A Rainy Winter Night

The holidays are over,

and all the Christmas decorations have been packed away.

The ballgame of the year

came to an amazing end for Alabama, AGAIN!

National Champions...

The celebrating is winding down,

and I must admit,

I am ready for the quiet.

I'm ready to start new home projects,

and finish those that were put aside.

I am ready to clean and organize...

Maybe even redecorate a few areas of the old country house.

Maybe I'll paint and change rooms altogether.

It's wonderful to have some extended time in the countryside.

Time to ponder the desires of the new year.

On this rainy winter night,

I spend my time looking through beautiful magazines for inspiration,

decorating books,

and oh how I get lost in the magic of decorating blogs.

Tomorrow will be a busy day,

but tonight by the fire,

listening to the rain and dreaming

is just what I needed.

Blessings

Yaya

Everybody is a Leader

If everybody will just do their job,

we're gonna be all right.

Everybody's a leader...

Note to self...

Apply this to life in general.

Blessings

Yaya

A Dose of Motivation

Motivation does the soul good...

It seeps in never to leave.

This great motivator left a legacy for all Alabamians,

but not just in football.

We took his wisdom to heart,

oh so many years ago,

and hung on tight.

He kept a poem in his pocket,

and read it everyday of his life.

I decided to place 'him' here,

in my special place beneath a southern sky,

so that I might listen to his 

voice...

that deep, mellow

warm like good whiskey voice...

Everyday.

He inspires me to live 85%, at least...

Pardon us Alabamians,

as we are still on a 

crystal high!!

National Champions once again!!

Roll Tide!!

Blessings

Yaya

A New Day

This is the beginning of a new day.

God has given me this day to use as I will.

I can waste it or I can use it for good.

What I do today is very important

 because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.

When tomorrow comes

this day will be gone, FOREVER.

Leaving something in its place I have traded for it.

I want it to be gain, not loss,

good, not evil,

success, not failure,

in order that I shall not

forget the price I paid for it.

Blessings

Yaya

ROLL TIDE!!! So Proud of My South!

And the Bear said from Heaven;

"This Saban fellah is pretty good."

Blessings.

Roll Tide, Y'all!!!

Yaya

Jim Brickman - Winter Peace (The Gift)

Winter

I love the feel of a warm fire on a winter's day...

The smell of coffee throughout the old country house.

I love the feeling that I get when I sit at my large, old desk,

next to the fire,

on an early winter morn.

The comfort,

and the safety of home in the countryside.

The winter walks that I take around the field road with the dogs...

Old flannel shirts,

my favorite old soft jeans,

and my very old boots...

The smell of vegetable soup cooking on the stove.

Winter allows us time to come inside and slow down.

Slow down with a book,

a cup of hot tea, coffee, mulled wine,

and the old cashmere wrap.

I love the feel of the old wool rug under my feet,

as I do my yoga.

I don't mind the early night time..

It's the perfect excuse to light scented candles every night.

Winter is a time for thinking...

Dreaming...

Planning...

Organizing...

It is also a time for the new season of Downtown Abbey!

I am truly loving the wintertime at our country house...

This is also the time of year to look through all the seed and plant magazines.

I could stay lost in my thoughts, dreams, and books all winter long...

May you have a cozy and blessed winter...

Yaya

Long Ago

Haunting music that reaches down into my soul of long ago...
I think of those who are gone, but never forgotten.
My grandmother, when I was a child...
Her porch...
Her swing...
Her smile...
Her cornbread...
My dad...
How he was always there for me...
No matter what...
I miss him...
I miss them..
I miss 'long ago'...
I learned so much from 'long ago'...
Thought for the day;
"There is somebody in your life
that needs to see you live a spiritual example."
Your life and the memories you make
will someday, too, be 'long ago'...
Blessings
Yaya

Asleep the Snow Came Flying...

Michael Hoppe - Golden Leaves

Such soul soothing music...The Poet..Romances for the Cello

Enjoy!

Blessings...Yaya

God's Masterpiece

In this new year,

"Let no one ever come to you

without leaving better and happier.

Be the living expression of God's kindness:

Kindness in your face,

kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile."

~Mother Teresa~

You are God's masterpiece.

Know it.

Believe it.

There is a miracle in your mouth 

just waiting to be spoken into existence.

Speak what you desire.

Ask and you shall receive.

Let your requests be made known to God.

Blessings in the new year.

Yaya

Looking for Place

"This was about looking for an emotional place

where your heart and your soul come together.

There was a lot to be inspired by."

Georgia O'Keeffe

Blessings

Yaya

Dirt Roads of Abiquiu

 Make a left at Bode's General Store...

Drive passed the post office...

Drive on up the hill and around the curve...

The old road becomes a dirt lane...

Follow it to the top...

This is Abiquiu, New Mexico...

Home to Georgia O'Keeffe...

At one time

this was home to someone...

Someone who would have been a close neighbor to the great artist...

And here...

