Nobody Faint!

Two posts in one day! What's up with that? *grin*

Just wanted to share the morning and evening light.

photos by Aisling, February 23, 2009

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The Warp and Weft of Winter - 2009

Last year I did a post, The Warp and Weft of Winter, highlighting some of the textures and patterns inside the Quiet Country House. When sunshine spilled through the windows Sunday afternoon, casting interesting shadows, I saw things that I don't always notice. I grabbed the camera and wandered through the house.

photos by Aisling, February 22, 2009

1) the living room clock and its shadow 2) a prism at the kitchen window 3) the cloudy sky through the window screen 4) a pointsettia at the window 5) the fabric on our 1930s radio 6) embroidery on a quilt my grandmother made for me when I was in my teens 7) the corner of my nightstand, with a silk-flower pen in a hand-painted pot (a gift from my son Sijo)

Sunday Stroll

After three months of winter weather, it becomes difficult to find something new to photograph. Summer is one long pageant of change; new blooms, new colors, something fresh each day. The changes in winter are slower and more subtle. The garden rests quietly and is apparently much more patient than the gardener.

The icicles on the garage attest to the wild wind that blows here.

Miss Maudie seemed to enjoy her romp in the deep snow, despite the extra effort involved in moving from one place to the next.

Why do the hills seem steeper in winter? Maude and I would both like to know! Whatever the answer, we wouldn't miss this chance to tromp up and down the hills together, under those moody skies, and then lay down together in the living room to rest from our efforts.

Sunday Stroll Invitation

" A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust." ~ Gertrude Jekyll

If you have time to stroll today, and if your weather permits, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too.

Look who's strolling:

Ruth at Musings of an Everyday Woman
Cloudhands at Uncarved Block
Margaret at Periodic Pearls
Nan at Letters from a Hill Farm

Sunday Stroll - Water Colors

This afternoon, Haiku and I wandered around at the marina, quiet and forgotten for the long winter months. Shades of gray seemed to dominate the color palette, but other colors are there if you look closely... pearls and teals and, if you look up, precocious blues.

Two swans napped on the shore, completely ignoring a solitary seagull. Jonathan Livingston, I presume...

In the summer... goldenrod, Queen Anne's Lace, and milkweed bloom amid the rocks. Children race down these walkways to the sugar-sands just over the rise to dip their toes in the cool lake water. In the summer, in the shelter of the harbor, teens tan themselves beneath a golden sun and swim amid the whitecaps that rush in from the open water. But for now, in the pale silver sunlight of February, the choppy waves meet a blanket of snow at the water's edge, and there is no-one at the shore but Haiku and I.

photos by Haiku and Aisling, February 15, 2009

Sunday Stroll Invitation

"Smile, breath and go slowly." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

If you have time to stroll today, and if your weather permits, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too.

Look who's strolling:

Cloudhands at Uncarved Block

Margaret at Periodic Pearls

Abbie at Farmer's Daughter

Ruth at Musings of an Everyday Woman

Me, here at The Quiet Country House

Early Evening

I think the January Thaw finally found us, here in the second week of February. It isn't Sunday, but I thought I would share a few photos that I took as I wandered around my fields and gardens. The creek, which I named "The Sometimes Brook" in honor of its habit of being sometimes there, and sometimes not, is flowing rapidly today... under and over ice, in and around little dams made of snow.

I think these tiny shoots (Yes! I have things sprouting here!) are Red Impression Tulips. The front yard is flowing nearly as well as the creek!

I wasn't the only one out in the early evening hours, enjoying the colorful skies and the crisp-fresh air.

The south end of the butterfly garden is still snow-covered, but in the north end, sprouts are pushing through the earth. The first photo is a little wild iris that is often the first thing to bloom in my garden in the spring, proceeding the crocus blooms whose shoots make their appearance in the second photo.

What else is going on beneath the cold soil and a thick layer of spent leaves? Much more than meets the eye, I'm sure! By the way... did you know that lemon thyme smells even fresher and sweeter in February than it does in June?

The lingering snow clearly states that winter is still here, but the air hints at spring, and and the fields are filled with reminders of other seasons.

Though we lost many inches of snow today, snow is in the forecast for later in the week. Before that happens, I'm going to enjoy the remainder of this beautiful, balmy night. Well, not balmy really, but everything is relative! Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I hope you find something beautiful to lift your spirits.

all photos by Aisling, February 10, 2009

A Borrowed Stroll....

I was outside several times today, but my camera is on a snowmobile weekend with my husband, so I'm going to borrow several of Haiku's photos. She took these last Sunday afternoon after my stroll. She went a little further afield than I did, down the hill and into the woods. It still looks much like this today, but with a few more bare patches. By the way, if by "partly cloudy" the weatherman meant "perfectly blue sky with the merest suggestion of clouds on the northern edge of the sky" then he got the forecast right for the day. It was near freezing all day, but so pretty that it was easy to ignore the temperature and head outside to enjoy all the sparkle of the sunlight on the snow.

A little red squirrel hid his head from the camera, but the trees, and the snow, and the tiny hidden beauties of the woods were cooperative with Haiku. These photos reveal the winter peacefulness of her walk in the woods. How could we fully appreciate the cool greenness of the woods in the summer, if we never experienced the white stillness of the woods in winter?

all photos by Haiku, February 1, 2009