This was the front yard yesterday:



You can see the little corner garden now is cold and unappealing but at least those huge bushes are gone and we can see now out into the world a little more.



See the pile of branches and twigs that Paul raked up?



Those all came off the tree above in the wild wind storms we've had over the last two weeks. Some bigger branches came off out back in the dog pen area, but the dogs don't use that pen any longer.

And lastly, but not leastly, inside, warm and dry, we are enjoying my newly named "Feel-Good-Tree" all lit up.



I have two of these little trees this year. I put lights on the one in the Reading Room (above), and haven't put lights yet on the other one in the living room, which you can see below through the doorway...



Maybe I'll light that one up today. I love holiday lights - they really brighten up the mood on a dark, wet, less than perfect wintery day, although it's still fall. We've had two nor'easters in the last two weeks and the dark wet weather is getting to me.



So my "feel-good-trees" are helping!

I was glad to read in Nora's blog that she got a copy of "Local Hero" from hubby and watched it and loved it. It's just one of those films that come along once in a blue moon. I could not find my copy of it here last weekend so I ordered an inexpensive copy of it online and it came the other day. It's going in the DVD player maybe today, maybe tomorrow. Another "feel-good" item to have stashed away!

The sun came out today but that darn wind is still howling around. Lots of leaves are falling but there are still lots and lots to come down.



Just look at that oak tree in the neighbor's yard... lots of raking in Paul's future!

I'll leave you with this:



A picture of me (on the right) and a picture BY me (on the left). I can vividly remember having my portrait painted by Mr. Ed Fish in Marblehead back when I was somewhere around 8 or 9... can't remember the year, but I do remember that dress I wore - it was uncomfortable as all get-out and I hated putting it on and then having to sit there, without moving, in his studio for an hour or two at a time!

My parents hung that portrait of me on the wall in their front hall, over the radiator, where it sat til the house was sold back in 1986 or 87 (?). I found it recently in my deep dark coat closet and pulled it out.

I also found that picture I'd painted of our former great Pyrenees, Esmeralda, done by me from a photo I took of her on our wedding day in 1986.

Here's the original photograph (left) and my painting (right):



So that's it from here. Have a good Monday!

Cheers,

Bex







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Check out my other blog, "From the Hawthorne Tree"


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Pages from the American Notebooks, Nathaniel Hawthorne

Passages from Hawthorne's English Notebooks



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