RIP Crabapple Tree

You were lovely for the four days of the year you bloomed.
Today, my buddy Gary cut you down and now the sunlight streams in.



I have a blank canvas in which to build the outdoor room of my dreams--oohh the possibilities.

Bravo Post-its

I live in a townhome and in August 2009 the association did some painting and made some repairs to the siding. This meant we needed to remove our house numbers for a few days. To ensure my pizza and UPS deliveries still arrived on my doorstep I wrote my house numbers on Post-it note and stuck it on the vinyl siding. The work was completed by the end of September but I was not ready to reattach house numbers that I never really cared for. I took this opportunity to find some that I really liked.

After shopping around, on foot and on-line I found some house numbers I really liked but then the busy holidays were bearing down on me, and then the Christmas super-storm, and then that long and brutal cold snap. I was in the thick of winter and there was not enough daylight much less warmth to undertake this exterior project. Heck, there were days it was so cold I’m pretty sure the juice in my level would have froze. Never fear, my address Post-it held strong.

The snow stopped in February and March brought a slow steady thaw and longer days with warm sunshine. Just before Easter, when I resolved to take down my Christmas lights, I installed my new address numbers.


That little square of paper with the removable sticky held up through a Minnesota fall AND winter facing rain, sleet, snow and wind. However, a note to my friends at Sharpie… I did have to rewrite my house numbers three times.

Flannel Sheets

Shorter days and a chill in the air mean “the big change” approaches on Horten Point… The hospital-cornered change to flannel sheets. The soft brushed knap holds the heat and creates a cozy cocoon (a woven to those in the know) that facilitates the long winters nap while the novelty prints nurture my inner child.

Be it a creamy golden khaki studded with snowmen, reindeer and candy canes or something less “festive” like a chocolate brown swirled with creamy white and icy blue snowflakes something about curling into bed bundled in flannel whimsy brings me back to a time when my age was in the single digits. Even though I never had flannel sheets as a kid.

If you’ve read about my love for changing seasons, this detail should come as no surprise. I’m thankful for the warmth and comfort of flannel sheets and how they make me feel inside and out.

My Home

Be it ever so humble there is really no place like home.

After a long day at the office turning toward the home strech I know I'm home when I see the boulder at the end of the street. Then when I open the door and smell the warm air inside... it smells of clean laundry, and whatever candle that I currently love that the bastards at Yankee Candle haven't discontiued yet... sorry, I digress... These days, it is vanilla and mint.

Or reading the paper on a quiet Sunday morning, fire glowing in the fireplace.
Or cooking in the kitchen, preparing for family or friends to visit.
Or setting up the Christmas decorations.
Or completing the deep spring or fall clean.
Or daydreaming of the courtyard redo.

I am so thankful for the quiet, calming cozy townhouse I call home.