I took this picture about a week ago on yet another gray day and I realized this morning that it gives a good indication of just how tall the maple and the catalpa are. You can see the catalpa – in bloom – on the right. The maple is huge. So is the catalpa. I’m terrible at estimating the height or length of anything – math is not my strong point. Keep in mind that I’m standing across the street on a lower elevation, our house is actually on a hill. And the trees are also on a raised elevation. So they’re not quite as tall as they seem.
You can’t even see the big garden bed, it’s so shady over there!
From yesterday’s second-cup-of coffee-time on the porch. A still life.
We have rain this morning and then it will clear up for the afternoon. Two days of sun on Saturday and Sunday and then back to rain. Two days of sun = two days of mowing, because we have to do it before it starts to rain again. I’m sure that’s been the same for many of you this spring.
Don will finally be able to get out there to take some portraits. Huzzah!
I did start another Instagram account yesterday. If you’re inclined to follow, you can find me at: @lifelongbibliophile. I’ve only done one post so far and I may not post every day. Keeping it stressless. Many of you have already followed that account and I thank you!
Today? I have no idea as of this moment. We’ll see what comes to mind.
Happy Solstice, longest day of the year, and first day of summer!
Happy Friday.
I’ve been meaning to leave a comment about your catalpa tree. The home I grew up in had one in the backyard and I remember the truck of it was huge… big enough to hide behind when playing hide and go seek. I also remember the giant leaves and the long ‘beans’ that hug from it. Beautiful memories of that tree.
They do seem to elicit strong memories, Cathy!
I’m not finding @longtimebibliophile on instagram. Wonder what I’m doing wrong. Love your long-range shot of the cottage and trees and gardens—oh, my.
I’m nuts! I typed it wrong. It’s @lifelongbibliophile! Oy! I edited the post.
❤️
Lovely first day of summer! I’m waiting for my new laptop to arrive. I had to finally admit I could not see well enough to use the 10″ screen that Ashleigh bought me. I love it and will continue to use it for travel as it’s so small and lightweight, but for everyday use I need a bigger screen. So can’t wait to get my new one up and running. Enjoy your day my friend.
Mine is 13″ and I’m okay with it. But every once in a while I think about getting a desktop – but it isn’t in our meager budget at the moment!
Your house and yard are beautiful…
Thank you so much, Lynn!
We don’t often get to see that view of your home..it’s lovely. That wrap-around porch is fantastic…but it confused me. I guess the view I more often remember is on your side-bar…it shows the big garden more predominantly.
But the trees…yes…so glorious!
Enjoy your good weather weekend. Today is great…more rain for the weekend, here. Happy first day of Summer! ;)
That’s the side of the house, showing part of the porch and the kitchen door. It’s actually our favorite view, but this one is the one you see from the street.
First day of summer and my parents’ 66th wedding anniversary! Enjoy your weekend of sun, despite having to mow.
Happy Anniversary to your parents, Wendy!
I can’t estimate height or distance to save my soul but “twice as tall as a two story house” pretty much wraps it up. And beautiful!
Perfect! Thanks, Jeanie!
what a fabulous photo of your enchanted cottage and nearby forest!
it’s simply beautiful. xo
Thank you, Tammy!
What a stunning photo of your home and yard from a distance. Just beautiful. No wonder that you love it so much. Like a picture postcard. But just think, Claudia: You LIVE there!
I can’t talk about trees right now. I am still mourning the loss of my 80-year-old tree/vine/hedge at the top of my hill where now is a scar that can’t be healed (that, and my heart).
Summer, yes; the 21st. When I lived in Santa Barbara a million years ago, I’d participate in the Solstice Parade each June and it was pure craziness, akin I’m sure in smaller ways to a Mardi Gras. One year we were grape stompers (ala I Love Lucy, that episode where she’s in the peasant blouse and stomping on the grapes in the wine vat) with a gigantic papier mache FOOT as the stomper, which had to be hauled by a crane (a sort of float); we carried gigantic purple balloons which were the grapes, and we had a Blue Nun as representative of the wine, all in good taste (well, sorta; certainly meant no disrespect). Zany, good fun; gracious, how I do LOVE Santa Barbara, California!
Speaking of purple grapes, I haven’t spent any significant time there lately (SB) but they are also known for their June bloom of zillions of purple jacaranda trees all over the city (I know, I know; I am OBSESSED with jacaranda trees!); I can recall standing in the upper recesses of the old courthouse, looking over that city of red roofs and purple jacaranda. Like, did you ever see that movie with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin called “It’s Complicated” ??? The opening credits of that film are amazing aerials of the city of Santa Barbara with Mediterranean-esque Pacific ocean, the jacaranda and bougainvilla and red roofs, white stucco, Spanish-style everything; heavenly, heavenly, heavenly. Just like, in another way, watching the Opening Credits of “The Sound of Music” with the alpine scenes.
