Willy Nilly Friday Five - Two Weeks worth

 Thank you to everyone who wished me well on my Cataract surgery this week. - I am happy to report it was a HUGE success.

Now on to WILLY NILLY FRIDAY FIVE  hosted by Tom The Backroads Traveller.  - I'm doing last week & this week in this post.

 

1. Spotted this bush out on a walk. - You could almost call it a, Burning Bush.

2. Saw some deer on a drive recently.  The one in the front had a hurt leg.  You can see she's holding it up off the ground.

3. Squirrel leftovers? - Maybe someone picked it and was doing the loves me, loves me not routine.  Who knows but it caught my attention.

4. Brightly colored oak leaves.  Both are from the same tree.

5. These ducks were out and about for a little swim in a creek near the oak tree.

6.  A little train graffiti 

 

7.  Some cheery daisies on a drizzly day.

 

 8.  Pumpkins for the kids

 

9.  Mushroom - They seem to be popping up all over the place.

10.  My mom loved to put up little decorative flags so after she passed away & my daughter moved into the house she is carrying on the tradition and bought this little flag to display.

That's it for me this week. - Leaving you with a song that is fitting for me this week.

Seaons - Life Goes On

Welcome! - It's the start of another week and time to share a little of the happenings in my neck of the woods.

I'm joining Jesh (St. Germains) for SEASONS



The flowers continue to bloom and now that the extreme heat has died down a bit they are looking pretty decent.  This is one of my lilies in bloom.  I was playing around with DOF (Depth of Field) shots when I took this one.

Took a drive up to Bennington Lake the other day.  Shot this view of the Blues (The tower in the back ground is a Cell Tower) I love that this shot shows the mountains, the dirt road, a wheat field and a vineyard all at one time.

More camera experimenting.  This time with a shot of the moon.  I'm actually pleased that I got a half was decent shot.  I didn't have the camera on the tripod but I think it turned out okay anyway.

It's always time around here to enjoy photographing one of our many cats.  This one is Spooky-Boo.

We had more baby ducks visit.  The mom had 5 of them one day & 4 the next.  Sadly for some reason she abandoned them on  Saturday.  Coleen wanted to try and rescue them and eventually after one of the babies was hit by a car and killed we managed to rescue the remaining 3 and took them to the city park where hopefully they will have a better chance at surviving.

 

 

So that's a bit of life around here.  There are some stressful things going on as well right now that I'd appreciate prayers for.

 

 



Random 5 Friday Returns and Willy Nilly Friday 5

Welcome.

Today I am joining Nancy (A Rural Journal) for the return of her meme,
 RANDOM 5 FRIDAY - It's so good to have Nancy back blogging again.  I hope you will pop by and say hello.

I'll also be joining Tanya (Around Roanoke) for her meme,  WILLY-NILLY FRIDAY 5

So you will be getting double the fun here today.

                                      

1.  First off I need to let you all know that my hubby had to return to the hospital yesterday.  Which is why I never got around to finishing up visiting all the  Good Fences posts. -  He ended up having to undergo an Angiogram with the possibility of having a Stent put in.  The outcome showed he has good function with the arteries on the left side of his heart but that the right side was blocked to the point they could not insert a stent.  One good thing they told us is that the arteries on his left side are trying to by-pass on their own for the ones on the blocked right side. I hope this all makes sense to you as it was rather confusing to me.  He will need to of course be on medication now and will see the Cardiologist as schedule on Monday for further information on his condition and what can be done about it.

                                 Cuddles enjoying some afternoon sunshine.

2. Sitting around in hospital waiting rooms is boring.  Thank goodness I took a book with me and it was decent reading.  The only thing that bugged me while I was waiting was the older volunteer sitting at the waiting area desk munching on potato chips.  I was already on edge and her crunching those chips was quite annoying. 

 A sign of spring....one of my poppy plants is up and looking might green.

3.  Coleen has had the past 2 days off from school for Conferences, what a bummer for her to have her Grandpa back in the hospital but she's done well handling it.  We were pleased that she had a great report from her teacher and is making good grades at school and gaining confidence in herself.

More signs of spring....My first daffodils to bloom.

4.  I so need to spend some time outside getting the weeds and leaves cleared out of the beds.  I've had other things though way more important then weeds to deal with so I'll get to it when I can.

 My from around the neighborhood "creepy" yard decor that I've spotted.

5.  I got pulled over on Wednesday.  Scared me to death as I was doing anything wrong.  I asked the officer,  "What did I do?"  -  He said, "Nothing, your driving is just fine.  I happened to notice though that it looks like your license tabs have expired." - I told him hubby usually takes care of that and he just gave me a warning and told me to get a hold of my hubby then and get the plates put on.  Whew!
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More Random thoughts....

6.  I ended up going to the Dept. of Licensing to renew the tabs and we ended up having to get new plates.  The lady behind the desk was rather "rude" to me and that set me off.  I must admit I'm not normally rude back to people but I ended up saying something to her on my way out the door that wasn't very polite and I even slammed the door to the office.  I know childish but I'd already had a bad morning with getting pulled over and it just popped out of my mouth.

7.  I started watching The Amazing Race this week.  If you watch what do you think of the fact they paired up "random" couples to compete with each other on a sort of Blind Date race.  There were also 5 already dating couples.

          A fun means of transportation that went by our house last week.

8.  The weather has been decent here lately.  No rain or snow (hooray) and even a few nice sunny days.  Of course it's suppose to turn off cold this week and possibly even snow in the higher elevations.  That's good because the mountains could use the snow.  I just hope it stays in the higher elevations.

                Ducks enjoying some nice spring weather at the park.

