Bunny therapy

Ugh! I've had a cold this week. It's not the worst cold ever but I have been so fuddy headed. I've been slowly descending into it.

This calls for Bunny Therapy! 

 

 

 

 

 

 Thanks, Bun!

Love,

Katy Noelle

(I won't give you a kiss or a hug because I don't want you to catch it!)

Now what should I do? Put my feet up?

The weather in Vermont is pretty changeable. After the spectacular last week of warm weather that seemed determined to banish winter and eradicate it's memory forever, we are now in for a week of rain.

This is good! Sometimes, in the spring, when it rains, you can practically see the world turning green before your very eyes.

Silly sentimental girl that I am, I think it's so wonderful and perfect!

Cozy and romantic!

If you've been following along at all, you could probably guess that this would be my optimistic take on things.

The house is spring cleaned and all put together (well, downstairs is, at least. The upstairs is another story still yet to be written.) Now, it's time to enjoy the fruit of my labors and to sit in my freshly cleaned house. Well, for as long as it can last with three very creative boys dwelling in it.

I've been listening to Glenn Gould playing Brahm's Intermezzi and Rhapsodi for the piano.

To me, this music is more romantic and beautiful than even Chopin. It's very quiet and introspective for the most part - punctuated often, with the most heart rendingly, glorious passages of soaring melody. I very much appreciate Mr. Gould's interpretations which are honest and straight forward - not flamboyant, but heartfelt and true. This music speaks!

It would be a great day for daydreaming and thinking and cooking up wonderful ideas.

However,

after the afternoon tea for 35 women that I hosted on Saturday and church on Sunday (with a little bit of organ playing in the service), I'm too tired to put two words, let alone any thoughts, together.

I planned for this!

The agenda for the next few days is to putter and splutter along. All of the leftover flowers and sugar cookies are such a reward for all of the hard work.

Well, now, you can see that the weather is the perfect backdrop to the sleepy quiet days that we all need around here.

Especially for Halle!

She's been sleeping a lot!

She's had this funny, tired expression on her face often in the past 5 weeks.

The reason, no doubt is her thickening belly.

How many puppies are in there anyway do you suppose?!

Well, she shared my complacent day with me.

She looked out at the soppy, dripping world.

She looked to the right.

She looked to the left.

She thought about life, and ....

.... with the wisdom of the ages,

decided,

"I think that I will just stay in today."

I received another gift after the tea

and

I have a confession to make.

I was just way too busy during the day to actually take any pictures to chronicle the event.

This is sooooo sad, let me tell you!

It happens to me every year!

There is a mad rush at the end and all I'm left with is a blurry memory.

Sometimes, someone takes a few photos for me

but,

of course,

I want to take my own!

Well,

this year, my dear husband let me keep the tables up so that I could reset them and take pictures.

What's that?

Did I just hear you think that I'm a bit crazy?!

(Happily, that's all I heard you think!)

Strangely, one of my favorite things to do in this world is to set tables.

It's actually a hobby, in fact.

This is what I did today!

I will take pictures tomorrow that I would love to share with you.

This is just one of my tea tables

Of course, it has tea in it!

(anything else would be unthinkable and unethical - especially having the pot empty!)

Delicious, golden, soothingly fragrant, steaming black tea that the boys and I found to be just the thing ....

.... for a cold, damp day such as this!

Love, 

Katy Noelle

Winter into Spring

When I first moved to Vermont I felt frustrated because everyone always would talk about the weather. At first I thought that it was a tough reserve but then, as I lived here longer, I realized that Vermonters talk about the weather so much because there's so much weather to talk about. There's a saying here that if you don't like the weather, just wait ten minutes. Our monster snow storm of last week turned into another day of rain and several days of warmth. 

It's possible that we won't see the ground until April but, at the moment, it's promising an early spring. Whatever happens, I'm enjoying where I'm at very much.

Here are a few things that brightened my day on Saturday:

The light, now strong enough, catching the bottles on top of our kitchen dresser.

