Friday, April 30, 2010

Arbor Day

The last Friday in April is Arbor Day!
I love trees. I would plant more trees in our yard but Mick says no. We do have quite a few now but I would love a woods in our backyard.
The one problem with planting trees is that once you get my age you need to buy some pretty big trees if you want to see them reach a good size.
A few interesting facts about trees.
Have a GREAT tree filled weekend !

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Sarah's Key

Another great book club selection, Sarah's Key. The book is historical fiction & follows the life of Sarah, a Jewish girl living in Paris during the Holocaust.

I could not put the book down in fact, I read it in one day, her story is riveting.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Daffodil's at sunset.


I took the photos behind my portrait photography school.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Portrait Photography Class

I had my last portrait photography class last week. While a few of my classmates, well everyone besides Mike & I, were interested in doing the below, I went outside behind the school & took nature shots. It was during sunset.
Photos that I guess can be used at Halloween.

Maybe I'm just to old for this colorization.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

I didn't think to take photos, I know hard to believe, until we had just about finished unpacking Amie's car. She is such a good packer. Every space was taken up. If there was extra space you would find a shoe. She has also come back as a cowgirl, hat, boots & even a guitar.
Maybe one day I'll post a video of her playing her new song. I was very impressed. I'll have to feature Eric & his videos also.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Vanilla Bean Scones

Amie arrived to G2 yesterday afternoon. We had a nice dinner together and evening tea served with vanilla bean scones, homemade Vanilla Bean Scones, here is the recipe. Disregard the 20 minutes prep time. Ha, ha, ha. It took me 20 minutes to cut the three vanilla beans open & remove the caviar. Wish I took a picture of the mess. It took me 20 minutes to clean up everything. The time involved aside, the scones are DELICIOUS !!

Welcome back Amie!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Rain, rain went away.

Sunday, after several days of rain, we had bright & clear skies. When I went out to the backyard to hang our sheets onto the clothesline I spotted flowers about to bloom. The flowers are Trillium and they are an endangered spies.

Our trillium are Trillium grandiflorum.

I love the Trillium. I'm glad I hung the sheets out otherwise I think I may have missed watching the blooming.

Friday, April 16, 2010

hApPy BiRHdAY

Guess who has a birthday today?
Someone who is working hard to get the mining started & never whines about it. Although, I may at times.
Mining is that someones past, present & future.
Hope your birthday rocks!!!
Love you.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Portrait Photography Class

This week our assignment was to take portraits while we were on the ground looking up at our model,
looking down
and a full body shot.
We also had to do group portratis. Unfortunally, I only had my 50mm 1.4 lens. I can't get more than one person in focus with the lens.
Our teacher is in the photo, she has a scarf on.

One thing I did learn was to take the camera off auto focus when taking a self portrait. I've never tried that, next time.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

S-E-A-N

Sean - Sean - Sean
We met up with Sean to watch two former coaches of Geneseo Hockey coach in the NCAA Final Four Tournament. Sean playing a bit of hockey of a different kind. The family genes are very strong. This could be Eric 23 years ago. If I wasn't so lazy I could dig up a picture for comparison. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Oh, David brought Sean and the four of us had a nice time together. Only negative our team lost.
I need to find a Mini-Mite team for Sean. I still have Eric's jersey that he wore at five.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Weekend Wedding

We attended a wedding ceremony at a gorgeous church on Friday evening.

The outside of the church was just as beautiful as the inside. Chuck, for a second time, giving away one of his daughters. A bonus of getting married around Easter, the alter already has flowers.
I always like simple bouquets on all the tables at the reception.The brown sugar cubes caught my eye. It was a nice touch. I'm sure it was for the coffee but, I had to eat one plain. Hope the couple has a wonderful life together. They certainly got off to a great start!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Vultures

Each evening for the last two weeks a flock of vultures have been circling in the woods behind our house.
They have been the talk of the neighborhood & even people not in our neighborhood.
I've been tempted to take a hike but I'm afraid of what I might find, something dead in the woods. Or another scenario, there is a nest & I would be swarmed by all the vultures thinking I was a predator.
Maybe this weekend I'll get the courage to go take a look and I'll get Mick to go with me.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Easter Sunday Project

This year I had one and only one Easter project. Remember the cute peat baskets from last year?
A broken egg filled with water, placed in an egg cup with a daffodil cut from my garden. I cut the daffodil Easter morning unfortunately, the daffodil did not bloom in time. All day Easter I kept moving the egg cup with the sun. Next year Easter is April 24th, will it be to late for daffodil's? I hope not, I'm giving this another try.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Book Club

Songs of the Missing by Stewart O'Nan was our selection last month. Although the book is literary fiction I think young adult fiction would me more accurate.

This is a good "book club" book, it made for great discussion. Having a daughter just removed from high school & college hit close to home for me. A couple nights I tossed & turned thinking about the what ifs.

Monday, April 5, 2010

St. Lawrence River

Last Saturday I was along the St. Lawrence River and there was still ice on one of the small streams that flow into the river. I'm sure it is long gone by now since we had 80 + this Saturday.




This was along the shore of the St. Lawrence. It looked as thou a snow flake formed into a fossil.
Just below the water fall.
A weed frozen into an icicle.

This close up doesn't do justice to what the ice looked like.
Thanks to Sandy for my tour !!