Rainy Day From the Front Porch

It's been raining since Sunday night. Poor Jazzie is exhausted from the trauma of fireworks on the fourth and the thunder and lightning on the fifth. I think she's getting a good nap in today, though. Only the sound of the rain and the wind chimes. It's quite lovely to sit out on the front porch, protected from the rain and yet hearing the sound of the rain on the roof and the occasional deep tones of the wind chimes. We also had a classical music radio station on for a while. It was the perfect accompaniment to the morning rain.

 Jazzie, on the rug next to my desk

Currently sleeping to Ralph Vaughan Williams'

Charterhouse Suite for Strings 

I think she'll recover. :-)

***

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This post might possibly be linked to one of more of the following:

Mosaic Monday and Roses of Inspiration and  Treasure Box Tuesday and Tuesday with a Twist  and  Tweak it Tuesday  and  Good Fences and  Freedom Fridays  and  Saturday Critters and  Vintage Inspiration Friday  

Returning From Salzburg

Delicious Dark Chocolate Truffles

No, not me. I'm not the one returning from Salzburg. You might think so, for the little I've been visiting your blogs this weekend. Actually, that was partly due to the fact that our daughter and son-in-law, (Texans transplanted from Wisconsin) were visiting. She is the one who had just returned from Salzburg, Austria, where she had attended an opera written for/performed by Jose Carreras. She came back with the most amazing photos of Salzburg, which is now on my list of places to visit. So did I think to grab a couple of her photos for my blog? Of course not.

Aren't they cute!

 Snoozing on the Front Porch

We had amazing weather while they were here. Mid 70's, probably, sunny, gentle breeze - who could ask for more.

 There's about a 10' drop-off on the south 

and southeast end of the porch

as you look straight ahead in the photo

Before the family reunion, a week earlier, Mr. Cranberry had put up a temporary 'railing' to keep the little ones in the family from falling off the deep end of the porch. We still need to put the facings around the posts and put on the ceiling and railing for the steps, but if we never got more than this done, I could easily live with this woven wire fencing. It is perfect! I'm actually considering leaving that and painting it, and not putting up a railing or wall on the remainder of the porch. It's only 2 feet off the ground on most of the porch, and even the four year olds won't get hurt if they fall off that part (unless they're really trying). 

The vintage chairs were found on the property when we moved here and were repainted last summer. The quilt that you see on the single nap bed was a $4.00 find at GoodWill. Who would not love flowers and bird houses? It's a queen size quilt, so I have folded it in half for that single bed.

 North wing of the porch

The berries on the cranberry bush behind the glider

are orange right now, turning red.

The porch is in the shape of an L. This is the part of the porch that we are planning to screen in. There will be a door where the window (see photo above) is currently located. There will be no access to the screen room from the other part of the porch, only from the house. I know all about kids and running the circle of the house. We have that on the inside of our house. I don't need it on the porch as well.

My new melodic chimes, a birthday present!!

And we had a real deluge (about 2" of rain)  on Saturday afternoon.

Can you see the rain pouring off the roof of the porch?

Photo from last November

to show you the L shape of our front porch

I suspect that there are a lot of green beans that need picking today. I hope there are enough to completely fill a canner.

***

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Although I usually forget to do it, there is a chance that this post will be linked to one or more of these great linky parties:  Inspired Monday and Mosaic Monday and Amaze Me Monday and  Inspiration Monday and Make it Pretty Monday and  Making the World Cuter Mondays and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Artsy Corner Thursday and Treasure Box Tuesday and KatheWithAnE and Rubbish Tuesday and Tuesday with a Twist and  Knick of Time Tuesday (vintage)  and   Tweak it Tuesday and Adorned From Above  and All Things With Purpose and Home & Garden Thursday and Good Fences on Thursdays and  Time Travel Thursday and Freedom Fridays and Junkin' Joe and Vintage Inspiration Friday

Christmas Day Snow in NW Wisconsin

I hope you too had a wonderful and white Christmas!

***

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Painting Floorboards

Some of the million (or so it seemed) floor boards, primed

Thank you to everyone who stopped in last week and said 'hi' during my little break away from the blog. As some of you may know, we're putting a porch on 1 1/2 sides of our house, and much of last week was spent priming floor boards, both sides. It seemed like the stack of boards only grew. The worst part was that when I'd fall asleep at night I'd dream that I was painting, so I actually did it twice! Anyway, I'd seen the weather forecast and knew that we better get the priming done by Wednesday evening, for we were expecting rain on Thursday and Friday - and boy, did we get it! Fortunately, by then all the 3" gray-primed floor boards were tucked in, under a sheet of heavy poly, so they were safe from the elements.

Enjoying the Elements

Since our near frost in mid September, we've had pretty nice nighttime temperatures. I know this can't last forever, so I've got several plants potted (above, l.) and ready to spend the winter indoors. I'll wait until the last possible moment to bring them in.

I've got carrots to can and peppers to freeze this week - and hopefully a porch floor to paint, once it's installed.

Thanks for stopping in. I've lots of catching up to do. Hope you all have a good week! :-)

Rain on my Lens

October 4

***

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