Tuesday Morning Tears

As if it's not hard enough to leave your warm cozy house for work, this is the face I have to see. The "are you really going to leave me all alone AGAIN?" face. And the sound track is sighs, big puppy sighs.

Monday Morning

In all honesty, my morning has mostly consisted of walking the dog and cleaning. Neither photo or blog worthy, tho' my kitchen floor looks great! But it's 60 degrees out ( I don't know why..) so the doors are open, the quince blossoms indoors are opening and I just had a delicious breakfast parfait.


I found the granola recipe on The Little House In The City. I skipped the coconut, not a big fan, and used sliced almonds, too lazy to chop. I only had almonds so I doubled the amount. Best granola ever, especially served in one of German girl's Heinrich china dishes. I ate the granola with yogurt and some surprisingly good blueberries.


And even though we haven't hung one thing on the newly painted walls, here is a shot of the two blues. I love the way they meet in the corners. I feel like I'm floating in here. Back down to earth, time to vacuum.

I just saw that The Little House In The City updated her granola recipe using olive oil in place of the butter. I used the butter. I probably will again.

Not A Creature Was Stirring

Note to self: stop naming your picture files such obscure names. "Still January", what does that mean and what pics are in there? Where is the picture of the cat asleep on the bed that I want to pair with the picture of the dog sleeping on the couch?


As always, a silent Sunday morning here, I'm trying to be quiet but downloading pictures, icing lattes, letting the cat in and out, in and out and quietly cursing while searching for pics isn't exactly silent. And nothing is worse than opening a new blog with music in it.
Surprise!
Please don't do that.
Or post a warning.


Now that I have previewed the photos of the animals sleeping I am much happier. It's 8:41 and I will go read till 9:00, then wake up the troops. The day awaits, grocery shopping, a coffee, maybe some thrifting and something delicious for dinner, oh and football. And my morning check to see if the snowdrops have opened. You'll know as soon as I do.

Bits And Pieces

When German girl moved in in 2006, she brought a 1993 black Toyota pickup named Sam, books, clothes and carved wooden jewelry boxes. These turned out to contain rocks. Favorite rocks from her travels. Also some shells, feathers and assorted nature minutia. The Lab came later. When the two of them are taking a walk on Roosevelt Island, here in Arlington, on the Potomac, they return with much more than an appetite. Old bottles (intact or in pieces) fossils, an arrowhead, rocks, hunks of coal, bone shards come too. And then I try to find a place to put them, this is a small house. Just when I fill a jar, a bowl or a shelf, they go on another walk and I rethink my strategy. Oh, and she collects old swords, too. She's a fencer. We need an addition.

Food and Flowers

Today was a sunny, springlike day. When I walked into work the shop and coolers were filled with flowers. The Tuesday order box was filled with lots of work and my iced grande skim latte was on the work table along with a new mystery one of my bosses had just finished. Nice, very nice,

What really made my heart sing though was the basket and box and bags full of food. Last week, after we had all made our heartfelt donations to Haiti, we decided to act locally. We started a food drive for the Arlington Pantry. It feeds over a 1000 families a week and was feeling the pinch of the post holidays. We made signs and sent out emails to our mailing list. By 9:10 the next morning, the first customer was there with bags of food. 3 days later and the food keeps coming. And my smile keeps growing.

Home Again

Sitting in the freshly painted room (s). I don't have shades up at the windows, or paintings hung on the walls. There is a ladder standing in the corner and specks of paint on the wood floors. But I have a candle burning, a white peony and 2 camellia buds about to burst into bloom. The bookshelves are filled and two of German girl's drawings sit on a shelf. It's beginning to feel like home.

Hearts and Pork Cutlets

I love our new paint colors. We are very tired, we are very merry. We painted every night till 12:00, slept till 7:00,went to work , then did it all again. My eyes are closing but my heart is rejoicing. I love change, visual, not change I can't control. We just pulled the painters cloth off the furniture and unfortunately that has not changed. The battered vintage leather chair is still that, The cat scratches are still imbedded in the couch arms. The rugs are old and tattered and it all looks wonderful.

We ate full dinners and drank copious amounts of tea. A favorite dinner here is Katsudon. I have a little scrap of paper torn from the New York Times years ago with a foolproof recipe. Even a bleary eyed painter can prepare it. I'm too tired to post a recipe, so I'll give you a taste with a picture. And a piece of my heart to German girl who slaved away day and night on this project.