My New Fav

Taken by my lovely friend, Skylar at our Solstice get together~thanks. :)

Garden

The garden this week, tomatoes! We have a lot, and expect more in the coming days to ripen. They are beautiful, organic and delicious straight from the vine.

Basil, oh lovely greenness. How I love lady Basil. Need to make pesto!

Sunflower, we planted a whole row of these beauties, this is one of two that actually survived the early spring torrential rains. It is a small, two foot tall one, we do have one Mammoth sunflower in the other garden, it should bloom in time for Lammas in two weeks.

Beauty in the Garden

We had this lovely visitor in the Bee Balm yesterday. A gorgeous Black Swallowtail. It was very intent on extracting the remaining nectar from the nearly gone bee balm. We were able to get a good view of the flying flower without distracting it from its meal.

This morning there are two of them on the butterfly bush. I did not get a photo of them, but I have a feeling that one of them was this same one. It came back and brought a friend to our yard for breakfast.

Witchwood~My Home

There are so many things that I love about my home. In the past four years since we moved into this lovely house, we have been through an inordinate amount of stress and upheaval. There were times when we were unsure if we would be able to hold onto our home here. Times even, when I thought it would be easier just to give it up and move on. But we persevered and I am happy that we did. This home is loving, warm, open to friends and family, and sometimes, community. We share and learn and grow together here. This house, Witchwood, has always been the one that the children in the neighborhood congregate to. A former resident of the neighborhood, who grew up here, told us that when she was a child, this house, with it's former resident, held an open door policy for the neighborhood children. There was always something to do and something to eat here. The same is true now, we have a number of children, along with our own three, at any given time of day. There is laughter and fun, and the house seems to smile and open itself to them all. We feel blessed that we are fortunate enough to have this home and that we can make it loving and warm, and inviting to our friends and neighbors. Hestia is alive and well at Witchwood. I leave you with these shots of some of my favorite things about my home. Witchwood.

The witch ball in the window

My porch~where so much fun and sharing takes place

The stonework that is such a big part of Witchwood,adds character

The beading from India that circles the lamp

The tire swing in the Sycamore, that has brought so much joy

The fire pit for rituals, bonfires, and s'mores!

The guitar wall hanging David made of carpet remnants in the family room

The warm red brick of the old chimney

My kitchen witch of straw David brought me from the flea market

"Old Peter" the concrete rabbit found in the woods

These are just some of the things that I love about my home. Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Beautiful Belly Dancers

One of our favorite things about the Secret City Festival is that there are always belly dancers. Middle Eastern Dancers to be precise. Sophie and I love belly dancing....both watching and doing.


These ladies were organized by a friend of mine and she did an outstanding job. We are so happy to go out and support the dancers each year.


Check them out.....Bella Belly of Knoxville...

Sandsation Dancers also of Knoxville....

Bella Belly again...after costume change...

A beautiful solo cane dance by Hulya.

New Favorite

I really love this photo that David snapped of the three of us a couple of weeks ago. It was a good day.

Playing Catch Up

Our sweet Katy, photo taken by Sophie, budding photographer.

Beautiful Iris, also taken by Sophie.

Caterpillar love, haha

Sophie and her best friend, Andrew

Easter, she wasn't thrilled to take the photo for Grandma and Grandpa, lol. Hope to post more later.