I found a lovely celebrity blog. It is so real and special.

http://theamybrenneman.com/notebook/        I found a lovely Celebrity blog.  Visit her.  She is great!

And also look at the website.  It is beautiful with a sort of indian spiritual kalideoscope motiff.  We have had cold rainy drizzle and temperatures around 40.  Is that not the worst weather.  Cold, I don't mind. Snow I don't mind.  But rain and cold.  brrr... Or cold and sleet. Ugh.  There will be no white Christmas here in Franklin so say the weathermen.  But on the worst day of the year. I will go and look at this sunrise photograph my husband took here in the backyard one morning. And I will remember, after winter comes spring.  The tree is decorated. We have a few gifts. My husband bought me a new purple martin house to go on our pole. I cannot wait until March to put it up.  I also have two new movies to watch on Christmas Day. The last Harry Potter movie and The Help.  (a book I read and loved)  My little dachshund is soooo funny.  I can't leave his two presents wrapped under the tree because he would just open them or worse, hide them. So since he can't seem to find anything under the tree he thinks is his. He stole my husbands ear muffs from under the tree because they are not wrapped. And they are furry. and of course all his dog toys are furry.  It was hell getting it away from him. He turns into a hell dog guarding his prey.  He has also taken to sitting on top of the wrapped present which my cousin sent me.  Its soft. He thinks its a dog toy but its a nightgown.  lol.  You just have to love Tiny.  Merry Christmas   ♥

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

But some snow would be nice.  We finally got a Christmas tree.  Tiny sits under it.  He thinks he is
outside.  Hoping he does not lift his leg on it.   Wishing we could be with our kids this Christmas.  My husband does not really like to drive on the holidays and the kids do not have anymore time off from work.
For Christmas I have a new purple martin bird house.  It is a triple decker one.  When we bought our house
it came with a purple martin bird house and tall telescoping pole.  But the house was falling apart. So Tractor Supply had their martin houses on sale.  I cannot wait to put it up. But the birds won't  be around
until about March.  No leaves left on the tree's.  We had a very light light few snow flurries one night.
But it did not even put any white on the ground. I want Tiny to see snow falling.  Big snow flakes.
No one ever comments on my blog anymore.  Maybe I will quit writing it.  I need to think up a surprise
for my husband's Christmas present.  I hate that he has no surprises.  He loves surprises. But I am not
very good and shopping for them.  I get all anxious and end up buying shirts or pajamas. I just cannot
pick out good gifts.  Some people have the knack.  For one thing, my husband does not read, his only
hobbies are geared around anything new in electronics.  Like, how many gadgets can you buy.  How many zip drives does he need.  I can't afford huge big screen televisions.  He does not like video games.

I think I have bought him every tool known to man.  I am running out of idea's.  Tiny will have two presents under the tree. But he can smell them right through the christmas wrapping so his presents will have to be put away until the day of.  Right now Tiny is guarding our lighted snowmen. He thinks they are a stuffed animal.  He is a very strange dachshund.  Later people.   Or not.  so quiet in here lately.  Here is our lovely treetop.

Fall came and went. Winter hung on. BRRRRR.....

"You're so Vain.  You probably think this song is about you."  Sorry that's playing on my computer and now I have it stuck in my head.  I love Carly Simon.  Why are all my favorite singers aging out.  Oh, that's right I'm aging out.  Aging out.  Know who put that term in my head.  Well, I have this huge blue spruce that I love.  It started getting some brown needles in the center.  There is a forest ranger down the road. So I stopped in there.  And he came down to look at my spruce.  Guess what? He said, "This tree is aging out. It's going to have a case of the uglies.  Best thing to do is just rip it out."  What!!!!!!!???  I thanked him kindly and then forgot about it.  Rip out  my beautiful blue spruce cause it's aging out.  I don't think so.

So, the leaves changed color.  We were down in Florida taking care of doctor checkups and moving the last of our furniture for middle two weeks of October. We missed the best leaves up in Asheville.  But there was still some color left here in Franklin.  I love Fall up North.  Nothing like it.  Florida just does not have the seasons. Of course now we are freezing.  But I love that too. We got our propane tank and bought an extra gas heater.  Between our gas logs in the fireplace and the gas heater on the sunroom. It is now toasty warm in this house. Except for our bedroom.  It faces the front of the road, North exposure and it never warms up in there.  (I could go r-rated with that statement but not going to)  So, we bought an electric blanket for the bed.  Dual controls. Love it.  Why did I wait so long to try electric blankets. Oh, that's right.  I lived in Florida for most of my 65 years.  Well, there were jaunts in Texas, North Carolina and Ohio.  But I guess now, you could say more of my years have been lived in Florida. At least the last 23.  And the first 21.  Wow, I never thought about it like that.  Moving or transfering a lot as we did for his job was not easy on children growing up.  Oh well, water under the bridge.  Can't go back and change it.  We are still waiting for the contractors over at the school to dig us a new well.  That's because they blew up our well with their geo thermal drilling. And if they put cracks in any of our foundation they are going to fix that too.  A friend told me that Petchickens.com is taking orders for chicks now.  She said I better get my order in quick. They go fast.  These would be delivered in the spring.  I don't even have my chicken coop yet.  I better read up on chickens. I don't know enough about them.  When you can put them in a coop or outside. Maybe at three months?  Here are a few Fall photographs before all the leaves fell.

