Earth Day

A beautiful day for Earth Day. The creeping phlox have begun to open. The pansies are standing very spritely in the window boxes. The forsithia still radiates sunshine. Even the daffodils display their bright countenance.


I know that Earth day is so much more. But I'm reveling in this quintessential Spring day; bright sunshine, gentle warmth and the glory of early flowers.


Wishing you a colorful day, Cyth

Lily

I'd like to have you meet Lily. She came home with the Mr. and me just yesterday and I gotta tell ya, she's made us laugh more times in these past 24 hours than we'd laughed all week.

Checking out the snow-laden daffodils

It's all such an adventure for her right now. Eight weeks old and seeing the world through new eyes---deep black puppy eyes, so black that you can fall right into them or be totally turned out by them. And it's wonderful that we can be seeing the world through new eyes with her. I think that this will be a new adventure that we'll all enjoy.

Sending puppy love, Cyth

Wonderful Easter Week-end

I hope that your Easter Day and week-end were as glorious as mine. After rain , rain , and more rain , we've finally had a few sunny days. And I can't een say how perfect they were. Warm and sunny. Yellow daffies opening. Forsithia blossoming. Birds chirping. And smiling liberated people everywhere, so glad not to be cleaning dirty water out of their basements AT LAST. ( YES. We did have lots of flooding these past two weeks. Roads closed. Schools closed. But that's not today !!!)

We got in a little kite flying with the grandkids.

Bunnies parachuting in to help with festivities.

Wee little houses found in the awakening garden. I wonder who lives there?

Pussywillows , all plumped up.

And , how 'bout that? An amaryllis blossomed to bring in Easter. No winter celebrant this bright fellow.

And looky here. A wee gray furry friend. He's mighty plump. He's fed well on dropped sunflower seed all winter. Amazing he moves as fast as he does. Might he be living in the tiny village found in the garden?

Sending you all well wishes for a glorious Spring, Cyth

Of White Rabbits and Coincidences?

I'm late. I'm late ---for a very important date. Well, I've been around but occupied -and very busy too. Preoccupied as well. I get like that. No excuses. It's just the way I am. But already I digress. And so I am late for another post.


You might have guessed that I'm about to tell you something about Alice and Wonderland. And indeed that is true. But there is more. And it is the "more" that interests me the most , intrigues me & baffles me . It is a subject I've written about before , but then I keep getting more little tidbits thrown my way that sparks that curiosity yet again. Let me start from the beginning.


Alice and Wonderland. The Mister & I made it out yesterday to see the new movie---a classic story with a new twist. And Johnny Depp, who I really appreciate as an actor, starred as The Mad Hatter. Who better to play The Mad Hatter? No one , in my book. But I digress again. I'm not going to review the movie except to say that I loved the sets and costumes and make-up---the story was not as compelling as I thought it was going to be. But glad enough I was to catch the movie yesterday.


I'm sure that most of you know that there are some very intriguing characters in the story. The White Rabbit for one. He leads Alice down the rabbit hole, which gets her into the mess she is in. And for Tim Burton's version of the story , it is not the first time she's been lead down a rabbit hole. ( Wouldn't ya think she'd have learned the first time? ) Anyway, he's got an important role in the story , though no more so than some of the others ( The Mad Hatter, The Red Queen, the Cheshire cat, for example ). But it is he that connects me to the rest of my story.


You see, when the Mister & I came out of the theater after the movie, we found that the rain that had been promised to come in and inundate us this week-end had actually begun as snow. Yes, again, and almost mid March. And a fierce wind accompanied the precipatation. It was a fine night for a murder OR a little magic. We were perhaps just over half way home , alone on the road at the time, when we noticed movement ahead, crossing in front of us. A critter. Not uncommon in our neck of the woods as the skunks have been out more for than a month now and raccoons have too been sighted . And we were far enough away not to be a threat to it if , as the Mister did, we slow down.


Now , I said that it was not uncommon to sight "critters" in our neck of the woods, but the one that crossed in front of us IS rather uncommon - for us. If I had been alone , I would've thought that I was hallucinating or that my imagination had taken a stroll. But I was not alone. And the Mister and I both spied it and simultaneously voiced , with bewilderment, that it was a rabbit just crossing into the breakdown lane -----and not just any rabbit. It was indeed a white rabbit.





And I have to tell you again. We do not see rabbits around here. Though there is woods behind us and farm land not far in almost every direction, we have never seen a rabbit in the years that we have lived here. Last night we slowed down for a rabbit , a white rabbit, just after seeing Alice in Wonderland.


I know, because I'd be likely to say it too, you are probably thinking, " Just a coincidence." And maybe you're right. But maybe there is Magic. And maybe some nights are just more Magical than most nights. That's all I've got to say about the matter now. I'm late. I'm late.


Wishing you delightful magic to intrigue, Cyth

More White on White

Early this morning.....just a crack in the sky showing a pale blue sky with barely-there-pink cloud edge.

Oh I told you that I was NOT going to be fooled by the come-on with which Mother Nature was trying to draw us in the other day. Yes, the daffies have begun to break ground , but that ground is again covered in white ( known as "poor man's fertilizer" in these parts ).

