Tucked in the tiny garden cottage in winter.
Such a great place to be.
Bright & Happy.
I waver between 80's music and fairy tale soundtracks.
Tells a lot about me maybe?
🙂
Lighting my candles.
Having a girl's day.
Stacking up little books.
All the things I want to take up to the loft with me line the stairs.
It's afternoon, so we get one last jaunt through the fairy bower.
Collecting marigold seeds here and there as we loop around our garden path.
And dare I say…
We spy tiny signs of spring.
Sunset turns everything golden.
I decide to clean out dry flowers of last summer and fall.
Hopefully all the seeds have dropped.
The guardian does his job.
And then, a little group of hummingbirds whip around me.
Talking to each other. Sitting on tiny twigs.
Pip pip pip pip.
I follow them and find myself standing in a field of sprouting wild chamomile.
Wonderful!
Can't wait.
Then a winged wee one flutters past me at lightning speed, sipping sugar water.
I sneak a peek at sprouting daffodils…
And, Hyacinth!
Oh blissful dream, I love it!
The setting sun casts glowing light here and there.
I can't believe the ranunculus are peeking up too!
Little violets sway about.
I am happy.
I am on the ground sniffing violets when the hummingbirds return.
Click, click!
Then they are gone.
Time to skip back to the cottage.
Wildflowers in the dry grass 🖤
I roast veggies in the oven.
Get out more candles and slippers, and head out.
The kettle whistles in the cottage.
Up I climb.
Books and tea in tow.
I am giddy with my girl time.
Hiding in the cottage loft with books?
Some days it doesn't get any better than that at all.
Not at all.
Give me a book and you'll lose me for a while 🙂
The cottage is so bright and fresh.
I love being in there.
It even has fresh coats of paint.
Thank you Mister Lovee.
Now go away.
Hee hee.
Time to spend more time out there again.
Sometimes, when I am up in the cottage loft, I think about how I am a tiny smidgen of a morsel on the planet, tucked into a little hidden nook, in the middle of nowhere, in a tiny cottage.
Then I just trip out a little, hahaha!
Its like stepping into a storybook for a few hours.
Everyone needs an escape every now and then, don't they?
Although, sometimes I fear I planned my life out to be one big escape!
Hahahaa!
Too much play, not enough discipline.
Oh well.
Could be worse I guess?
What is your favorite guilty escape?
Do you have one?
I love going into antique stores and leaving my phone in the car.
Soooo delicious!
xoxo
Love, V
ps: Random.
Listening to Bronksi Beat on repeat.
Hello 1984.
🖤
Love your little escape Vanessa… I think we all need a place we call our own, where quiet takes over and our thoughts dance about in our heads in wild abandon… anyway, mine do… I love to sit at my desk in my bedroom, where I can sip tea, sketch Nature… and watch the silly antics of my feathered friends outside my window at the feeders in our backyard… but I also have “secret” places too… like the thicket on the trail, down the lane and around the bend… one day maybe you can spirit yourself here and I will show it to you… that’s where fairies dwell… xoxo… Julie Marie
Everyone needs their own little escape. Gorgeous pictures. Pure magic. I wouldn’t expect any less from you.
Oh those books are just adorable! I adore a book with a good cover. I am loving your sweet little cottage, it’s a divine place indeed!
Your loft sounds wonderful I have read all of those books 🙂
I had my own little escape today, just upstairs to the bedroom watching a movie on the Kindle Fire (free movies) it was about a man in a band who played with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Glen Miller and Tommy Dorsey-the music I am absolutely in love with. That is an escape for me turning that music on.
I am jealous of your bits of spring but I know we will be seeing bits of spring by the end of next month.
Your cottage is adorable, it’s no wonder you love to escape there. Do the dogs seek you out or is it forbidden for them? Can’t imagine there is one square inch on your whole place forbidden to them. Love your little votive jars. Did you glitter them yourself? Please do a tutorial sometime on how you did it? I would love to know how to do some.
My favorite escape is my pergola during the warm months, sipping raspberry tea. Can’t wait! Two more months!
Interesting…”I fear I planned my life out to be one big escape”. No fear. Live it and love it. I guess I have done the same thing. Under the guise of homeschooling my daughters and I spend our days knitting, making dolls, being absorbed and obsessed with books, taking tea with fairies and guinea pigs, walking in the woods as elves…you get the picture.
