Old Salem at Dusk

Hi everyone!  Are you enjoying these pretty spring days?  It sounds like some folks are getting late snows in their part of the country -- I hope it melts quickly for you.

I want to share some images of Old Salem with you.  I wrote about this historic area of our town last summer, which you can read about HERE and HERE.  Yesterday, hubby and I took some pictures there as twilight was falling.  We hadn't exactly planned it that way, but by the time we ate dinner and got to Old Salem, it was almost dusk.

This time around, we mainly took pictures of the church and the college.  The first photos are of  Home Moravian Church.  The church was built in 1799 and dedicated in 1800.

 

Fences for Mosaic Monday

Hi all!  I hope everyone had a nice weekend.  We had lots of rain and some seriously loud thunderstorms.  It's still raining, as I write this at 8:45 p.m., but the weather is supposed to clear and be pretty tomorrow.

Last week I selected four photos which I've used in previous blog posts in order to participate in Vee's Note Card Party at A Haven For Vee.  The photos are of interesting fences that I felt would make pretty note cards.  After I did the post, I thought how neat they would look in a mosaic.  So I found a few more fence pictures from my blog posts to add to the group and made a mosaic for Mosaic Monday, hosted by Mary at Little Red House.  Thank you, Mary, for hosting this blog party.

I appreciate your visits and I hope you have a great Monday!


Denise

An Ode to the Redbud

Our Redbud Trees in North Carolina are in full bloom right now.  It seems as if, overnight, they just burst into glorious color.  Many people have them planted in their yards, but they also grow wild in the woods (along with the Dogwood Trees).  And this time of year, you can see the Redbuds blooming all along the highways and interstates of our region, announcing that spring is here.

I've always thought that Redbud is entirely the wrong name for these trees, for their blooms aren't red, but a wonderful, purplish-pink color.  For as long as I can remember, they have been one of my favorite trees.  They are typically quite hardy, and when they get larger, they provide a wonderful shade in summer with a canopy of heart-shaped leaves.

Redbuds are also known as Judas Trees, although I don't hear them called that very often.  According to the website About.com.Forestry, our native North American redbud is the Cercis canadensis, and "the specific redbud that is most often labeled Judas Tree is Cercis siliquastrum, and lives in Mediterranean and Asia Minor countries.  That tree is the one most associated as "Judea's Tree" and is supposedly the tree Judas Iscariot hanged himself on after betraying Christ."

My North Carolina gardening book states that Redbuds are short-lived trees.  But in this case, I would beg to differ.  This old, and rather gnarled Redbud Tree in our front yard has been here since we moved in 16 years ago, and it was a mature tree at that time.  Since our house is 40 years old, I would bet the tree is at least that old.  In addition, it survived damage from a serious tornado that hit ours and surrounding neighborhoods in 1999.  You can see in the pictures where some of the big limbs were broken, and its shape is not the prettiest.  Yet there is something dignified in the way this tree continues to stand as sentinel at the top of our driveway.  It blooms every year like clockwork, and I'm quite attached to it after all these years.

Here are some pictures I took yesterday afternoon when the sky was partly overcast.

     

 

 

You can see the stunted shape of some of the limbs in the picture below.

The front of our house gets the bright morning sun, and since it wasn't foggy this morning, I zipped outside with my camera to try and get some more pictures of the tree.  I then noticed that my next-door neighbor's younger and smaller Redbud was blooming, and the sun was shining directly on it.

I just love those tiny pink blooms against the backdrop of a blue, blue sky.

 

 

Now for some close-ups...

 

Do you have Redbud Trees in your part of the world?  If so, are they blooming now?

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and taking time to leave a comment.  I always enjoy reading them.  :)  I hope you have a great weekend -- ours is predicted to be rainy.

I'm joining Home Sweet Home, hosted by Sherry at The Charm of Home,  Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday, and The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays, and Kathy  at a Delightsome Life for Home and Garden Thursday.  Thank you, ladies, for hosting every week!

