The Sled Hill

This has been one abnormal winter in the midwest. We've only had two snowfalls that amounted to anything more than a ground dusting, so there hasn't been much outdoor fun for the kids this year. However, last night we got about 5-6" of snow. So the kids and I flew through their studies as fast as we could this morning and were out the door about 11:30 to get to the sled hill. Eric ran into a couple of friends from his public school days (three years ago!), I got to go down the hill with Charlotte on her sled, and we all had a ball. I do have to say, though, that at the top of this particular hill the windchill must make the temperature about 30 deg. colder than at the bottom of the hill. It was a might breezy up top.

Who needs bullies when you can white-wash yourself?

Charlotte's hair catching a breeze on her ride....

It Lives

As we pulled out the boxes of Christmas ornaments, Charlotte's eye fell on one in particular. She pulled it from it's box and sure enough, it still lives. Un-Be-Leivable.

If you want to know what I'm talking about, you'll have to bone up on your reading.

Where's The Tree?

Last year we had some Christmas tree woes. You can read about that here and here.

At the end of last year, Mike snipped off all the prelit lights and we threw them in the trash figuring we could salvage the tree and throw on some new lights. We happened to score 5 strands of those large ceramic bulb lights for $1.74 a box, and I figured we could use those. I think they look pretty cool, and since I was getting outvoted on the white lights, I could deal with those ceramic lights in color.

Fast forward to this year. I'm a few minutes into stringing those ceramic bulbs onto our tree and I'm beginning to worry about how hot they're getting. One quick look at the box crushed my plans since these lights can't be used on artificial trees. Who knew? OK, guess we'll put them on the tree outside. So on November 30th we went to the store to find those mini lights in color. We went to Menards, Walmart, and Target. None of them had the basic Christmas lights we were looking for. Seriously? On November 30th? We dragged our sad behinds home and then I remembered we had a couple strands of mini color lights that I'd used on the outside tree last year. So I started stringing those on, figuring we'd eventually find some Christmas lights for the rest of the tree and could finish the job of putting our tree up.

Sometimes I Can't Help Myself

Last week I took the kids to the park after lunch. This is a cool park with a playground, walking paths, a pond and bridges, so we always enjoy going there. It was a fairly brisk day with the wind, and I was hunkered down on the park bench trying to keep warm while watching the kids play some imaginary game that burned off some energy.

I happened to look up over to my left and saw this magnificent tree without it's leaves. The sky was a bit overcast, and the sun was trying to shine through. I tried returning my gaze to the kids having fun, but I had already formed the photo of the tree in my mind, so I had to pull the camera out of the bag (which was sitting next to me, of course). Miraculous though it be, I do occasionally take photos of a subject other than my children. :-). Not to worry, we went on a little hike after they got tired of playing, so I got photos of them, one of which may become our Christmas card photo. ;-D


Here's shot #1 straight out of the camera. Not bad, but not spectacular.


Here's the same photo after I enhanced it in Photoshop. Definitely has that sunset feel to it, no?



Never content to leave my camera settings alone, I opted to switch the white balance to fluorescent because I learned a few years ago (from playing around with it) that it cools the colors for a wintery feel. Here's the photo straight out of the camera. Again, not bad, but not spectacular:



And here's the same photo after it encountered Photoshop. It's gone from a daytime to nighttime photo (I really like this one the best too).



I'm glad that sometimes I can't stop myself from taking photos. Sometimes it's worth it to drag the camera around with me everywhere we go.

Bailey The Unknown Reindeer

This hysterical Youtube video was shared with me. You will laugh out loud!!

(tip: If your speakers are on, turn off my "radio" down on the right before hitting the play button.)

Sweet Remembrances of Summer

It's official. The down-filled coat has come out of the closet and any hint of summer has flown off with the wind. I look at my garden, nothing but dried up leaves and keeled over stems, barren of any buds. Spring-time seems a long way off (actually, it is......5 looong months off.) It's a good thing I like to take photos; they remind me of what is dormant below the surface.

I planted this Lilac bush the year Mike and I got married. It's off on the corner of the house just a little way down from the master bedroom window, so when it's in bloom, the sweet fragrance drifts in to our room.

These may be your standard Stella day lily, but these flowers rock. They start blooming in June and the last flower I saw on it was in late October. They just keep going and going. I can see them all summer and fall out my living room window.

A new addition to the garden this year: A Hydrangea! I'm going to experiment next year with the soil acidity to see if I can turn these mammoth flowers a bluish-purple.

Now here is the most beautiful and fragrant Bearded Iris. Open your hand right now. That's how big these blooms are every May! I really look forward to seeing them each year, and wish their blooming season lasted all summer long!

My sturdy, dependable Daisies never fail me every June!

I really think these flowers got the shaft when someone named them Gladiolas. They surprised me late this summer when they bloomed. I'd forgotten all about them being in my garden!

And I think these babies are my favorite.....Peonies. Aren't they stunning? I have them in white, pale pink, and raspberry.