Compared to the “real world” I think it is a very good way to live. And on top of it all, Vanessa you inspire others to do the same and if that is not possible for them, then at least you lift them up while they are here.
I have been changing my computer photo ‘screen’ quite often this winter. First, it was a scene in England along a river bank, with an English house in the background…kind of looked like Toad Hall from ‘Wind in the Willows’. Then, I began re-reading ‘The Hobbit’ for the umpteenth time, so I found photos in New Zealand of Peter Jackson’s versions of the real Hobbit houses…so I changed my ‘screen’ to reflect the mood, while reading the book. Now, I have found a Scotland, rolling hill photo, where I believe Emily Bronte would have written her books. I am trying to put myself in the mood to finish writing a major novel I have been working on for four years. Before that, I had a view of Morro Bay in California, from the hills looking out toward the bay and Morro Rock. I love visiting that area. I dream a lot! And I do read a lot too. I am now on my way to Mordor with Frodo and Samwise as they are antagonized by Gollum on their journey toward Mt. Doom. (Yes, I finished reading ‘The Hobbit’..so my mind is still in Middle Earth. I think I could spend the rest of my life in Lothlorien as a Elf, blissful day dreams with the Fair Folk.
Your life of bliss on your acreage is a total life of fairy tales, and yes with all the yard work too! But it’s still bliss! Thank you for the lovely photos!
hugs,
Miss Teresa
Ah! And since I cannot go to France to see the wondrous countryside there and the French cities, I do believe I will change my computer screen photo every now and then, to reflect French life, and try my hand at some ‘chair side’ watercolor sketches right in front of my computer! I may travel the world this way, ‘journaling’ what I view on my computer screen-saver! Do I sound a bit bored???
Hee! Hee! It is cold and foggy here, so I feel like a shut-in. But there are ways to fight boredom too.
When i was still working and living in TX but favorite escape was a day out…just me……. It would go something like this…..On a day off i would sleep in… head into town a little before noon … treat myself to lunch out at some fabulous salad bar …. spend sometime browsing around the likes of Hobby Lobby or Michael’s or JoAnns … pop over to the Dollar Store buy some movie candy for a dollar …stash it in my purse …ssshhhh…. go to a matinee… usually a chick flick or something hubby wouldn’t want to see …settle back and be entertained…How’s that? Hugs! deb
Beautiful books and beautiful pictures! Love the feel of this 🙂
We make our own reality. If we don’t enjoy our own life, it would be such a waste. Too many people define their worth on productivity and wake up one morning realizing they had worked all of their lives, but didn’t enjoy it very much. Good for you Vanessa. Love your posts.
You’re setting my happy heartometer meter spinning with this post! Oh, yes! How divine. I’m really eager for a day like that, one I don’t see in the immediate future but soon. Yes, very soon!
I don’t feel too guilty about my pleasures (unless I’m sneaking them in when I really should be on task or deadline!) Maybe cookies. Because there is never just one! OK — and Dancing with the Stars.
Sometimes a little escape is exactly what one needs. I had my own little mini-retreat yesterday (Sunday) night, with a new PBS Masterpiece Mystery: I made tea, cut a small piece of cake and sat down to watch all of the first episode of Grantchester uninterrupted. (That’s the key: UN-interrupted.) It was great – sets, costumes, locations, and of course story, too. ; ) Anybody else watch it?
And, oh, those “Puffin in Bloom” re-issues, I love them – such pretty bindings for such wonderful books! (I loved all four of those titles when I was little, Heidi was my favourite – I brought my copy everywhere and re-read it so many times..)
I’ve been hoping some might come across the counter at work, so we could have copies to sell in the shop, but the used-book business depends upon what people want to give up, and I don’t think many people want to let go of these once they have them!
Thanks, for such a pretty, reflective, peaceful post, Vanessa – so nice on a cold winter day!
Oh, and as a New England resident, I am forced to say, “Daffodil shoots in January?!? Inconceivable!!”
(Insert Princess Bride jokes here.)
; )
Yes, God Himself wanted to bless You abundantly. Charming for Me to be able to witness His love for You-Denise
Ever since you built that adorable little cottage, I have longed for a tour. Any chance of that???
