MIA

Sorry I've been MIA for so long. I was busy getting things in order here at home so I could take a long overdue vacation with my son.

We spent a week in this beautiful hotel enjoying the warm Florida sunshine. I wish I could say it was a relaxing vacation...but after arriving home a week later I'm totally exhausted. We did have an absolute blast though...

visiting here....

and here...

and here....

and here....

and when we weren't there we were swimming in the pool at our resort or eating in fabulous restaurants including a lovely dinner with my favorite cousins, their daughter (my second cousin???) & adorable grand-daughter.

I'm tired, my feet ache and it will feel soooo good to sleep in my own bed again, but looking back I wouldn't change one minute of this magical vacation (no pun intended). Now I have more than 400 photos to sort through & organize but after that I'll have more (better quality)photos to share & lots of new things to scrapbook. For now I'm off to bed as the dog will be up bright & early wanting his walk he's been missing out on this past week. Hope you all are well...have a great weekend.

A rude awakening

The dog woke me at his usual 6 am today & I was so excited it was Sunday so I could take him out to go potty and then get him to come back to bed so I could maybe sleep for another hour rather than head right out for our usual weekday early morning walk.

We went out the back door onto the deck and as Tanner runs off for the woods I imediately feel a stabbing pain in the side of my neck. OUCH !!! As I look down trying to figure out what bit me I see a wasp on the neckline of my pajama top. But when I tried to brush it away it clings and flips around to the inside edge of my neckline. You never saw anyone take off their shirt as fast as I did this morning.

So there I am naked from the waist up...shaking my shirt out to get rid of the darn thing when I realise.....I'm half naked standing in clear sight of my neighbors if they happen to be up early!!! Hopefully none of them have dogs that have them outside as early as me or they may have gotten quite a show.

So much for getting a little more sleep...I was wide awake after that...and my neck is stinging like crazy now. Anyone have any good remedies for stings? I tried baking soda, vinegar & now I sit here with a penny taped to my neck...and you know what...I think the penny is working. The tape doesn't feel too great on my sunburned neck though...lol

WOW !!!

It was in the 90's here today !!! Gorgeous weather. And it would have felt great if I hadn't spent the hottest hours of the day burning. Last weekend burning I said to my sister in law " this is fun...I'm going to do this every year" Today I was saying " I am NEVER going to do this again." It was miserable hot and I swear the smoke followed me everywhere I went. I was feeling so queasy and wasn't sure if it was from the heat, lack of food (because I couldn't leave the fire unattended) or smoke inhalation.....ugh....so glad thats over !!! After we finished I took Jake & the dog for a swim. Boy was that water icy cold !!

I managed to get some scrapping done this week & created the page below with a photo of my new favorite scrapbooking subject. Tanner.
Its been a long day & I'm beat. Heading to get some much needed sleep. Have a great weekend everyone.

Progress

Remember this photo from back in December? It still makes me so sad to look at this & see what that ice storm did to my back yard. So much damage....so much to clean up when spring arrived. And that's what has been consuming every free minute of my time these days. Hours & hours of cutting & dragging logs and branches around in an effort to uncover my yard again.

This is what it looked like a few days ago. You can't tell from this photo but that large pile of branches way back there is about 8' high x 20' wide in each direction. And that's not even all of the branches...you can see piles of them on the left & right leading down there. But my yard is begining to appear again so I'm making progress while getting ready to begin burning this past Sunday.
wow there's actually land under all that debris. Still a lot of logs to cut up for firewood...
but thanks to this...
and my awesome sister in law who spent her whole sunday helping me burn...that huge pile of branches is nothing but ash now. One more weekend to burn & get rid of the piles in the front & side yard and then I'm going to relax & enjoy spring & summer and just pick at the rest of the mess bit by bit. I'm just happy to have my yard back.
And you can't believe how good it felt to sit ours butts in these 2 chairs after hours of hauling & burning. My whole body aches today. oh yeah...and tick number 2 had to be yanked out of my other leg today at work.....yuck !!
Sadly my back yard won't look like this again...but I'm so glad I took and framed this photo before the ice storm arrived to give me a whole new view.

