Last Saturday in March

 Happy Saturday!

 🌼 🌿🌞

Late January Walk

Hello 

It's been a while since I've posted. I was last here on January 1st and now here we are, with only two more days left in January after today. One month of 2022 will be in the books already. I say it all too often probably, but indeed, time flies!

Anyway, I thought that I'd share a photo that I took this morning during my morning walk. I'm trying to be consistent with my walking, at least on the weekends. I find it to be refreshing in so many ways.

I hope that you have a lovely weekend wherever you are.

Happy weekend 🌿

Peace During the Storm

I love this photo. It looks like it's just a strange pastel-colored square, but to me it brings peace. It's a photo of the evening sky as I walked home one day. I had had a particularly rough day at work that day and this beautiful sky greeted me as I made my way home. I remember that peace...and through these trying times, I remember the peace again.

Finding My Way

I found this photo above yesterday...it's from my early days of blogging. It's well over a decade old. It's a bit blurry, but there's something about it for me personally. I didn't go looking for this photo specifically, but I stumbled across it and it spoke to me. It reminds me of seemingly "simpler times"...or maybe not that simple, but it was taken during a time when I felt a bit more at peace. I love this photo because it prominently features nature...especially the beauty of a spring day. That bench looks so inviting. I remember the day when I took this. It's a visual representation of where I go in my mind or at least try to when things get tough. 

Here's to finding my way back to this bench in my mind's eye more and more. I'm working on it. Today was better than yesterday :)

Beautiful Surprises

I wanted to share this photo that I took the other day. It's as you can see a white feather. It was so beautiful and it was just nestled there in the wild rose bush. It was such a sweet surprise to see it there, right where I could see it from the window. It was in perfect view...not too high, not too low.

I've often heard that a white feather can be the sign of angels who are about. I like that idea :)

Have a great weekend!

Goodbye 2012... Hello 2013!

My last day of 2012 has been a bit all over the place, but I'm an optimist at heart, so I look forward to a wonderful 2013!  I had planned to write a much more in depth year end post, but it was not to be. Still, this short and sweet post feels right after a bit of a wild day.
 
Right now I'm winding down, sitting here in my comfy chair and just letting it all go. The way that I see it, letting go is a good thing to put into action as we all say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new year. So in essence, this day, in all its craziness turned into a spiritual lesson. That's a good way to end the year and to begin a new one! :-)

I hope that the new year brings lots of good to you and your loved ones! Here's to a wonderful 2013!

Spring

I’ve gotten behind on my posting lately. I can’t believe it’s been nearly three weeks, but I’m back here again and I’m glad to be here. Just like many of you, life gets busy and some things slip...and my blog slipped way down the list ;-) Anyway, I’ve returned so thank you for visiting me again!

I was going to post about my food adventure in this post, just like I promised in my last post, but I just wanted to ease back in with one of those take a breath posts. I’ll do my food post next time.

Spring will be arriving in a few days and it brings to mind the feeling of renewal. Both of my parents have been on my mind quite a bit lately, so when I snapped the photo below of the daffodils blooming in our backyard, I thought of how I love and miss both of them. These daffodils remind me of being back home when I was growing up...when my parents were both alive. I love spring because it makes me remember the longer days and my daddy being out in the garden. I remember the smell of the freshly plowed earth and all of the planting going on. It's amazing how those little things stay in your mind forever.



So I welcome the arrival of spring and I pray for good things ahead for all of us everywhere, all around the world.

Two Forests

Yesterday, Brit Boy and I were out and about, and decided to stop off on the way back, to see if we could spot any fall colors in the forest. Well…we didn’t see much color yet, but it was still pleasant to take a walk in the woods. Hopefully a variety of colors will spring forth in the next week or so. So anyway, we enjoyed just being out in nature with the customary green all around us :-) It was lovely.