 

Best quote ever

   "HERES TO THE CRAZY ONES, THE MISFITS,THE REBELS, THE TROUBLEMAKERS,THE ROUND
PEGS IN THE SQUARE HOLES,THE ONES WHO SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY. THEY'RE NOT FOND OF RULES,
YOU CAN QUOTE THEM,DISAGREE WITH THEM,GLORIFY OR VILIFY THEM,BUT THE ONLY THING YOU CAN'T DO
IS IGNORE THEM BECAUSE THEY CHANGE THINGS. THEY PUSH THE HUMAN RACE FORWARD,AND WHILE SOME
MAY SEE THEM AS THE CRAZY ONES, WE SEE GENIUS. BECAUSE THE ONES WHO ARE CRAZY ENOUGH TO THINK
THEY CAN CHANGE THE WORLD, ARE THE ONES WHO DO." STEVE JACOBS 

Packing Packing Packing

How do we ever accumulate so much junk?  We are down in Florida packing as much as we can to have moved back to our new house.   Cleaning out closets and drawers.  Yikes.  And right now we are in the middle of a Nor Easter storm.  Code for NINE inches of rain non-stop.  I hope this winter goes fast.  And I sure hope I get back up North in time to see my leaves change in my yard.  Wow, the wind is really blowing outside.  I had to clean out my fish pond.  The pump had stopped. It was clogged with algae. I wish someone would buy my place in Florida who loves birds and goldfish and ponds.  I worry so  much about my yard down here.  It looked so neglected.  I went to a high school reunion up in Franklin, NC. At least three of my old classmates from Miami live there.  I guess if you grow up in heat, you want cool mountain air when you get old.  If you grow up in New York, you want Miami heat.  lol.  I will have to make this short.  We don't have reliable internet down here.  Later.  When I get back home.  Wherever that is.

This is entire post is dedicated to Maude.  She knows who she is.  


I was never a follower in school.  And for that I am grateful.  Because there were so many friends I might have missed if I belonged to the cheerleader, football, click crowd.  I had one friend who sat out in the breezeway and played his guitar between class changes.  I had another friend who was going to be an entreprener.  He is a millionaire now.  He was a late bloomer and married late in life.  I was very shy.  My mother put me in modeling class to try and bring me out.  That just taught me how to apply makeup but did nothing for my social life.  If anything, taking modeling then labeled me as a snob somehow.  I have no idea how.  Then after graduation my parents sent me to Paris France for a year
to help out my Uncles huge family of four kids.  That was probably the best experience of my life. It opened up other cultures and the world for me.  If any teenagers are reading this.  And if they don't fit
in with any groups.  Have faith.  Be proud that you are not a lemming following the crowd.  My favorite quote from the For Better or Worse cartoon is this.  "Maybe I am different because I was put here to make a difference."  And that is a very powerful statement.  It was spoken by one of the first gay teen characters in a comic strip.  Bloom whenever you are meant to.  Everyone is different.  All great people in society were non-conformers.   Mama Cass sang it best.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC7zSY5O6FU&feature=related

The Taj Mahal of chicken Coops

I saw today on a website the most fabulous chicken coop I have ever seen.  The man  built it for his wife. I think he lives in the midwest, Idaho maybe.  It has separate coops, joined in a hexagon shape, each have their own separate runs, it must have 25 coops and a brooder running up the center.



Best Chicken coop

I walked down to the creek last week.  I had been meaning to do that for weeks.  But it is down hill but then a strenuous up hill climb back. But I made it. Ralph was worried because the road is narrow with little walk room and windy.  Not a lot of traffic but they drive fast on this country two lane.  And we have already had cars lose it on the curve and end up in our front yard.  The creek is very lovely. On the left side I think the farmer or someone put in river rocks, and made a little waterfall. Because on the other side of the bridge the water runs slower with no river rocks.  Also good news.  The well man came out and dug our well 90 feet deeper and he hit a vein, granite rocks went flying, water gushed up.  100 gallons

per minute.  And he said, you won't have to worry about water anymore.  I am so glad. I love these tree's and could not live here if I couldn't water them.  And since then we've had tons of rain.  Funny.  Here are a few photo's of my walk.  How are things DB?