The postcard of the cottage we were blessed to stay at during the week of my daughter and new son’s wedding.
One of the many beautiful quotes on the walls of this cottage.
Outside the back door
Taken from the enclosed back porch
One of the many seating areas outside.
The enclosed patio with pellet stove.
My son’s and my shoes at the back entrance to the home. Aw. This makes me smile and miss the place even more.
The kitchen is the first room after the patio. It is spacious with all the amenities one could want, and more.
I love the layout of the kitchen, and at the two places you might need to fill with water, say a teapot on the stove or the Keurig coffee maker, coming up, there is a separate faucet. Not something I would need, but handy for those that like to spend time in the kitchen. A bit of the one at the stove is on the far left of this picture.
What catches your eye when you first enter the home are the cute pictures and, well, the beauty of the cottage. Oops, I took this as we were getting ready to leave, and that box was heading to the trash.
Every window opens to scenery worth enjoying. My son was laughing while washing his cup one morning. He said he witnessed a bunny and a squirrel scampering out this window. Again, pardon the box.
A better view from above the sink in the kitchen. Isn’t it lovely?
A nice breakfast bar sits at the end of the kitchen. My son and I enjoyed this often. There are welcoming notes in the notebook sitting there and a little to-do notebook to add things that might need to be attended to. By the way, there are many antiques and clocks that look like they could be.
Directly across from the kitchen sink and next to the back door is the coffee machine I mentioned above. A drink cooler? Now I show my unsophisticated ways. We just have a refrigerator at home.
Looking from the coffee counter toward the dining room. The huge modern fridge. Yes, my suitcases are ready to go. So sad. I still live in this place at night, in my dreams, daytime wishes, in my heart, feeling the love here.
This is the wall behind the breakfast bar. I loved all the quotes and pictures tastefully displayed all over the home. I loved the welcome on the chalkboard. We left a thank you there before we left.
To the left of the welcoming chalkboard.The exercise machine. LOL. I did get a lot of exercise as what I needed was always at the other end of the stairs.
The door to the left of the stairs.
I think I already included this downstairs restroom and shower. I love how it is all arranged in one of the YouTube tutorials. Wish I would have captured the picture above the sink in the toilet room.
Guess I don’t need to say anything here.
The sink in the shower room.
The shower.
Storage for towels.
The dining room. At the end of the kitchen, where the fridge was. This is so pretty that I decided not to make it a smaller picture.
To the right of the TV table is the dining table. We used this room to gather Spouse 1 and Spouse 2, family, and friends together to make plans for the rest of the week. Great memories here.
Across from the dining table is a little sitting area. Yes, that is my coat on the one chair and my son’s backpack on the other as we are getting ready to go. So sad.
Outside a squirrel scampers on the fence.
From the dining room we enter the foyer. Probably backwards to coming into the house from the front door.
Another seating area outside.
Scamp.
The scamp is there again.
Pics in the foyer.
A napping bed in the foyer.
Antique phone above the bed.
Front door.
Never got around to it but there was a whole antique store across the street.
This across from the napping bed, the top drawer had crayons and paper. That came in handy when the friends and family visited.
Beautiful front door.
More foyer artwork.
Foyer furniture
Another nap bed or reading corner at the far end of the foyer.
Window seat or napping?
Artwork entering the living room or sitting room. I loved this room best. The sofa fit me best. This was where I did the most knitting and tinking.
Obviously, I hadn’t fluffed the pillows but that was quite comfortable!
Cute little end table.
A most comfortable living room. Great for relaxing after such a busy week.
My son’s favorite chair. And when I needed scissors I found them in the drawer behind his chair.
This wall is back at the entrance to the dining room. I love the saying and the picture.
This antique turntable was on top of a cabinet I wish I had known about at the beginning. It is full of board games.
Guess what was in the table behind the chair. Yarn!!! But I brought my own. Imagine had I not. This could have taken care of my addiction.
Look at the cute antique typewriter! I have visions of working on my NaNoWriMo novel here.
One of the many full bookshelves. The reader in me was so happy!
Beautiful fireplace and a TV that has enough streaming to get us by. Roku had Farscape, which we continued when we got home, and Netflix, Call the Midwife, and other easy watching. Isn’t the wooden goose cute?
We were so blessed in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, at the Greenstone Cottage. We highly recommend it if you get the chance to go, you will love it too. By the way, You pronounce the town as if you were saying, ‘I can no more walk.’. I had such a hard time saying it at first, but I practice it daily.
Thank you, Ronda, for making sure we were comfortable during our stay visiting with all of you. I think it is Cathy I need to thank for this beautiful home. I’ll correct it if wrong. Correction: Her name is Carol. Thank you, Ronda and Laura, for helping me get her name right.
Addendum. I forgot to tell you what Dana and I missed for being so tired from the week before and lack of sleep the day of the flight. I will claim the bout of diverticulitis. Whatever it was, we should have taken a few walks around the cottage. Laura pointed out that just a block away was a lake! I’m sorry, peeps! I could have gotten some fun pics of that! And there were some fun shops had we gone in the other direction. I wish I could do this again. I would have loved to check these out.
My daughter and son-in-love dressed as the twins from the Shining. Though He is handsome as a male he’s pretty cute as a girl. What’s fun is that both mothers gave the spouse away. Without informing the other, we moms were witches! Me with daughter and new son with my other sons in the back.
The king is from:
Middle back son is wearing a plaid shirt representing:
My #1 son is hidden behind my hat. But he is dressed as a Blues Brother.
The home where the wedding was on the lake front. My new son’s mother’s home. It was beautiful. My diverticulitis was acting up or I would have stayed as the reception was going on. My daughter married into a huge fantastic family.
