Nineteen years ago . . .



Nineteen years ago today,
on a Thanksgiving weekend,
I walked down a curved wooden staircase
to the beautiful music of a woodwind quintet.
I made my way past family and close friends
to meet up with my best friend,
waiting for me,
standing in front of a fireplace
with a crackling fire, and a minister.
There were vows and promises
and they were sealed with a kiss.
It was our marriage,
nineteen years ago today.

"A long marriage is two people trying to dance a duet
and two solos at the same time."

- Ann Taylor Fleming


Two years ago, we went home to Chicago to celebrate my in-law's 50th Wedding Anniversary at a quaint Bed and Breakfast. It just so happened that it was the very same place we were married and that day, a Saturday, was also our anniversary and these are the exact stairs I walked down.

When we were dating we used to read to each other from Kahlil Gibran's book, The Prophet.
It was from that book of poetic essays that he read this at our ceremony:

"Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?"
And he answered saying:
You were born together and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone, though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not in each other's keeping.
For the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."

This is the room where we promised to take each other's hands and walk through life together, loving each other along the way. And with a house so full of charm and antiques it made for quite a romantic day.

This would be one of the most important rooms, and that's where all the food is served! It looked a bit different on our wedding day as she does a custom tablescape to your liking.

And this is, Oscar Swan Inn, Bed and Breakfast, Guest House, Country Inn. The place where we started our journey together, and it was just as wonderful two years ago as it was on our wedding day!

{Photo credit, Forever Photos, now retired}

A place that if I had to choose all over again, and to the love of my life, I would, and I do. I love you!

Kim,

XO

 

 

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Here it is Sunday already, but this week did go by faster than usual
with all the eating baking for Thanksgiving!
  The blessings and bounty of leftovers is a curse for my waist so I suppose when I set out for a
walk this week I'm really going to need to walk, which means I may have to leave my camera
behind - wait nevermind that won't work!

1. Waiting: For the second year in a row my husband and I got up early on Thanksgiving morning to go watch the sunrise, but as you can see it was extremely overcast and cloudy and so we waited....and waited... and waited ...until finally we got a glimpse of the sun, however it was fleeting. 

2. Foliage:  On my walk this week I finally found some incredible red leaves that are just now turning and falling from the pear trees and it was pretty darned exciting! I know, for some of you this is old news, but for

those of us in the south this is good stuff! (so you get two of them!)

 

3. Candid:  WARNING, this photo may make you smile! Just look at those beautiful, happy women . . . I did take this from my archives from a sunrise on the seawall last summer. We were getting ready to walk back to the car when I spied these women all dressed in white and with my camera to my eye I waved and they waved back. I remember the woman on the left pointed and said, look wer're gonna be on CNN (LOL)! And although I'm not a shy person by any means, I'm not sure why I didn't ask them their story - everyone has one and theirs seemed interesting. Were they related, friends, visiting, on vacation? The fact that it was Sunday and they were all dressed in white I have a feeling they may have been there in worship, but now I will never know.  But one thing I do know, is that for just that one moment in time, there was a connection between strangers.

4. Knife, spoon, or fork:  Okay, I think I see one of each! This is the first Thanksgiving we have spent in this house even though we have lived here 3 1/2 years. The first year we moved here we spent it in our apartment and we were talking about how we have no clue how we made dinner that year in a kitchen where a 4'x6' rug barely fit!

5. Rules of thirds:  Another part of my walk, okay I didn't really walk because there were just too many fun things to photograph. I went back to check on the Monarch's and was so excited to see these Monarch capterpillars! From the size of them I would say that they are just about full grown and will start their journey to transformation very soon. And for me, there is something of a miracle that in 21 days this caterpillar will turn into a butterfly. This isn't a perfect thirds, but it works.

"Nature often holds up a mirror so we can see more clearly the ongoing process

of growth, renewal, and transformation in our lives."

- Mary Ann Brussat

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Love, Kim

XO

 

Join me in more scavenger hunts . . .



Foto Friday - More Bees

Hello friends,  

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I'm a little late with foto Friday, I'm afraid I have been in a food coma and I highly

suspect that it's our long standing family tradition of homemade egg noodles that did it.

I am thankful for traditions that I get to pass on to my kids and not only are the noodles a
tradition, but a family affair. When we were first married I made the noodles by myself until I was
pregnant and couldn't get close enough to the counter to roll them out! So as tradition has it,
my husband rolls out the dough, I roll the dough up into logs and cut them and the kids then unroll
them and lay them to dry.

In between baking and cooking I did manage to get out and get some photos this week. I

stopped off at a little public garden down our main street where I found hibiscus and roses blooming

their little hearts out, but I have to say there was something else that caught my attention.

Honey bees . . . and as I watched them I thought about how thankful I am for these

amazing flying insects because of their dutiful life that allows me to eat some incredible

fruits and vegetables and for my camera that allowed me to record it. 

