This is where I get to say anything I feel like saying and you get to agree with me.
We will also share stories and chocolate if you have any.
Naps are also encouraged, if shopping is out of the question.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Friday, December 30, 2011

Dreamy

I lie on the bed, imagining butterflies filling the room
or walking through a misty forest
Where the air is cold and fresh

but there is a light ahead, I will have to explore further ...

Thursday, December 29, 2011

White Rooms

It is Summer.
There is no avoiding the fact.
The days are hot and sunny.
Nights are comfortable for being outdoors but the air conditioning is needed.
I am spending quite a lot of time gathering photos of rooms that I would like to have .. to sleep in, to live in , to cook in.
I found a house in a real estate website and this would be the kitchen, After I take down all the ugly pine cupboards above the counters .. and paint everything white.
The house I found, has the possibilities of painted white floors too.
As the Summer continues to heat up, I will continue to dream of white rooms ~

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Summer Whites

It is Summer where I live.
White is the preferred color for clothing and furnishing.
Sinking into a soft white bed at night in an air conditioned room is a treat.
Clean white light spaces...
Soon enough cold weather will be back .. for now, we will enjoy the crisp Whites of Summer .

all images :tumblr

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Time


“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.”


Henry Van Dyke

Monday, December 12, 2011

A Cottage

The Holidays lead me to daydreaming of living in a cottage somewhere, where Winter and Christmas go together.
Where there are possibilities of a White Christmas.
I can drag up memories of New Years Eve parties long ago, when we would go outside at midnight to watch fireworks, freezing in the crystal clear, cold winter air.

Waking up on New Years Day .. late , cuddled in a nice, soft bed, full of big, fat comforters and pillows, to bright sunlight reflected on snow and nowhere we have to be but where we are .


A late breakfast and copious amounts of coffee ....


followed by an afternoon of listening to good music and reading a book .. while making plans for the New Year . . A trip perhaps ?

Sunday, December 11, 2011

"If you treat people right .....


Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.

But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

“He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, ‘Here you go,’” Diaz says.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, “like what’s going on here?” Diaz says. “He asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?’”

Diaz replied: “If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me … hey, you’re more than welcome.

“You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help,” Diaz says.

Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

“The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi,” Diaz says. “The kid was like, ‘You know everybody here. Do you own this place?’”

“No, I just eat here a lot,” Diaz says he told the teen. “He says, ‘But you’re even nice to the dishwasher.’”

Diaz replied, “Well, haven’t you been taught you should be nice to everybody?”

“Yea, but I didn’t think people actually behaved that way,” the teen said.

Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. “He just had almost a sad face,” Diaz says.

The teen couldn’t answer Diaz — or he didn’t want to.

When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, “Look, I guess you’re going to have to pay for this bill ‘cause you have my money and I can’t pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I’ll gladly treat you.”

The teen “didn’t even think about it” and returned the wallet, Diaz says. “I gave him $20 … I figure maybe it’ll help him. I don’t know.”

Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen’s knife — “and he gave it to me.”

Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, “You’re the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch.”

“I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It’s as simple as it gets in this complicated world.”


the wise pickle

I heart Heart Home magazine !


Heart Home Magazine

Enjoy ~

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Christmas Sights and Sounds

I have to find my Christmas sights and sounds online these days.
There are no trees or home decorations showing from the streets.
I have my own inside my home too.
But I miss taking those walks and admiring the lights and decorations on other homes, wreaths on doors, even music in stores.

all photos: Tumblr

Friday, December 9, 2011

Dreamy Holiday Time

In my Dream city, I would have a view of the Eiffel Tower AND the River Seine.
I would enjoy baking and entertaining my friends, in my Dream Kitchen.
Especially at Holiday time ..
When it is best to stay inside, warm and cozy.
With family
And loved ones.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

A Horse named Hope



This horse is named Hope.

She was drowning in mud when they found her — lying in a ditch, shivering with cold and waiting to die. The barbed wire that entangled her was cutting into her flesh. She was starving, skeletal and helpless.
By the time a vet reached her, the two-year-old chestnut mare probably had only minutes to live. She was caked in filth and struggling to breathe.

She was so weak she could barely find the strength to lift her nostrils out of the water-filled gully that was about to become her miserable grave. It took a mechanical digger to hoist the young shire to safety — then a desperate, long-running battle to save her life.

When she stumbled to her feet for the first time after being transported to a sanctuary, the pathetic sight reduced some of her rescuers to tears. All through the night, they nursed her, fed her, even said a prayer for her.
The name they gave her was Hope. Charity, it transpired, would take far longer to come to her aid.

The young vet who organised Hope’s rescue was so appalled when the RSPCA refused to prosecute the owner that she paid £1,500 to buy the horse in an 11th-hour attempt to save it.


Then she started a Facebook campaign to highlight alleged cruelty to Hope and the plight of 17 other shires, in a bid to ‘shame’ the animal charity into action.
Last night — as the campaign attracted worldwide interest and nearly 5,000 followers — there were fears that other horses on the Lancashire farmland could die in filthy, freezing conditions unless the RSPCA steps in quickly.
The Hope’s Cause internet page was started by newly-qualified equine vet Vikki Fowler, who was called to the farm at Edgworth, near Bolton, after Hope was spotted on Monday last week, struggling at the bottom of a steep, muddy bank on land used for grazing by breeder Phil Davies, 64.
A passing van driver saw the horse was in distress and alerted st
aff at a nearby equestrian centre. Vikki was so disturbed by what she found, she immediately called the RSPCA.
Minutes from death: Exhausted Hope iwas found in a water-filled gully, her legs entangled in barbed wire

Hope had fallen on the bank after pushing through a fence to find water. Now she was trapped by barbed wire wrapped around her hind legs, pointing head first into the gully.