9.  There is road construction on one of the main streets in town.  What a pain as it's hard to get around all the detours etc...but also it's good because there are tons of streets here in town that need major repair work.  Our street included.  It's like riding on a roller-coaster when you hit some of the bumps and such. 

10. We've been letting Eric (the cat) in at night for a couple of hours and have even let him in a few minutes with the other cats every now and then.  He likes coming in but is unsure of all our other cats.  So far the most they've done is hiss at him and then he wants right back out.  We hope to someday have him come in on a more regular basis.

                                  Our Callie-Jo looking rather "goofy"


Enjoy your weekend.  I'm off to the hospital to check in on hubby.  Hopefully he gets to come home today.

It's Friday and time for some fun!

Welcome.  There is a lot going on in this post today.  I hope you enjoy it and have fun.

WILLY NILLY FRIDAY FIVE

1. It was nice out this week so Coleen and I took a walk to the park.  We spotted these on one of the trees....

I feel the arrival of spring is a little closer now.

2.  Since it was nice out this week I decided to do a little yard work.  I cleared a bunch of leaves from my front flower bed and my mom's.  We don't have trees but we get all the leaves from a neighbor down the street who "never" rakes their leaves in the fall.  Anyway my muscles were so sore yesterday from bending over and squatting down picking up the leaves. It even hurt to sit in a chair.

Flowers from someone's yard while we were on our walk.  Looks like they need to do some yard work too.

3.  Well I've decided not to send in my camera for repairs after all.  Last week the USB port broke on it and I contacted a company about repairing it.  I can't afford the cost of the repairs and I realized I could just take the memory card out and put it in another camera and download my photos that way.  Works for me!

4.  Our cat Snickers likes to drink water from a dripping faucet, usually the sink but sometimes the bathtub.  I turned the spout of the bathtub on yesterday and after she started drinking I called her name and snapped this drippy shot of her.  She loves drinking this way and doesn't seem to mind being soppy wet afterwards.

This shot is also joining in on FELINE FRIDAY hosted by Steve from the Burnt Food Dude.


5.  I bought a new coffee mug this week.  I was looking for a mug to send to someone for a Mug Exchange and found one that I just couldn't resist gettting for myself.

Isn't that owl cute!  I love the colors, the owl and well just how whimsical this mug is. 

One more photo as I've been the last few weeks sharing a "creepy" photo from something I've spotted while out and about.

I think a Chinese Dragon stalking a Quail is a bit creepy, what do you think?


So now for more fun with memes.  Let's join Adrienne from My Memory Art for SIX WORD FRIDAYS  This week the word was,  Wing.

More cat fun can be found on FELINE ART over at Kittypartay.

Coleen enjoying a Garfield Cookie - Cartoonized on BeFunky.


Finally I am participating in Hillary's Meme: FOLLOW FRIDAY FOUR FILL-IN FUN.

The statements:

1. ___is the ____
2. Do you ___ on the weekends?
3. ___ is my ____ comfort food
4. ______ always makes me happy.

My Answers:

1.  Growing older is the "pits" at times.
2.  Do you stay in your pajamas on weekends?  I don't often do it but on occasion I have been known to spend all day Saturday in my robe.
3. Cheesecake (or any dessert) is my guilty comfort food.  I feel guilty only because I know I shouldn't be indulging but it tastes so good I don't care.
4. Petting my cats always makes me happy.

Good Fences - January 8, 2015

Welcome! - It's time to join Theresa (The Run-a-round Ranch Report) for GOOD FENCES.

Coleen and I went to Taco Bell (her mom works there) for lunch last week.  As we drove past Mill Creek Coleen was excited about the ice that was on the water and said we had to go back after lunch to take some pictures.  Which is exactly what we did.  So these first few photos have nothing to do with a fence but eventually you'll see where my mind was going.

                               Ice build up on the side of the bank. 

Coleen was surprised to see duck swimming in the icy water.

Here they are walking on some of the ice on the partially frozen creek.

So what do ducks have to do with fences you ask....well nothing really except that I happened to notice that this particular bridge while being made of concrete happened to resemble a fence.

A closer look at some of the "railings"

The view from across the street.

The year the bridge/fence was built.

Well there you have it, a fence that really isn't a fence but actually a bridge built to look like a fence.

Don't forget to stop in a check out all the other great fences. -  Why not join in on the fun and start looking for your own fences to share!

Have a great day.

Wild Bird Wednesday - Capturing a 1st.

Today I am super excited in joining Stewart (Paying Ready Attention) for WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.

Last Wednesday after Coleen got out of school we went up to Rooks Park and I walked up to Mill Creek to take some pictures.  As I was walking towards the creek I spotted something white flying in the air but I couldn't see what it was nor where it went.  I happened to spot a guy with a camera looking towards where I was but still could see what he was looking at.  He was on the other side of the bank and I watched him and his dog walk on up the trail.  Then I turned and headed in his direction and it was then I spotted this:

This was still pretty far off so I hurried on up the trail and told my daughter to head down and get Coleen so she could see the bird too.

As I got closer and closer I begin to take more & more pictures.

I like the way the geese here are standing.

Neat to get the geese, some ducks and the Egret in the same shot.

  I think this may be one of my favorite shots I got of the Egret.

 

 

Now it's turned the other direction.

Seems to be checking the ducks out.

Coleen loves this shot.  She says it looks like they are "kissing."

I could have watched this bird all day.  At first I thought it was a (Snowy Egret) but upon looking it up I discovered this is referred to as a Great Egret or a Common Egret.  To me there was nothing "common" about it and I was thrilled beyond belief to actually see it and photograph it.

I hope you've enjoyed my photos of this 1st for me.