Before The Month of April Is Gone...

Hello Dear Friends!  It's hard to believe that I haven't posted since the middle of February -- a Valentine's tablescape.  Good grief, I've let the time slip away again.  We have been busy, though, living life, and I'm thankful for that.  In February, we visited a friend whose husband had died unexpectedly during the Christmas holidays.  Then, the following week, we attended a funeral for a man that Hal had worked with for 30 years.  I think it's nice that people are referring to these occasions as "Celebration of Life" now.  Hal's co-worker had lived a life to be celebrated, for sure.  He was quite down to earth, but such an inspiration to so many people.  Both of these men died from cancer, which is another whole topic.  Is it just me, or is this dreaded disease becoming more and more prevalent?        In March, Hal and I took another calligraphy class; this one was held at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art in Winston-Salem, N.C.  

The Transition

Hello September and Happy Labor Day everyone!  I hope you're all doing well.  I guess today is the unofficial last day of summer.  

     Time to take down the summer mantel decor.        

Top Ten Posts For 2020

Hi folks.  Aren't we glad this difficult and challenging year is drawing to a close?  Obviously, Covid 19 has been the big talking point, but I know many people have had difficulties not related to the virus.  My husband's aunt had cancer and died from a stroke before her treatments started.  One of the bloggers I like to read, Mike, who writes A Bit About Britain, was sick earlier in the year.  Believe it or not, I'm still having lingering effects from the Bell's Palsey I had back in June.  In fact, I've just been online looking at exercises to strengthen my facial muscles, which don't seem to have fully recovered.  And sadly, both of our families know people who have died from Covid 19.  Needless to say, we're all hoping for a better year in 2021!      Out of curiosity, I thought I would look at Google Analytics to see what my most popular posts were this year.  What peaked your interest the most on House at Forest Manor in 2020?  According to Google Analytics, these are your ten favorite posts this year.   In the top two spots were -- Attract More Birds to Your Outdoor Feeder.     

   

   

Unusual Times

Hello All!  Are you staying sane and healthy?         

Ten Years of "House at Forest Manor"

Hello Friends!  In January of this year, I began my tenth year of blogging -- I can hardly believe it.  In some ways it seems like it hasn't been any time at all since I published that first post in 2011; then in other ways, it feels like I've been doing this always.  I've noticed some of my blog friends have also been writing their blog for ten years; I didn't realize that so many of us had started around the same time.  I just always assumed that everyone else had been at this a lot longer than me.  :D        

 

May Day

   

"Queen Guinevere's Maying" ~John Collier

Call of the Wild

Some years ago, we had an owl in the woods behind our house, and after dark (especially in the fall) we would hear his call.  We often heard it when we were walking down the street, and he usually received an answering call from the trees nearby.  I loved to hear the owls; it was sort of a lonesome sound, but a homey one, too -- like the sound of a train whistle in the distance.  I could even hear them after I went to bed, but for some reason I don't hear them anymore.  It may be those new, double-paned windows, which do block out more sound, or the owls may have found another home.  I miss their soft hooting in the night.  

Hal's photo of the supermoon -- 2011

Reminiscing and the Winter Olympics

Are you watching the Winter Olympics? We watched for a while last night.  The ice skating competitions are, and always have been, my very favorite.  I can remember when I was a child "ice skating" around our house in my sock feet, looking ever so graceful and balletic. ⛸️  😎  Go ahead and laugh, but you know you did the same thing.  😜  

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day to my sweet Canadian friends!  Enjoy your country's 150th birthday!

I hope to someday visit your beautiful country.  

Denise

Happy Friday!

Hello everyone!  I hope you've had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend.  We have and we are.  :D  As I write this, it's started to thunder outside (just as the weather forecast predicted) and apparently we're in for a weekend of rain.

I hope you all had a good Easter.  It's been over a week since I've posted, and I thought I'd fill you in a bit on what's been happening around here.  First of all, we are loving our new floors and carpet; I'm so thankful we could get those done.  They've made such a difference in our home.  We ordered a new rug to put under the table in our kitchen eating area.  We've never felt the need for one there before, but we really do now.  First of all, we want to protect the wood floors from the chairs being scooted in and out from the table, and secondly, we feel like a rug would add a nice touch of color to the floor.  After much thought and consideration, I decided on a braided rug, as I felt it was more suited to the decor and style of our kitchen.  I just couldn't get on board with the more contemporary styles for that particular room.  While the kitchen doesn't really have a "country" vibe, it does have a cottage feel to it.

