Wordless Wednesday ~ Sisters

 Christmas gift to Amber Skye December 2012....Amber is 3 1/4 years old

I love how Daddy was showing her all the pieces and how to use them.

Amber's sister, Zoe just under 8 months old.   It suddenly dawned on us last week that she could be playing with this!   Grateful for baby toys that were big girl enough in design to make a tiny, precious physically limited little girl feel so grown up.  Grateful for big sister's special toys that bring delight to a curious growing baby sister.  Grateful for a heart full of memories and making more.

Wordless Wednesday

Spotted this on our way to bed last night, clinging to the side light of our front door.  This window pane is a dollar bill wide.  

Wordless Wednesday

It is amazing and maybe a bit embarrassing to realize that I have lived in a community for 27 years and have only recently discovered some hidden treasures.  The first picture is the abandoned road my sister and I have begun walking this year for the first time.  Once a week we try to venture off onto lesser walked paths in the woods when my husband has time to go with us.  Last Friday we discovered this section of waterfalls.  It did involve a water crossing to get back onto the road but no one fell in!  Just beautiful and right in our own backyard, so to speak.

September Saturday Recap

  I'm disappointed I haven't filled up my Trail Report page this summer.  My sister has two new hips ... can we say three?  One hip ended up being replaced a second time!  We've been walking almost every day, but not quite the same as hiking.  When we do get a hike, it is a power hike with a focus on time and distance and pace as opposed to views and birds and contemplation.  I suppose it hasn't helped that we both graduated to sort-of-smart phones this summer.  She uses a stop watch function and is all about the time!!  I downloaded "map my hike" which is just my cup of tea as it uses GPS technology to show my route!  It speaks to us at each mile and lets us know our pace per mile as well as a split pace time and at the end it calculates calories burned.  After three years of not hiking, we each had some weight to lose as well as just needing to get fit again.  My favorite part of "map my hike" is syncing it to my lap top then watching a video flyover of our route through google earth.  Most of our "hiking" has been walking an abandoned road in town which gives us a quick three mile walk almost every day.  Once or twice a week we try to get a four or five mile hike in.  We are grateful for the Wapack Trail and the Midstate Trail in our backyard.  The Midstate Trail gives us a 5 mile roundtrip hike through changing terrain but it is mostly soft!  We have seen evidence of horse and bear, deer, and possibly coyote along the trail. 

  We also have Mount Watatic in our backyard, which is a relatively easy but steep hike to a rocky open top with views to Boston, as well as mountain ranges in New Hampshire and Vermont.  Last Saturday morning we began our hike with headlamps at 5:20 in the morning, hoping to enjoy sunrise on top.  It is VERY different hiking in the dark.  We made it to the top just about first light, with plenty of time to find a spot protected from the strong wind.  Coffee poured and muffins handed out, we leaned against a rock to watch the sunrise.  A very overcast day, the sunrise was not spectacular but it felt so good to finally do it as we've talked about it for years but always find a good excuse to stay in bed a little later on a Saturday morning.

Busy Birdbath

Cleaned out birdbaths and filled with fresh water.  We've only recently come home and returned to some semblance of order.  Birdbaths were pretty much non stop yesterday.  Pictures are a tad fuzzy, taken from inside through a screened window...and a bit of sheer curtain.

 Crazy Tree Sparrow decided to have a dust bath after the birdbath.

 American Robin just wanted a drink.

 I'm not sure of the ID for the bird on the right.  The Mourning Dove wanted the deeper end of the birdbath but whatever this bird was, it was not going to move.  Later in the morning, I spotted the Mourning Dove just sitting in a second birdbath having a good soak.

 Female Northern Flicker

 Eastern Bluebird....I can't remember if this was the male or female....hard to tell with my camera grabbing so much of the screen and the bird was drenched!  The pair took turns for a good thirty minutes.

Humming At Home

I've been away off and on since my last post.  Coming home today, I heard a steady humming as I walked back to the house from the mailbox.  It was loud enough to make me stop and look around.

A new community of honey bees?  I guess we'll just keep our eyes on them and leave them bee.

Green

I found this poem in a collection of poetry for children.....thought it was quite appropriate as we're waking up to white this morning!!

Wearing of the Green

It ought to come in April,
or, better yet, in May
when everything is green as green--
I mean St. Patrick's Day.

With still a week of winter
this wearing of the green
seems rather out of season--
it's rushing things, I mean.

But maybe March is better
when all is done and said:
St. Patrick brings a promise, 
a four-leaf-clover promise,
a green-all-over promise
of springtime just ahead!

-Aileen Fisher

Belatedly Christmas

A poem I came across again, from a favorite poet, David McCord.  I should have pictures with this, but I don't at the moment.  I just love the poem and had to put it down.

COME CHRISTMAS

You see this Christmas tree all silver gold?
it stood out many winters in the cold,

with tinsel sometimes made of crystal ice,
say once a winter morning - maybe twice.

More often it was trimmed by fallen snow
so heavy that the branches bent, with no

one anywhere to see how wondrous
is the hand of God in that white world of his.

And if you think it lonely through the night
when Christmas trees in houses take the light,

remember how his hand put up one star 
in this same sky so long ago afar.

All stars are hung so every Christmas tree
has one above it.  Let's go out and see.

Quite the Week...But It's Only Wednesday!

Quite the week and quite the show going on around here.  We seem to have been having more than our share of gloomy, wet and cold but for a moment Monday morning the sky was glorious and I do mean the whole sky!!  I almost missed it but looked up in time to just drop my jaw and run from window to window.  This was a sunrise that spanned the sky, it lit up my WEST facing front yard as if someone turned a spot light on!  The colors went from pink to pumpkin and eventually gray but it was just SPECTACULAR!!  I managed to snap a picture out one window, but it doesn't quite do it justice.

Tuesday was my birthday and I "felt the earth move under my feet."  A 4.0 earthquake in Maine that only lasted for a few seconds was felt throughout much of New England.  My husband and I were eating at a Rainforest Cafe and didn't think it was part of the special effects but thought maybe there was a hidden hallway behind us behind the wall and they were moving something really big and heavy.  Moments later a text message from our daughter informed us of the earthquake.  She told us our house actually shook as though a really strong wind was blowing.  I've had snow on my birthday before, but this is a first!  My hubby gets points for wishing me a happy 6th birthday and my daughter outdid herself with two very special handmade cards ~ one hand painted birch trees and the other my grandbabies' hand tracings!!

Wednesday began in Boston at a hotel near the airport with hubby catching a shuttle to the airport at 4 am.  I tried to catch a little more sleep and ventured out into traffic by 8.  It was a beautiful ride home!  I am always amazed when I work myself up into a tizzy, worried about traffic and finding my way, it seems as though the sky could not be bluer, the way more clear, traffic tolerable, and the show of foliage all the way home was just gorgeous.  The rest of the day was just full, with a funeral for a dear woman in her 90's who loved and served her Lord and Savior, then running some errands for my parents and finally settling in at home to hear from my husband that it's 75 degrees and his hotel room overlooks the bay in San Diego.

Misadventures in Kayaking

The last time we went kayaking, it was Memorial Day!  This past Sunday provided an opportunity we couldn't pass up.  We headed out with friends to try a paddle in a pond attached to a large reservoir about an hour away from home.  The description in her book was enticing, no motor boats, eagles, pristine.  Following directions in a book and putting the address into two GPS, we did eventually find Gate 43, although my eyes were shut for a few miles while we went on what seemed like a toboggan ride over a dirt road through the woods!  Arriving at our destination, the ranger told us we were not allowed to use our own kayaks in an attempt to prevent the spread of invasive plants.  This information was not on the Government website nor in the paddle book.  Having kayaks on our cars, we did not want to shell out money to rent kayaks so we were directed to another pond not too far away.  This was a little disappointing, the brook leaving the pond was overgrown and not navigable.  We did spy a little thing swimming across a patch of lily pads.  My friend said snake, I said muskrat?  The men ahead of us said SQUIRREL.  It was too funny!  I wish I had had an unobstructed view to snap a picture.  The men made a valiant attempt to navigate a few channels into the marsh grass and succeeded in rousting out a heron.

Kayaking adventures continued Monday.  We dashed up the road after supper to a small pond, just to get a little time together while there was still some daylight, maybe see some beaver.  As we began to take the boats off the roof, my hubby groaned.  One of our paddles comes apart for easy packing and one is permanently stuck.  He had taken the stuck one out of the car so he wouldn't have the mud in the front seat on his commute to work.  It was still at home.  Two kayaks....one paddle.  No problem!!  It was different, but we managed with half a paddle each!  Canoe strokes were remembered and I appreciated the lighter weight of half a paddle.  So, not complete misadventures but certainly not the paddles we had visioned.

Flashback Friday

Where are my sister's mittens???  And how come I always had to be up front?  This was a train - two sleds held together - and on the dead end/driveway in front of our house.  Not as dangerous as the toboggan which held all of us.  My spot was in the front wedged between my brother's legs and the scoop front of the toboggan.  My eyes were usually shut tight while we screamed downhill, inevitably hitting a bump or the boys would dig their feet in for brakes and send us flying.  Often I was still wedged in the front of the tipped over toboggan with my face sliding through the snow....or ice.   My mother was not too happy on more than one occasion when my oldest brother would bring me home a bit bloody.  I'm sure the older two wished they could have left me home a few times, but I'm grateful they took me along, injuries and all.

Do I See a Theme?

An apron made by an Amish woman in Northern Maine (a gift from my sister), books from my hubby, tied with twine,  an amazing cake created by my daughter, and an unexpected delightful surprise .... a book for the Grammy bookshelf, on my windshield when I left church Sunday night!!...(from a very special blogger friend), Sunday dinner with my parents, daughter, granddaughter, and three out of four siblings, and a yummy Edible Arrangement from my son who is far, far away...with a card that made us HOWL!

Contentment

Flowers on the kitchen window sill with the sun rising in the background

A project finally finished

I hand quilted a swirly, floral pattern on the border, never thought it could be so peaceful!  It turned out to be a great stress reliever at the end of each day.

Oh my, Peach Pie!!  A neighbor brought over peaches from their trees and my daughter made her first ever peach pie!!  None of us had ever had peach pie or ever had a desire to have peach pie but after all that work, it looked amazing, smelled wonderful, and we can't wait for her to make another one!!  Delicious!!!!

Someone very special is turning two this week!!  She had a very busy day working with her physical therapist.  She uses the box lid as a tray, sitting on the floor with her legs under it.  I think she's the picture of contentment!

Weird Wednesday - Updated

Juvenile woodpeckers.....haven't quite figured out the bird feeder.

Arch enemies!!  These two can't pass each other across a room without mad hissing.

 

My rhododendron is blooming!!!  It's not June....it's almost the end of August!!

Weird!

Flashback Friday

Twenty-two years ago this past week I was given the most amazing gift and responsibility, a precious baby girl.  Exuberant, dramatic, gifted and talented in arts and music and writing, and a sense of humor that her mom seriously lacks, she continues to amaze and impress me.  

Her name was one my mom had tossed around when she was having children but didn't use. (Schuyler, from a Grace Livingston Hill novel)  When I looked it up 22 years ago, it meant fortress or stronghold.   She was a very strong-willed child, fiercely independent.  As she raises her own family now and faces a different journey than many young moms, I think her name is more fitting now than ever.

Happy Birthday!