Spring -- Here At Last!

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 "Spring Morning"

Where am I going?  I don't quite know.
Down to the stream where the king-cups grow--
Up on the hill where the pine-trees blow--
Anywhere, anywhere.  I don't know.

Where am I going?  The clouds sail by,
Little ones, baby ones, over the sky.
 Where am I going?  The shadows pass,
Little ones, baby ones, over the grass.

If you were a cloud, and sailed up there
You'd sail on water as blue as air,
And you'd see me here in the fields and say:
"Doesn't the sky look green today?"

Where am I going?  The high rooks call:
"It's awful fun to be born at all."
Where am I going?  The ring-doves coo:
"We do have beautiful things to do."

If you were a bird, and lived on high,
You'd lean on the wind when the wind came by,
You'd say to the wind when it took you away:
"That's where I wanted to go today!"

Where am I going?  I don't quite know,
What does it matter where people go?
Down to the wood where the blue-bells grow--
Anywhere, anywhere, I don't know.
~A. A. Milne, "When We Were Very Young"


 "The first day of Spring is one thing, the first Spring day another.  The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month." ~Henry Van Dyke 

"No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow." ~Proverb

Sky

How often do we find ourselves looking at the sky -- how many times in a day, a week, a lifetime?  The sky just draws our eye up and out.  In all of its many moods, it seems to fascinate us.

 Highlands, North Carolina

Updates To Our Living Room

Hi everyone!  I want to share some recent updates we've made in our living room.  I showed some pictures of our living room back in February, with a few snowmen here and there. The snowmen are packed away for another year, and I've replaced them with some rabbits.  I have a fondness for rabbits -- you can tell I don't have a vegetable garden.  :)

The bigger changes I wanted to share are what we've done around our piano, including new window treatments.  For years, I displayed about four or five accessories on top of our piano.  A treasured plate from my sister, a baby picture of our son, a Royal Doulton vase, and a few other items adorned that spot. 

I don't have a picture of the piano as it was at that time.  There was nothing wrong with the way it was, but at some point, I just wanted a change.  I decided the room needed a touch of silver.  I had lots of good black and white family photos, and so I set about getting silver frames for them to be displayed on the piano.

In addition, I wanted to hang something different on the wall above the piano.  This is what I had there for 16 years.  This picture was taken at Christmas, so I had ceramic Christmas carolers on the piano, but you can see the swag that hung on the wall at the time.

All Creatures Great and Small

Monday night is not normally a TV night at our house.  Mr. Forest Manor and I usually watch our regular shows on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and maybe some sort of sports on the weekend.  But this Monday evening, I decided I wanted to watch an episode of "All Creatures Great and Small."  We have six seasons on DVD, and we watched all of them several years ago, and haven't watched them since.  I got out the Season One DVD, and we watched the second and third episodes again.  We thoroughly enjoyed them, and that's when I decided it was time for me to write a post about this show.

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A Thief In The Night

Hi friends!  I hope you've all had a decent Monday -- such cold and dreary weather we're having.  Brrrr!

Those of you who regularly read my blog know that we love to feed and watch the birds at our house.  Well...this morning I opened the blind at our kitchen window where all the feeders are visible, and there was an empty chain hanging where our cute, new bark butter feeder used to be.

I'm Still Here

I've been absent from Blogland for about two weeks now -- I really hate it when that happens.  I've never mentioned on my blog that I have Sleep Apnea, lest you think I'm a very obese, middle-aged man in disguise.  :)  I know several women besides myself who have Sleep Apnea.  I've had this fun little condition for about eight years. Most of the time it's under control, but now and then something happens to mess things up.  Then I get a buildup of sleep deprivation to the point that I'm totally worn down.  That's what happened here over the past month.

I'm happy to say things are back on track in that department, but now I've come down with a head cold or a bout of spring allergies, and I'm feeling lousy again.  However, I'm sure that things will be looking up again very soon.

Thanks in advance for not giving up on me; I have so many things to share with you, but I just haven't had the energy to do so. What little time I've spent outdoors, I've enjoyed seeing cheerful flowers and flowering trees.  Today I'll settle for looking at them through the front door; it's much warmer that way.

Happy Spring to you all, and I hope to have some new posts soon!

Denise

Brookgreen Gardens, Part Two

I have some more pictures to share with you from Brookgreen Gardens today.  You can see my earlier post from February Here.  Brookgreen Gardens is located in Georgetown County, South Carolina.  As I noted previously, these public gardens are situated on a 9,100-acre property which was formerly four separate rice plantations.  Brookgreen Gardens includes a Lowcountry Zoo, a self-guided history and nature walking trail, a Butterfly House (opened in Spring 2011), and a 50-acre sculpture garden.  So far, we've only toured the Sculpture Gardens; there's just so much to see and take in.

We were there the last weekend of March, so there were lots of spring bulbs in bloom.