I have a feeling, I'll be back again next week . . .


The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist.
For man it is to know that and wonder at it.
- Jaques Yves Cousteau

{linked with shoot, edit, submit}

And check it out . . . the pear trees are finally starting to change and drop their leaves!

Then, I went back to check on the Monarch's and crossed my fingers . . . and look what I found!

Monarch caterpillars, and quite a few of them!

Now if only when I go back I can find out where they decided to wait out their transformation!

I have never seen a monarch chrysalis in person.

{linked with Fabulous Friday}

This is butterfly weed, their host plant and boy could he eat!!

{Linked with Photo Art Friday and La-La's Home daycare}

Wishing you continued blessings through the year!

Love, Kim

XO

  

"

Quotography - Giving Thanks

As each day comes to us refreshed and anew, so does my gratitude renew itself daily. The breaking of the sun over the horizon is my grateful heart dawning upon a blessed world.

~Terri Guillemets

Just waking up every morning is reason enough to give thanks,

to rejoice for another day spent with family and friends and for the splendor of this world.

And I am grateful to live in a place where I can witness the glory of the rising sun!

Happy Monday everyone!

Love, Kim

XO

 

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Well, it's Sunday

which means yesterday was Saturday

and we had our second playoff game in the afternoon.

Such a fabulous season

and after losing the first three pre-district games

we went on to win eight games in a row

including beating last year's State Champs!

But our journey is over . . .

With possession and two minutes to go

down by three points

we. just. ran. out. of. time!

So today I share with you my interpretations of the prompts from the game.....

1. Mainly one color: Since we were the home team, we wore our mainly black uniforms. This is a tradition

they started this year right before the start of the second half - this is called trusting your team.

2. Writing: Not all was lost,  she asked him to the Winter Ball and he said yes! ; )

3. Around the home: Even though we didn't play in our stadium, we were the home team. And when

you looked around you saw an incredible bond between players, each of them arm in arm.

4. Water: The kind that contains salt . . . and there was lots of it! This is the head coach and I'm

pretty sure every player came to get a hug from him!! 

5. Reflection:  Our reflection afterwards of the game left us feeling well, a bit dazed. It looked

a little like this . . .

I can't even tell you what a pleasure it has been to watch this team for eleven weeks and I can

only say that my family and I won't know what to do with ourselves now that it's over!!

But I'm sure my daughter will be letting me know the countdown until next season . . . like tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

Love, Kim

XO

Foto Friday - Some bees, some butterflies and a few trees

This week I am thankful

for the bees,

the butterflies,

and the trees.

I took another walk,

but this time it was back to my favorite trail

and I started off at the butterfly garden. 

Okay, let's say I lost myself in it!

But then I made my way 

over the bayou

and through the woods

to the beautiful Gulf of Mexico.

I was so immersed in my walk

that I almost forgot about my son's

basketball game -

how does one forget that?

And had I not filled the card on my camera

I might have missed it altogether.

So, to say the least

the last part of that 5 mile walk

that started out at 74

became a challenge

in what ended up a 90 degree day!

"Praise the bridge that carries you over"

- George Coleman

I love this walking bridge, it has carried me over many things in my thoughts!

{linked to Photo Art Friday}

After doing some of my favorite go-to's in Picnik I decided to try a few different things. First I used a little

orton-ish, then cross process. Then I tried ripple blocks fade 20%, HSL filter until I got the color slide

I liked. Then I added Hex cells at 55% size 8.68 and softened at 50% brushing off the bridge. The last thing - circle splash on screen mode faded 48% at a radius of 246.49. This is really different for me!

This is the before picture - no edits.

Before I even left the house though, I walked to the end of my sidewalk to enjoy the incredible smell

of this trailing purple lantana and was instantly graced by this skipper butterfly.

Maybe someday technology will be so incredible that I can share this fabulous scent with a scratch and sniff!

This one done in sepia brushing off to expose some color.

{linked to Fabulous Friday and Shoot, Edit and Submit}

From the butterfly garden, an orange sulfur butterfly which had an incredible brown markings on the inside

of it's wings. Of course it didn't stay long enough to capture that!

And the bees, lots and lots of bees - it almost felt like a spring day, not fall!

But I guess they are busy gathering and storing for the winter.

All summer I hadn't seen any Monarch butterflies, until the last couple of weeks. This garden was FULL of them, dozens and they were playing tag-your-it with each other and made it really difficult to capture

a photo. I couldn't get within 5 feet of one before they would fly off, so my experience last week when I got one to go on my hand is just that much more special!

The light that day was just perfect . . .

I even came across a little Christmas in the forest!

I kept thinking that any minute when I turned another corner I would find someone building a new

bench or something - it sounded like someone was pounding wood - more like pecking.

Is that not just a gorgeous woodpecker? A red headed Pileated Woodpecker!

Just a beautiful day all around!

Have a really fabulous weekend!
Love, Kim
XO