Root and Wine Cellar

Call me crazy but when we first did a walk through of our future house-to-be, I fell in love with the basement. It's a large daylight basement with nice concrete floors, several old windows, a laundry room, a workshop with two large antique work benches, a back door leading up old concrete stairs AND the most adorable old-fashioned root cellar.

Having lived in Maine for my entire twenties, I became well acquainted with basements and their practical beauty. And I thought one day, one day, I will have a house with a basement and in that basement, I will have myself a root cellar.

Well we expanded on that idea and over the past weekend, we finally set up our root and wine cellar.

Where the canning will be stored.

Where the wine will be stored.

These racks are fabulous examples of old-fashioned practicality. The tall long rack is an old Bass shoe rack from Maine. A wonderful organic wine shop I use to frequent in Maine used these racks to display wine and I thought it was such a wonderful revitalization of beautiful craftsmanship.

The green rack is an old bread rack. Again, I just love making use of something that was so tenderly used for something completely different.

CHEERS and BON APPETITE!

A New Year's Day Blessing

We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the New Year than with a walk down to see the horses. As a special treat, we brought some apples to help celebrate.

This is an action shot - of me walking.

This is Abby's first bite of her New Year's Day apple.

She kindly ate half...chewed, and was ready for more.

You can't be afraid of a little horse drool. 

I love Abby. 

Here are some of our other stable friends...

She loves her braids.

They are so snuggly soft with their winter coats.

If she were mine, I'd call her Kindness.

Christmas 2008

It was all about a cozy fire...

...and stockings with treats too.

CHRISTMAS EVE DAY...

Downtown.

Just when we thought the sky couldn't possibly drop anymore snowflakes...

Home.

Winter wonderland.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Snowed In...

Just a week ago we were discussing the unlikeness of having a white Christmas this year. After all, our fall was dry and rather warm so winter seemed far off. Well, as weather goes, that changed overnight because we are completely snowed in.

So I have been spending a lot of time at home. And let me tell you, there is nothing good to eat in this house. I'm thinking chocolate or Christmas cookie or some warm eggnog. I have none of these things. I do have those apples, which I could bake...and some ice cream...but this is for Christmas Eve so it would be kind of 'stir crazy' for me to eat our not-yet-here Christmas Eve dessert (and I'm not sure if that's a comment or a question).

OH! Hubby just called and he's going to swing by home (nine-miles out his way), pick me up (rescue me), and take me to see my friend's Christmas concert downtown (yes, the outside world!!)!

"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells..."

Before we finished the last leftovers of turkey, I was already talking about getting our Christmas tree. To my surprise, my husband thought we had weeks before we started thinking about Christmas trees. You see, he grew up 'trimming' the tree on Christmas Eve, while I grew up 'decorating' the tree much earlier.

So we met half way and 'trimmed the tree' this past weekend. For me, it's the squeezing in as many games of Scrabble, fireside chats, and sips of hot apple cider next to a gorgeous twinkling Christmas tree as you possibly can.

Needless to say, it's looking a lot like Christmas around here...

A Walk to the Honey Bees

Our walk to the honeybees was just a short walk from the house. It's not an unfamiliar sight to see bee boxes around here as the farmers use them in their orchards to pollinate the fruit trees, but being up close and personal was pretty exciting.

The bees were buzzing wildly under the warm sun. It hadn't occurred to me that they might sting us --- until I realized that were thousands of them.

Although the honey bees were quite mesmerizing, we decided to continue on with our walk.

LOVE to explore the horse stables.

And a stable is not a stable without a few stable cats and several varieties of stable dogs. This little guy below was fierce. Never said a word but stood very strong.

We continued down the road and came across the field horses. I said, "okay, get in formation so I can take a picture."

They did.

These horses run free in this big field here that they share with several heads of cattle. When they spot us walking down the road (which we often do), they run towards us full speed. I'd like to say that they're just happy to see us but in actuality, they're hoping that we have a few apples stashed away in our pockets. We never do as we're hesitant to feed horses that aren't ours so we kind of feel bad when all we can offer is verbal adoration and scratches behind the ears.

As you can see in Mama's eyes, she'd prefer the apple.

Our journey continued to the alpaca farm. They are so cute you just want to squeeze their soft little cheeks!

It was getting near dusk by this time, so it was time to wander on home.

As our walk came to a close, I felt like a kid again having
played outside the entire day.