Photo Friday

And she’s buying a stairway to heaven….

Reincarnation

Some things do get a second chance…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Culture

Provence
copyright janet m. webb

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/photo-challenge-culture/

Spring Sunshine

Spring Sunshine

I position my chair in the sunlight streaming through the front window,
the rest of the house behind me
chill in its winter-to-spring transition.

The heat soaks into my grey fleece top
gradually seeping its welcome way through my skin,
into my bones and the center of my body.

Bushes bow slightly before the wind,
waiting to shed their winter bareness for the new growth of spring,
each bare, brown sword-branch tipped with green.

On the porch, a chipmunk overlooks the buttery daffodils and fragile narcissus
ever so slowly raising their rain-battered heads
from soaked obeisance into erect beauty.

Two goldfinches swoop down, perching in the largest bush,
tiny bird-lanterns heralding the start of another Saturday
as a cloud ship moves regally through the sky ocean.

Downton Abbey for the rest of us

Everybody’s watching season 3 of Downton Abbey and what an enormous house that it!!  I know they had servants (and lots of them) but houses that size (or even half that size) always make me shudder when I think of the cleaning involved!

We don’t have Downton Abbey, but about a week ago, I posted pictures of a stone cottage on the former Blossom Estate near our house in Ohio, http://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/better-joy-in-a-cottage-than-sorrow-in-a-palace/.  Although the estate is mostly an upscale shopping area now, here’s a bit more left of the original estate, the buildings being used for various things.  There’s also an old greenhouse and a fabulous stone wall.  They look the way I think the out-buildings of Downton Abbey might have looked.

I think there’s something both special and homey about stone houses, at least on this scale.  I hope you enjoy this second look at a slice of life from the past.  Just imagine what the big house must have been like!!  Maybe not as large as Downton Abbey, but rather spectacular all the same.

Better joy in a cottage than sorrow in a palace

Not far from where we live are the grounds of  what used to be an enormous estate, the Blossom Estate.  (I tried to find a link to show you the history of it, but came up with nothing.)  There were a few large homes as well as out-buildings, all hidden by vast numbers of trees, except in winter, when we could peer in and see a bit more.

In 2003, all that changed.  The estate was sold and a large shopping center built.  While Legacy Village is, as shopping centers go, upscale and well-designed, with the feel of an outdoor village, we miss the beauty that used to be there.  However, there are still a few remnants of the original estate hiding along the edges of consumable America.  Off to the side of the enormous Dick’s Sporting Goods and a swathe of parking is one small gem.  Can’t you just imagine sitting in a comfortable chair in from of a cozy fire, a good book, a dog lying at your feet and a hot drink near at hand?

The soul of a house

Some houses have souls and personalities and some don’t.  The former are quite often older homes, built when people took pride in what they built, put thought into both use and beauty, things that give personality to a house.  The house we’ve owned for 27 years and will be attempting to sell (due to relocation) has character.  Here are some examples.

Finally!!

Paint your wagon!

They’re gone!  Quiet descends on the house and I sink gratefully into the leather living room chair that has begun over time to conform to my shape.  I have survived the first day of the painting blitz. 

Stayin’ alive

Today it began…