Macro magic

ugh....goosebumps....I just pulled a tick out of the back of my leg...yuck !!! I hate ticks....now I need to watch for signs of lyme disease since it was too small of a tick to know if it was a deer tick or not. Lovely !!! I'll need to check Jake & I closer after being out in the woods doing tree clean up.

Anyway...that's not why I started this post. Before I was interrupted by the itch on the back of my leg I was posting to share some pictures I took of the arrival of spring in my gardens. Plants are so fun to shoot in macro mode and I love how some of these came out...

The bulbs are all blooming now...isn't this little tulip pretty?
I don't even know what these next 2 are ...although I can remember planting them when I first moved here. Love the blue though...especially love the second photo.

Even the daffodils are blooming.Last year for some reason they never bloomed so I'm happy to see them this year.

The lilac bush is coming along nicely. Cant wait till this is in bloom. One of my favorite scents is a lilac bush in full bloom.

The azaleas (which are newly planted a couple of weeks ago) are covered in buds . It will be fun to see them bloom for the first time.

The perennials are beginning to grow too. This Johnsons blue geranium is looking very healthy..

Love this photo of one of the seedums in my sun garden

daylilies..

My beloved purple iris's are coming in beautifully. These are so gorgeous when they bloom.

And this one surprised me how quick it grew & is already in bloom. Pulmonaria is one of my favorite shade plants. Such an interesting pretty little plant.

that's all for now....I'm very tired so I'm off to read in my cozy bed for a bit. Enjoy your weekend everyone.

And if that made you smile....

This one may just bring a tear to your eyes. It did for me anyway. Enjoy.

need a smile?

If this doesn't make you smile I don't know what will. Enjoy !!

Just an ordinary day...

5:30 am - Woke up...needed to use the bathroom...but didn't want to wake the dog and have to take him out to go potty in the cold. Lay there without moving, trying (unsucessfully) to fall back to sleep.

6-6:15 am - Tanner is awake....snuggle time. Love this sweet lovable dog !!!!

6:15-7 am - two and a half mile walk with the dog.

7-8 am - shower and get ready for work

8-9 am - Drop Jake at school and then make my long ride to work

9:15 am - hot bowl of oatmeal with rasins, coconut & walnuts. Yum !!!

1-2 pm - lunch hour..off to my dog walking job

5-6 pm - another long commute home

6-8 pm - yardwork cleaning up tree damage

8-8:30 pm - cook Jake a quick (late) dinner

8:30-9 pm - quick phone call with my sister so she can give me the news she's going to be a grandma and then get Jake off to bed

9-9:20 pm - 4 miles on my bike (on the trainer)

9:30pm - pj's on and its finally time to relax.

Whew....no wonder I'm tired !! Off to bed so I can get up & do it all again tomorrow. Hope you're all having a great week.

Happy Easter !!!

Hi everyone....I hope you all had a great Easter. I treated myself to some time off from yard work & did a bit of scrapbooking this morning. This afternoon I had a nice dinner at my brothers house & then came home to do more tree work and get a few bushes I had purchased planted.

Its been very chilly & windy here today so I have had the woodstove going all day. Thats crazy isn't it? Almost halfway through April & still using the woodstove !!! Right now is is about 20 degrees out....brrrr. But this is spring right? All I can say is that's New England for you...

And I know it's spring because I took this photo a couple of weeks ago of the first purple & yellow crocus (spelling?) in my garden.

2 days later those same purple plowers had opened up to look like this. So pretty !!!

This last photo that I wanted to share is of a barn that I love. I walk by it every day on my walk with Tanner. Barns & stone walls are 2 of my favorite things about living in the country. I've always said I'd like to do a "coffee table" photo book on each subject. Would be fun to find barns to photograph on trips & collect photos of them. I thought the owners of this barn might like a photo of it so I left one in their mailbox this morning. They are a super nice family so I hope it put a smile on their face to find it in there.

I'm off to bed...have a great week.

apparently....

...I have no pride when it comes to walking the dog in torrential downpours. Tanner even looks like he's laughing at me...lol

although he doesn't look very amused here does he?

