House Update, What Christmas Looked Like

Hello friends.

I hope this finds you well and stable, in a world gone mad. 

I'm not going to talk much about my life, thoughts, feelings etc because we each have our own and the world is flooded with such a variety, that it is hard to find those who are in the same boat as ourselves. Our experiences are so unique, and some are bizarre, and that makes things even more difficult to share. So I am just going to post pics, and show the home I remain in comfort in. I have it set up to be comfortable, efficient, and beautiful so that I don't feel a need to go anywhere. And I don't. Its working for me. 

I tend to stay home all the time now and I am fine with it. 

The summers have taught me I can't go out as I get heat exhaustion within 5 minutes now which requires 2 days of recovering, so after 4 years of this, I no longer fight it. I just stay in. Its ok. 

Winters are ok except for the frosts which kill what was green until then. It looks bleak. I am not used to that. Keeping my trees alive is a tension filled season, especially my peach trees which can produce the sweetest peaches I ever had. So far no blooms with several frosts.

I am going to just post some pics as a few friends have asked me. 

As I create this post I am listening to this, if you feel like listening:

 

I am getting more reticent to "decorate" as time goes on, but I did feel like it this year, only a little bit and only nature themed.....like trees, greenery and a little sparkle. Lots of twinkle lights, most I keep up all year around, because they are just delightful.

I do not have a pic for this, but one thing I did this Christmas year is something I've always wanted to do, in a house of my own, was to have a candle lit in every window of the house. This is for those who see the house, the candles give a sense of welcome and warmth, and comfort for the weary of soul, and tired. I could not see them myself at night, but those who did see them, I hope got the sense of welcome and warmth the candles symbolize. I used battery operated ones that go on at the same time every day on their own. Such a pleasure.

I will post pics and comment above them. I am sorry for the many blurry pics. I kept trying to get clear ones, but I got tired of it. Either my hands shake or the camera is moody. But you will get the gist.

Below I needed to reorganize my bathroom countertop as I didn't want it coming to the edge with things and I wanted to use the vertical space. I got a 2 tier organizer and painted it white and restocked my things and added $ tree fairy lights and little vase of flowers. Such a relief to have things organized, pretty, functioning with ease and efficiency. The upper tier holds peroxide, my homemade herbal mouthwash, cotton pads, flowers, brush and paste. 2nd tier holds witch hazel, alcohol, my homemade tooth powder, homemade face cleansing pads, sponge to clean sink, and water glass. I stuck in a little white bottle brush tree with sparkles.

Below is the kitchen table. I keep the center glass jar with a candle all year, but for Christmas all I could see were flowers around it. I bought a set of 10 vintage bud vases and filled them with flowers and added white bottle brush trees, deer and fairy lights that go on at the same time every day. Love that.

 

 

 

Below is the 4 foot flocked tree. I only added another strand of soft twinkling lights, icicles, and champagne and silver ornaments. Gentle.

Below is the fireplace. I should have lit the candles but didn't think of it. I just went around the house taking pics as things were.

Below is the laundry room. I can call it a room as it has a door to go outside, a closet and cabinets, that's a room, right?

But the lovely thing that sparked all of these things is that I wanted to meet Christmas this year with things pristine clean, painted, fresh and lovely. It started with painting my kitchen cabinets which was a pain, and something that usually took me only hours, took 6 days. So this laundry room was included in that, and painting this transformed the entire feeling of this house. Even my cat likes hanging out in there now, when she never did before. The feeling is like I have an additional room now. I used it before but it wasn't ''mine'', now it is. I do light the candle there when I do laundry.

Below is one of the cabinets above the machine. I bought glass bottles to decant all the laundry products, the liquid detergent, the peroxide, the borax, washing soda, the vinegar, homemade stain treatment, sea salt for cleaning out old energies, etc. I don't like seeing colors and various packaging, it drives my brain crazy. I like the simplicity of harmonious stocking. I use dissolvable labels so they just wash off easy too. I love using powdered oxygen (sodium percarbonate) in the laundry as nothing cleans and disinfects like oxygen. "Oxyclean" is made of 10% of this chemical, but I like using it straight. But the past two years, the prices have doubled, and I found out that mixing common 3% liquid hydrogen peroxide with washing soda powder creates sodium percarbonate/oxygen. And yes it does work, and it is affordable, so I have those things stocked with backups. I do not use store bought anything except for Mrs. Meyers liquid detergent. I am allergic to everything else, especially fake scents. I love mixing these things when I do laundry. It is an alchemical process for me getting things pristine and free of energies and stagnation. I like it.

