The moon going down…

 

on the year 2010.  Hope everyone has a safe, happy and blessed 2011!!!

 

Funny signs…for MB….

 

One of my blogging friends, MaryBeth, at Day4Plus sometimes posts signs she finds that are amusing or funny.  On a recent trip with my bud, Annie, I spotted these couple of signs and they made me think of Mary Beth and smile.

and…

 

 

This one I took through the windshield at the house where we were trying to raise someone to let them know their donkey was out on the street…but that’s another story.

Christmas babies….

 

 

 

This baby loves her new baby….lots.

Sixteen long, yet short, years ago….

 

Yesterday was Nicole’s Sweet Sixteen birthday.  She is so much a validation of all I hold important.

She is still so young and sweet….she isn’t rushing growing up and I’m very thankful for that.

 

She and two of her best friends went bowling to celebrate her special day.  Kayla and Nicole.

 

The bowling alley was playing music and videos from the 80’s.  I couldn’t believe how much of the music the girls knew and really loved.  They were dancing and singing to the likes of Madonna, Billy Joel and John Cougar Mellencamp.

 

The dreaded shoes….

 

Nicole and Brittany.

After they had a blast bowling, we went to our favorite Mexican food restaurant and flirted with the waiter….okay, they flirted…not me.

This sweet young lady rocks my world!!!

Rescue me…

Yesterday afternoon, Nicole, Kayla and I went with my BFF, Annie, to rescue some basset hound puppies.  After Annie’s daughter, Lisa,  recently adopted a rescued basset hound, she and Annie have become foster “parents” for other basset’s in need of rescuing.  These puppies came from a puppy mill somewhere in the midwest.

Now Annie had been told these puppies – three of them – were six weeks old.  She was envisioning carrying them around in a cardboard box.

Turns out the puppies – did I mention…three of them – are twelve weeks old and would have eaten any cardboard box she might have brought with her.

I had the camera, of course, so I didn’t get a puppy to hold.  Kayla, Nicole and Annie all got puppies to hold.  There were two females and one male.   After the three puppies, two teenage girls, and two adult women all got settled in Annie’s Malibu, things were fragrant to say the least.  It was the puppies….honest!

 

Everyone picked their favorite….this little girl was Kayla’s favorite.  She was also the dominant dog and had lots of energy.

 

This mellow fellow – the only boy in the group – was Nicole’s favorite.  She wants to keep him and name him Bayard after the dog in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.  I had to remind her we already have two dogs and that’s plenty.

 

This is the third puppy – the second little girl – resting comfortably in Annie’s arms. 

The puppies are headed to Annie and Lisa’s to meet their foster brother, Baldwin, and foster sisters, Trixie and Wrangler.  Baldwin is the rescued basset,  Trixie is a Dachshund, and Wrangler is the old matriarch of the group who wonders whose bright idea all of this was.  The puppies will be at Annie’s house for about a month while they complete their shots and vet care before being adopted out to other loving families. 

Hopefully, Annie, Lisa  and their house will survive the experience.

Tiptoed in on little cat feet….

 

When it was finally light enough to see outside this morning (and I had finally crawled out of my soft, warm bed), I discovered we had a blanket of fog.

It was early enough the camera wanted to use the flash, so I let it.  

 

 

I ventured out again later and took a second set of pictures.  For those of you who have this all the time this may seem naive, but everything is wet outside.  I’m sure the plants are loving all this moisture. 

It’s not raining, but the trees are so wet they’re dripping.

 

FOG

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

 

Maybe our fog came in on little coyote feet….

Rainy Day…

 

Yes, we got rain today in our neck of the desert. 

 

The lady bug, monkey  and I sat in the truck waiting at the bus stop as the rain pitter pattered on the roof.

 

 

Then I spotted the bus coming….

 

And these two red blurs turned out to be my kiddles.

 

Love the rain and spending a rainy afternoon watching the Twilight Zone with my baby girl.

Aunt Dutch…this is for you…

 

On her last visit to see Bill and Tracy, my Aunt Dutch came out to see Mom and my family also.   Yes, Tressie and Pat were here too!!  We were all sitting outside taking pictures in funny glasses and talking flowers.  I was lamenting about my inability to grow Marigolds and my sweet, loving Aunt Dutch laughed at me.  :)  I guess Marigolds are one of the easiest flowers to grow…almost like a weed.  Alas, mine always die. 

