Somewhat random

More flowers my daughter bought for the birthday.

Before a rainstorm.

A date night with...

Cocktails

Dessert 

(bread pudding with salted caramel and fresh whip cream)

Bubba not wanting to pose.

Bubba hamming it up.

Bubba ignoring me.

Noticing the light streaming in.

Just a typical week, but special all the same ;)

xo

rue

~The Rose~

The lily has a smooth stalk,

  Will never hurt your hand;

 But the rose upon her brier

  Is lady of the land.

There's sweetness in an apple tree,

  And profit in the corn;

But lady of all beauty

  Is a rose upon a thorn.

When with moss and honey

  She tips her bending brier,

And half unfolds her glowing heart,

  She sets the world on fire.

~

 Christina Rosetti 

(1830-1894)

Have a beautiful weekend!

 :)

xo

rue

I listened.

My dear, beautiful friend, Kim once said "The one place in the whole wide world that you should not have to follow silly unimportant rules is in your own home."

And she's right, whether it's inside or out.

 So, I listened to her (which I always try to anyway) and painted my side porches the way I wanted to.

It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I love it :)

This is what I've been doing for the past few days while the weather has been gorgeous here and why I haven't been visiting all of you as much, until today....

Notice anything different?

Here's the before:

And again the after:

Yep, I finally painted the two backdoors and railing. The trim and windows are next, but I need a bigger ladder.

Here's the side door before:

During:

Somebody was wondering what I was doing...

And after:

From far away:

Before:

After:

The other side door:

And as you can see, I have a lot more to do, but it's getting there :)

Eventually, at some point, I'll paint the house the original color, which is a sort of beigey (yes it's a word!) yellow and I think it'll all come together.

But I'm loving it now :)

Off to make more visits....

xo,

rue

Brother and sister

Sweet Debbi, over at Debbi's Front Porch, asked me if I had any cats or if Bubba had any brothers or sisters.

Well, I don't have any cats, but Bubba does have a "sister" that has been in a few posts, but I haven't formally introduced her.

Everyone, meet Miss Mini...

She's a little camera shy and doesn't normally like to pose for mama.

"Hold still, Mini. I'm almost done."

"Bubba, why does she keep taking pictures of me?"

"Welcome to my life, Mini."

;)

xo

rue

Let's go....

Thank you for sharing what you like to eat for breakfast and lunch. It actually gave me a few new ideas for when I get tired of my favorite this week ;)

Anyway....

Quite a few of you have asked about my neighborhood, so I thought I'd take you on one of our evening walks.

It's a bit cloudy and cool today, so be sure and bring a sweater ;)

Are you ready?

Okay, let's go!

The trees out front have finally filled in :)

The view to the right of my house...

This used to be part of my house's property, but the neighbor to the right of me bought it from the last owners of my house, to avoid someone building on it. More on that in a moment.

The neighbor that bought it....

We'll get a better look at her house next time. 

It was built in the 1940s.

My house was the first one built on my street, so for just about 10 years there were no neighbors.

Down the street past her house...

We're going the other way this time though.

This is my neighbor to the left with the "rock garden", that I've mentioned before.

Their house sits on what used to be my house's property too, but the last owners (AKA "the brown paint people") sold it.

The neighbor that lives on my right didn't like that the owners on my left overbuilt the property, which is why she bought the land next to her.

Apparently, it was a big stink.

Anywho....

Heading down past them is this house...

It was built in the 1940s.

In the summer, the whole front is lined with roses and it's gorgeous.

I'll bring you back when they're in bloom :)

Another neighbor of mine...

Love that old blue truck.

They used to have a donkey and a bunch of chickens, but for whatever reason they don't anymore.

Watch your step up ahead. The city is repaving.

We're about to head onto one of my favorite streets that's full of old houses, so I'll just let you enjoy it for the most part :)

This is one of my very favorites...

The pups are getting tired and it's getting dark, so we'd best head back.

Sorry for the blurry photos, but they didn't want to pose for you this time ;)

Another new build...

And lastly the same view, next to my house, at twilight..

And home sweet home....

Pretty cute houses, huh?

There's a lot more to see, so if you want to, we'll go on a walk again soon :)

xo

rue