When I was growing up, I loved walking in the woods back home. We lived in a rather wooded and green area in Georgia, so I’ve always loved the peace of surroundings like that. Recently, they’ve constructed a nature trail back home, so it makes it even easier to enjoy it all. When I went home to visit last summer, I really relished the experience of reconnecting with what I did as a child. When I’m taking a walk like that, surrounded by all of the trees, I always get a sense of peace that I don’t get anywhere else. Walks like that are cool…aren’t they?

So yesterday, when we were in the woods here in Wiltshire, my mind wandered to the woods on the family land back home in Georgia. These places are thousands of miles apart in distance, but come from the same place of serenity. From time to time I find myself having these moments of my life here and my life back home occupying the same space at one moment in my mind. I’ll think, ‘Wow, this spot reminds me so much of home’. It’s like the two places touch across a vast ocean and I’m the bridge between them and it’s cool :-)

More and more as I go forward in my life I’m seeing vividly that yes, these two places that I’ve lived have things that make them different and many things make them similar, and that’s truly great. Variety is amazing and makes us unique. But in the end, the saying is true…we are more alike than we are different and sometimes our surroundings are too. And this chick that lives in this yellow house right now is cool with having a foot in each forest, on either side of the water.

So I hope you enjoy seeing a bit of what I saw today… :-)

Rainbows & New Beginnings

Well hello there! :-) Dori here…signing back on at the Yellow House! I really enjoyed my blogging hiatus and I’ve come back just wanting to enjoy blogging again. When I went on my break, I must admit, I was a bit burnt out and had run out of stuff to say. In my time away, I reminded myself that blogging should be fun, not a chore. I will say though, that I will inevitably run out of things to write about still sometimes, but I won’t sweat it ;-) I guess what I’m saying is that I’m happy to be back blogging, but now I come back after having taken a humongous chill pill…lol.

On the day that I started my blogging break, I saw something beautiful that always gives me a good vibe when I’m given the chance to see it. I saw this…



Right after I wrote my post about taking my break, I looked outside and saw this beauty. And this time it wasn’t a fragment like I’ve seen in times past, it was a full rainbow and it was so big that I couldn’t get it all in the photo. I took this photo out in the backyard and then I went out front and it was like the rainbow was RIGHT THERE with me. It was SO beautiful!!! It looked like it was pulsating and grew right before my eyes. I felt such peace :-)

So as the rainbow evaporated, I knew that any apprehension that I had felt about stepping away from my little corner of the internet, was melting away too. My blog would be fine without me while I took some time for some renewal and to sort some other things out.

Now I’m ready to write here again. I love words and getting to string them together here in this space is a blessing. Life is the biggest blessing. So onward I go and I hope that you’ll come along with me again… :-)

P.S. ~ As you may have noticed, I did a little bit of freshing up around here with my blog design. It's still a work in progress...kind of like life ;-) But I thought that it was about time to shake things up a bit, so I hope you like it. Have a great day! :-)

Pictures From Our Paris Trip

Since I wrote such a wordy post in my last entry, I decided to spare you all today :-) So I thought that I’d share a few photographs that I took before I started blogging. I’ve always liked taking pictures, so I have bits of this and that which I can share here from time to time.

The photos that I’m going to share today, were taken inside Notre Dame Cathedral. Brit Boy and I visited Paris in 2007 for our anniversary. The city was gorgeous and the weather was very cooperative. We had a ball! :-) Notre Dame was truly breathtaking. It was such a serene space. I hope you enjoy taking a look at a few of my pics! I will share more from time to time. Have a great weekend! :-)

More Photos Of Home

Today I wanted to share the last of my reflections and photos from my trip back home. There's a bit of this and that in this post :-) I had a wonderful time. It was good to touch base with where I come from. I saw things with fresh eyes in some ways and yet the familiarity was still there :-)

Early in my trip, we visited our old home place where we grew up and did some looking around. I hadn’t been inside for quite a few years. When Brit Boy and I visited in the fall of last year, we didn’t go inside. We just walked around the land. So this time I got the chance to go inside and boy did the memories come flooding back. The house has been cleared out and things are being stored for now. The bulk of the furniture hadn’t left the house in 100 years and I’m not even exaggerating :-) There has been a LOT of family history in that house, from well before me and my siblings were born. So for me, the energy of the past was palpable. I felt it very strongly. It was strange to see the outlines of furniture from long times past and not see the actual pieces in their usual place. The familiar pieces were there no more. It was a strange feeling, but not in a bad way. I just felt very peaceful, because I know that this part of the story has wound down, but I know that a new chapter is waiting :-) I’ve always been a family historian of sorts, so the way I see it, it ain’t over ;-) The story continues…

When we were walking around and picking up a few final things, I noticed some smoky looking glasses on top of a cupboard…way in the back corner, that had been left behind. I asked my nephew to use his long arms to retrieve them for me. They are so lovely and haven’t been used in forever and a day. I felt like I found buried treasure when I spotted them and at that moment actual buried treasure would’ve paled in comparison :-) There were quite a few, but these are representative of the set. Here they are:

At first glance I thought that they were naturally this color, but then I quickly realized that they were just grimy from sitting there for so many years unnoticed. I cleaned them up before I stored them, but here’s the thing…I got so excited in the process of cleaning them…(you should’ve seen me)…that I forgot to take a photo of them all sparkly clean and beautiful. So please use your imagination here…they turned out lovely and as people often say, they don’t make things like this anymore :-)

On one of our roadtrips, I caught sight of this pretty little church in a small town called Eatonton, which is the hometown of author Alice Walker, who wrote “The Color Purple” .



On another day, my sisters, niece, and I went for a picnic at the reservoir and I saw these two sitting on the shore.



The white duck reminds me of my pet duck that I had many years ago. My duck was like a guard dog and quacked loudly whenever anyone came into the yard, yet he was very quiet otherwise. LOL. Here are a few photos of the reservoir. It was a wonderfully peaceful day out.



The time spent back home was renewing. I’m so glad that I went and I was able to take you all along with me.

You can go home again and I did that indeed! :-)

Quaintness, The Moon, and Rocking

Today I want to share more photos and thoughts about my trip back home to Georgia. This post is gonna be kind of random and photo blog-ish, but since it’s hard to remember things day by day, I figure this is the best way to share a bit of my trip with you all :-) I hope you enjoy taking a look.

I took some photos as we were driving along like I often do when I’m here in England. I love catching things on the fly even when they come out blurry ;-) I enjoy that for some reason. Anyway, on one of our road trips, I snapped a picture of this shed/barn. I just thought it looked really quaint and rural :-)



Here’s dinner from one day. You all know how I love taking pictures of food ;-) Funnily enough though, this is the only food picture that I took the whole time…I’m slipping. LOL. Anyway, my sister prepared this meal for me one day. It was really tasty.



One evening I went outside as the sun was going down just so I could enjoy it all. I love this magical time of the day :-) I was greeted by this pretty sky with a bit of the moon there to set it off. It was so beautiful to experience the peacefulness of it all. I loved the color of the clouds as the sun bounced its light off of them.

I took these pictures one morning as I stood on my sister’s carport. The light in her yard in the mornings was amazing. I loved the peace of it all.






I love rocking chairs because there’s nothing like sitting in one on a front porch and just letting the motion take you off on a trip of pure relaxation :-) The morning light loved the rockers too!



Thanks for coming along with me as I show you back home. Next time I’ll share more pictures from my journey!

