Rumor is that the warblers might be headed here; they're late, quite inconsiderate toward birders who've been waiting under trees growing leaves that will make them hard to see when they arrive.

That distracts me from thinking that I've still got an issue with the size of my snacks between meals. Meals are going great - on plan, moderately sized, healthy. Exercise is good enough. It always could be better, but good enough is better than couch potato.

Good morning all! Bill I am finding my snacks portion out better when I put them in the bowl and tray set I bought for that purpose. Only took me 3 years to get it together enough to USE it.

I bought a table yesterday - completely unexpectedly while out on a "Jane's Walk". It's perfect for out tiny living room - or should I say nook? Danish modern teak - oval and very very plain. No carvings, feet or claws on my stuff saef.

I also tried on a vintage dress, made in the 1940's. Didn't fit but I was marvelling at how great the sewing and construction of the dress was and the beauty of the fabric. Made in the USA.

Great Monday all!

Dagmar

The warblers are definitely headed your way, Bill, as we've finally been getting them here. It was a gorgeous weekend so of course, I didn't get out either morning to look for them. Rightly or wrongly, I get up and head to the gym first in the morning, as my first priority of the day. Maybe I can get out this coming weekend, if the weather holds.

Dagmar, what are you, a Bauhaus throwback something? ;-) Actually, your taste is quite widespread these days. There's great appreciation for the 1950s-early 1960s and in fact antique dealers that sell formal traditional stuff or some kinds of country furniture are suffering greatly at this sea change in decorating taste, and many are reeling and still recalibrating. ("Recalculating ..." as the GPS robot says.) Prices on this stuff haven't been so low in at least two generations.

My aesthetics are pretty clearly a reaction to growing up in my family's apartments, which over the years were furnished in mid-century modern. (My mother came quite late to a love of Victoriana and wasn't buying it till the 1980s.) To me, these rooms were bare and spare and chilly and not at all comforting. I wanted to scribble all over them in purple and red crayon. I wanted mayhem. I remember breathing in when seeing a late Victorian patchwork quilt: Yes. **This.** Very early on, I knew that my soul and my eye wanted the opposite of industrial midcentury modern. (I mean, even the schools that I went to were decorated in a cheap prefab version of that decor.) Anything old & with a history, that it looks like a lot of other people have owned it and handled it and have gotten the oil & sweat from their hands into its surface. Anything with detailed naturalistic hand-carving, where I can imagine someone sitting there working for hours at a time. When imaginations of craftsmen were informed by circulated engravings and paintings, and in particular by literature.

But my tastes **were** partly formed by being around Danish modern because I like the Federal period and early Empire period in American furniture, most of whose forms the midcentury modern furniture shares and recycles -- and yes, I love the Shakers' work. I think I like early Empire because the restraint of classicism is just starting to give way to what's going to become Victorian exuberance in texture and historical ornamentation.

When I live among this stuff and look at it, I feel nourished and energized and calmed in some way that's hard to explain. This is why remembering the flood really shakes me up. Because it violated a space where I felt safe and nurtured and it ruined a creation of mine, sort of like a kind of installation art. It's why I've been so frantically rebuilding my ruined nest

saef, I have seen some of these shows about big lottery winners and what the have done with their money.Many of them have bought big houses and furnished them Can we say bad taste ? Just because one has plenty of money doesn't mean you can't furnish tastefully.

Am I weird because I like both styles of furnishings?

I slept in so much on Saturday morning that I missed all three morning yoga classes. I guess I must have needed the sleep! Of course, then I slept in today too and didn't run in the morning, and now it is storming all day so I'm not sure when I can fit it in. Running on the treadmill makes my feet hurt so it's not an option. The fact that I have to walk halfway across the office to see out a window isn't helping me schedule.

I am having a dilemma today. My boss has organized a group outing to go see The Avengers. I really want to see this movie and DH doesn't really care about it. But I really don't like to do social activities on weekdays, and they are planning to have dinner afterwards, and the movie is at 4 so I feel weird leaving work that early. OTOH if my boss is scheduling it it must be okay to leave early? Would it be weird to go to the movie and skip the dinner? I wish I knew who else was planning to go. If it's only like 2 people I will just wait and make DH go with me this weekend, but if it's everybody I feel like I ought to go.

Jessica, I think it would be OK to skip dinner, just say the family has dinner plans, since you are part of the family that would be a true statement.

Jessica~I say if your boss is arranging it, go see the movie, but say that you won't be available for dinner afterward due to a prior commitment. I'm sure that would be fine!

Oh, and count me as a lover of mid-century modern! I don't really have any furniture myself (just a clock), but if I had the right house, I'd certainly decorate as such.

Jessica - I will tell you that The Avengers was awesome. And I think you could probably do the movie and skip the dinner pretty easily.

Pretty up and down emotionally weekend for me, I'm trying to get back on a positive path today.

Jessica, anytime I've done something social like this after work, many people have dropped off & gone home before the last after-dinner drink, so the group has seen gradual attrition as it continued onto the next destination -- which in your case, could be from movie to restaurant to pub. It's understood at my workplace that people have family commitments which make them leave at different times. No one demands an explanation. I think you'll be okay doing exactly what you want to do, and no more, and leaving when you wish to. I do think it's a good idea to go, if you can -- but we have people at my office who seem absolutely enslaved by their children's after-school sports schedules and never go to any work social functions after 5 PM, so you'll be fine if you don't go, too.

