Carolina sky and a beautiful fall day...

Welcome to The Perch!

It occurred to me that I have posted so many photos of Birdsong Cottage these last few months that I have been neglecting sharing any of  "Real Home". Since today was such a beautiful fall day, I thought I would walk around outside and take some photos. Pretty soon the beauty of Autumn will be gone and nothing more than a fleeting memory. Is it really already time to turn back the clocks? Oh, my!

I couldn't help but admire the beauty in

bloom on the street that we live on...

...beautiful Carolina sky in all its glory right above our home...

...the leaves surrounding our little gazebo

on the edge of the woods...

...the sky is always more blue,

and the trees always more colorful

at this time of the year...

...even around the little birdhouse...

Welcome to our porch and our fall flag.

The black cat looks so much like our

Rosie...

Are you taking in the beauty of the season

where you live?

I hope that you're having a beautiful day!



My kind of shopping, even in the fall...

Hello, friends! The other morning we went to our favorite garden center (you can read more about this great place here) to pick up some replacement shrubs for ones that met their demise this summer. At this time of the year, they are raising beautiful Poinsettias to sell for Christmas, not only to individuals, but to businesses and churches as well. I only had a few moments to snap these photos, but am sharing them below. I will go back again as we get closer to Christmas so that I can show you the variety of colors that they raise.

Though I'm not quite ready to play with Christmas yet, it's nice to see some of what lies ahead!

Have a great day.

Happy Halloween!!

The pets we love...

Hello there! When we were at Birdsong I was sitting on the couch and our cat Ollie was "relaxing" behind me. I guess he likes it up there and was enjoying his vacation, too. I couldn't resist shooting this picture!

This cat is certainly a lot more photogenic than I am!!

I hope you are having a wonderful day.

XO

Sue

You can't judge a book by its cover. It's what's inside that counts...

Hello there!

If you follow this blog you know that I love not only old photos, but vintage photo albums as well, especially those of the Victorian era. My favorites are the ones that have beautiful photo pages.

These are becoming scarce, and when you do see them in antique stores they are so expensive that most of us cannot afford them. And, quite honestly, many are in terrible condition. Worse yet, there are dealers that try to capitalize further on them by ripping them apart and selling the pages individually, similar to those people (and I use this word in place of a less polite one!) that demolish antique botanical books so that they can sell each page by itself. Eek!

But once in a great while you see one for sale that has been beautifully preserved. Your heart skips a beat and you know that it must be yours. Do you ever have this feeling? I stumbled across one just like this and knew it had to be mine. In this case I found it on eBay, one of my closest friends :~) I placed my bid on it and held my breath, watching the minutes tick down. Hoping. Closing my eyes as I clicked my final bid minutes before the auction ending time. Trying not to peek. And then opening my eyes at the final moment. Finally seeing mine as the last bid. Mine. All mine. After spending a little more than I should have. What the heck, you only live once. After all, I don't buy designer purses and shoes. Or designer anything, for that matter, I tell myself.

Pictures speak louder than words.

The cover is timeworn, but loved.

The clasp still works...



But the real treasure lies within.

The birds on the pages almost look

three dimensional...

Each illustration is different...

Some of the original protective tissue paper

peeks through...

...and some of it is missing,

showing a glimpse of what is behind...

Names of loved ones, pictures removed

long ago, show on some pages... 

And behind and between each illustrated page...

...are some plain ones...

A close-up of one of the illustrations.

How beautiful is the detail...

My heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before me in treasuring this album as much as I will. If you loved old photo albums, would you have been able to resist this beauty?

Have a great day!