By Being retired has its perks. For us the greatest is being able to sink into home. We are a pack of happy mammal hermits around here – two humans and and countless others – some outside the walls – some inside the walls and some between the walls! Our home is well over a hundred years old with slanted floors, buttressed ceilings – one of which is pressed tin in a rosette pattern – and holes in the floors to provide heat upstairs.
One of my favourite places in our home is our kitchen. Our table is pushed right up against the big windows.
We can keep an eye on the front paddock and the bird bar from our seats.
Bird books and gardening books are shelved close at hand.
We can keep an eye on the back paddock and barns from our ‘Nanny Cams’. The weather app is always up on our iPad. Favourite friends and family pictures take pride of place with a flowering plant or two.
Our ‘Table Scrabble’ game stays ready for our daily workout after lunch. We play without a board. Have you heard of this type of Scrabble? You draw 7 letters each to start and build your own word tree. You keep drawing more until all the letters are gone. Some play it competitively. We seem to enjoy just plain building the words and seeing what comes up.
I like the history of many of the things in our kitchen. The walls that Ede paneled more than thirty years ago … The laundromat table she rescued that serves as a great long table for family get togethers and a soft wood background to our hermit days.
Ede’s tea tin – a find from the Rama Road Tea Store 35 years ago … the spray bottle for taming incessant meowing … the cats’ … not Ede’s. 😉
The trio of daily washing necessities from all the donkey chores.
The gallery … sometimes referred to as the fridge! 😉
The artwork – each with its own story.
A favourite being this print of a Montreal scene that reminds us of the getaways when our kids were studying or working there.
The quirky sink tucked into a corner … but under a window that lets us watch the donkeys, squirrels and birds out in the woods.
The dish rack which pretty much holds all we’d need in dishes. What are all those in the cupboards for?
And plants … tucked into corners and on top of anything that is near a window. I LOVE the green of plants and the colour of flowers … especially on a grey winter day like this.
Hmmm… time to get back there for dinner. Hope you stayed dry and cozy today! Even doing the donkey chores in the rain was not too bad. It sure is mild – which makes all the difference.
Hugs from the Meadow.
The Meadow View 
Wow! What a nice place to spend you time in such a huge kitchen. Looks mighty comfortable and inviting to me. Only part I don’t like is that snow outside. 🙂 Yeah, for Florida!