Sparks 8 - Expectancy

Welcome! - Well Thanksgiving is offically in the books for 2017 - Quite a busy week here.  Thankfully "Turkey Day" was fairly calm and we had a nice meal with the family that was here. - Spent the day after getting the outside Christmas decorations put up.  Always fun to see all the pretty lights, even though it's a lot of work getting them up.

So this week for SPARKS I'm sharing...


(Click to Enlarge Photos)

You never know where your next miracle will come from.


Now for AWWW MONDAYS....

Ghost decided to play peek-a-boo from the top of the stairs this morning.  It made me smile & I hope it makes you smile too.

Have a great day!

Willy Nilly Friday Five - January 16, 2015

It's Friday and time for some Willy-Nilly fun.

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


1.  January seems to drag on & on for some reason.  It's been relatively nice here as far as the weather but still it's so gloomy looking outside with gray skies and quite frankly I'm ready for sunshine, flowers & blue skies with fluffy white clouds.

Instead this is what the landscape looks like right now.  I took this shot about a week ago on our little trip up to Bennington Lake.

2.  Looking for something to do with your time.  You might check out what this guy does with Toothpicks.  And you thought they were just to pick your teeth.

These guys aren't made out of tooth picks but rather very large logs.  We spotted them back in 2013 while getting gas down in Lincoln City, OR.

3.

Okay if the toothpicks aren't your thing what about "rocks" - Coleen and I spotted this little grouping of rocks on a log walking at Rooks Park last year.  - My friend sent me this You Tube Video to watch this week.  Check out what this guy does with rocks, it's amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vswc7xB0V6c#t=15

4.  This giraffe is displayed outside a local restaurant here in town.  I snapped this shot about a year ago when I was having lunch there with my mom.  Giraffe's are funny looking cretures in my book with their long necks and spindly legs.  Don't know much about Giraffe's.  Here are some fun facts that you may not know.

5.  It's birthday weekend here.  My mom's birthday is Sunday and Coleen's is Monday.  There will of course be cake, ice cream and presents.  I need to do some shopping today.

Leaving you know with a cat photo (I know it's not related to birthdays at all) but I can't resist sharing a cat photo on Friday.  This one is Harley.

Besides I just noticed that all the photos seem to have the same tones in them so this one matches the color scheme.

Have a great weekend.

Final post of 2014

Wow this year has gone by quickly.  Seems anymore you blink and another year has past by.   2014 had it's (ups and downs) but for the most part it was a good year.  Many people choose "word" that they want to focus on through the year and this year I chose (Love).  I think for the most part I did love more this year.  One very important thing that I loved about 2014 was being a part of the awesome blogging community and meeting and making friends with so many great bloggers/photographers.  So thank you to all who helped to make this a wonderful year.

We had snow flurries here on Monday.  It started out softly with a few flakes falling.  I went outside and took a few pictures.  A leaf in the grass with tiny snowflakes caught my eye.

Ghost was on my mom's front porch eating and had a few snowflakes on his fur.  I just had to snap a photo.

Soon the flakes were coming down larger and faster and I snapped this shot of the Hawthorne tree across the way from our house.

It was fun to watch and pretty but thankfully didn't last long and didn't stick to the ground.  That's my favorite way to enjoy snow.

Just an update on the telephone service. - A man came out on Monday to look at the lines.  He fiddled around for about 20 minutes and came inside to check our phones.  Said he thought the problem was in the "main line" and would have to go back to his office and have other repair people come back on Tuesday to correct the problem.  Good Grief,  we already knew the problem was in the "main line" back on Friday of last week when we called.

Oh well....I ended up calling back on Tuesday after bowling and telling the lady who waited on me that someone had better be out to fix the line or I would call back the next day and would be "less happy" then I was when I called.  About an hour later they showed up and fixed the problem.

I did get photos of the first guy on Monday working on the line (he really didn't do anything to fix them though.)  I just like the pictures.

 

Through the window of our front door.

 

I opened the door for this shot.  As you can see the sky was clear after that morning snow storm passed by.

 I went for a quick walk around the block this morning and snapped a few shots to share.

Out back before I left on the walk this little fellow was a chattering away.  

 

 

He decided to come down the tree a little closer....

 



Good thing I left peanuts out for him.

Saw this lovely red holly bush with the sun shining on it.  It looked cheerful.  If you look carefully you'll see bits of frost on the leaves.

Spotted a large woodpecker in a tree and tried to get a photo.  The darn thing spooked easily so this is the best shot I got before it flew off to another tree.


 It's been (bone chilling) cold here though the last couple of days.

As I was walking I spotted some Ivy with frost on it.  Doesn't this look chilly!

How about the creek nearby....

Notice the ice on the side of the bank. - Yep, it's been that cold.

Inside however it's nice and warm and our "ginger" cats, Harley and Captain Cuddles enjoyed a nice little snooze on the couch.

All is well in their world. -  Again I want to wish everyone who visits a very HAPPY NEW YEAR and thank you all again for being a special part of my life with your wonderful blogs and friendship.

Off to buy goodies for tonight....see you all next year!

Winter Magic

Well we finally hit 40 degrees today!!! - It's been a rough few days since the snow and freezing rain.  I know I've said this before and I think I'll say it till the day I die...I am so NOT a Winter person.  Didn't like it much as a kid and I like it even less as an Adult.
However....it does make for some lovely photo's so I guess the saying that there is beauty in everything must be true.

So for your viewing pleasure here are a couple of Wintery photo's that I took this week.

Branches from one of the 3 Fir trees we have in front of our house.

I'm not sure what kind of a tree this is but those seed pods are pretty interesting and haven't fallen off the tree so the snow on top of them make for an interesting shot.  I just wish it was a little brighter.

Lastly I'm sharing a picture of my mom's dog, Rusty.  He looked so "peaceful" sleeping on the snow with the sun shining down on him.  He's 13 years old and is 1/2 American Eskimo and 1/2 Chow.  He was a pup from our two dogs (Angel-Chow and Rebel-American Eskimo) both of whom have now sadly passed away.

Hopefully winter won't last too long or at least we won't get much more of the "white stuff" because while it makes for pretty pictures it also makes it very hard to get around and I hate driving on icy roads.