Thursday, February 27, 2014

Snowed Under

I've gotten behind in my blogging again.  This guy and I...hi Eric!...took a quick trip to Orlando last week and I've been playing "Catch Up" ever since.  This was taken out on the balcony of our hotel room.  So nice to breath in warm air.


It sure was nice to get away from winter for a few days!  This was our view from our table at Epcot on our first full night there.  We traveled with Eric's parents and met his sister and her husband in Florida. It was so nice to catch up with them!


We spent a day at Disney's Animal Kingdom.  I got to go up on stage to take a photo of an owl flying in to roost on a branch just over my head.  Woosh...he was so fast...my shots were blurry!  They let me take a shot of him on the stage after he landed.  Beautiful bird.

We also spent a day at Hollywood Studios.  Perfect weather.  Pretty sunset.  I took this from the car when we were driving out of the parking lot.  It's the "Tower of Terror" ride.


And just like that our trip was done and we flew home.  My Valentine's carnations were still blooming.  It snowed once, but had been warm at home while we were gone.


We were back for a day when the big snowstorm came.  Almost 10".  Ice first, so the snow stuck to everything.  It was pretty but the snowbanks are getting high around here!


I took a walk in the morning to take some photos.  It was exhilarating and exhausting all at the same time.  I caught a shot of a neighbor clearing his driveway.  I told you the snowbanks were high!


Snow, and then the cold returned.  The sun is still warm enough to do some melting, but when the high is 10 degrees, not much melting is going to happen. We haven't had record snow, but we've had A LOT of snow and no days for it to melt.  January thaw?  That didn't happen this year.  February thaw?  Nope.  We're hoping Spring will be able to find it's way here soon.


The horses are hanging in there.  They soak up the sun every chance they get.  They'll need it, it was -20 this morning.


I'm enjoying the flowers that are blooming inside my house.  I've also been trying to catch up with work things.  The orders come in whether I'm here or not.  Which is good....but it hasn't left me with very much spare time.


But today, I'm starting to feel caught up with work.  Now to make that list of all the other stuff I should be trying to catch up on.  I'm at a stage in life where I really need lists.  I get distracted very easily!  Oh look, a daffodil.


Yep, easily distracted.  Maybe that's a problem with being creative...I can create all kinds of ways to not get at what I "should" be doing.  Things like cleaning the house, doing the laundry, organizing my work files, backing up photos, updating the calendar...you know..."shoulds".  Oh look, another flower.


Oh look...tulips!  Yep...thinking of spring.  Thinking of getting unburied from the snow and the "shoulds".


And on that note, I'm going to log off and then check off updating the blog from my list.  One thing at a time.  Thanks for stopping by!


Friday, February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine's Day!

 Just a quick little post to say:


I hope that your day is filled with chocolates, flowers and love!  Thanks for stopping by!


Thursday, February 13, 2014

A Change in the Weather!

Did you see my title?  A Change in the Weather!  It's coming...warmer days ahead!  There is something so wonderful about seeing the 10 day forecast and seeing average...and get this...above average temperatures listed!  There actually is hope that this winter may eventually end!  It's all the way into the 20's today...above zero.  We may just make it after all.  But first, some cold day pictures since that's what it was when I took them.

I planted some amaryllis in November hoping that they would bloom in time for Christmas.  Well, they had sprouted by then, but didn't grow and bloom until January.  But this one was still blooming last week, which was a nice treat when it was so cold outside!  Another one has shot up a second bud and should be blooming again soon.  There is an app on Facebook called "God wants you to Know".  A few days ago the message it sent me was as follows:

God wants you to know that you will blossom.  A flower starts deep under the dirt and has to fight against gravity in the darkness before finally breaking free and opening its bloom to the sun. You may feel like you're in darkness and everything around you is muddy, but keep pushing toward the Light and when the time is right, you will burst into blossom.

I thought that it was pretty cool.  And it reminded me of the amaryllis.  And I really like the idea that they can bloom a second time.  There is always hope if you look for it!


I'm so glad that these guys will have some warmer days ahead.  They've done really well with all the cold, but I sure feel bad for them.  Warmer days ahead boys!  Nice photo bomb Czar!


Aren't they fluffy!?!  There will be a lot of shedding going on in a few months.


When it warms up I won't rely on the cats for my photos of the day.  Greta is laying on her favorite spot...the middle of the dining room table.  Can't you tell that she owns it just from the look on her face?


Molly isn't amused by having her picture taken.  Especially when I wake her up to do it.  My motivation to go outside to take photos directly correlates with the temperature out there...this winter it's been in the negative range on most days.


So I practice with my photos on the cats.  They need to be woken up occasionally anyway.


I wanted to see how my fake candle would look in a picture.  It's amazingly realistic in true life.  The flickering movement of the flame makes seem very real.  Battery powered and on a timer.  And it won't catch my house on fire.  Gotta love that!


And last but not least, a Cedar Waxwing in the neighbors tree.  My son Brian looked out the office window and said "Mom, look at all of the cool Cedar Waxwings!"  There were at least 8 of them, and it was really cool.


But really, I think that the coolest part was that my 21 year old son noticed them and knew exactly what they were. Isn't that awesome?  Thanks for stopping by.


Thursday, February 6, 2014

Playing Catch Up Again!

I had been keeping up with my blog a little bit better...and then this last week everything sort of slid to a stop.  Here's a tulip to say that I'm sorry about that!


It continues to be super cold here.  On the days it's not frigid it snows.  It's getting to the point where it's hard to know where to put the snow.  The end of this winter is no where in sight.  I'm not very enthused about going outside to take pictures!  I was out shoveling anyway on the day I took this one, so I figured why not take a picture or two while I'm out here!  My house in the winter.


The reason I got so far behind on my blog is because we went to the rodeo.  Really.  I ended up taking lots and lots and lots of pictures and was going to do a post about the rodeo, but then I had to go through all the pictures and I haven't really had time to do that yet.  So everything just sort of stopped.  Yep, it's the rodeo's fault.  Here's one for now, until I have time to really go through them and write an actual post about it.  That horse was tired of waiting apparently!


 Back to the tulips for Saturday.  The fading tulips.  Time for some new flowers, but it's been too cold to want to risk getting them home without them freezing.  Them and me.


The cat doesn't mind being out though.  In fact she darts for the door every single time we open it.  Our slow moving old dog doesn't help matters.  I spend quite a bit of my time waiting for the cat to figure out that it's zero below and she needs to come in.  I like the little crazy whisker on the bottom of her chin. :-)


Hey, it's Brian.  He was just heading out to take the dog for a short walk.  It was late but he figured that the dog wouldn't know the difference.  He was right, she was so excited!


A cold morning sunrise looking across the street from my front step.


Molly seems to be happy just sleeping on Billy's bed during these cold days.  I don't blame her!


And last but not least, it's a pair of cardinals at the empty feeder.  The squirrels wipe that one out in a hurry!  There are 4 perfectly fine and full feeders by the house, but the cardinals don't want to come that close.  The would if they were hungry enough!


It looks like she is scolding him for not paying the bird seed bill on time.  Hen pecked.  And on that note I'll say, thanks for stopping by!