Well I hung in there and kept dropping the seeds from the dead blossoms back into my hanging basket hoping for a Lazarus-type miracle.  And lo and behold, I received one!!

I guess I was over watering my Marigolds in the heat of the summer and due to my recent  neglect, my Marigolds are doing wonderfully…..in December!

 

So, Aunt Dutch, don’t give up on me yet.  I’m always learning….trying to anyway.  Here are my Marigolds that I would like to share with you  in your snow-covered  Illinois.

Cali, the reindeer???

 

While on our way to Bill and Tracy’s yesterday, Greg and I spotted this handsome man.  We turned around and talked to his “human” companion and asked if I could take a picture.  He kindly agreed and told us Cali was a perfect gentleman and I was welcome to greet him if I didn’t mind getting licked. :)

 

I didn’t mind at all!!!

Our autumn comes in December….

 

Here in the Phoenix area, our autumn comes later in the year. Instead of snow falling in December, we have autumn leaves falling.

 

“But I remember more dearly autumn afternoons in bottoms that lay intensely silent under old great trees”  C.S. Lewis

“Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.”  Faith Baldwin

 

“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree”  Emily Bronte

Neglect….

 

Neglect can be such a tragic thing.  With my foot the way it is, I haven’t been able to get out and do the things I want to.

 

The birds have about given up on me and have found other watering holes.

 

The toys lay in the yard in the morning light like soldiers fallen and forgotten.

 

Star moves through the battlefield, trying to resurrect a playmate.

 

How could I resist….foot and all.  Pardon the blur…you-know-who is on the other end of this game of tug-a-war trying to click a picture.  Must have been quite a sight.    

On the wing….

 

On our recent trip to Prescott, went out to Lynx Lake after our feast.  It was cold!!!!  But beautiful….

 

We spotted these Canadian Geese just about the same time we got too close for comfort for them….or maybe we were just a little noisy.

 

I’m snapping on the fly….so to speak.

 

So please excuse any blurring….

 

They’re so beautiful in flight.

 

They decided the middle of the lake was more to their liking.    

Mystery solved…..

 

The dianthus from my black and white post was…..

scarlet…..crimson…..magenta…..burgundy…..red    :)

Oh, Christmas tree….

 

Today Nicole and I put up our Christmas tree.  Well really Nicole did almost all of the work.

 

 

 

Christmas is about traditions and this ornament is part of my family’s tradition.  It’s an ornament my mom has had since her first tree in 1950. 

 

 

 

I love the natural ornaments.  Some day in the future, I want to decorate my tree with only pine cones, acorns, berries and birds. 

 

 

 

 

Some ornaments have some really fond memories.

 

 

 

 

Some hold memories because of where they were bought.

 

 

 

 

This explains why Nicole did most of the work.  Last Thursday Greg and I helped his brother move.  The last piece of furniture…a 300 lb. solid oak dining room table ended up getting dropped on my foot.  What is it with my feet lately????  I’m beginning to get a complex. Nothing is broken from what they could tell from the xrays, but they did tell me if it doesn’t get better once the swelling goes down, we may need to check again. I think it’s getting better and tomorrow my jailers….I mean the people who love me…. go back to work and school and I’m going to try and put a shoe on and walk a bit. 

Black and white or shades of gray….

 

I was playing around with some black and white effects on some recent shots I’ve taken…

 

You may remember this soft ornamental grass that was a pretty shade of pink.  I like the texture here.

 

You would be hard pressed to know this water was green and mossy.

 

Can you guess what color this dianthus was?

 

You can tell these are shots Tracy and I took together….same subject matter as one of her recent posts.  I think the b&w gives it a nostalgic feel.  Although in that time frame, it may not have had to be locked up.

 

Black, white, purple or orange….no mistaking what these guys are.

It’s official….

 

We received our first Christmas card on Wednesday, December 1st.  Let the season begin!!!

 

“MERRY CHRISTMAS, YOU OLD SAVINGS AND LOAN!”…..It is a wonderful life, isn’t it?