Home again but...

It is, as it always should be for everyone (even though it isn't always, and I know how graced I am), excellent to be home. Even more so after a really good trip. That's why I can't walk into today without finishing up a bit from a much colder - right now - place with its own very particular beauty. Thanks, Lorraine, Jim, Annie and Monique, for having me up there and showing me all manner and shapes of a good time!

A better look at one of my favorite wind vanes

There is still Culebra sand in their shoes

The stones and forsythia...oh my

It is impossible to look at these and not wonder at the hands that moved them

"Hey, are you bringing me dinner?"

So long for now, big house! Thanks for the fires!

Lorraine and I decided to head into Newport on my last day. It was grey and spit rainy, but when has weather ever stopped me? Well, except for the 921 times it did?

I'd been to Newport before, staying on a boat there for a stretch of time  (I'd sit crocheting my as yet unborn grandson's blanket in the cockpit, watching the beautiful boats go around me), and it was good to come back. Even if the weather wasn't the prettiest, the company was good and the sights were eye filling! I hadn't gotten nearly as far walking around as we got in the car!

The Clairborne Pell Newport bridge

It's a really beautiful bridge!

Hmm, a stable, Newport style?

So it appears. Maybe. Nice, regardless

 After a bit of a drive about, we came across the Ocean Cliff Hotel. It was beautiful on the outside, what about the inside? Hotels have restaurants, it was time to investigate!

One of the vanes at the Ocean Cliff Hotel

One tower...beautiful structure, shape and stone

From the deck view looking toward the bay...just a little Newport heap

From a little bigger view...not sure what this is, but I like it

And way across the river...another place 'we just like to call home'

Another view of the bridge. Yes, I liked it. However, I don't think the residents were delighted it ended right on Ocean Drive, into the heart of Mansion Country. 

More vanes on the hotel. Ok, I'm obsessed with weather vanes. And not ashamed.

One of a few ornate fireplaces - this one is a room set up for a conference...nice.

This fireplace was in the Ladies! Nice job, remodelers!

Cheery yellow house after other huge stone, marble and white gargantuans

Did I mention stone gargantuans?

On a sunny day, a fine place for a spot of tea

There was no way to get the magnificence of this beech tree into a photo...I'm sure it looks so radically different when it is dressed in leaves...which I hear should happen any time now

A very primitive fence for a pretty fine house. Notice how the pickets are carved around the stones? How'd they do that? Why'd they do that? I like that they did that.

Almost home again!!

So ends another fun work adventure! Life is good. And it's still chilly here. I dragged my blanket back down in the night...if my blood thickened up there (which Lorraine swears it did and I think not), it thinned in a real hurry!

Have a terrific Thursday! Do something timely.