A Spring Pause

Yesterday I went out into the wilds of Wiltshire with Brit Boy :-) It turned out to be a pretty day, after a bit of a yucky start weather-wise. Brit Boy had a gap between two appointments that he had, so we pulled over into a roadside rest spot and waited. The road turned out to be more busy than it originally looked and was certainly more busy than Brit Boy remembered from his days before we met, but still it was a lovely spot :-)

You would never know that I took such tranquil pictures while a constant stream of traffic went past just out of the sight line of my camera. I love finding peace, even in the midst of the world hurrying by :-)

So I’d like to share a few photos that I took as we blocked out the traffic and tuned in to the beauty existing right alongside it all. I hope you enjoy coming along with me and Brit Boy! Please take a breather with us for just a moment and soak the peace in :-) I love that the new leaves are finally showing up on the trees. I love that new green of spring!





On these last two, I started to play with the black and white setting on my camera. They didn't turn out stellar, but I like them. I just like having fun and seeing how it all turns out. I just love black and white photos :-)




I hope that you enjoyed taking a peek at what we got up to yesterday :-)

Calming Evening

This is going to be a short photo post, but I just wanted to share one of the photos I took yesterday evening. It was a beautiful evening with a beautiful sky :-)



This photo just makes me feel so calm. I love evenings like this. Enjoy! :-)

Stand By Me

This morning I came across this video through clicking on a link from a Twitter friend of mine. And I just want to say, it truly, truly lifted my heart and mood. I've been feeling a bit low these past few days and it just made me remember so much about human nature and the good that is still out there. This video brought tears to my eyes and a smile to my face simultaneously. Seeing people from around the world doing this together gave me what I needed today. We hear so much in the news everyday about how much we all can't get along...we all hear that story everyday and I for one get tired of it. So I love this video because it is not mired in cynicism. This video just shows what we can do as people in this world. A perfect song choice. This video was done by a group called Playing For Change whose goal is to connect people around the world through music. This made my day...I hope it makes yours. (smile)

My Dad and The Arrival of Spring

Today has been such a beautiful day. The sun is shining and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. What a way to welcome spring. Today has been a day to enjoy for its beauty and also for me, today has been one to take a look back.

Brit Boy had to go and see a client today and I went along for the ride. We decided last night to make a day out of it. So after he finished his work, we took a drive over to the Cotswolds. We went to that garden centre that I’ve mentioned here before in a very early post. It felt like one of those full circle days since we haven’t gone there for roughly a year since I began my blog. It was nice to go back. I always like going there because the place reminds me of a huge barn and they have gorgeous flowers of every description. They also have beautiful garden furniture, gazebos, and a wide variety of ornamental garden stuff. And then they have all kinds of neat gifty stuff and they have a nice open café there that serves hot and cold food. It’s just a neat place. Anyway, we went by there to get a gift for Brit Boy’s mom. And while we were there we took a look around and had something to eat. I love it when Brit Boy and I have time like this together.

After we ate, we took a good look around. Then I was stopped in my tracks. They have a section with old-fashioned candies and there on a stand was a colorful array of huge lollipops. I used to LOVE these when I was a little girl and I haven’t seen any of them in a long time. The thing is, it was great to see something from my childhood, but what really touched my spirit was that my dad used to buy those for me when I was little. Here’s where I got goose bumps. Today marks the day thirty years ago when my dad passed away. So when I saw these lollipops, I took it as a sign from my dad…like he was saying, “I’m never too far away”. I smiled when I saw them and it brightened my day and lifted my spirits. What a beautiful moment. I would love to talk to him as an adult since I was a child when he passed away, but over the years I’ve found a certain amount of peace and I keep good thoughts of him and my mom in my mind. I loved the lollipop so much that I had to buy one (smile). Here it is.




As we were driving out of the parking lot, I snapped this photo of a wicker type man they have out front. He is very earthy looking…don’t you think? I love him.




And also I took a picture of a lovely spot on the way back home. All of the daffodils and trees are blooming out.




When we got home, we went out into our backyard and I took some photos of our pretty little flowers that are coming alive. We planted these bulbs back in the dead of winter and now they are showing off all of their colorful beauty and they are the essence of life.




