Well, hello there, how do you do? (that would be Mister Lovee's greeting to you, in his very deep voice)
But, since you've got me typing here, I'll say ~
Hoooooola! Hellooooooooo, Bonjour!
Doesn't that 3 tone zinnia up there make you just want to jump so high you bonk your head on the ceiling and faint? Oh wait, maybe that's only my personal way of thinking ;)
Of course, I wouldn't want to literally bonk my head and faint.
You know that, right?
(there are a handful of those red/pink zinnias right now, yumm!)
The thing is, the witches wanted me to share that beauty with you, as a thanks for being so excited about the Halloween party. They are beyond delighted!
And, quite busily cooking up all sorts of goodness!
In the meantime, you and I have chapters and chapters of catching up to do. What with me having guests all last week, and then the Halloween party announcement this week, why, I have hundreds of photos and tales I simply have not shared. But, maybe I shouldn't bore you with them.
Did I tell you about the fairy light?
Before I get carried away with that, let's catch up a little.
What have we been up to? Oh so many things, I can't think.
Let'se see....
I have been painting up a storm (canvas and furniture). I made 2 pumpkin cheescakes (with my own punkin babies) last week, which I shared with all manner of friends, and not one photo. So sad.
Still getting up early every single day to tend my garden for a few hours.
Beautiful mornings, garden flourishing with lower temps. Everything getting crazy tall! (still in the upper 90's but not 100's)
I took a photograph of the angle below, that you have seen before, so you could see how tall the zinnias are. Almost 5 feet tall, gifting endless vases of flowers every day, never once whining about the heat. I simply did not know that they would do so well. I am totally gobsmacked...
A friend brought us a mountain of manure from her miniature goats, for the garden. Isn't that the sweetest? I mean really, collecting it and delivering it. I gave her half a cheesecake. But then we talked so much, I was certain it had turned into a cheesecake smoothie.
Mister Lovee and I have had the bestest evenings, putting up purple lights, and laughing (plus ooing and aahing) at all my bins of halloween treasures. Which I might add, I went and picked up at the city house (I used to throw lots of decadent witches parties). And then, went on to load my car, full until bursting, with every thing in my storage room at the city house. So many treasures re-found. I feel like I basically closed the door on city life, and plunged full time into country life 4 years ago (well really 10 years ago, but living here super full time 4-5 years ago). So, now, refinding my treasures, that are all slowly coming to the country, is super delightful. I am doing it all myself, little by little.
I don't know what is wrong with me, when I am super busy I always take on 5,000 more projects. And curiously, am more effective at getting them done. I decided I wanted to clean out all my drawers, paint furniture in my room, and organize some of my bakelite (and a handful of random bangles) differently.......
I wanted to stack it up. So I could see some of it...
I went searching for something that just had to work as a bangle stacker....
I found a hat stand, and pulled the head off so I could use the pole stand alone. Then I found one of those "measuring stick skirt marker thingamajigs attached to a stand," in my sewing nook.
Perfect I thought...
So, here are 4 stands of bangles. The only two that are working for me are the front center and front left, that I already used for bangles. One is a victorian letter holder with birds, the other a candle holder. But the other two tall ones, front right and back center, hmmmm....
Topsy turvyness, not working for me.
So, now I get to put them all back where they originally went, lined up in a drawer. Don't you love wasting time on such nonsense? At least I got to play a little dress up, and put them all on (not at the same time, of course).....
So, now, I am back to cleaning drawers.
I have to admit...
I have become not very good at keeping my life in sparkling tidy order. I don't like filth, so toilets and sinks and floors are always clean and scrubbed. But as far as tidiness. I am failing.
And, I don't care.
I think it is because, I know how it looks clean, so, yarn and jewelry and shoes and all sorts of random thing strewn about feels cozy to me. That is until someone wants to come over, and I freak out. Because, how can you explain to someone how nice things look when they are tidy, when they are not?
I am ruined for life because of Olga. I just have to face it.
When I was growing up, the housekeeper/nanny lady, Olga, used to follow me around (then Letty, then Luz, then Theresa then, oh I don't know, I tormented so many of them they quit, but Olga stayed around a long time. She would quit and then come back, from the time I was 4 years old until college, and she followed me there too). Cleaning up after every step. Olga was a whirlwind. I made a mess and before I knew it, it was polished to sparkling heights and put back. She left everything feeling cool and lemon fresh clean. Oh and Theresa, getting me dressed to the nines in literally, 1 minute, as a boy came calling at the front door.
(I was always, from the time I can remember, in trouble for getting paint everywhere, because no one could get dry paint off of anything, not even Olga with her wire brush)
But what do you do, when you are all growed up, and you realize Olga is not with you?
(MOM, call Olga!!)
When you chose dirt and paint and fur, and love, and music and more love, in a love shack no less, because that is what filled your soul to bursting?
I fell in love in the quaint simple country, and stayed.
Dirt, gardens, too much to keep up, too much to do.
Too much junk and too many "treasures."
And, I wouldn't trade it for anything ever ever ever ever ever.
Living on this little parcel of earth, with these boys (and once a fur lass), and the trees and the mountains and my full heart, is the only place I have ever felt so complete in my whole life.
So, untidiness it is. It's not that untidy, is it?
haha!
And that's that.
See, easy.
Decided, done.
:)
And, now that this post has spiraled into nothing that I had planned. I want to share the fairy light.
(Sometime I will share more childhood stories that would make you turn pale, about how I dressed up and hid, and scared the housekeepers into oblivion. Or, how I lived on the roof dressed in a wig when my parents went out of town. Or, how I "borrowed" my mom's enormous boat like, white Lincoln town car when they were out of town (they had taken away my car keys), and went cruising around town like all the kids did, and went to the Mexican fiestas. And how I was always grounded. Oh, maybe another time. We should all share a story from our youth, yes yes! Soon, let's do that!)
But for now, I am a much wiser, less less less less party girl version of myself (I love parties now too, but now I like the ones where tea and cakes are served, and you go to bed early. Not the ones where you are at the height of discotheque dancing at 2 a.m.).
I still feel 17 in my step, but those tales feel light years away.
And, I like that. Memories to love and giggle about.
But the nowness, so much better.
These days I am deeply enamoured by fairy light...
Oh such fairy light.
My calm soul, wanting silence and solitude, loves the trickling in of the daily fairy light....
Through the trees, over the roof.
If you happen to be standing there at just the right moment, you get struck with the blinding glow....
And then, as it begins to fade away, it leaves the perfect amount of shadow, to view the flowers at their best....
(zinnia)
(3rd giant dahlia below, with 17 more buds, can you believe it?)
Light that does not wash them away with its strength, and yet, not darkened by evening. Just a perfect combo of light and shadow...
(roses)
A play of light and shadow, that lasts about 5 minutes...
Just enough light, to fill your swoon cup up, until tomorrow...
Oh, how the garden is coming to life, with a huge wave of happiness now that the temps have dropped a bit. The evenings are glorious. I take a light sheet out to the garden chaise and read magazines. (btw, has anyone noticed how the October decor magazines have no hint of fall, not one pumpkin in them? Am I missing something?)
It's heaven out there. Watching nature flutter by...
Time to finish the drawer and room job, and get to painting for the day.
Much love!
