Home Improvements

I didn't plan to be away this long. My days are never the same and this routine loving girl doesn't always like the "never know what my day is going to be like." However, I am very blessed and so I keep moving forward.

I haven't had nearly as much time to stitch on Little Valerie's name, but I do have the V and am over halfway on A, so I will share V. The linen is one I have used for Christmas ornaments and has a little lustre to it. I tried to match the letters' color to the wall. I came up with Classic Color Works Tennessee Red Clay as the floss color.

I have my plans for the stitch -just need time and not to make mistakes. I seem to be having trouble there, and honestly I think my mind is just cluttered.

Moving on... the pine trees are gone. We as a family struggled to see them go...probably for different reasons. For me, I hated to remove such majestic pines and the perch for so many amazing birds. I have seen an osprey and a heron eat a fish sitting on its branches. There has been an owl who likes to get at the tip top and hoot in the early evenings. I also knew they had to be very old, but.....

The first picture was taken at the end of January. We said it would be the last picture taken of the sunrise with the pines filtering the sunlight coming up.

That has been such a view etched in my mind for a very long time. We wondered what it would look like when they were gone. Now we know. 

The weather has been so warm that it has been mostly foggy in the mornings, so I have not been able to capture a pretty colorful sunrise like the one above. Praise Him for the warm start to February. I am loving it.

I will capture the beauty of the new view one morning, but Jeff and I have both decided it is ...

Not Better or Worse; just different. It is definitely a more open view. The water seems bigger like we have rounded that point up there, and it is the bay and not just down the bayou.

I will share more later. Lately, it has been warm, but foggy or cloudy for the most part. 

The view from the inside changed too. I took this one day to share the old look.

And then--- they are gone. I will share this one again too when I get a sunnier day. Now, this may change how warm it is going to be on this side of the house...

Once we made the decision to have them cut which WAS Really NOT OUR DECISION- (they are on the edge of the neighbor's property), we had to just not fret anymore. 

They had to actually make the decision, but we paid half when they agreed. They just wanted more sunshine on their dock. Here I was fretting over the loss of habitat for the birds and the loss of something that old. The largest on of the three had a diameter of 39 inches. I estimated it was between 80 and 100 years old. There had been so much erosion that they were no longer on land but standing in the water for three fourths of the year. A hurricane like Michael and they would destroy our house. The birds are still coming well except for the owl. I haven't heard him, but he wasn't there all the time anyway. They have adapted to the other trees. 

It was sad and yet enticing to watch them cut them down. 

Valerie is growing and here are some of the pictures of her and her brother.

She is two weeks here.

Valerie is 3 weeks old today and is more alert and looking around each day and growing.

Seeing how busy I am I decided to hire someone to wash my windows on the outside. I have always been able to keep up, but I got behind when Mom fell that summer and then selling her house. He comes today to give me  a quote, but I am pretty sure unless it is just astronomical I am deeming it worth my money and time and well being.

Enjoying this spring like weather and have plenty of things to keep Miles and me busy.