Another old home...

Standing still in time...

Neighbors to Georgia O'Keeffe...

 Leaving the deserted dirt road,

we turn left on another dirt road of Abiquiu,

and there to the left is the wall

enclosing her home...

The place she loved.

An unassuming adobe dwelling sitting on the edge of a mountain...

Over-looking New Mexico,

the land of enchantment.

 Of course,

she has been gone from this world,

this place,

her home,

for many years,

but as I stood looking through her simple gate,

gazing at her house and driveway,

I felt her spirit.

 "She spoke of feeling free and finding her place in Abiquiu.

To her, 'place' was the most important thing."

Margaret Wood

Through high adobe walls...

"After a walk and supper,

we often listened to music in her studio as night approached.

Some of her music selections were

Pablo Casals's Bach cello suites,

early music of Gesualdo and Monteverdi,

and classical works by 

Mozart, Schumann, and Beethoven."

Margaret Wood

A close-up of the drive-way and its view...

"Before supper we often walked the large circular driveway,

gazing at the Chama River below, 

the long mesa to the east,

and distant mountains in several directions."

Margaret Wood

I was very moved to stand in this place,

and look upon her view,

and reflect upon her remarkable life.

Blessings

Yaya

The Cliffs

Near Abiquiu...

"Tonight, I am sitting on the ground near a pinon tree, 

beside the trail to the cliffs,

leaning on a walking stick

facing her seated on a wooden folding chair,

as a pupil at the foot of a sage.

We watched the sun set.....

She gestured to different parts of the cliffs as her favorite places."

Quote from "Weekends with O'Keeffe"

C.S. Merrill

I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to see and feel

the land that so inspired Georgia O'Keeffe.

Blessings

Yaya

Crosses of Abiquiu

Inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe

and her 'Cross Series'...

I have been blessed to walk the dirt roads of Abiquiu,

and see what she saw.

I believe the spirit of O'Keeffe is still there...

In the wind...

In the air...

It's different up there.

Blessings

Yaya

"Days In A Life"

"Days In A Life"...

by C. S. Merrill...

The 'feel' of this old casita is amazing...

Reading "Days In A Life" while here seems perfect...

"Breakfast with O'Keeffe

fresh sliced fruit, fresh orange juice

Jasmine tea or fresh coffee

hot chili with oil

marinated with garlic

in the fridge overnight;

maybe eggs soft-boiled

or scrambled, to your taste,

the bread a meal itself

whole wheat flour and soy flour,

wheat germ, ground flax seed,

sunflower seeds, and butter

mixed with safflower,

then savory jam maybe

ginger and green tomato

or sweet raspberry.

One day she said

what do you write about me?

Are you going to tell

what I eat for breakfast?"

April, 1974

C.S. Merrill on O'Keeffe

Blessings

Yaya

Playing With Light

With camera in hand,

I wanted to capture the early morning light

as it came through the kitchen window,

and the open iron window in the center courtyard...

There was such  quiet...

No noise.

Just birdsong.

I found myself lost in thought as I walked through the old casita...

Thinking of those who have spent time here...

Another time, but the same place.

I found a photograph in the casita of an artist that lived and worked here.

Oh so many  years ago he stood at the gate,

his gate,

but for this weekend,

our gate...

Ghostly images as I play with the camera...

And then the day passed,

and the late afternoon light fell on the mountains, and the old morada

behind the house...

I became enchanted with the light just as Georgia O'Keeffe did...

Blessings

Yaya

Enchanted

I feel at home in O'Keeffe country...

It is quaint...

It is old...

It is enchanting.

And so tonight we are in Taos, New Mexico,

sitting by the fire, (39 degrees)

sipping wine,

in a studio of a famous artist...

Casita Morada,

I think I love you...

Blessings

Yaya

Casita Morada

It is time to slow down,

if only for a weekend...

The last few months have been filled with over-flowing business...

I am about to pack,

and embark upon a journey that is equal to a dream...

A dream of staying where Georgia O'Keeffe stayed and worked...

A place where she was enchanted by the light

playing upon the old morado behind the house.

A house which is surrounded by sacred Taos Pueblo land...

A house where Ansel Adams stayed...

A house that was originally Saint Teresa's Mission...

A house that was part of  Mabel Dodge Luhan's estate...

A house where Georgia O'Keeffe was inspired to paint her "cross series"...

A house that will be mine,

if only for two nights...

Two glorious nights...

I, too, will be enchanted by the light

that plays upon the old morado behind the house...

Blessings

Yaya

Chasing Sunsets, Seeking Inspiration, and Pondering Life

Are you inspired by a beautiful sunset?

Birdsong?

The smell of the ocean?

A full moon rising?

To be alone with nature

recharges my soul...my mind.

I slow down,

and float away,

deep into my thoughts...

Pondering, pondering...

Life,

such as it is...

"No one is useless in this world

who lightens the burden of it 

for anyone else."

Charles Dickens

Blessings

Yaya