I added my beloved deer images as all the white was too plain and an antler like arrangement above the door, mimicking the deer with flowers and feathers in its antlers.

 The door to the laundry room closet. Everything looks pink in this pic because it is. I had a pink curtain over the window as I like pink light. I have taken it down as I tweak what I really want in here.

I am organizing everything in the closets that I had not done before and this was one of them. I think I'm done though since I cannot find enough matching bins for a decent price. I don't like paying extorted pricing which everything is now in domestic "organization"  since people everywhere are on this trend. I did what I could.

Below is the kitchen area where I prepare things to cook. This is where the magic in the kitchen happens, and there is alot of magic in well prepared good food! There is one of the little tinsel trees I love for Christmas, and the flowers that have always been there since the first hour I stepped into this house and always will be there.

Below is the kitchen sink which I needed to organize in a way that didn't look like old kitchen. So I decanted everything into brown bottles and added flowers and trays beneath everything. It looks better.

 

 

Beneath the sink is another of those areas I desperately want to make better. I recently added a bamboo carousel to stash things I make and use and not have to fumble in the back or bend too much, I can turn it and have whatever is there at hands reach. But this area is still a work in progress.

If you think you see bottle brush trees and plants in there, you do lolol. I need to see greenery of nature everywhere. I have yet to figure out how to do this in this area. For now, I just put in the set of bottle brush trees I got on sale after Christmas. I think I want to get faux garland and wrap that big black pipe, then add some tiny flowers in tiny vases, what do you think?

This is the plant rack, also with fairy lights.

This is the guest room converted into a gym, with a mini workout station and a stationary bike.

Below is my bathroom. I worked  bit on this section, the "throne" area. It was ok before, even pretty, but I wanted more cozy. I added floral contact paper to the shelves, pampas grass, and a crochet piece over the tank. It did the job for me. I love it now when I see this.

I have since added amber pillar candles, battery, they are gorgeous!

Below is my bedroom. This is a lily and peony arrangement. I adore these two colors together. I have had white lilies every week in my homes for over 15 years. They never get old. Their beauty, their scent, and the white gives me joy and peace.

 

 

 

 

 

And the view from the bedroom door........

 

....looking back at the bedroom door.

Below is the Christmas theme on top of the cabinet. At night, the fairy lights appear brighter. I am having a huge thing for deer! 💚

 

 

 

My adorable little tinsel tree....has snowflakes, tiny iridescent glass balls and mercury silver mini ornaments. Such simple things bring joy.

I took this picture when the sun was really bright and everything in here looked especially white. I don't know where it went, it doesn't show up. But the cozy can be seen.

 

 

 

And where I spend alot of time below. I retire early, very early, and though I don't nap, I watch videos of people, others who are creators of beauty, gardeners, or I watch fantasy Asian drama series that are just beautiful to see, minus of course all the nonsense. But I get to visit lovely homes anywhere in the world, as they show how they cook, how they decorate, or create art, and I get to go to my own bathroom in the middle of it because I am home, then I continue on watching or change to another if I want to with a click. I love "visiting" people in this way.....from home, and this is where I do it, on my wonderful bed fixed with flax linen, and pure silk, very cozy and comfy. Love! 

So that is all, from my hearth to yours. 

Stay in your Light.

Pamelindalee's Remote Garden

 Sighhhhh......

So my friends, time has passed, but here we are. It is amazing, that.

How do you all fare? How do you feel? Feel free to share if you like.

I have some pictures of the "gardens" such as they are on this property. It is coming along ever so slowly. It is more like working with stone than soil, and with feeling instead of knowledge. Knowledge of what should be working and what should not is out the window. Here, it is completely a moody land and intuitive acuity.

There are alot of anomalies in this plot, one of which stumps even the most erudite of brains. For example, two plants planted with the same soil at the same time, right next to each other will behave quite differently from each other. This is happening alot. Seeds from the same packet with have one that grows and the others not. Etcetera.

But I am here to show to my dear friend Pamelindalee what has come of her gifts to our gardens. Gardens which are created to nurture beauty, and comfort, solace, as well as food. Flowers for the spirit, herbs for healing and tea, {which I will now go and pick some dandelion flowers for tea}, salads and veggies such as tomatoes, eggplant, jalapeno peppers, but collards do the best. Red lettuces have taken one full year to grow to a plant large enough to harvest. Their seedlings stayed at one inch for 8 months, then grew. We are also growing corn with sunflowers and mizuna in one bed. There are also peaches and new apple trees. I will show in pictures below. I hope there is some beauty here. These pictures were taken this morning around 8:15 when the sun was coming up. Just something about that first light that is magical.