So as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, today was a day of the beautiful, the bittersweet, the joyous, and things came full circle. Even though this is the anniversary of the day when my father passed, all that I could feel was the joy in the fact that he had lived and he was my dad and he loved me and I loved him. I’m reminded that there is joy in life around us every day and through me and my siblings…my parents live on :-)

A Wonderful Day

Yesterday was truly amazing and will be a memory that will stay with me for the rest of my life. To see all of the massive crowds there on the National Mall sharing this moment together was powerful. What a great day! :-)

Congratulations Mr President!

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

Today, as we all know, is Martin Luther King Jr Day and it is a day to remember this great American and to follow his example in serving our world and working towards the greater good of all. It is also a day to look into our own hearts.

Dr. King would have been 80 years old on January 15th, his actual birthday. I grew up in Georgia, east of Atlanta and his legacy was powerful in my life, through what I heard from my elders. And growing up a stone’s throw from Atlanta, King’s birthplace, I grew up aware of what he and many others did, so that I could live the life that I live today. When this day comes around each year, I think of Dr. King, but I also think of my parents and those who came before me. I know that I owe them a debt of gratitude. I try to be aware of how blessed I am. I’m glad that Dr. King lived and helped us see our common humanity.



It is amazing that this day comes on the eve of Barack Obama being inaugurated as our new president of the United States. This moment is powerful and I'm glad we all get to share this.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope that everyone is well and that this new year brings many blessings into your lives. Brit Boy and I spent New Year's Eve here at home with our chips and dips and drinks. We watched the fireworks in London on the television and then toasted in 2009.

This New Year's Day is calmer for me this time around. This is the first one where I have felt less turmoil. You see, my mom passed away on New Year's Day in 2006 and I thought that even though it is a customary day of new beginnings, that I would hate the day forever. On the first anniversary of her passing, it was so hard, but I made it through. Then last year, I started to turn a corner in many ways and it got a bit easier. Well, this year, I am just in a better place inside, so peace came when I wasn't noticing :-) So instead of mourning my mom last night when it turned over to midnight, I rejoiced in the fact that she loved life and she showed me how to live it. I thought about her in ways that I was unable to in all the time since she passed away. And that's okay...and as they say...time does heal and looking within has helped me too. I'm still going to have days when I will cry or even scream because I wish I could pick up the phone and call her when things get rough, and that's normal because I'm human. But today I feel like morning has come into my life a bit more again :-) I love you Mama!

The Beginning of Fall

So today is the autumn equinox or the ushering in of fall. :-) There is a chill in the air this morning, but then we didn’t have such a warm summer this year here anyway. It’s a funny thing though, yesterday as we said goodbye to summer, it was one of the warmer, sunny days that we have had in a long time. Saturday was sunny too. As Brit Boy said, at least we got summer at the very end. :-) It was a beautiful weekend. And we got a bonus today too because it is sunny and beautiful outside right now.

I was doing a little research about the autumn equinox and I found that apparently on this day, at every point on Earth, there are twelve hours of darkness and twelve hours of daylight. And in the South Pole and North Pole, there will be changes. Those cute penguins in the South Pole will be celebrating the first appearance of the sun in six months. While in the North Pole, polar bears will be readying themselves for six months of darkness that is coming. So there is a lot of transition going on in nature on this day and we are all carried along for the ride.

Here in Wiltshire, down at Stonehenge, on both equinoxes and both of the solstices, the Druids and others go to the site and are allowed to go close to the stones and welcome the new season with their ceremonies. I have never witnessed it myself, but it sounds very interesting. Here’s a video that I found of part of their procession in the past. You can hear the wind in this video a lot. It has always been very windy down at Stonehenge, every time I have visited the site in the past.



On the days leading up to the ceremonies, Brit Boy and I have gone down on the way to Salisbury, past Avebury, which is another site with stones, and they are usually getting themselves ready for visitors too. So it’s always a busy time around this part of Wiltshire.

Happy Autumn, Happy Fall, Happy days to all!