Willy Nilly Friday Five - January 29, 2016

Happy Friday! - Wow it's the last weekend of January already.  Time keeps marching on for sure.

Let's join Tanya (Around Roanoke) for,
WILLY-NILLY FRIDAY FIVE.

1.  Have you ever noticed how cats seem to enjoy cramming themselves into cardboard boxes.  This one was on the floor the other night and several of the cats decided to get inside.  This is Harley one of the "larger" cats we have.  I love how his paw is draped outside the box.

Did you know "Big Cats" like boxes too?  - Check out this video

 

 

 

 

 



So I'll also be using this photo for FELINE ART - Altered to this version:

2.  We haven't had a lot of snow here this winter (I'm so thankful for that) but we have had some and lots of rain lately.  A couple of weeks ago I showed photos of Bennington Lake and the mountains but I did share this shot I took.  It's part of the lake itself.

I don't think many people are going to head out onto the lake with thin ice but hey the warnings signs are a good thing.

3. During one of the better weather days last week Coleen, her mom & I took a little walk around the neighborhood.  We spotted these bushes in someones yard.  The white things looked a lot like blooms from a distance but actually turned out to be white berries.  Reminds me of popcorn.  It could also remind one of snow I suppose.  Sort of "artsy" I think.
 

If you like snow and art check out this LINK - You'll be amazed for sure.



 

 

4. Last week Coleen turned 11 years old.  Hard to believe she's almost a teenager. -  With part of her birthday money she bought a watch.  On the way home she suddendly says:  "Well that was rather insulting!"  - I'm think what are you talking about so I ask her.

 

She replies:  "The box says,  This is NOT a toy.  Not intended for children under the age of 12!"  Yep, I'd say they goofed on that warning for sure.

 

 

This is her and her mom laughing before she blew out the birthday candles.

5.  Finally I was nominated yesterday (McGuffy's Reader) for a Quote Challenge - I love adding quotes to my photos so I had to participate in this one.

 

I've always liked that quote by Anne Frank every since Junior High (now known as Middle School) when I read the book,  The Diary of Anne Frank.

It amazes me that even with all she went through and dying at such a young age she was so wise beyond her years.

 

The rules of the challenge are simple. They are as follows:

1. Post for three consecutive days.
2. Choose and share one or three quotes each day.
3. Challenge three additional bloggers each day.

 

My nominies are:

 

Sandra:  The Mad Snapper

Ann:  Ann's Snap & Edit

Lynne:  Irish Garden House

 

 

 

 







Good Fences #97 - He ain't Heavy

Welcome!
It's time for GOOD FENCES hosted by Theresa from,
The Run-a-round Ranch Report.

Gosh it's seems like lately I'm only managing to post once a week (hope to remedy that soon) but it's always a pleasure to be able to participate in this fun meme.

Early last summer I happened to spot this fence and I took some pictures of it.  Today you'll be seeing the fence and the burden it had to bear.

Apparently that bush/tree became too much for the fence to hold up and as you can see a section broke out. - This tree is called a Mountain Ash (Rowan)

Here is a close-up of the blooms (no fence in sight though)

See the dried up berries.....they were from the previous fall but hadn't fallen off the tree.  Normally they are much prettier.  In fact in this next shot you'll see what they look like in the summer. 

They are such a bright orange.  This photo is from my archives (2011) but the berries were off the same tree/bush as the ones above. - Apparently you can eat these berries.  See this link:

A few days after the picture of the white blooms was taken I drove by and saw that (sadly) they had cut down the tree and removed it from the property.  - I will miss seeing those lovely white flowers and pretty orange blooms. - Here the fence still had not been repaired.

I planned to get a picture of the fence once it was back up again but never did......until I decided to drive down this morning and take a picture to share.

It's raining here today so I braved the elements to bring you the following two shots.

 Here you can see where the fence was repaired and restained and where the tree once was.

Just for fun a shot of the entire fence going down the alley to show the comparison of the old stained part with the new stained part.

Hope you've enjoyed seeing this fence and what caused it's breakdown.

 

Don't forget to check out the other great fences by visiting Theresa's blog and clicking on the links. - It's great fun.

Friday Fun - June 12, 2015

It's Friday and for Coleen the last day of school (Hallelujah!) - Yes I actually look forward to summer and having her home.  It's also time for some Willy-Nilly Friday Five (Hosted by Tanya from Around Roanoke) so let's get started with the fun.