What a earmark-year it is, this 2019, with just having the 75th anniversary of D-Day and now upcoming the (incredible summer of ’69), 50th anniversary of the moon landing, which seems like yesterday. I also , on the personal side, will hit some major milestones in summer upcoming (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) , so I feel some anticipation coming on…
(Referencing that moon landing, I wish TCM would re-run a small but perfect-little indy I love, directed by Tony Goldwyn [I’m so crazy about him] and I think Dustin Hoffman was a producer, called “A Walk On The Moon” about one New York City family’s summer vacation in the Catskills during which time the moon landing occurred; it’s a sweet little film with the gifted actress Diane Lane; also Tovah Feldshuh of Broadway fame, Viggo Mortensen [make my heart go pitter-patter!], Liev Schreiber as a dedicated father/husband/son. The movie was filmed exactly 30 yrs after that first moon walk, and it ties in to the Woodstock festival as well [the music in this movie is the soundtrack of my youth!!], so it borrows on not one but TWO historical events which I can identify with because I absolutely remember those happenings from my ’69 teenage summer.)
(It wasn’t a big box-office draw, this fine little film; I don’t think they made budget, but it got good reviews otherwise [for the most part]. And I loved the idea of going away to a camp away from urban hot weather, being part of a little bungalow community for the summer; seemed cozy and it’s memorable for kids. I did that once with my family at a lake with rented cottages and a central hub/clubhouse of bikes, skates, pool floaties, dinghys/rowboats/oars; a paperback-novel lending library. [Had the time of my life at age 12.])
(There was a time in mid-century-last, where I live in coastal Calif, when local families had rented shacks [indoor plumbing, electricity but fairly bare-bones interiors] at the beach [Pacific Ocean] for the summer [Dads could only be there on weekends but would drive back & forth to their jobs in town] and a lot of local [boomer] kids now grown into older age [like me!] have fond recollections of those golden summers at the shore. [These ‘shacks’ were replaced by oceanfront mansions only now enjoyed by the very rich; makes me yearn for the simpler times for the rest of us everyday folks who once got to enjoy the beach they now claim as theirs!] And I know Maine is also popular for Easterner-families in summer with their getaway ‘camps’ at lake & by-the-sea.)
(Anyway, this aforementioned movie about the moon landing and Woodstock entertains me, but probably also because it evokes the similar childhood memories. [And sometimes you need a movie you don’t have to pick apart and analyze too much. Maybe it’s a little schmaltzy for another moviegoer, but who cares…I love watching it because it’s of a time and mood and place that doesn’t seem to exist anymore; and I get really, really nostalgic for the 1950s and 1960s; I guess the 70s, too. It was a TIME[!!!] and I’m glad I could ‘live’ it.])
Hope your weekend is good!
That’s what the Catskills were to New Yorkers in the forties and fifties and even sixties. Get away cabins and communities where the mom and the kids stayed, with dad visiting on the weekend. I’ve driven through that area and there are still camps there. Most any area where there are lakes has cottages and camps. I grew up going to one. Doesn’t need to be an Eastern thing. The midwest is full of them!
Come to think of it, haven’t you told us you worked as a camp counselor once? I just remembered that, and it would have been in Michigan, right? I have distant relatives in Michigan and a couple of them have cabins at a lake in Michigan, and I remember something about people from Chicago ‘escaping’ to Wisconsin in summer, Lake Geneva comes to mind (where the U.S. mail is delivered by boat to house dwellers’ individual docks).
Yes, I was a camp counselor for two summers during my college years. Chicagoans also escape to the shores of Lake Michigan on Michigan’s western coast.
don’t know that i’ve seen that view of the outside of your home before … not surprisingly, it’s beautiful and charming just like the inside of your home!
and that view does show how tall those trees are … all of them!
i am glad for you that, rain or shine, you have a beautiful place to be!
hope you get lots of dry days and sunshine ahead, that the mowing is quick, don’s photo business is booming and he has a happy birthday ahead. happy weekend, too.
kathy in iowa
I don’t mind mowing at all. It doesn’t need to be quick. I find it very therapeutic and good exercise, to boot! Thanks, Kathy.
your trees are amazing!
I live among giant ones, too, and have many varieties except the catalpa!
have always wanted to add one but can never find a seedling…….maybe you can send me some seeds!
going to instagram now to be another “follower”!
I’d be glad to send you a seed pod, Nancy. Let me now if you’re interested.