(lots) of photos to share....

My beautiful daughter came home from Seattle for a quick visit before she deploys to Iraq. This picture is far from perfect because of the harsh sunlight...but still it takes my breath away how gorgeous she is.

She flew to Virginia first to where her fiancee is stationed & then they drove up here together. We were so excited to meet him for the first time. He was so nice & they are such a cute couple. We had a cookout here at home for lunch so some of the family could meet him too & then the 4 of us (Me, Jake, Amanda & Ken) headed to the beach for the afternoon.

Love this sweet photo of the 2 of them...

aren't they cute together?

Amanda & Jake....

sweet...

amazingly none of them got wet feet here...even Amanda who wasn't paying attention

being silly...

love this time of year when you have the beach all to yourself

love this photo of Jake from behind...

a family shot...

after we left the beach we had dinner at one of our favorite places to eat. They have the most amazing flatbreads here. Yum.

And they are cooked in that open clay oven just behind Jake

It was a good day !!! We miss her already.

Quick layout share

Finally a layout to share....

I have been wanting to get these pictures from Jakes birthday onto a scraobook page. We had such a fun day & I know years from now he'll like looking at this page & remembering what a great time we had at this indoor water park.
I love this die cut paper from K & Co. The vertical strips of paper were cut with my EK Success slimline border punch.

In a flash...

...they were gone...

But we had an absolute blast with the time we had together. I have lots of photos to share & even a new layout I finally finished to share soon too. But right now its late & I'm super tired so I'mheading to my cozy bed.

An epiphany....

Wow...maybe I'll sleep tonight finally...

I had one of those light bulb moments tonight while doing what I have done so much of since December....mourning the loss of so many trees on my property after a wild ice storm.

I have been so sad about this and have been losing so much sleep over it....wondering & worrying how I'll do trying to cut the trees up myself.....how I'll ever get it all done when dozens of snapped trees need to come down....will my property ever look the same again and what should I do to make it look nice again....will I ever forget the loss of some of my favorite beautiful trees....the sadness of coming home every day as they hang dying waiting for me to put them out of their misery.

On the good side I have all the firewood I could need for a long time & the hard work will be rewarding & good for me in the long run. But I'll be burning my favorites & they'll be gone forever...that just makes me sad. I know its silly...but its how I feel. So as I sat here tonight thinking about my back grove area that right now is just a criss cross of fallen or falling trees..it hit me. I don't have to burn all the wood...I can try to find a way to recycle and keep some of it to use somehow in my gardens and the woodland paths & gardens I want to do in the back area.

So I sat here thinking & thinking and here's what I came up with....if you have any other ideas I'd love to hear them...

1) I can make steps going down the back slope from the largest trees if I cut them into large thick slices.

2) I can use med large slices for either footpaths or I can cut them into half rounds & use them as path or garden borders

3) Large 4-5 foot long logs can be cut in half lengthwise & turned in to rustic woodland benches

4) Single 2 ft high logs can also be used as a seat when set on end

5) or they can be used as a pedastal on their own or in groups of 3 in varying heights to do a display of potted plants

6) A hollowed out stump or section of log can be used as a planter

7) A section of log stood on endcan also be used as a base for a birdbath

8) And lastly....all the small branches that have to go through a woodchipper can be turned into mulch used to create a natural base for woodland paths.

So I don't have to say goodbye forever ...I still can enjoy the trees....just in a different form. And now I have the opportunity to add some interesting new trees to fill in the landscape too.

So I'm off to bed to get what may be the best night sleep I've had in a long time. Have a great weekend everyone.

It's here....

Baseball season has officially begun. Jake had his first practice today and he was looking pretty sharp on the field with his new slimmed down physique. Oh how I love this time of year....love watching his games on beautiful spring days, love witnessing his natural talent as he pitches, love chatting & cheering with the other parents.

So what does that mean for all of you? Well....instead of just seeing more photos of snow or the dog, I may now begin boring you with baseball photos. And you'll probably see more layouts like the one below. But I'll change it up a bit too & overload you with flower & garden shots too...lol
Hope you're all having a great week....tomorrow is Friday...hooray !!!