How do you view the world, I don’t mean in the literal sense, how to you view the world from your home? Most of us have probably watched home improvement shows, perhaps on HGTV? Home improvement shows may make any of us desire to remodel our homes. Many of those renovations feature amazing windows, overlooking even more amazing views.

When my husband and I moved into our home a little over two years ago, the living area and porch were some of the rooms we fell in love with. One large living space overlooking a large wooded lot. Sadly, we had a terrible Summer storm last August and 21 trees had to be taken down in order to prevent more trees from falling on our house, porch and shed.

The kitchen windows remain my favorite windows in our home, with a view that is very peaceful. I take so many photographs using my windows as the backdrop, especially the kitchen windows. So much so, I thought I would start my own hashtag (#debraskitchenwindow) to document the changing seasons, light during various times of day, and types of flowers featured, depending on the season.

When I post these photos on Instagram (@debranancyphotography), this type of post always does quite well. Maybe it’s the soft green background from the woods, or snow in the winter months that appeal to so many people. I honestly don’t know, I do know, I always love how they turn out, and apparently others do as well.

Having been in our house for little while now, we have seen all of the seasons and all types of weather. Intense Summer sun, major rain storms to snow storms. Let’s not forget the beautiful Autumn colors, which create a beautiful backdrop, for any type of flower or still life scene I create in this wonderful space.

As spring turned into summer, one of our hydrangea bushes began to flower with some beautiful bluish purple flowers. The first year we planted the two hydrangea bushes the deer ate both of them. The purple one has begun to flower this year, sadly, we are still waiting for the pink hydrangea to flower, hopefully next year.

This year we planted some Hosta, four different rose bushes, and some type of pink flowering perennial plant, the name escapes me. The deer have had numerous meals on all of the flowers. Finally, I found a home recipe to spray on all of our flowers to ward off the deer. To my amazement, after trying many store bought mixtures, this home recipe worked! Finally, our roses came back and so did the other flowers too.

The peach rose bush produces such beautiful blooms, I had to photograph this beauty multiple times. Each image has soft colors, but has a different focal point. Each is equally beautiful, slightly different, each with its own character.

As you can see from the feature photograph, one of my humming bird feeders is attached to the left casement window, where they often feed. This year, for some reason, the hummers weren’t in their usual abundance early in the summer. Maybe it was the influx of cicada’s this year? The last few weeks the number of humming birds have returned to their normal summer levels. I have numerous feeders around our home where they feed daily. The joy of watching these small birds, and listening to them squeak is such a blessing. Two of the feeders are right off of the porch, where I sit in the morning with a cup of coffee, or in the evening with a glass of wine, enjoying the sound they make and watching they play and feed. Typically the hummers head south sometime mid-October. There is still plenty of time left to enjoy them.

As we begin August, take time to slow down and enjoy the remaining days of Summer. It goes by fast, faster than the other seasons seem to. I know all of the seasons are the same amount of days, but Summer seems to go so much faster than the other seasons. Don’t you think?

Until we meet again. With much gratitude . . .