who might enjoy them. I get a little hyper-focused with the subjects sometimes.

Well, that's it from me this evening. I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend with your families!

snapshots around the world

My dear friend Kim has talked for quite some time of a group photo blog.  She wanted it to be a collective effort between a few people highlighting a simple weekly theme.  This week, Kim, who lives in Germany, Sue in Japan and I posted our first photos at Snapshots Around the World.  We are pretty excited about it and hope you'll stop by to see the pictures.  If you'd like to post a photo of the same theme, you can link yours in the comments or using the linky thingamagig at the end of each post.  

autumn waning