A vase of flowers for the bedside table, sweetpeas, larkspur, jasmine, queen anne's lace, something I don't know :D growing from a pack of flower seed mixes. Just prettiness.

 

 

 

"WE are the ones who can be

omnipresent in a purely loving way." ~Pamelinda.

 

The archway is full of jasmine blooms, and the scent everywhere is wonderful.

"Our multidimensional self is here.

It is already formed and WE breathe 

life into it." ~Pamelinda

These Queen Anne's Lace are taller than me. I adore this flower.

I threw hundreds of seeds into this circular garden when I prepared the beds. Some were single flowers and others were mixes. There are alot of weeds in there that I have not taken out yet as I did not know what some of those flowers would look like growing so I left them. Most are turning out to be flowers actually. But in there are primrose, larkspur, queen anne's lace, red poppies, and other things that are still in their growing stage. It looks mostly weedy, not the kind of flower patch I wanted, but this is the first year for this circular garden and I wanted to see what grows and how.

There are also some lettuce gone to seed.

"As we release aspects of the slave self,

our TRUE self automatically steps in."

These arches and obelisks below were for climbing roses. But the rose got buried and is no longer to be found. The sweet peas decided they didn't want to climb as was their nature and to ignore the obelisks I bought just for them and instead sprawled outward, completely ignoring their nature to wrap tendrils around anything near them. They wrapped around each other once they flopped and the obelisk remains vacant wondering about the intelligence of those sweet peas. They are on the left side of this, and I did not take a picture of those embarrassing floppers, though they are producing, very late, some flowers that are heavenly scented. I cut them all and put them in a vase already.

 

 

 This lean-to below I never posted in a picture as it was so ugly before we just added the lattice and trim onto it to finish it last week. It no longer looks like an unfinished ugly thing. Its not pretty by a long shot, but it is still only where the mower, wheel barrow and garden tools/supplies go. I also keep the lettuce mix greens in bins here, they seems to like it and grow well over and over, so I keep them here.

This lattice is also the structure for morning glories I planted at the base along with some purple hyacinth bean, hopefully they will cover this in the summer, hence the branches to help them sprawl.

 

The lotus are doing very well this year. I remembered to fertilize them. This one already has a bud towered over the aerial leaves. This is a plant I love so much, it is such a beautiful water element.

This is part of the lean to the previous owner built. I added the cattle panels upright and am using it for the jasmine, rasberries and grapes. So far the jasmine is doing well. The grapes are being moody for 3 years now. Last year they produced meager grapes and they were sour. I planted sweet ones. I hope they do well this year.

The three main veggie beds each 4' x 8'. They should grow some tomatoes, which we did finally get a lot of but not until December and January(!?)....dozens of full size tomatoes, then the frost came and killed the ones I could not pick as they were too green. We also have eggplant, collards, red lettuce, thai basil, lavender, and strawberries which are all coming up and back this year, but most of the strawberries were misshapen and not sweet at all. I ate them anyway. The middle bed is a mix of flowers, always a mystery. So far Chinese Forget Me Nots are taking over....though I have over 15 different species in here. We'll see what summer brings.

Here are a few peaches that developed after the frost killed over 70 peaches that were growing happily until then. We have maybe 8 peaches in total in all three trees. I still love them.

I use the carport as part of the garden.

On the south side of the house the wisteria is finally growing. It took 3 years. I've pruned it twice in the last 2 weeks, it is a crazy monster. I am hoping the blooms will grow longer and open up finally.

The front door has a wall of jasmine. The smell is wonderful.

Even the shed's jasmine is blooming well.

Behind the shed is a bed of planted corn, sunflowers, mizuna and arugula. I can't wait, they are all coming up so far.

My beloved Lotus.......

"What makes us powerful transformative Beings of Light is being  Light with full awareness of all that the dark is doing. You cannot transform without that knowledge yet remaining powerful in your Light/Love." ~Serena

The little weeping willow is filling out nice in its first season here. It's about 8 feet tall. I could literally plant 20 more weeping willow on this property and if they were all full sized I'd still have room for 20 more.

This spring, the only thing that did well were the two little apples. They bloomed so prettily! as small as they were. So here is a picture of one apple on one of them.

These are the north and south arches that I will plant with something that will do well. I keep hoping for climbing roses, we'll see.

I call this my Stonehenge Tea Table. :D

And finally the view from my back door, it is lovely first morning light when it is misty from dew in the sun, low light, and sparkling dew drops on everything.

Stay in your light. 

Nurture your light and only your light. 

Grow your light and dwell in love. 

Shine that love over the darkness you see and never waver. Not for a moment.