{fresh air}

Not surprisingly, my stuffy head and runny nose cleared up after only one day at the farm in Minnesota.

Fresh air.

Something I take for granted.

Something I am glad my son can experience fully...at least a few weeks out of the year.

Other things...

a million stars visible in the night sky.  

gravel roads.

crickets and bullfrogs.

lightning bugs en masse.

endless corn fields.

raspberries right off the bush.

sweet smell of wildflowers wafting in the window.

lakes.

lots and lots of lakes.

g

garden graveyard

I miss spring.

And summer.

Yesterday we got a February teaser: sixty-five degrees and sunshine.

It made me want to unearth my flower beds, getting rid of the dead, to make room for beautiful new buds!

However, since I know March is sure to bring more snow...

I will enjoy my "garden graveyard" for a another long month...

{you'll be a knockout someday, honey}

 {a future hot pink cluster on my crepe myrtle}

{sweet, sweet jane magnolia bud}

{a bed of dead, wet, beautiful leaves to keep the garden warm}

{hang on droopy, droopy hang on}

{fuzzy bud, you make me feel all fuzzy inside}

{i see you, my lovely pup}

Clearly I was bored today. 

 But it was a really good kind of bored.
The day started with: with fresh-baked donuts, coffee, {yes, I can have one cup a day -- "my vagina gets a vote!" for all you Grey's fans out there -- loved that episode for obvious reasons!} and lounging on the couch with Hubby watching White Men Can't Jump.

Now time to get to work painting the currently being re-vamped master bath...

more on that to come!

Anything pretty happening in your garden graveyard?

G

sepia-toned november

Yes, mamas and papas,

all the leaves are brown, now, and the sky is gray.

I did go for a walk on a winter's day.

{Yeah, I know, it is not technically winter yet. Just play along.}

So I bathed these shots taken at my parents farm in sepia.

Winter beauty in brown - enjoy!

G

{take a moment}

We have {so much} planned for this weekend...it is kind of exhausting just to think about it! Dinner out with friends, a wedding celebration, our annual King's Island date {bring on the fear and adrenaline rushes!} However, I am determined not to let the weekend fly by in an instant...but slow it down and enjoy every moment.

{roadside wildflowers in minnesota}

Even though your weekend may be packed with events, take a moment to just relax and enjoy something beautiful. Even if it just reading the paper and sipping your coffee on Sunday morning. Which is lovely in and of itself.

:o)

{bad spider ju-ju}

The other day I opened up the rickety old window in the laundry room at the back of our house, expecting to see a beautiful fall day.

I raised the bamboo shade {hiding the old window's ugliness} and was aghast at all the spiderwebs. So I thought to myself, "Self, you need to clean this window." So I opened up said window and immediately a huge spider literally jumped at me! I shrieked as it landed on the floor, batted away by my karate-chopping hands, and crawled towards the corner of the room at lightning speed.

I heard my hubby's calm voice from the living room: "What is it?" He did not seem particularly alarmed. Apparently my shrieking is commonplace in our house.

"Sp-sp-sp-spider. Biiiiiig spider. Come kill it."

I don't have much love for insects. I know, I know, the whole circle of life thing. I get it. As long as they are outside I am perfectly comfortable with insects. Inside my house is a whole other ballgame. The death penalty is liberally given out to trespassers of the creepy-crawly kind. So hubby killed it. Bad idea. Karmically speaking.

This brings me to my bad spider ju-ju. I now have a huge spider in my garden that will not leave. I have garden-hosed this sucker down five times, yet my yellow coreopsis plant is where he wants to live! He spins his web over, and over, and over...

Finally I gave up trying to hose him. His will is stronger than mine. I decided we could cohabitate in the garden together. Here is my little spider friend:

I kind of feel nauseous even looking at these pictures. Also like there might be something crawling on me.

As long as he stays in his little space of the garden we will get along just fine. Right???

The moral of this story is: killing insects rather than kindly releasing them out into the wild may come back and bite you. Not literally. Right?

Yeeeeeesh.

finding center

"In Nature, nothing is perfect, and yet everything is perfect."

Alice Walker

Have I mentioned I love flowers? Okay, well, if not, I will tell you right now that yes, I do love them. Smelling them, planting them, receiving them, photographing them...it might be a little obsessive how much I love them.

So the setting for my friend Kristina's wedding ceremony this past weekend had my heart a-flutter: The Athens State Botanical Gardens. As I walked around before the ceremony I couldn't help being inspired by the peaceful vibe of the gardens. It helped calm my mind from the "oh crap I have to go back to work tomorrow" reality that was setting in. So, despite the fact that my hair was frizzing, and I was sweating profusely in the Georgia heat, I managed to snag a few photographs that will hopefully inspire you as well...

Green is probably my favorite color in wildflowers...it is unexpectedly vibrant, especially with this magenta heart.

This bright red array made me think of flames in a fire.

Enormous hot-pink blooms added some tropical flair.

I was alone on my stroll...except for the bees!

The meditation garden made me want to sit yoga-style and say om...but my dress and high heels wouldn't allow it.

After my walk through the gardens I felt, albeit sweaty, a lot more centered, and ready to head back to reality after a really fun wedding weekend. Back to working overnights for this girl!

Outrageous amounts of coffee, deathly pallid skin, strange "dinner breakfasts..."

Bring it on.

Ommmm.

:o)