1.  Coleen was playing with her Lego Friends the other night and I just had to snap a picture of her playing with them.  I was looking for stuff about Legos this morning and found several different websites but thought this one was pretty cool.  Check it out: HERE  What a good way to help the environment and have fun doing it.

2.

 

I love flowers of all kinds and have been super busy this summer trying to keep up with the care of my flowers and my mom's as she just isn't able to do that much gardening now.  This is one of the pretty poppies in her garden.  So once again I like to try and include something about my photos that is interesting and I found THIS ARTICLE about a poppy display at the tower of London from 2014 that is super cool.  I didn't know about it but now I'm glad I researched poppies because this was so interesting.

 

3.

 

Sometimes as I'm walking around I spot things that just catch my eye.  This vine covered house was just such a thing.  I like the patterns of the house, the curtains and the way the vines seem to be taking over.  So what could I find that would be interesting about vines?  I looked up: Vine Covered Houses and found this LINK  -  I hope you check it out.

 

4.Speaking of vines....

 

Coleen and I spotted these berry vines on growing in someone's yard on one of our walks.  She thought they were Blackberries but I told her they were actually raspberries and she wanted to know why they were turning black then.  Of course I had to look it up and discovered these are actually Black Raspberries (often called, Black Caps).  Here's a brief article about them that has some interesting facts.

5.  Speaking of berries....  I recently purchased a half-flat of Blackberries that we have been enjoying.  I wanted to do something different with them so check out Gina Kleinworth's blog, (Kleinworth & Co.) and found this awesome recipe for Blackberry White Chocolate Buckle and decided to give it a try.  Below is my photo of the dessert but Gina is way better at food photography then I am so do check out her photo's and the recipe.  It was scrumptious!

So that's my Willy-Nilly Randoms this week. 

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It's time now for CAPTION THIS:  Last weeks winner is.........

 

Marie from A Colorful World -  I had Coleen look through the captions people left since she was the subject of the photo and she liked Marie's the best so here it is:

 

 

Now here is this weeks photo for you to caption.....

 

Get creative and send in those captions.  At the end of the month we'll have a poll for all the winners and the winning photo/caption will receive a $10 Gift Certificate to Zazzle where you can find all kinds of neat stuff and even create using your own photos.

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FELINE ART and FELINE FRIDAY:  

 

These are two of our cats,  Captain Cuddles (L) and Spooky-boo (R) enjoying a nice little nap in the back window perch.  I edited the photo on BeFunky and PicMonkey.

Here is the original (I'm using for Feline-Friday) with a quote I thought was appropriate:

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I haven't done Fill-In Friday for awhile so today I'm joining in on the fun:

 

The statements:

1. ___ tastes like ____
2. ___ makes everything _____
3. If ____ then ____
4. One word to describe _____ is _____

My answers:

1.  Watermelon tastes like something awful to me.  It makes me sick if I eat it.

2.  Bacon makes everything taste better!  Well not everything but it sure makes a lot of things taste better. 

3. If I could win the lottery then I would be able to travel more.  I'd like to visit a few places but I do love where I live as well.

4.  One word to describe summer here is  HOT   We've already had a record breaking 102 for June and it's expected back into the upper 90's again next week.  Oh goodie! (That was me being sarcastic) I really don't like the heat at all.


Friday 5 and Other Stuff

Happy Friday! 

Let's join Tanya (Around Roanoke) for
WILLY-NILLY FRIDAY FIVE.

I thought today I would take a peek back at some sunnier, warmer days with my photos.

        Coleen enjoying her first summer trip through the sprinkler in June.

1.  Have you had enough of "winter" already even though it doesn't officially begin until Dec. 21st?  -  Perhaps you might enjoy traveling then to these destinations to escape the winter blues.  Bermuda or the Bahamas sounds good to me.

    Some pretty pink lupines I spotted in someone's garden this past summer.

2. How about some summer time music?

 

                           A summertime song bird in some reeds.

3. Well today we didn't have "icy" road conditions - Hip, Hip Hooray.  There is still ice in place so you have to be careful but it's warming up a little.  Should you be stuck inside due to bad weather and have kids I found this really neat sight with tons of activities to try.  I'm thinking Coleen might enjoy some of these during her Christmas break.  Check it out HERE

                    Some summer berries on a tree I thought were pretty.