I took tons of pictures, and so did other family members. So I’ll share more later. I’m sorry to be so vague with names but I’m trying to protect individual privacy while sharing my love of this awesome day. I’ll share more as time and energy permits.
So all the running around and climbing stairs etc. Did my body some good, right? It was fun! I’ll tell more when I have time and energy. Tomorrow is the wedding!!!
We went to a German restaurant the first night. This was on the wall with a huge picture of the place they represented. An accordion entertainer saw us taking pictures of this and told us it was a song (Leider). He told me to sing the red lines. I was too shy at first but soon was enjoying it all. I’ll translate this and learn and blog more.
I’m having so much fun visiting with my family and the house we are living in.
Not one to compete against others, I find it hard to believe others care so little about each other to want to win. I have played board games with a group of people who cared more for teaching the game and strategies over pride of who came in first.
Once everyone felt confident in the game we laughed and encouraged each other. Often the newbie to the game won. What pleasure the whole procedure was. Even when others won.
Two of my favorite games.
On the other hand, I am always in competition with myself. I love learning something new and growing in confidence and control. When I feel I’ve mastered a stitch or game, I know I’ve won
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “record.” Use it as a noun, use it as a verb, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
I haven’t been camping since my children were small. Here I am at 73 trying to do the rugged adventure. And just diagnosed with diverticulitis. But the antibiotics were gone as were the fever and need for a bland diet. I was/am still tired and had/have to pace myself. That’s how I packed. Part of me nearly melting in tears like a toddler. I can’t do this! What am I thinking?
For the record, this week has been just that.
Somehow I was ready. I had a huge list and did nearly my young self type of packing. But now beyond drawing and coloring and letter writing materials, I brought my knitting, a pair of socks nearly finished and a hat. There was also a Sudoku booklet and a word search book. I had two books downloaded to my phone. I figured I didn’t need my Fires for bedtime shutdown. But my phone lost all the battery the first day.
So my exhausted first night was a word search. Boring! No brain for Sudoku no comfortable seating for knitting.
After we set up the tent and camp we finally sat in our chairs. That’s when our new friends showed up. Although there were dozens of chipmunks scurrying around one little guy came and let me talk to it. He got closer and closer. I shared a bit of crackers with him.
Not my chipmunk. A free source pic.
Then Mr. Robin Redbreast flew near. He liked chatting with us.
Free source pic.
We were so lucky the restroom was just feet away. They were clean and well lit. There were even showers. That made those inevitable night trips a little less scary.
My first night was miserable. I hadn’t blown up the mattress quite as taut as I should. It was very uncomfortable. And OH SO COLD around 4AM. Lessons learned.
Day two I spent the time with the pump and mattress. And we drove a few miles to town and got the things we needed. I got another sleeping bag to cover while lying on the first one.
Backing up. Speaking of the distance. There were detours due to road maintenance. What should have been a short trip to camp that first day seemed nearly an hour. So we were fortunate to learn an alternate way back to town
We got a lot of steps in while shopping so we sat in our chairs a bit when we got back. We ate the wraps we picked up at Trader Joe’s. My chipmunk friend showed up. I shared bits of my wrap. He actually stood up and looked us in the eyes. It seemed to be a thanks for the food.
Mr. Robin brought either his wife or a large offspring. She opened her beak to him. Feed me! She said in bird.
I told my friend how when we were kids on our annual three-week campout my dad would lay back in his lounger and chatter with Blue Jays. Just that moment one flew nearby. But I guess I don’t know their language as he flew away.
Now we had what was needed to start a fire. My friend had more experience so I stayed out of the way. But the logs we bought didn’t want to start. I finally got up and walked to the restroom. When I got back she showed me a picture of how the fire had taken. But sadly it had diminished to smoke and hot spots. Oh, well.
We had talked about staying one more night but the reality of the rental car made us realize this was our last night.
This night I slept like a baby. Even if my bedtime ritual was another couple word searches.
The cold morning wasn’t bone deep. And faded to warm as we woke.
Again we tried to start a fire. But once again I made instant coffee with the hot water from the faucet. Lucky that was there.
Intermittent fasting is still my thing, so I didn’t need a breakfast.
We knew we were leaving this day so we broke down a lot of camp.
To cool off we went in search of the river. With a bit of a hike, we found and waded in it.
Back at camp we did a bit more decamping.
Friends from a nearby town came to visit with us. That was fun.
When they left it was time to finish breaking camp. Folding up the tent and tarps. It was so hot by now that we had to do things in short spurts. We are both prone to heat stroke so we needed to be careful.
The tent was easy. The hard part was getting everything in the car so that our stuff was easy to separate as I was only two hours away. My friend had another six hours to her home.
I was so glad to get home and unpack. I felt sorry my friend had so much driving yet to go. But she made it home safely
This was such a fun trip that we both are looking forward to another camping trip soon. Am I rugged? I’m getting there?
I’m tired so I’ll only share a couple pics. Maybe tomorrow I’ll write more.
This rock called me to come climb but other campers were set up close so I chose to respect their space. Doesn’t this rock look like it’s talking to his rock friend?
This rock looked smiley, peaceful.
This looks like puppet rocks.
This one was full of personality.
A garden of rocks.
This tent has a skylight. It was great watching the stars at night.
Our tent. Lots of windows. Easy to put up and take down. But we two senior ladies had to carry it. And it took a lot of room in the car. It’s a Gazelle.
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
Books, games, music, and life — filtered through the mind of a writer, drummer, and philosopher who thinks too deeply about all of it. If it moves something in your chest, I'm interested.
Darswords 
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