Denise

Note Card Party

I'm joining the other folks at Vee's blog, A Haven for Vee, to participate in her note card party.  Just select four photos that you've already used in one of your existing blog posts.  I'm using a theme of "fences" for my note cards, with a caption for each photo.  I am fascinated by pretty fences.  Whether they're elegant wrought iron, rustic wood, or white picket fences, I can't resist photographing them.  I think I'd enjoy seeing these on note cards.  :)

 Episcopal Church -- Highlands, North Carolina

 Rustic Garden Fence -- Old Salem, North Carolina

Ireland, 1999

 

 Wrought-Iron Hearts -- Wilmington, North Carolina

As always, I appreciate your visits, and I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  Which fence do you like best?

Denise

Beginning a Kitchen Remodel

Hi everyone!  I hope all of you had a great weekend and hopefully enjoyed celebrating a bit o' the Irish.  I have a partial metamorphosis to share with you today.  We're having our kitchen remodeled; that's right, we're dragging it bringing it into the 21st century.  This is so exciting for me because I've waited 16 years to do this.

Our house was built in 1972, and we're the third owners.  The first owners had it custom built and lived here 22 years.  The second owners lived here two years before they relocated to Atlanta.  And as of this summer, we will have lived here for 16 years.

Thankfully, the second owners did some re-modeling and updating to the house while they were here.  When we viewed the house, they told us that most of the house still had its original 1970's decor when they moved in.  The kitchen had orange Formica counter tops, yellow, tile backsplash, and avocado green appliances.  A Brady Bunch kitchen for sure.

The young couple who sold us the house updated most of the kitchen as soon as they purchased the house.  They took down the original wallpaper and replaced it with a pattern that I really liked for many years.  They replaced the orange counter top with white Formica, which has remained in pretty good condition.  They replaced the yellow backsplash.  They also replaced all the appliances with shiny, new white ones, and a white porcelain sink.  What they didn't replace was the linoleum floor and the cabinets (the most expensive part of the re-model).

Have a look at our 40 year old cabinets.  I'm trying not to cringe when I see them in photos.

Happy Pink Saturday and Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hi everyone!  What gorgeous weather we've had this week!!  Just in time for Pink Saturday...

My husband took these pictures of our Saucer Magnolia, or Tulip Magnolia, about two weeks ago.  We had a freeze three nights later, and yesterday we had a thunderstorm, so the blooms are mostly on the ground at this point.  It was pretty while it lasted. :)

Does anyone have plans for celebrating St. Paddy's Day tomorrow?  Some of the Irish restaurants in our area are having all-day buffets, starting around 10:30 a.m., and Irish bands performing all day, as well.  Lots of festivities.  Hope you enjoy the day wherever you may be!

If you'd like to see more pictures from our trip to Ireland, you can click on the posts HERE and HERE.  Thanks for visiting me, and I'm joining Pink Saturday, hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound, Seasonal Sundays, hosted by The Tablescaper, and Mosaic Monday, hosted by Mary at Little Red House.

All the best!

Denise 

The Land of Shamrocks, Part 2

St. Paddy's Day hasn't arrived yet, but everyone is still celebrating.  There's a whole lot of celebrating going on over at Cuisine Kathleen's place.  She's hosting the Fourth Annual St. Patrick's Day Blog Party Crawl (try saying that three times really fast) :)

I thought I would leave you with a few last images of Ireland from the trip we took in 1999 (you can see Part 1 of our trip HERE).  But I also wanted to share some thoughts about my experience.  I so appreciate all the nice comments people left on the first part of my post.  It's amazing how many out there have Irish roots and have traveled to Ireland.  A few of you mentioned "The Troubles" in your comments.  When we think of Ireland, we think of the beauty -- the unbelievable green land, the magical light, the flowers, cottages, and the hospitable people.  And unfortunately, most of us think of "The Troubles."