Vikki’s first thought was that the mare’s condition was so bad she would have to be put down. But in a delicate and difficult rescue operation, equestrian centre staff used wire cutters to free her before wrapping a sling around her and heaving her up the bank with the digger.
Yesterday Vikki, 25, said: ‘It was clear that she had given up. She had no energy to fight or even save herself from drowning. She was resigned, waiting to die.

‘But as soon as she was lifted to standing she began to eat grass. It was clear that she wanted to live . . .  so I decided to give her a chance.’

Once Hope had been hoisted to safety, the vet instructed Mr Davies to move her to a warm stable. But the horse was later seen slumped in a field.

Hope is now at least safe, but is still horrendously emaciated and caked in mud. Still pitifully weak, Hope’s legs give way as she struggled to stand.
She was moved to a paddock and lifted back on to her hooves by crane as concerned onlookers help out

Despite this, Vikki said, an RSPCA officer who inspected the animal said she was not in a desperate enough condition to warrant being taken away. Meanwhile, it would take six people four hours to wash the mud from her coat and coax her to stand unaided.


‘As soon as she was lifted to standing she began to eat grass. It was clear that she wanted to live… so I decided to give her a chance.’
The Facebook page says: ‘Hope was dramatically emaciated, with the outline of bones clearly defined, pelvis protruding, rib cage visible through her hide. She was so covered in thick wet mud it was impossible to tell what colour she was.’

Shire horses are known for their gentle temperament and are usually stocky, deep chested and proud. Hope was dejected and frightened, and spent her first night lying on a stable floor, too weak to get to her feet.

Concerned that Hope and other horses were being neglected or mistreated, Vikki set up the Facebook page to underline their plight. She alleged that some were kept in a field that was ‘nothing more than a swamp’.

She accused the owner of being ‘completely delusional about the harm these animals are in’, saying she believed 11 of the 17 were in a ‘critical condition’.

Some had ‘no shelter and no access to water’, she claimed. Of the owner she said: ‘He is given chance after chance by the RSPCA, but there comes a point when something has to be done.’

Finally on her feet, albeit a bit wobbly, Hope is carefully nursed back to something resembling full health

Desperate: Some of the 17 other Shire horses kept at the farm in Edgworth, near Bolton

The RSPCA confirmed yesterday that officers had visited the field ‘repeatedly’ over the past two years but had never found evidence to support suggestions a crime had been committed. Last week one horse was said to have been ‘lean’, but others all had food and water and were in good health.

Officers did express concern over their field, which, a spokeswoman said, ‘is not a suitable environment for these animals’.

Yesterday Mr Davies denied allegations of cruelty or neglect and described the reports as ‘all lies’. But last night — as the internet campaign continued to grow — the RSPCA agreed to intervene.

It gave Mr Davies 24 hours to move the horses to better accommodation. If he fails to find them a new home or refuses, the charity said, he could be prosecuted.



RSPCA regional superintendent Martin Marsh said two officers visited the farm yesterday and decided that three of the horses were lame and must be stabled immediately.



Shire hell: Phil Davies and some of his other horses in the field deemed merely ‘unsuitable’ by the RSPCA

‘Though the horses have been moved to an improved environment the owner has been advised that it isn’t good enough,’ he said.

‘The owner has been given the opportunity to sign the horses over to the RSPCA but does not wish to do so. We are therefore meeting with him again to discuss plans for moving them to somewhere more suitable.

‘We would like to assure people that where there is veterinary evidence that an animal is suffering and it is in the public interest to do so, the RSPCA will look to prosecute those responsible.’

Vikki said: ‘The reaction across the world is evidence that thousands of people are increasingly concerned about the RSPCA’s attitude to this tragedy.’

And Hope?


Yesterday — clean, standing unaided and scoffing bales of hay — she was virtually unrecognisable as the horse that was dragged from the mud. She is not out of danger yet, but experts believe she was saved just in time and can make a full recovery.

source: DailyMail.UK

Feeling Bookish ?

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
Oscar Wilde
You cannot open a book without learning something.
confucious
I cannot live without books.
Thomas Jefferson
There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island.
Walt Disney

Monday, December 5, 2011

Day Dreams

I am not sure which element in this photo appeals to me more.
The beautiful chair or that wonderful wardrobe behind it or the colors .. perhaps it is the sum of it all that is so appealing.
I am starved for the sight of green .. it is nearby but not seen from my windows.
I might have to break down one day and do something about that ..
I imagine sleeping here and waking to the sound of a deer , peeking in while we snooze.
Or a bear !
No ... most likely deer or squirrels would be the intruders .
How appealing to be able to slide the wall shut across the kitchen ...
"What kitchen ?" she asks. Let's go out to dinner " ...

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Memories


Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment
until it becomes a memory.




www.inspiration

Saturday, December 3, 2011

A Change of View

Our visitors are gone.
The house is so quiet ! So empty ..
I think it is a good time to do some re-decorating.
I can't sit around and feel the emptiness .. we have to change some things so it will feel right again !
The thought has crossed our minds lately, of changing the home .. not just the interiors.
For now we are staying here, but there is that little idea at the back of our minds, a new place might be waiting in the future.
A place with views..

I often like to think of having a view similar to this .. but do I want to see more city views ? Or do I want to see green, woods, flowers and perhaps a deer or some small creature outside in my garden ?
Summer is here. We will enjoy the sunshine and warmth and special events that summer in the city brings, but that little thought of another place in another land remains.