The date set for my annual ladies' tea - March 20th. Pretty paper to put the invitations on.

A hot cup of tea for while I work.

I had an idea for what to do for floral arrangements on the tables. I will probably have somewhere between 25 to 50 women and the cost, even though I absolutely love to buy armloads of flowers for bouquets, can be a bit formidable.

I am going to plant wheatgrass in these depression glasses that I have. Then, on the day, making sure that the soil is well watered, I will put small stems of spring flowers, like rununculas or forsythia or something bright and spring like, in the grass.

I was preparing to get started and was snapping these photos, when I glanced out the window. What a sight I saw!

Fog is something that we mostly see in the spring and the fall. It's one of my very favorite things about living here near the pond. I love fog!

It was gloriously beautiful. My poor hot cup of tea was abandoned as was my project. Then as I took my eyes off of the pond and looked down, I saw another truly happy sight. A muddy road! I think that I might be unique in this but I think muddy roads are very pretty. The puddles of water are pink shimmering mirrors.

Even though Mom's apple tree met with disaster last winter it seems to be resurrected. Talk about new life.

There are not only beautiful scenes but refreshing sounds also; like the sound of running water in the brook. Thaw!

I keep meaning to mention that it's not only the robins who are back. There are also morning doves and yellow finches and sparrows. The coo of a morning dove equals peacefulness.

Well, the informal tea that the boys and I had planned kept getting postponed. I haven't been able to get them inside to have a cozy tea or even to finish cleaning their room.

I came inside and put in some music. I've discovered something, '20s, '30s and '40s ballads are extremely uplifting.

Here's a sample of what I was listening to. I wonder if it will make you feel as comfy, homey and cheery as it did me. 

I discovered that I wasn't alone in the house.

Lliam had snuck back in and was continuing Flopsy bun's reading lessons.

The dark finally drove everyone in and I got a Grandma in the bargain to boot!

And a fresh hot cup of tea ...

Bliss!

Love to you,

Katy Noelle x

Super Chicken's Fine Day Out (a true story).

The forecast says, "snow likely" for the next week or so. This evening the clouds have started to move in. I have to confess that I've been dreading it. Winter is still with us.

Today, however, lovely today has been like spring again.

We've had more thaw, it seems, than snow this year. I can see the ground and the mud keeps threatening to suck my shoes off of my feet. One year, we had ten feet of snow in March. It was piled so high from the snow falling off of the roof that we couldn't see anything but white out of our first floor windows! I think that this year is going to be completely opposite of that.  You never know, but, I feel quite in a flurry and a hurry to get those seeds ordered soon. I think part of the reason that I feel so compelled to get a move on is because ...

today I saw my first robin!!!!!!!!

There was a whole flock of about thirty actually. They were looking for worms but there's only about an inch of thaw on the ground. It's still quite frozen beneath. (What do the worms do when the ground freezes?) They (the robins I mean) seemed very happy to make do with the plethora of hips from our old fashioned Goliath rose bush though.

I was born and raised in California and have only lived in Vermont for a short seventeen years. I never quite fully understood the poetry of spring. I mean, I'm rather a romantic soul so I enjoyed the sentiments, but, I had no concept, living in the land of eternal sun, what it's like after the bleak winter to welcome back feathered friends that were taken for granted until they were gone for so long.

In short, it's quite a to-do around here when the robins are back.

Meanwhile ...

Super Chicken (that is her name) escaped from the enclosure for the first time since the autumn.

There was liquid H2O to examine.

When you're Super Chicken, you're bold as brass. Nothing frightens you.

Why not head into the big dark barn? I mean, there might be food there.

We must confess, there was some jealousy in the barnyard today.

Handsome Jack paced back and forth keeping a watchful eye on her and nudging any other hens that had any bright ideas and came too close to the wire.

... but, when you're Super Chicken, the world is an adventure just waiting to be discovered.

Flopsy Bun agrees, life is pretty darn good!

Love and cheer,

Katy Noelle