What we all would love to have!

Patty and Rose have a very nice home, very nice land, and had a very nice kitchen. At least I thought it was nice before. They decided to have it rennovated, I wondered why they would do that, it looked nice to me. But how amazing it turned out to be! I had to take pictures - it's that nice. They started the rennovation during the first week of November and just finished it a couple of weeks ago. Lots of time without a kitchen sink, lots of time with no stove to cook on, lots of time with the whole thing torn up and a 3 month construction process! Fortunately, they learned how to wash dishes in the bathtub and make any meals in the microwave, once they could locate it!

Three months......Daisy noted that it was pretty hard on the critters!

Boo told me it turned her world upside down!

Mary and Crumpet spent a lot of time in the living room knitting...


Stay back, Kid, I'll protect you!!!

Some 'before pictures'...



The house is a nice A-frame on a beatiful bunch of acres set in rural Southern Indiana, not far from me. Patty is also an RN, she and I spent 3 hours a day commuting to Indianapolis together for a couple of years. We had time to talk about everything in the world....many times over. Patty and Rose and Patty's daughter, Mary, are very dear to me. Oh.....and Crumpet, Tootie, Daisy, and Boo complete the family. Wait - not quite completed....Mary also has 2 cats tucked away in there somewhere!

They have a big place! I am parked out in front of their 3 car garage with carport!

Their deck leads to the pool and the gazebo....

Backyard and view out of their kitchen window...and Patty's birdfeeders!

And, finally.....a picture of the front of their house - The new kitchen is inside that door and up one short flight of stairs...

I am sneaking up the front stairs to the kitchen....it definitely is looking different

Is that solid wood? Are those all cabinets?
It's solid Alder wood? Wow...just wow!

Is that a handcrafted table/kitchen isle? And it's hard maple? Wow.
Where there was just a wall is now all custom made solid Alderwood cabinets. Wow.

More Wow.

Crumpet is very proud of the cabinet where his food is stored....He had Rose show me...Are these not two happy critters!!!? And rightly so!

It is so peaceful and light and comfortable in that kitchen with lots of room and lots of storage.
Now I am proudly ensconced at the new table, very happily drinking some wonderful tea made by Mary....thanks, guys, for the tour! You done good!

Liz, Sharon, and Callie come to visit!

I actually had the good fortune to have a visit from Liz and Sharon. They spent the weekend in Brown County but made a stop by Bloomington on their way home. It was so very good to see them! They brought their new puppy, Callie, who is lucky indeed to leave the animal shelter and get to live in her forever home.

Callie, too, got to spend the weekend in Brown County....just Callie...no other dogs...life is pretty darned good according to her!

There was some adjustment....the flurry of 'getting to know you'...

Liz is one of Rocky's favorite people and he had a lot to tell her. She is a licensed therapist and it has been quite some time since his last 'session'. He is telling her all about his woes!

Mini wasn't sure at all that Callie had the right to be there...this is Mini's 'I don't care how big you are I am going to pull your face off' look....ears back, eyes staring, a good growl going... Sharon is making sure Mini doesn't write a check she can't cash! I do a lot of that, too.


Finally, the sniffing begins!



Then more of getting to know you....some body parts are apparently more important to get to know than others.....I believe this picture speaks for itself.


Rocky isn't sure he *wants* a girlfriend! Callie seems pretty fascinated with his nether parts


All is well....Sharon gets a good dose of doggy love!

On second glance....she might actually be gasping for breath. Bad doggie breath....really bad! Sorry about that, Sharon!

It was wonderful to have them stop by and, all too soon, they had to head back home but I hope to return the favor in the Spring and finally get to see their home!

Birds are not kind to each other

A much better picture of a Cardinal boy - much clearer and the sun was so wonderful to see this week! Parts of the picture are fuzzy - I am shooting through a window and a screen on a tripod, using the self-timer at 2 seconds with the aperature wide open at F1.8. I was lucky to get this picture of him in mid-chomp on a seed.


Meanwhile, I have realized that the backyard birds are not very nice to each other! Here is an irritable crew - nipping and snapping at each other. Grumpy feather dusters.


The little guy to the right is one of my favorites. He is a rosy/orangy little fellow, I just love his colors. He also is pretty happy to just camp out in the seed tray when no other big birds are around. He dozes a little, eats a little, looks around.


He even has pretty color on his back. Patty has said he is either a purple finch or house finch.

Pretty guy!

Nothing exciting going on. It is just a quiet life in a Southern Indiana backyard!