4.  Something "artistic" and amazing with leaves.  My good friend sent me this link and I'm sharing it with you.  http://www.boredpanda.com/leaf-cutting-omid-asadi/   Can you imagine the patience it would take to create stuff like this.

 I spotted this fun little storage shed this summer when I was taking pictures of the Pelicans.  I think it's cheery.

5.  There was a little blurb in our paper the other day that caught my attention.  I'm a fan of the book/movie, Gone With The Wind and thought this was pretty cool.  Apparently it was worthy enough news to be shared in People Magazine.

Also joining Adrienne (My Memory Art) for Six Word Friday.

 
 

 This weeks theme: Season

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Now for some Feline Friday fun I'm sharing this photo of Eric stretching this summer.  I just love the curvy tail this cat has.

That's it for today.  I hope you've enjoyed your stay here.  Have a great weekend.

So Many Memes...Friday Fun

Gosh Friday seems to have a ton of different memes that I want to participate in.  I hope you don't get over loaded here but let's get started.

WILLY-NILLY FRIDAY 5

FELINE FRIDAY & FELINE ART

SIX WORD FRIDAY

FOLLOW FRIDAY FOR FILL IN FUN

The statements:

1. If___ then___
2. ___ reminds me of ___
3. I think of _____________ when I ____________
4. _________ is the most special thing ________ has given me

My Answers:

1.  If  I wished for anything then I would wish that no one had to suffer in pain.

2.  The Yarn in the photo below reminds me of Cotton Candy.

3.  I think of my dad when I see sunsets for some reason.  I'm not sure why either.

4.  Eternal life is the most special thing God has given me.  I have that to
look forward too.

1.As promised in yesterday's Good Fences post here is the rest of the story of Eric (the cat) and where he went after he hopped up on the fence.

 
 
 
My mom has a storage shed just a few feet away from the fence so he hopped up there and laid down.  Isn't he adorable.  I snapped this shot of him as I walked out of her yard.   ---     Sharing this for Feline Friday and Willy-Nilly Friday 5  - See below for different versions.

2.  I've always admired Deanna (Snippets from Springdale) gorgeous berry photos.  So while I was out and about this week I snapped a shot of some berries and am dedicating this photo to her for inspiring me.

3.  Remember the reluctant school girl.  Well I'm happy to report that so far she's loving the 4th grade.  This was a shot for the 1st day of school where she was goofing off before she left.  It's a much happier shot then the ones I shared earlier.

4.  We've had some lovely sunsets this week.  Here is one.  This is also my entry for Six Word Friday.  The theme this week was the word:  Sure.

5.  I like to include forgotten photos now & then and this is one that I took when Coleen and I visited Ft. Walla Walla earlier this summer.  There was a demonstration there on dyeing yard with Kool-Aid (you can read about how that is done HERE) and this is some of the dyed yarn they had on display.
So Debbie (It's All About Purple) this one is for you.

Now for some Feline Art.  See the photo of Erick (the cat) above.  I played around with it on iPiccy and came up with these two art pieces.  The first is Pop Art and the second one was something called Fiery Image.

So there you have it.  Does it bother you to have several Memes in one post.  Let me know if you'd rather I posted separate posts for each meme.

Whatever Wednesday- The Ice Edition

GROW YOUR BLOG   Links to both of these posts.

SONGOGRAPHY


Welcome - Before I get started on today's post I want to say,  Thank You so much from the bottom of my heart to those who left such understanding and kind comments on yesterday's post about the loss of our sweet cat, Miss Blackie.  It meant a lot to me to know that people cared and understood how hard it was to let her go.

We apparently had "freezing rain" during the night.  When I woke up this morning it was raining but it wasn't bad outside.  As I started walking Coleen to school I realized that it had frozen at some point because the trees were all incased in ice.  After I got back home I got out my camera and took a quick walk around the block to photograph some of the trees.

                                                 My mom's Lilac Tree

                                      Red Berries from a Hawthorne Tree

                                                         Juniper Berries

                                     
I don't know what kind of a tree this was but I liked the colors of the little dangling seed pods.

Again I'm not sure what tree this next shot is.  I got some funny looks from a couple of people who were walking by.  I mentioned to them I was taking pictures of the ice on trees and they seemed okay with that.  I bet though they thought I was a bit nutty.

Finally I spotted this laying on the sidewalk and though it looked rather cool.

                                What a strange, magical world this is.

Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing a little part of my corner of the world.