Scene of the Blog Featuring Teresa of Views from My Highland Cottage!

This is a bittersweet post: the last Scene of the Blog. It's been a good run, and I've met many wonderful book bloggers through this weekly feature. I can remember asking other bloggers on Twitter if they thought this idea would fly. Little did I know that it could-- and would-- for four years.

I am thrilled to introduce you to a book blogger I just recently met, Teresa of Views from My Highland Cottage. No, I'm not whisking you away to the Highlands of Scotland; I'm taking us all on a visit to a certain home in a National Historic neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana. Teresa's blog is a wonderful mix of books, photographs, and perspectives on life and on her historic neighborhood. If you haven't visited Views from My Highland Cottage, please please please take this opportunity to do so. You'll be glad you did! (Don't be shy-- say hello while you're there!)

If you're visiting from Teresa's blog-- Welcome! I'm glad you stopped by to see the wonderful spots where she reads and blogs. If you'd like to see any of the photos in larger sizes, all you have to do is click on them, and they'll open in new windows. There are some very large photos, and for those (once you have them up in a new window) you may have to click on them again to get them full size... just because Blogger likes to be contrary that way.

Once you've feasted your eyes on Teresa's book haven, you're more than welcome to take a look at previous participants' spaces. Click on the Scene of the Blog tab at the very top of the header on this page. There are two ways to search: by Blog Name or by Location. Now, let's go on a very special tour. I've always hoped I'd find a book blogger with one certain item in the home, and Teresa's got it!

There are treasures ahead!

A variety of views can be found in my blog, Views From My Highland Cottage—book reviews to be sure, but also views of life in a National Historic District, plus photographic views of our house, hobbies and travels.  Believe it or not, Louisiana does have some land above sea level and our neighborhood is a bit higher than land originally settled in Shreveport, the mid-sized city in Northwest Louisiana where I live and write.  The Highland in the blog title is named after the Highland neighborhood where my husband and I live in our large, rambling white frame house. 

Reading nook in the guest cottage

Nestled in her cottage reading nook

Hidden behind our house is a small guest cottage, built of recycled materials in the early 20th century.   It is here that I often tuck myself away in a corner to read and write.  In an old gold brocade wingback chair my sister-in-law gave us, my legs propped on a yard sale hassock, toes touching my books, I happily spend hours in the evenings.

I’m a relative newbie to blogging but I’ve kept lists and synopses of books read for years, and I’ve journaled my every mundane thought-- I mean profound perspective on life-- off and on since I was a teenager.  My friend, Jennie, creator of A Garden Carried in the Pocket that has been featured in Scene of the Blog, came over one Saturday last March and helped me set up a basic blog, and I’ve been learning about blogging by doing it ever since.  There is so much more I want to learn to make my blog more visually appealing and organized.  For now I’m happy when I find time to post.

Another cozy reading spot

Our house has many nooks for reading and writing so it’s a wonder I make it to work on any given day.  I could just move from spot to spot, reading and writing, all day long. 

An alternate space for reading in the cottage is the sofa if I tire of cramming myself in the cozy corner.

Blogging in the cottage

My lap top is usually set up on the vintage dining table in the cottage if I want to blog here...

One shot of Teresa's library

...but my favorite blogging area is my library where the majority of my books find a home.

More of Teresa's library

[Pardon me for intruding on Teresa's tour, but this is it! The one thing I'd always hoped to find in a featured book blogger's home-- a library ladder! When I first set eyes on this photo, I got up and did a not-for-YouTube happy dance, complete with a couple of whoops and hollers.]

Blogging in the library

Reading spot in the library

In the winter I can be found reading on the love seat in the library next to the old Dearborn heater.

Reading on the landing

Upstairs on the landing is another spot hidden away for more books and stolen moments for reading while life continues on the first floor. 

Reading in bed? You bet!

Of course every reader goes to bed with a book and, in my case, my journals.  My husband’s father was born in this bed so it has been in his family for a long time.  I love the grandeur of this reading spot, but I do need a foot stool to get into bed!

I’m an educator and have been most of my life.  I love learning new things, seeing new places and meeting new people.  The blogging world is one just opening up to me and I look forward to more explorations of its many facets and possibilities.

Thank you so very, very much for taking us on this tour of your lovely home and its many spots for reading, creating, and contemplation. You're an inspiration, Teresa! Your blog is one that I enjoy reading very much, and I know that your readership will grow and grow!

While I'm on the subject of thanks, I'd like to thank each and every one of you for your support and your participation during the four years I've run this feature. To all who shared their reading and blogging spaces, to everyone who faithfully showed up each week to check those spaces out, it's been a marvelous run.  

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart.