Since all of my posts have been about our trip to France and the British Isles of late, I thought I’d do a little catching up today. Some of these photos have been on Instagram, so if you follow me there, you’ve most likely already seen them.

I did some antiquing and treasure hunting over the past couple of weeks.

I was hoping to find one of these well-known marmalade crocks in England, but I never had the time to do any antique shopping. Darn! I had a feeling that the same woman I purchased the cubby cabinet from would have some in at least one of her locations. I gambled on my pick of the locations and it paid off, as she had several. This is the one I chose. It’s old, has lovely crazing and makes me happy. I also got a round ironstone butter pat as well as a set of six Noritake butter pats.

Yes. Another collection. I like them. And they’re small, which is now a necessity in this tiny house, already jam-packed with collections.

The other day, I stopped at a local antique shop and found these:

Another Fiesta/Harlequin egg cup in a dusty rose.

And a tiny little pitcher/creamer from England.

It’s been warm enough this week that I was able to open the front door and let the sun shine into the living room. But that’s changed as of last night. A hard freeze, with all the catalpa leaves on the ground. My porch plants look like they’re hanging in there so far, but it’s only a matter of time.

Sigh. Both Don and I remarked this morning that it seems like a big change happened last night and we’re heading into winter. This is always a hard transition for me and it gets harder every year.

The bush that I wish was elsewhere always wins me over at this time of year. This is a shot of our burning bush taken from upstairs in our bedroom.

I cleaned up my desk the other day, which had become completely covered with paperwork and things I gathered on our trip. Then I sat in my chair, did some work on my laptop and listened to some bossa nova music. Occasionally, I would turn the chair toward the dollhouse and eventually, I found myself looking for my rubber mallet. The result:

I demoed the staircase and the wall that separated the living room from the kitchen. I cut some dowels to hold the ceiling up until I come up with some pillars, perhaps flanking a kitchen island.

It looks a lot roomier, which is what I wanted.

Here it is with some furniture so you can get an idea of where I’m headed.

The island would probably be right behind that chair. I’m thinking of beams on the ceiling. We’ll see.

Finally, I was sitting here in the den on election night with my back to the window, which faces west. It had rained hard all day long. Don wasn’t here, he was headed home on the bus from NYC. Suddenly, the room turned orange and I turned and looked out the window, grabbed my phone and ran outside. The entire sky was this color:

I’ve never seen anything like it. As I turned back to the house, I gasped.

A rainbow spanning the sky behind our house.

A double rainbow:

On one horizon was a glorious sunset. On the other was a huge rainbow.

Then the sunset turned to this:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite so spectacular in our 13 years here. Yes, great sunsets. Yes, the occasional rainbow. But both at the same time? Never. It was incredible. I called Don, who was on the bus, and told him to look out the window and he managed to see the rainbow and the orange sky.

I took it as a good omen. Turns out it was.

Happy Friday.