Four Pin Friday ~ ~ ~ I'm in Awe

of these gorgeous doors, gates and windows:

 The workmanship, design and time it must have taken to create these beauties!

Four Pin Friday

Greenhouses don't only have to serve a practical purpose.  Why can't they also be attractive?  homey?  and welcoming?

 

What a lovely addition to any backyard

"Just living is not enough" said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
-  Hans Christian Andersen

Four Pin Friday ~ tiny dwellings

As a preschooler, I loved spending time with my Great Aunt Florence, Uncle Adolf, and my beloved cousin.  Marilee was just over a year older than me.  She was smart, beautiful and creative.  I looked up to her and she always treated me with so much kindness and patience, introduced me to kindergarten and included me in her imaginative creations. We were buddies all through grade school.  I was her illustrator, and she was the author of our "newsletters" which we took door to door in her neighborhood!

In her back yard was the sweetest small playhouse. It held a table and chairs and a few little playthings plus a loft to climb up in via a short ladder.  It may have been that playhouse that now draws me to the tiny houses or "she sheds" that are so popular today.  I picked a few from Pinterest to post here.  Wish I had one in MY backyard.

I would definitely need to downsize big time to move into one, but I can see this as a great hideout or art studio.

Marilee (left) and me in our Easter finery

Four Pin Friday

For centuries, historians and archaeologists have puzzled over the many mysteries of Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument that took Neolithic builders an estimated 1,500 years to erect. Located in southern England, it is comprised of roughly 100 massive upright stones placed in a circular layout. While many modern scholars now agree that Stonehenge was once a burial ground, they have yet to determine what other purposes it served and how a civilization without modern technology—or even the wheel—produced the mighty monument. Its construction is all the more baffling because, while the sandstone slabs of its outer ring hail from local quarries, scientists have traced the bluestones that make up its inner ring all the way to the Preseli Hills in Wales, some 200 miles from where Stonehenge sits on Salisbury Plain.









Summer Solstice at Stonehenge

If you stand in just the right place inside the

  Stonehenge monument on the day of the northern summer

solstice, facing north-east through the entrance towards a rough 

hewn stone outside the circle – known as the Heel Stone – you will

see the sun rise above the Heel Stone.

Four Pin Friday

Inspiration, from the last "Sunday Morning" show (I'm addicted) on CBS, led me to check out she shacks/she sheds on Pinterest.  So many photos, so many architectural styles and so much jealousy on the part of ME!

Here are a few of my favorites

 Just look at those stained glass windows, the wrought iron fencing and the colors . . . oh my, the colors

 shabby but so dear . . . everything looks like it had been repurposed, salvaged and lovingly put together.  Cute little garden too

wild roses over the roof and along the rock path . . . if you like pink and pastels, this one's for you.

Clean and structured, this one's for the neat freak (not my style).  Very pretty setting tho

A day trip to the Silver Valley

80 acres that was swampy and covered with large cedar trees became Wallace, Idaho in 1885 when Lucy Wallace took up the position of postmistress for the population of 14 people.

After 1900, Wallace became the hub of one of the world's richest mining districts and was eventually named the "Silver Capital of the World".

On August 21st, 1910 Wallace suffered the largest forest fire in U. S. history.  It is chronicled in Timothy Eagan's book "The Big Burn".  Read it a few years ago, and it is a fascinating story.  I highly recommend it.

It's history has been preserved in its architecture and museums. Kim, Dawn and I had a wonderful day there last Friday.  Sadly not all the museums would open until May 1st.  Winters usually last longer in that area, but it was a perfect day for us . . . 60 degrees and sunny.

 One of the most famous museums in this little town features the bordello (closed until May 1st).  As you can imagine, it was a booming business back in the mining days.

The courthouse is situated at the site that once was the only stop light on the I-90 freeway between Seattle and the East Coast.

The original stop light rests in peace at the Mining Museum

as well as the original Pulaski prototype firefighting weapon developed during the 1910 blaze and still used today.

A Castle in the Valley

I lived in Spokane Valley for many years until  moving a little further east to the Idaho state line. What I loved about the Valley and where I live now is its history of farming, orchards and people who lived off the land ... not to mention the native Americans who first found this beautiful area and made it their own.

Another plus the Valley holds is its diversity in architecture.  Very few cookie cutter neighborhoods here.  Most homes have their own uniqueness and were built in no particular order that constituted a certain area.  Last week my husband had a new (to him) doctor's appointment and traveled in a neighborhood that we hadn't been in before.

Camera in hand, he couldn't help stopping the car, getting out and snapping a few photos of this castle right in the middle of common ordinary homes!

Click on each picture to enlarge and see the instricacies of the brick and metal work

Four Pin Friday

On a day when I woke up to 52 degree weather with rain coming in any moment, thoughts turned to Spring which leads to thoughts turning into gardening, of course.  Backyard living, green space . . . ahhhhhh!

In my dreaming, I see fantastic metal sculptures placed here and there in my front and back yards.

If only . . .

   

\

A girl can dream

Four Pin Friday

We've all seen the iconic photos of the Eiffel Tower. You can't miss them.  They are everywhere!

But have you ever wondered what it looks like on the inside?  There are very few photos on Pinterest that expose that view  . . . 

C'est Magnifique!