Some of My Favorite Blogs

Hi All!  I hope your week has gotten off to a good start.  Here in central N.C., March has come in like a lion this year -- lots of wind and gray skies.

In my last post, I mentioned that I had been away from blogging for almost a month.  I'm playing catch-up on reading the blogs I like to follow, and once again, I'm reminded how many creative and talented people are out there.  Right now, I'd like to share with you some of my favorite ladies to visit.

For starters, my friend Bonnie, of Living With Thanksgiving, has a lovely blog.  She lives in the south, and her home is just beautiful, classic southern style.  Being from the south myself, I can't help but be partial.  :)  Bonnie had her kitchen renovated last year, and she shared the reveal back in September.  For those of you who haven't seen this, it's well worth a look.  Please stop by and see (Here) you're in for a treat!  I know you love hydrangeas, Bonnie, so these flowers are for you.  :D

Last Day of January

Hi everyone!  I can't believe it's been three weeks since I posted here.  I had to take a little break because we've had a lot going on at the homestead.  ;)  In addition to not posting, I haven't been able to visit much, either, but I haven't forgotten about you all.  So, how have you been?  I've been doing well, except for having tooth problems.  I forgot just how painful a toothache can be, but I've been reminded the past few weeks.  It made me realize (again) how hard it must have been to live in the middle ages when dentistry was practically non-existent.  I guess the barber did tooth work, as well.

Anywho, I always had good teeth when I was young, but years of grinding them in my sleep during middle age has finally caused much cracking and having to get crowns -- not the pretty kind you wear on your head either.  Well, enough of that.  Today is my dear mom's birthday, but I won't be able to visit her until Friday.  I'm so lucky to still have my parents and Hal's parents, too.  My husband's grandmother will turn 100 years old the last week of February.  I don't know of anyone in my family who lived that long -- quite a milestone!

Also in the month of January, our Duncan turned three.  He's very sweet these days, but he's still a mischievous monkey.  ;)

Mid-Week Post

Happy Wednesday everyone!  What a busy few weeks we've had here.  I'm taking a little blog break for the rest of the week because, once again, I'm trying to cull out some things we no longer need.  Since our son moved out, we've been trying to get the house re-arranged and make some improvements.  It's never ending.  {:/

A Different Kind of Post

Happy June, everyone!  I hope you're ready for hot weather.  It's definitely arrived in our area, dragging all that humidity with it.

I've been doing a lot of thinking, and that can be a dangerous thing folks.  ;)  I recently joined the legions of people on Facebook (not my blog Facebook, but Facebook for me personally).  This was something I had shown no interest in for years.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was kind of fun to reconnect with people, many of whom I hadn't seen in at least 30 years.  You don't realize how much time has passed while you were in the process of raising children, having a career, etc., etc.  What I had failed to consider was that while I had been changing, maturing, and growing older, amazingly enough, so had all the people I used to know.  ;)

Catching Up From January

I'm behind on many of the things I want to write about because I took almost the whole month of January off.  I'm glad to be back, because I really missed blogging; but I also discovered the longer you stay away, the harder it is to start back.

I'm not typically a big celebrity watcher, but there were some big celebrity deaths in the news last month, and when this happens it often makes me aware of my own age and mortality.  Yes folks, the years are flying by.

In chronological order, the first of these celebrity deaths was David Bowie.  I was never a fan of his, but lots of people were.  David was 69 years old and died from cancer.

Four days later, one of my very favorite actors passed away -- Alan Rickman.  I will so miss his wonderful performances in the movies and television.  He, too, was 69 years old and died from cancer.  I had no idea he was sick, so the headline really threw me for a loop.  We're big Harry Potter fans here, and my husband and I saw him in every Harry Potter movie.

A Fresh, New Start

Hi everyone -- I hope you're enjoying sunshine in your part of the world today!  I can't tell you how glad I am to finally have sunshine again; it lifts my spirits considerably.  From what I can gather, a lot of people were sick during the holidays; it seems like so many people had bronchitis.  I hope everyone has recovered completely.

Checking In

Hello everyone and Happy Thursday to you, or as we used to say at my workplace, "Friday's Eve."  ;)  I hope you're enjoying some sunshine wherever you are this week.  What a relief to see the sun again.

This is one of those posts that's a mishmash of what's going on around here at the moment.  Not much rhyme or reason to the post, mostly just checking in for the week.  First of all, Mr. Forest Manor isn't feeling well, so he turned around this morning after he got halfway to work and came back home.  He's sleeping as I type this.  Master Duncan thought it was some kind of holiday since Pop came right back home, so he's been beside himself with excitement.