I think those houses are entertaining. Do you know the Peter Gabriel song, "Big Time"? I always think of the lyrics to that song when I see a "crib" like that:

"They always stand amazed
When I show them round my house, to my bed
I had it made like a mountain range
Snow white pillow for my big fat head."

Look, I know my idea of an emotional and aesthetic refuge might epitomize someone else's idea of discomfort.

I don't like most decorating shows on TV because I think they don't take into account the homeowner's individual quirks and personal needs. I think the designers too often pick up furnishings because they're trendy, and signal that the designer knows the trends, and then sell the client on the trend, convince them it is right for them & good, and that's the only possible way to do it.

People should live in an atmosphere that nurtures them, visually and physically. It's like what people put into their bodies when they eat. They should put things that they care about & see as good for them in their physical space.

Whether it's old or new, or spare or ornate, I don't care -- I only feel sad when the mismatch is obvious, or if the spaces are uncomfortably & obviously aspirational (the people who live there care most desperately about what others think, rather than about self-care), or if the space shows the people living there might be depressed and inert.

The wealthiest people who've invited me into their homes for social occasions seem to live like 1) European aristocracy; OR 2) Zen Buddhists with an abiding interest in technology, OR 2) Picasso in black-and-white photographs from the end of his life, with big half-finished canvases all over and quirky objects here & there. This probably says more about the people with whom I tend to be acquainted through work & hobbies than any true field notes on the rich in the NY area.

Thanks guys, I did manage to get in my run at lunchtime and I am planning on going to the movie. Unless something changes, I am planning to go home afterwards instead of to dinner. DH has my cookbook with recipe marked in it so he knows what to do.

Saef, I used to watch some home decorating shows, but after seeing a designer stapling moss all over a wall I gave up. Our home decor pattern is basically just that we buy whatever we like and put it somewhere. Our guest bedroom furniture was all purchased at garage sales, our bedroom, living room, and dining set from a regular new furniture store, office from an antique shop, and bookshelves from Office Depot. Okay, we bought the shelves because they were cheap, not because we liked them!

My mother had a taste for simple lines in furniture and I've acquired that. I grew up with teak/scandinavian stuff, like it, and it also happens that I can afford some pretty good pieces. I love craftsman stuff with the inlay etc. but it's definitely out of my price range. There's another type of stuff that I love (mostly made from birch) - can't recall the name now - and DH refers to it as "The Jetson's" furniture.

I still haven't made any progress on upholstered furniture though. I have two cheap small pieces which fit into our living nook. The couch was the only couch in Toronto (and I looked at like 200 of 'em) that fit and seats 3 rather small-butted people.

My mom had swedish modern upholstered and it was torture to sit on. Particularly the couch. I found its twin Sunday (in the lovely burnt orange favoured at that time) and it was as uncomfortable as I remember my mom's being.

Just as we all adhere to different styles of maintenance so we all have different taste in home furnishings. I am about to put up a couple of vintage circus posters in my office. Raise your hands those of you who like that kind of wall art.

I decorate with what I like. My house is a fun, eclectic place. I will never have grey walls because a magazine says its the thing to do.

Dagmar

I think my taste is pretty eclectic, but comfortable. I notice in the newly rich that statuary seems to be popular, life size statuary. I saw one person that had an reproduction of the Eiffel tower in her home, not life size, of course but not something you can put on an end table. She had very high ceilings , I would say this Repro was at least 20 feet tall. Another person had a rowboat, a full size rowboat in her living room. I was watching a show where they were showing homes for sale in Malibu Beach , Brentwood and Beverly Hills and othr expensive places. They were expensively furnished all very modern.....not one of them had a couch that you would want to lie on and cover yourself with a hand crocheted afghan to watch TV.

This has nothing to do with weight loss. But, as long as DH is working at his present job, I will be "single" so I'd like to tell someone.

The 'black pack" and I saw a great egret or a great white heron this afternoon. Magnificent bird! Huge. Definitely did not charge us but arose from his froggie meal and flew away. I had the dogs on leash (as I always do in this natural habitat area of the park) so I'm hoping the bird was able to come back and finish his lunch (?).

Mr. Swan was on the pond but ignored us. Nellie was prepared for the attack though. She peed on her feet as soon as she saw the swan. She didn't pee when seeing the other bird so that's something. And she was pretty cool about all the male redwing blackbirds squabbling with each other.

I found a water tap in the park and washed her tiny paws. I'm pretty resigned to doing this on a daily basis as I really like taking the dogs through this park. It has a manicured lawn part where they can run around and then there's the pond, boardwalk, and two different areas of marsh. There are also mature plantings of all sorts of grasses and other ornamentals lining the pathways.

It's totally underused so no one really bothers us there. Nice!

Dagmar

Down here, we get two kinds of white heron-like birds: Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets. They're easy to tell apart, and not just by size.

The Great Egret is as big as a Great Blue Heron & has a bright yellow bill.

The Snowy Egret has a black bill, black legs and weirdly bright yellow feet.

In breeding plumage, they're both a vision. It's an amazing thing to have an egret fly over your head in bright sunlight. They are practically transparent around the edges.

When I see them at this time of year, when their feathers are at their most gorgeous, I always remember how they were hunted for ladies' hats. If you ever want to feel sad about how people treat animals and relieved at how changeable fashion can be, Google "the plume trade" and "the Lacey Act."