Hiking at Limekiln

We hiked the "Old Damn" trail at Limekiln State Park.

 

I think the trail is a 1.5 mile loop. Yes, we remembered to sign out.

 

The creek was very dry. That's what happens when we have a summer with no rain.

 

The three Piel kids.

Can you spot the nest high in the tree?

Saw two fawns at the trail head.

I love hiking in the woods. 

Tenting at Limekiln State Park

This past weekend I went tenting with the Piel family.

We had site 117.  We were not on the water but very secluded from other sites.

Camping is a lot of work. Most of the work happens at home, packing and figuring out everything you need to bring and then all the clean-up and drying out after the trip is over.

We spent hours and hours sitting and staring at the fire pit.

Toast for breakfast along with my tea water on the boil.

No dishwasher while camping.

Our group as we set out for a hike.

Thankfully, no rain for me this weekend!!!

USC Arboretum

When Mick & I were in Columbia, SC attending a memorial service, for a co-worker of Mick's, we stayed with Jim & Debbie. On Sunday we went hiking at a University of South Carolina Arboretum. Don't confuse USC with the "real" USC.

The weather was like a spring day at home.

The trail was marked with rocks taken from the property.

The sky was a beautiful blue.

I thought this was a very interesting tree stump.

 

This is the bridge from the photo in last weeks Wordless Wednesday.

Was great to see flowers in the middle of winter. Pansies were also blooming.

A terrible self-portrait.

It was wonderful Sunday hike especially when it was January and didn't involve boots and snow pants.

So 21st Century

I went through security using my iPhone and license.

I then boarded the plane showing my iPhone.

It was so nice not having to keep track of the paper boarding pass.

Amie was so proud of me, actually more surprised!! Hey, I think I'm the first in my family to go high tech when flying. : )

Deicing

If you look really close you can barely see the wing of a plane and the pink deicing foam being sprayed.

This is a photo of my window being sprayed with deicing foam.

It took 50 minutes to deice the entire plane, the first time. Something I've never had to experience before. I always avoid flying in the winter, except the one time I flew out of JFK on Christmas Day. Figured I'd be safe from ice at JFK.

We headed to the runway and after an examination by the co-pilot we went back for a second deicing of green deicing foam on the wings. That took around 30 minutes.

We left two hours late & I could not believe the complaints by a lot of the passengers. They were mad since many were going to miss connections. I just sat there praying I would get there safe no matter how long it took and happy for once I had a direct flight.  

All photos taken with my cell phone.

Door Wreaths of Philadelphia

Christmas Eve I spent about an hour walking the streets of the Rittenhouse area of Philadelphia taking photographs of doors decorated with wreaths.

    I used an app called Pic Collage to make the collages. It was so easy!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was spent just north a NYC. We spent just over two hours driving from Philadelphia. Thankfully it was a breeze crossing the George Washington bridge with the light holiday traffic.
Not on purpose, no really, Mick and I are shirt matching.  : )

Spent two days with Eric, Kristen and her family.

Hopefully Eric put his deer door bell on his apartment door. He could leave this up all year long considering he has two mounted deer heads hanging on his walls.

His gifts were all wrapped with a craft paper theme.

Christmas day dinner was turkey. Served on a beautiful decorated table.

Gone are all Christmas's with everyone at home. We are so blessed to be able to see both Amie and Eric even thou we couldn't all be together.

Christmas Eve

Prior to our Christmas Eve dinner of prime rib we walked the streets of Philadelphia. It was in the mid 50's, not my typical Christmas Eve weather.

The mosaic wall was really neat. It's actually an entrance to a pub.

Amie had the apartment looking so nice. She painted the canvases herself and the feather wreath is one of my thrift store finds, minus the bow. She made the garland by stringing pom poms from a craft store onto string.

A silver tree decorated with gold balls.

My favorite photo from Christmas Eve. I love the photo opportunites the streets of a ctiy have to offer.

Pennsylvania Ballet

My first ever ballet and it was The Nutcracker. This was Mick's second ballet. He saw a performance when he was at Columbia. The theatre, in Philadelphia, is beautiful. I wish I could have taken a photo of the ballet but it was not allowed.

Amie suggested we attend and made all the arrangements.

I didn't want to blink during the performance for fear I would miss something.

Amie is making plans for me to come back in the spring and attend another ballet. Leigh Anna, meet us there!!

11-11-11

My lame photo taken at 11:11 am on 11-11-11.

It was 40 degrees outside, had another 190 miles to drive before I ran out of gas (before my car ran out of gas) and I was somewhere on Interstate Route 81 heading north. I was getting great gas mileage since my foot was off the gas petal but I eyes were diffidently on the road. 
I've driven 6261 miles in the 77 days since I've had my new car so I'ts quite fitting that I was driving on 11:11 am on 11-11-11.

Bed & Breakfast

A few of the photos I took in the yard of the B&B in Tucson. Everything was done by the owner. She collected from thrift stores the plates, cups & saucers.

I love tea so I loved the tea cup in the wall.

Random plates attached to a retaining wall.

She called this the "bottle wall."

When the sun was setting and shinning on the bottles it was beautiful.

The yellow wall is the side of the house where we stayed. I wish I would have asked if she painted Mary.

All the bottles were collected over the years through family and friends.

A very eclectic yard. Wonder if all these walls would get through one of my winters?