A rainy day

It has been warm and sunny.  Balmy temperatures and clear blue skies all through the Thanksgivings Holiday.  It is almost hard to believe this, and to feel my body being enveloped in such warmhearted, welcoming sunshine and warmth this late in the season it is a most remarkable thing. 

This is the first time in the two years we've been here that things are finally starting to make sense as far as temperature in the south concerns...  it was unusual, indeed, all that bitter cold and snow of the last two years, and now, being able to go outside and enjoy each moment of my day without feeling discomfort, it is just amazing.  Yesterday at Costco I realized how lucky I am.  The minute I entered the freezer where the vegetables and such are kept I was suddenly reminded of the cold of the north and the frostiness biting my bones on days just like these.  I trembled just to think about it.  My warmth seeking bones are truly thankful for real southern temperatures.    

And then, in the afternoon, I went to the garden and spend quite some awesome time alone with God and Nature. Not the slightest discomfort whatsoever.  Today, it is a rainy day.  The tin-tin-tin music of rain and the fine clear sheets coming down from gray skies have soothed the garden in a thousand ways.  Delightfulness of sheer silence and stillness.  Even the birds seems scarce today.  What are they doing, I wonder.  Are they watching the rain from their own tiny adobes, just like I'm doing right now?  I can picture them snuggling up behind windows and walls of sticks and twigs high up on suitable branches.

The Queen Elizabeth rose I planted last year by the garage door is still putting up blooms.  

I cut a few young buds and embellished our Thanksgivings table with it... 

Then, they unfurled to magnificence and to the most beautiful color ever.  

I can hardly believe that my December table is wearing roses from my garden.  

What a blessing this is. 

Everything looks so beautiful with the rain outside.  

This morning I walked up the hill to our mailbox in my pjs.  

From the top of the road the little white house resembled a fairytale cottage.  

My fantasy come true!

If I go knock on the door, would Bashful or Dopey, or Sleepy open the door?   

 Or maybe is it a witch who lives there?  

One have to wonder...

This summer, coming home after one of our trips, we found a most unusual thing in our garden close to the woods... a mound of branches all neatly stacked and left between two trees...  I even took a photograph of it to prove my story true.

Do you supposed this was the work of some of the mysterious dwellers of the woods?  Was this some witch's firewood collected with the intentions of using it to warm her den and cook her potage?  Perhaps this witch had to leave her wood behind in a hurry, sensing that we were close by?  Whatever this meant, it surely was a strange thing indeed.  That's why I love living in the country, close to a forest.  Anything of the fantasy sorts can surely happen here at any given moment.

Rain, and rainy days make me want to light up little lamps and such around the house.  What a better day to bring out the Christmas tree and fairy lights.  So I did.  The little white cottage looks lovely all shimmered up.  Gloominess lifting up in swirls of twinkling little lights reminiscent of fairytales and itty bitty stars.  I am so thankful and blessed for being able to stay home with all these free time on my hands to just enjoy my little moments.   I'll be showing you my 2015 Christmas tree real soon, so stay around! ;)