BailiwickStudio

It Begins

December has arrived, a month full of magic and sparkle. As a child, the magic came in seeing holidays lights, in laying in bed at night thinking of what might be under the tree, in writing the perfect letter to Santa, and of course baking and eating all those delectable cookies and candies.

 

These days, I still find magic in holiday lights - especially the twinkling variety - and I look forward all year to a certain holiday treat (that would be dark chocolate peppermint bark), and of course the best thing of all is the miracle of our Saviour's birth.

 

 

I'm just now finally getting around to decorating, which is usually concentrated on the mantle. I went for sparkly this year - tiny silver fairy bells, glittered trees and pinecones, snowy wreaths, vintage candlesticks, and hanging paper stars, all in silvery whites.

 

 

As hard as it is for me to leave Autumn and embrace Winter, having a snowy mantle to see as I pass by helps the transition. And this year we will have two wide-eyed little boys sharing our Christmas - so I expect the magic of it all will surround us from every side!

Linked with The Lettered Cottage for Christmas Mantles.

 

Rain, Rain, Rain

Here in Washington it has rained a lot. We've had sprinkles, moderate showers, steady rainfall, and gale force winds that whipped around the house with a midnight howl. I love it all! There have also been days of sunshine and deep blue skies with scudding clouds, which seem even more brilliant when the temperature is only in the 40s.

 

The beaches here are full of driftwood and seaweed, sand dollars and feathers, flotsam and jetsam.  The air is fresh and pure, being constantly washed by the rain.

 

 

So now I've had a bit of true Autumn - even a touch of Winter. I'll go home with a jarful of feathers and a pocketful of sand dollars and thoughts of vast windswept beaches.

And best of all, I've had the pleasure of being here for my oldest grandson's 7th birthday!

 

 

Linked with Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

November

 

November has been weaving itself around me in a very non-November way - it has been much too warm. There haven't been any November mists or rainy afternoons or blustery grey days that make you think the right thing to do is to curl up inside a quilt with an interesting book. This is what I get for living here, in the California desert.

 

 

I'm impatient, waiting for Autumn. It's true, there are some neighborhood trees dressed in scarlet and gold; I've heard the crunch of fallen leaves underfoot; Standard Time has returned with it's early twilight; but still, none of it seems Autumn-like when the temperature is in the 80s!

 

 

However, on Friday I'm winging my way to Washington State for a visit with my daughter. I'm sure I'll find fog, mist, and rain there. There's bound to be Autumn magic in the trees and in the air, and I will be completely captivated by all of it. Finally, my spirit will feel the shift of the seasons.

Today...

... I woke up to a lovely Fall morning - a brisk breeze blowing, the sky as blue as could be, and yellow leaves flinging themselves off the tree. It made me happy, because today is also my birthday. I love that I was born in Autumn!

 

The colors of Autumn sing to me - yellows and greens, violets and oranges... I don't really wear those colors, but to see them all around me puts a spring in my step and gratitude in my heart, for it means my favorite season is upon us. The birds in the trees are looking very fat as they pile on their winter undergarments, and I may soon look just like them as I pull out my favorite boots and scarves and sweaters and coats, even while hoping that summer doesn't come 'round again until next year.  I sometimes wonder how my heart would manage if I lived in, say, New Hampshire or Vermont or somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains. I'm sure it would find itself near to bursting with the color and dance of Fall.

 

Even though Autumn beauty never quite tips the scales here in California, it's really not as much about the vibrant fall foliage (which we don't see here anyway) but rather the comfort of the days to come - the chill outside and the warmth inside and all the musing and daydreaming and cozy living that goes with it.

It's exactly my cup of tea.

Go, sit upon the lofty hill,
And turn your eyes around,
Where waving woods and waters wild
Do hymn an autumn sound.
The summer sun is faint on them —
The summer flowers depart —
Sit still — as all transform’d to stone,
Except your musing heart.

Elizabeth Barret Browning

A Ghost Pumpkin

Well, hello! I know that I've become a once-a-month blogger, and I'm not sure how to get myself back into regular posting. I still love blogging, but I've indulged far more time into reading blogs than I have into writing my own.

 

But now it's truly Autumn, and more of the day is spent indoors where the computer is. Maybe this fact will help change my non-blogging ways?

Anyway, yesterday I pulled a coat out of the closet, for the first time since I put it in there last Spring, and went to a pumpkin patch to find a white pumpkin. I love the one I came home with - a ghost pumpkin with light blue spots. It pairs up quite nicely with the pink cosmos that's blooming in my garden, in my newest white pitcher from a local flea market. Love.

 

 

I've finally done a bit of seasonal decorating, too, and here it is mid-October already! I just couldn't pull out my Fall things when the temperature was hovering around 90° as it has been for the last few weeks. Now that it has cooled down, a wreath of nuts and berries is on the door and my collection of white ceramic pumpkins is in place on a table. Love Love.

Now it's beginning to feel like Autumn!

 

Linked up with

Little Red House for Mosaic Monday

Beverly's Pink Saturday with Pumpkins

September, I Love You

I'm ecstatic to finally turn the calendar page to September. I'm always more than ready to leave August behind - the days have become too long and hot, my energy level is low, the garden isn't producing much of anything any more, and I'm simply ready for a new look. So, at the end of August I start my "fall cleaning". I've swept away all the dust bunnies that hide in corners, dusted the tabletops and bookshelves, washed the linens, sparkled up the kitchen appliances, organised cupboards and closets, and now I'm raking the first leaves that have fallen from the trees, all in anticipation for a month that seems more like the start of a new year than January does.

