Playing with a Nice Camera

A friend let me borrow his digital SLR camera today to take a few photos.  I...am greatly enjoying playing with it :)  Click images to see larger.

I think this might be Chimera's final position in our yard.  He looks right at home among the flowers.

The chrysanthemum flowers we planted last year in memoriam of my Uncle who passed away are now in bloom.  

The back yard at twilight.  Just ignore the road cones...construction still goes on.

A little daylily...probably one of the last of the year.

The lens on this camera can take wider angle photos of the rooms than my little digital snapshot camera can.   Here you can see the layout of our room with the window seat a bit better.

You can see the new deer statues on Tom's desk and the photos of person-dressed forest animals taped to the branches of the tree awaiting frames (I'm thinking of making frames for them from canning jar lid rings)

 

The view from the bed. 

In Which I Get What I Wished For

We got him!!!  Tom was sweet enough to run up to Mt Vernon today to pick up some Buckley's Cough Syrup at the closest store that sells it (a half hour away).  Well, that store has discontinued the best cough syrup in the world, but he went on to the greenhouse up there a little further away and picked up the cat gargoyle I so deeply regretted not getting at the Rural Society Antique and Garden Show a few weeks ago.

The first picture is deceptive...the cat gargoyle is actually life-size to Corvin, as you can see in the second picture. . Mr. Catgoyle is not likely to stay in that spot, but we put him there for now until we can get a little yard work done tomorrow (very little, as I'm sick with laryngitis) and experiment with other locations for him.

He also needs a name.  Any suggestions?

In Honor of our Fawns

I was meandering through Hobby Lobby this afternoon, and I saw their holiday items were 40% off.  Tom and I have been eyeing these two stag statues the last couple of times we've been there, and today I couldn't resist them.

They are our homage to our two baby fawns who adopted our neighborhood for about a month earlier this year before moving on to a more forested home.

And since our bedroom is Enchanted Forest - themed, they get to stay out year-round on Tom's dresser.

Rural Society, Autumn Edition

More about life, the universe, and the Rural Society Antique and Garden Show....

First, yes this IS our fence in our yard.  And yes that IS a five foot trench dug right next to it.  Apparently in the original road construction plans, they were going to take down the fence altogether and put the water line there...the road crew is great though, and they very carefully worked together.  It was still tense but fascinating to go out and see this!

This morning when I left for the Antique & Garden Show I saw this lovely Morning Glory on my arbor and thought it was ironic right next to the big machinery parked by our house for the weekend ;)

So you remember the Rural Society Antique and Garden Show I went to with my mom in the spring?  Well this was their fall show.  And of course it was wonderful.

Behold, the item I regret most.  I should have bought this cat gargoyle.  I may still try to contact the greenhouse that owned this booth to see if I can get it.

Sweet antique sock monkeys.

There was a much bigger crowd there this morning, the first morning of the sale, than the other two we've gone to.  It was fascinating to see people scooping up items left and right.  I was sad that an old incubator my friend really wanted was sold when we went back to check for it.

I loved these old reliquary shelves.  If they had been a little less...

Mom pointed out when we were in line just how perfectly indicative of the sale this view out the barn window was.  Rural Ohio, tents with gorgeous displays, and gourds.  Welcome to the sale.

An old Burne-Jones framed print I would have been more tempted by if I had any more room on my walls for large artworks.

A lovely small statue.

A gorgeous piece of carved wood. 

The bubble glass image on the right reminded me of my friend Chris.

When we came home, I made Tom a belated anniversary cherry pie.  :)

Fourth Anniversary

Life still continues apace, but today we took a moment to pause and celebrate our four-year wedding anniversary.  We took a trip to the park where we were married, and enjoyed walking around...we hadn't been there in at least a couple of years.

We stood where we said our vows, and a nice park employee took our picture for us.

We posed with the camera on a timer in the place where Greg took my favorite wedding photo we have framed on our wall.

I climbed a steep hill to get to the tree where Greg shot another photo on the wedding day:

One of our favorite spots in the park, the storytelling garden, where the labyrinthian path has tiles telling the story of the earth's origin according to Native American mythology.

The path ends in a lovely sculpture of Sky Mother surrounded by trees.

 

 
Tom posed for me on the bridge where Greg took his picture.

Then we went to lunch at Olive Garden and grinned like madpeople.

Oh and of course Tom's gift to me was brilliant and romantic.  Fourth anniversary is traditionally fruit, flowers, or silk.  He got me this, a William Morris floral silk scarf from The Met Store.  It hits everything...the Pre-Raphaelites I love, flowers, and silk.  I'm utterly impressed and smitten :)