Dearest Dear Vanessa!
I feel like it has been just forever since I visited here with you! I love it that you are just “cocooning” yourself away in your little cottage loft! Oh, but I do see that the outside does beckon you, as always! It makes me happy to think that perhaps some of my dear little hummies are wintering there with you!! It will be a solid 4 months or so before we see them again here. And seeing your hyacinths starting to sprout up just makes me homesick for when I would walk to the store in my neighborhood in Washington, DC. Right around the first part of February, things would start sprouting up again and all these little green things would appear in the tiny yards in front of the lovely old brownstones as I would walk up 20th Street. I do miss it so there! I’m looking forward to sitting on my porch again when the weather is nice and planting all of my little flowers in pots again this year. That’s really my escape, sitting out there with the hummingbirds fighting for feeders (Oh! the lovely, naughty things!)
And as for the 80’s music, it must be something in the air this year, but I am craving hearing things like this as well! Mr. V and I worked at a record store together in 1984 and 1985, so it all just makes me think of when I realized I had such a huge crush on him!! I remember that winter that the Bronski Beat album was released. We listened to it over and over again as we worked on cleaning out all the album bins before inventory that year. I am in the process of making a mix tape (on CD now, of course!) of some early Everything But the Girl, Prefab Sprout, Dream Academy, Eyeless in Gaza, Felt, etc., so the music of that time has been very close to me again right now.
Sending hugs, as always!
Ahhhh, yes. Reading books by candlelight and sipping tea. That’s the secret to happiness. You have a beautiful world and the life you and Mister Lovee have created there is amazing. You deserve all of the “play” and “escape” moments and they makeup for all of the days when you’re stressed and busting booty on deadlines and creating art until the wee hours of the morning.
Oh my goodness, another series of wonderful photos and your majestic photo of your furry one. It’s so nice to see nature doing it’s best job and to see the earth, birds and green is so amazing. Here in Michigan everything is covered by snow. I wish I may and I wish I might for Spring to come early. This is good too. The snow is protecting the earth for bigger plans.
Have a happy week.
Welllll – this bloggyverse is an escape, and pretty much “girl time” since wolf-boy thinks it’s too many words. 😉
I have picked up a book or two since our last episode. I am still reading the complete works of Oscar Wilde, but I throw in a little Neil Gaiman or Jane Austen just for grins. I inherited a TON of books from a writer Wolf Boy pet sits for, including some he’s written himself!
Right now, though, I find time and again my favorite escape is into my own head. It’s that time of year where I go inward….I’m thinking on re-organization and seeds and decorating and fresh paint and writing words and…well, you get the idea. 😉
I’m still waiting on the BESTEST spot for Roostah and roostah alone at Cool Furry Oaks to appear. I’m pretty sure it’ll be a tree house, soon enough!
xoxoxviixoxox
Oh what delights! I’ve been coveting that particular prettily-bound-edition of Little Women since I saw it while Christmas shopping…..swoon! So pretty, indeed! And my wee one just spied your dear little owl slippers….”Look! Owl Slippers!!” said she! Happy times to you there in your magic lands!
Oh I loooooove that story!! The record store, Bronski Beat!!
WONDERFUL dearest Betty! Love, Vanessa
My escape is watching old movies/tv shows, reading books and gazing up at the sky. Makes my heart giddy to do all of these.
Hmmm….I am thinking we are one in the same person, dearie. How incredibly to need to have a little loft/hideout! I always think about what a tiny speck I am in the huge jungle. Crazy to think about! xo Jen
I have some of those very books on my Amazon wish list! Love the designs. And there’s a new Anne of Green Gables set with paper-cutting art on the fronts, which I just adore. I loooove your girl’s day, your blissful escape, your tiny loft nook, and all the coziness and bright, happy giddiness I just know it gave you. My escapes? The sea. But of course you already knew that. 🙂 And just like you . . . curling up with a good book or a girlie movie hubby wouldn’t be into, or just plain dreaming, from my comfy chaise or a bubble bath. 🙂 And, by the way, we love to be with all our lovies, but I TOTALLY got the “Thank you, Mister Lovee. Now go away.” comment, heehee! Really cracked me up, ’cause it’s so true and says so much about how we need that wondrous dreaming time. 🙂 Lovely post.