Lately I’ve been noticing reflections and shadows around the house. Maybe it’s the angle of the sun this time of year because I don’t always notice them.

Here are a few I’d like to share with you.

Reflection of lights in our new cookware.

Shadow of window blinds.

Outdoor light shadow on the house siding.

The next group of photos are all due to the glass in our front door at various times of the day.

This is the same spot as the above photo was taken by the grandfather clock but at a slightly different time of day.

The window pane pattern repeated on the front entry walls.

Besides walls it also decorates carpeting ...

...and dogs as Hailey demonstrates in this photo.

I just got back from taking Alex for a walk even though it’s a bit blustery out there today. As we passed the little wooded area in front of our house it was hard to miss the large areas of bright orange on one of the cedar trees. What the heck?

At first I thought it might be mushrooms since it just appeared since our rain the other day. On closer inspection nearly all the cedar trees in that area were oozing orange goo. It looked like something from outer space! Yuck! You know me, had to grab the camera.

This tree had a different pattern of goo.

Up close and gelatinous! It’s very wet and sticky.

When I came in I googled “orange goo on cedar trees” and came up with something called quince rust. In a way I was right in thinking it was a mushroom since it is actually the fruiting body of a fungus. Here is a link to a pretty good article about it. It says it won’t permanently harm the tree, so that’s good.

Still … it’s very weird. What do you think? Would you like to have some orange goo of your own? I can scrape some off and send you some!

Bee on something sweet smelling on my street. Honeysuckle? Taken today.

I have my husband home tonight after one week of having been gone from us. His body is here but his mind is not. He had a hard week. I’m glad to have him home again.

Alex was the most excited of us all and gave him what I like to call his cry-baby greeting. It was so sweet. I was glad to see him too but I think Alex’s greeting was the best.

I don’t get that when I come home, but then again, I am never away from home anymore unless Rick is with me. After all, I’m just Mom who is always here. Mom feeds. She scoops dog stuff and cat stuff and cleans up after us when we make a mess.

Maybe that needs to be fixed.

When my Mom was alive I at least got to break away for a night when I went up to get her to bring her down to New Jersey and Rick got to deal with dogs/cats/feeding/scooping/at home things while I was gone for a short time. Since her death I really have nowhere to go. sniff, sniff. (insert really feeling sorry for myself here.)

I could get on an airplane, but that costs money. And lots of planning. And not my most favorite thing in the world. And, really, where would I go? I want to be taken care of, not take care of someone else if I go somewhere. I have enough of that at home. Is that selfish? Yes. Completely.

There is no clear answer to my dilemma. So, here I am, and here I will stay.

Feeding, scooping, letting dogs in and out, etc.

I know I have so many things to be thankful for, and I am. I am thankful for everything I have in my life, but sometimes the daily routine just gets tiresome and I would love a break. Not really complaining; not really. Well, maybe just a little…

Rick is in Vegas all this week at a trade show. So, while he’s away I am turning what used to be a white space into a more colorful one. The guest bedroom!

When we moved into our house everything was a shade of white. Off-white, but white. The walls were white, the curtains (made out of nice white sheets) were white. We’ve gradually changed all the white walls and white curtains out to be more of our taste. I’m not quite sure why I waited so long to give the guest bedroom a boost.

I like to paint but I am a messy painter. I need to mask everything off which takes quite a bit of time. Yesterday I bought the paint and tape and proceeded to mask the room. Then I trimmed out all the windows, doors and electrical sockets. I hate the trimming task! Ugh!

Today it’s on with the rolling, hurrah!

I ordered a new bedspread, dust ruffle and pillow shams for the bed and new curtains for the windows. Only problem is that it all needs to be ironed and I am not an ironing sort of girl. I hate it. I usually put more wrinkles in than I take out of whatever poor thing I happen to be ironing.

Guests are arriving one week from Friday so I need to have everything done and the room aired out so it doesn’t smell like fresh paint for them. Personally I love the smell of fresh paint but it could get nauseating in a close space. I don’t want sick guests!

Be gone white!