 

This September is especially sweet. Our son is coming home after nearly 6 years in the US Army, this very afternoon! We are so thankful and grateful that he is returning in one piece. He says he's ready for bigger and better things, so the start of September is definitely the beginning of a new chapter in his life. We're so excited. And now with him here and our daughter & Co in Washington state, we're all in the same time zone - and that is something to celebrate after they've been scattered around the globe for the past several years. No longer will I have to do slow math in my head to figure out if it's a good time to call.

Now that I'm in my Autumn mood, I'm on my toes waiting for that first hint of woodsmoke in the air, and weather cool enough to wear my favorite scarves and boots. I'm looking forward to early twilight, pumpkins, crunchy leaves, simmering soup and the scent of cinnamon and cloves. Is anyone else ready too? Let the season begin!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

 

One of the things I love best about our garden is the quiet noise and movement. The tree swaying and rustling, the birds chirping, the windchimes chiming, and the sunlight and shadows dancing. It feels like a busy garden, and I love that.

The veggies are still going strong...

 

 

But only a few of the flowers are blooming...

 

 

Perhaps all the others are napping and preparing for one last flurry of blooming before Autumn sets in.

How is your garden growing?

 

 

I'm linked with Cottage Garden Party #14 at Fishtail Cottage.

Gifts of Summer

There's the tiniest bit of change in the air already, reminding me that Summer is fading and Autumn is just around the corner. I've spotted a few bright yellow leaves in our lovely shade tree, and there's a faint sharpness in the air underneath the heat of the sun. The timing is just right - I'm ready for a new season!

This has been a good summer, filled with some very lovely gifts - grandsons, hummingbirds, gardens... Our grandsons shared much of the summer with us, and I'm always captivated by the world as they see it - they find such pleasure in a carefully built mud castle with handmade flags around it, or finding a huge zucchini under the leaves, or building a house of cards for the first time. When I'm with them I'm reminded to look at the small things and find the wonder of them, as they do, and I need to remember that even when they're not at my side pointing them out.

 

 

We also had the amazing gift of our little hummingbird family - watching them grow and seeing them fly away. Today I saw one of the babies over in the rosebushes, flying about from flower to flower. He flitted up and down right in front of me before disappearing back into the tree - I'd like to think he's familiar enough with me that he has no fear. Although, he might be the one we accidentally catapulted out of the nest... yes, we did that. One of the babies remained in the nest a full day after the other flew off, so we gently pulled the branch down by one of its leaves so we could see the little bird better. Suddenly the leaf broke off and the branch went springing up! and when it came down the bird wasn't there. I started looking all around the ground and panicked when I couldn't find him, then we looked up and saw him sitting on a branch in the tree. I think he was giggling. Mama came over and scolded us, and we crept away in shame. Oops. All is well, though - the two babies have stayed nearby, flying just fine.

 

 

Another gift is seeing my firstborn celebrating a summer birthday today - her 28th! Wow. The years have just flown by.

 

 

And our garden! It has been a joy even if it got off to a rough start. I enlarged it this year and probably spent more on hardscaping and young plants than I saved on vegetables, but the work is so satisfying and real that I don't care. I love that I can keep it going nearly all year.

 

bruschetta straight from the garden

 

Now that the season is winding down, I hope you'll take a look around you and count your own gifts of summer. They're usually right in front of our noses - in all the little things around us.

I'm linking up with Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

 

Our Hummingbirds

 

A few weeks ago we noticed a tiny hummingbird sitting on a nest in our favorite shade tree. Since then we've enjoyed watching the beginning of two new little lives. The nest is right over our heads when we sit on our porch swing, so we have a perfect view of the bottom of the nest, and we can watch the mama come and go.

 

Hummingbird nests are made of bits of garden fluff glued together with cobwebs and spiderwebs, and are no larger than a golf ball. You can read about them here. The first time we peeked in we saw two jellybean-sized eggs. Later, I taped a mirror to a stick and looked into the nest that way, and saw two tiny naked birds.

 

 

After that, whenever I'd try to look when mama wasn't there, she would suddenly show up and fly in circles near my ear as though she was telling me to LEAVE RIGHT NOW! So I'd immediately get off my stepstool and take my camera and my self back into the house. That little bird (about 3" long) is very bossy!

Now the babies are so big they fill up the nest.

 

Mama sometimes perches on top of them, but I really don't believe there's much room. I expect that soon she'll let them fly off, and we'll have two new birds in our garden. I hope I'll be lucky enough to see them taking their first steps into the world.

 

 

I'm linked to Cottage Garden Party #11 and Mosaic Monday.

Harvest and Hummingbirds

Our little garden is becoming fruitful. It had a rough start and although not everything grew, the veggies that did are doing very well.

Those zucchinis are always a surprise - I never see them growing, but find them already 10 or 12 inches long and ready to pick.

 

 

The tomatoes are a jungle, and require getting oneself right in there to find a ripe one.

 

 

We harvested the rest of the onions, a few zucchini, a handful of yellow tomatoes, some radishes, and jalepeno peppers. I'm still waiting for the eggplant! And now I'm happily deciding what to plant for a Fall harvest.

Nico would like a chocolate tree :)

 

 

We just discovered a very special resident in our garden. This sweet mama hummingbird is sitting on two tiny eggs (we peeked when she flew away, but she's back now). She sits right above all the commotion that the boys make when they play on the swing and with their cars and trucks, but she's very calm and collected. Her nest is the size of a golf ball and the eggs look like coconut jellybeans!

I'm linked to Fishtail Cottage today for Cottage Garden Party #9.