30 June 2010: Pied Piper

Found this piper hiding in the woods behind our house. I hope he is leading all the pests away!

21 April 2010: More Tulips

Still more tulips blooming - glad I didn't totally miss them in my yard!

1 March 2010: Dreaming Of The Warm Sun

With all this snow covering the deck and the topless gazebo, it is hard to think that it is going to be warm again...someday! You can see the gazebo in all it's summer glory here: http://wide-angle-lens.blogspot.com/2009/05/23-may-2009-photo-summer-dreams.html and dream of the warm summer days with me.

28 February 2010: Home Sweet Home

It is nice to be home for a few days. I went out to get the Sunday paper this morning and our beautiful house looked lovely in it's winter coat so I got the camera to shoot an HDR version of it!

12 February 2010: Home Bound

Friday at home after a long week out on the road. I never left my house today so today's photo is brought to you by my twisted sistah!

7 February 2010: Still Playing

Yes, I am still playing with HDR. I will take "regular" photographs again soon but for now I am enjoying doing something new.

6 February 2010: Pretty Puppy

OK...the last one was done with photos I took last week that I just by chance had multiple exposures of but today's HDR was taken this morning. I learned how to automatically bracket on my camera and Mona was my test subject. She would not stay still at first and then Bill suggested peanut butter. Whenever Bill has a peanut butter sandwich, Mona sits perfectly still hoping for him to share it. Here is my pretty puppy in all her HDR glory!

15 December 2009 Photo: Chotskies

As I was getting ready to decorate for Christmas, I become more aware of the chotskies we have around our house. According to the "Urban Dictionary" chotskies are "generally useless crap of little or no value. Similar to knick-knacks, popularized in Wierd-Al Yancovichs eBay song."

Now my stuff while useless, it is valuable at least to me. Since I looked up the definition and it mentioned Weird Al's song, I had to go check it out and here it is if you have a few minutes of your life you never want to get back! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYokLWfqbaU

30 November 2009 Photo: Just Another Manic Monday Mona

She doesn't look very manic in this picture but just say the words, "outside" or "treat" or "pizza" and she will start hopping around like a bunny.

28 November 2009 Photo: Ahhhh Home

I am happy to be home in my peaceful and quiet space surrounded by my stuff and just Mona and Bill. While I always enjoy spending time with my family and Bill's family, it is so nice to get back to our own corner of the world where we can control our environment!

9 November 2009 Photo: Blues' Clues

Just some blue glass...we have a lot of it around our house.

19 October 2009 Photo: They're BAAACCKKK

I know the scarecrows made a recent appearance on the blog but now they have all come out to play. We have done a lot of the decorating but not all. Actually I am not sure if we will get all of it done this year due my injury but we'll see. Bill's loves Halloween so I am going to try to make it happen.

24 August 2009 Photo: Bendy Wendy House

Travel season is about to start and I am feeling like Wendy in Wonderland. I am about to slip down the rabbit hole to Road Warrior World. I will be sure to keep my eye out for the March Hare, the Mad Hatter and of course the Chesire Cat grinning at me as I make my way to the Study Abroad Tea Parties. Gotta go...I'm late...I'm late for a very important date!

23 August 2009 Photo: Blowing In The Wind

Wind chimes hang all over our yard much to Bill's dismay. It is not that he doesn't like them, it is just sometimes when it is very windy, they will wake him up. I love them in all sizes, sounds and designs! Here is the website of an amazing windchime artist: http://www.coastchimes.com/index.html

30 June 2009 Photo: Cheap and Cheerful Fruit

The wild berries that grow in the back of our property are getting closer to being ready for picking. I always have great thoughts of picking them and making something yummy but they never quite make it to that stage. They are so good to pop into your mouth when they are warm from the sun!

13 June 2009 Photo(s): Plenty Of Hot Air To Go Around

It was Day 2 of Balloon Festival. The balloons went up last night and this morning but unfortunately for my guests, they did not fly this evening. We had a fabulous time despite the lack of hot air in the balloons...if you knew my friends, you know that the hot air was still flowing!

I went to the balloon field this morning with Bill, my sister and my in-laws and we had a spectacular show as more than 20 balloons took off. As we were watching, Bill called them gems in the sky and I liked that phrase. The morning and early afternoon was lovely and pretty much as soon as my guests arrived, so did the rain. Despite the rain and no balloons flying, we had a great time catching up. The 2 little girls are Carlea and Nina after a rousing game of rug twister. Both of their parents also have blogs that you can check out to see more cute pictures...

http://jenndavisblog.blogspot.com/

http://joesfamily.wordpress.com/

7 June 2009 Photo: Disappointing Del's

We were driving by Tim Horton's and I saw a sign and almost drove off of the road. "Del's Sold Here!" What?!?! Could it be? Did someone FINALLY bring one of my favorite summertime treats to NY .

If you are from RI, you certainly know what Del's is and understand the tasty memory that made my drool in my car. If you aren't from RI, here is a bit of history of Del's http://www.dels.com/ As a kid/teenager, it was great to find the Del's truck or go to the Del's storefront to get this frozen lemony treat complete with little bits of lemon rind to cool you down in the heat of the summer.

To my dismay, this "Del's" did not live up to the name. Del's sells a packet now that you can make your own from and it is not the same as Great grandfather DeLucia used to make back in the day. It was very disappointing...the taste was all wrong, no lemon rind and no smell of the salt water of the Atlantic. I need to write to Tim Horton's about this false advertising! Oh well, I guess I will have to wait until I get back to RI this summer to get the real deal.

24 May 2009 Photo: Burn Baby Burn

One of the perks of living out in the country is being able to burn yard waste. Does that make me sound like a pyro? Anyway we had some large tree limbs come down last week in the wind storm and what the town didn't take away we burned up in our fire pit. I love watching fires (controlled ones) burn. This fire was was going good because we had a lot of VERY dry debris.

10 May 2009 Photo(s): Foxy Mama

On the way home yesterday from a long day of looking at bathroom sinks, fixtures and medicine cabinets, I noticed a red fox sitting on a log right behind our house. I practically slammed on the brakes and did a U turn and I think I scared Bill a bit. Anyway, when we got home from stalking them on the side of the road for several minutes, we found a mama fox and her 2 or 3 babies living under the shed behind our house. We now understand why Mona has been sniffing around up there so much.

I captured a few pictures which where techinically taken yesterday, but I figured what better way to celebrate Mother's Day than a mama and her babies. Here's to all of you mother's out there...Happy Mother's Day! And a special thought goes out to my Mom...I still miss her everyday!

9 May 2009 Photo: Neighborhood Watch

Here is another place I don't tend to spend a lot of time...our front porch. It would be the perfect place to watch the neighborhood but I prefer my hammock!