Funny day. Snow , sun, snow, wet big-flake snow, sun , snow.......and on it went today. It covered the ground and the street and it melted and it covered and it melted. Some split personality on Mother Nature's part. AND more white rain to come.

Spring will be much welcomed this year !!!!


Off tomorrow to view the litter of puppies . One little bundle will be ours , but not tomorrow. We've still got a bit of a wait until she comes home with us.

Have a wonderful week-end, Cyth

White on White

Dirty snow. Not a pretty sight. But it can be a hopeful one. It , of course, means that we haven't had sufficient new snow to cover it and perhaps Spring is almost within our grasp. Not that you could particularly tell today for it is cold and raining; raw to the bone. But with the cold rain we get a glimpse of "things to come". By that I mean "Mud Season'. That's what we call the next seasonal phase up here in NH.

Harbinger of Mud Season

But I know not to quite believe that it is upon us yet , though it might be beginning to look that way. We'll surely get more white stuff to have to shovel and and bemoan before the onslaught of the mud. So as I continue to prepare furniture pieces and themes for the Shop I'm again, and still, enamored of White on White.

Here I have a few piece of milk glass that I've been collecting ( because they are still affordable ; unlike some of the other collectibles that I used to acquire). And how crisp and cool they look against the snow.

I'm always inspired by white on white during mid-winter when snow piles on top of snow. It's clean. It reflects lots of light. It's expansive. Come Spring my palette changes in a way that reflects the burgeoning growth of new life. Summer suggests deeper , lusher color , and my furniture reflects that too.

But I'm toying again with doing a "white on white corner" in the shop this year. I thought that last year I'd do that , but nixed the idea after painting 2 pieces of furniture white. This time 'round I think I'll stick with the scheme and see how it works out. Afterall who wouldn't appreciate a little cool crisp corner in the heat of summer?

If you are interested in milk glass you might want to check out Eddie Ross' etsy site. I've seen some lovely pieces there; some with cutwork effects , some more unusual pieces. I'm sure ebay offers lots of choices as well. Then you too can enjoy some cool white in the heat of summer.

Wishing you a white and wonderful day , Cyth

Sky Blue Pink

My Mom called it Sky Blue Pink. And I would laugh. I always thought that she was so funny calling it that, especially as I got to be teen age. You know how that goes; you need to have everything be "real" -like when you were drawing---it had to look like what it was , and most often your skills were woefully lacking. And you needed to have your mother know what was real too. And what was real was always dependent on your definition. So to have mom say that the sky was Sky Blue Pink was as ridiculous as saying the sky was falling.


But this afternoon late , when I looked up into the sky, my first thought was that the sky was -yes- Sky Blue Pink. It's that quickly melting sunset sky when at first the sky is as blue as it can be , and the sun having dipped just low enough casts a warm glow under the clouds. The clouds shift and dissipate and the colors seem to melt into each other. Watching it makes you want to hold your breath and hold the day in stasis just as it is. Then so imperceptibly you make a small groan as the colors meld and fade to night. And the realization hits again that Mom couldn't have said it better ; Sky Blue Pink.


That kind of celestial inspiration , I imagine, motivates artists , and poets & musicians to create all manner of wondrous and creative canvases, poems and songs. The desire to capture such small and seemingly perfect moments gives rise to some acts of beauty and creativity. But what of the population not so creatively endowed? How does one express that kind of beauty and hold on to it? Some devise descriptive little ditties for their kids ,like Mom did. Then others try to hold on to it by injecting their translation into their environment. Witness:

This, my friends, is the legacy that the Mister & I have been given . I'm slightly embarrassed to show you , so I tried to find discrete corners of our narrow little bathroom to share with you. I'm afraid that the colors of the photo are slightly off , but not too much so. But there it is......someone's interpretation of Sky Blue Pink.

You can see just a wee bit of the dusty pink sink to the lower left corner, set into brownish pink laminate against sky blue tiles. Oh my ! And the tiles wrap ALL around the dusty pink tub and beyond. Oh my. I wonder , whatever were they thinking ?

This is original to the house , which we've guessed to be about 50 years old. ( I was just a wee small lass back then and don't rightly recall what was considered fashionable back then . But could it really have been this sky blue pink?) Now the Mister and I have slowly , ever so slowly, been working on upgrading bits and pieces and parts on and around the house. We've a bit more to do. This will probably be our last project and I'm simultaneously dying to do it and dreading doing it.

In an effort just to make the room a bit more comfortable to live with in the interim ( a l-o-n-g interim it is ) we have painted most of the wall space white -as white as we could get it ( The sweet little room is also north facing. brrrrrr ). And out of my stash , I pulled a few vintage hankies of , what else, pink and blue and white, to use as a window valance.

What can I tell you. They are almost the only things , aside from my milk glass which I have everywhere in the bathroom ( the more white , the better ) that give me reason to smile while I'm in there.

Oh I DO yearn for the day that we can haul those tiles and that tub and sink out of there. Until then I will "grace" ( ha ) the room with my little hankies , and gaze out the window to watch that Sky Blue Pink sky melt into night.

Wishing you all tender, melting moments of your own.