If today is your birthday, I hope it was a special day. Special for me meant spending the day not at work (or trying not to be) and with my sweetie. We are taking the week off. Not going anywhere…that we know of yet. Just taking it easy.
Monte baked me a chocolate cake from scratch with raspberry in between and powedered sugar on top. Looks GOOD! I got to lick the spatula, too.
If I weren’t a grown woman of 29, I’d just tear right into it! 🙂
We had another nice weekend. The weather was really warm – in the 70s. Monte worked on the boat and I worked on fun stuff.
If you recall my post a few weeks back about the catboat windtoy that monte made me… well this weekend I painted it and we put it up, and it works great! Here is a link to an animated gif to see it in motion (you’ll have to wait a bit for the 2+ MB file to load).
I also tweaked my blog a bit and have indulged myself by getting a dedicated domain name for it: sheila365.com. It’s still hosted on WordPress, but you can get to it directly with the new domain name. Any and all old links to sheila365.wordpress.com will still work, too.
This is a shot of the Chinaberry tree outside the shop. All the leaves have fallen and it’s just loaded berries. Monte suggested taking a picture of the many chinaberries looking up against the sky. This is my take at it. The sun was just dropping so there’s a bit of pink in the sky.
I saw the early morning sun filtering through the leaves in of the red oak in our front yard this morning. By the time I got my camera and went outside the light fog had lifted and it wasn’t quite as pretty as I saw through the window.
But it is a beautiful tree and a beautiful Fall morning.
It got pretty warm today, actually. But I know the cold days are on the way.
…and pretty soon all of these leaves will be on the lawn.
Since today is Macro Friday I was looking for a good closeup shot to take.
When I travel to a new country, I like to pick up a little trinket for myself to remind me of the visit. This is a small porcelain jewelry box from Scotland with a hand-carved celtic pewter medallion.
I was searching for a subject to shoot tonight. One of the things I happened upon was this dried bouquet of flowers that I keep on top of our wedding album. I like how the shot turned out. But, I like it also because of the memory the bouquet brings back every time I walk by.
We had booked an awesome estate called House on the Hill for the weekend where both our out-of-town families stayed. It had a main residence, 3 cottages, a pool, beautiful grounds and an amazing view of the Hill Country. It was also the location where we held the rehearsal dinner and reception. (it was AWESOME)
But I digress. On the day of the wedding, the florist was supposed to deliver the bride’s bouquet to the House on the Hill for the formal family photos, and the rest of the flowers to the church.
Well, it didn’t work out that way. When the time came for photos before everyone headed to the church… no bride’s bouquet. Uh oh. Ok, no biggie. We would just take the photos without a bouquet. My sister, Noreen, disappeared and came back about 5 minutes later with a hastily assembled bouquet of flowers and ribbon from the rehearsal dinner the night before. How sweet is that? That was the bouquet we used for the photo shots, which turned out lovely.
While I LOVE the brides bouquet that I picked out for the wedding, and did get to carry that down the aisle, this small bouquet is the one I kept and the one I remember fondly.
Yes. That’s right. Another shot of a zinnia.
Could be the last one of the year.
But I’m not making any promises. 😉
Tuesday. What a slog. Now, if I can just hold on through Friday……
We are fans of the Farmer’s Almanac. It keeps us up to date on the celestial happenings around the year. We get one every year and keep it at the ready. The 2011 version is out now, by the way.
And it’s also chock full of amusing miscellany.
Have you ever turned to the classified ads in the back? If you ever need a psychic, magic spell, divine intervention, etc., it is THE place to go.
Happy Birthday Fran! (make a wish!)
Cow Creek is a lovely spot on Lake Travis. It’s not one we get to see very often because it’s about 20 miles up river.
The walls are always raining with water from the rocks. The fall color this weekend was really beautiful.
Our friends Teri and Ace invited us to stay with them on their boat, since Cupholder is in the shop. We had a fantastic time – they are awesome hosts. I got my dose of laughter to tide me over for quite a while.
This weekend is the Annual Birthday Raftup. This year we anchored in Cow Creek, at mile marker 32. We had 5 boats: Robert, Jay and Bridget on Moon Rock; Michelle, Tony and Dali on Caribbean Run; Teri, Ace, Monte and I on Island Time; Dennis and Christine on Lone Spar; and Sarah and Mark on Serenade.
Temps got down into the 40’s tonight. But that didn’t keep the sailors from staying up playing iPod wars into the wee hours – again. Everyone was in fine form.
We sorely missed the rest of our 1st string raftup team members Marty, Sue, Joe, Kurt, Wally, Lori & Dave.
This was a shot of Tony & Michelle on the way back from a shore run for Dali late in the evening. The mist on the water lit up as they made their way back to the boats.
The morning glory that I planted from a single seed back in the spring has grown up and over the 5 foot iron obelisk it was meant to cover. Most of the leaves and blooms have dried up and are dying, but at the very top there is one bright, beautiful flower left that opens every morning.
I thought I’d capture it before it closes for the last time.
I’m trying something new this Friday. I’ve learned of another blogger @ bloggingfrombolivia that hosts a just-for-fun contest every Friday in which other bloggers can enter a close-up, or macro shot. Sounds like fun. This is my modest entry 😉
We stopped in for pub grub on the way home tonight. The tables are covered in beer labels and coasters from around the world and back in time.
The Rainier Beer label reminds me of my all-time favorite quirky beer commercial. I remember seeing it when I was a kid in the 70s and I still think it’s great.
The neighbor’s crepe myrtle has turned a beautiful shade of crimson. I just had to take a picture.
Ok, I’m pretending not to notice that it’s 70+ degrees outside this evening because I’m in the mood for some meat-and-potatoes Irish soul food that seems more appropriate for a chillier Fall evening. Oh well. I’ll just crank the AC tonight.
Shepherd’s Pie – it’s what’s for dinner.
Here’s how I make mine:
2 lbs lean ground beef
1/2 c dry red wine
2 T steak sauce
1 T worchestershire sauce
1 bay leaf
1/2 t dried whole marjoram
dash of ground cloves
dash of ground red pepper
salt/pepper to taste
2 onions – diced
2 garlic cloves – finely minced
8 oz frozen peas/carrots
4 oz sliced mushrooms
5 cups cooked mashed potatoes
3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
Cook meat in large skillet over medium heat until browned. I use very lean beef, so there’s not much fat, but if there is spoon it off now. Stir next 7 ingredients into pan with browned meat, saute over medium high heat for about 5 mins. Add onion, garlic, mushroom and cook until soft. Add peas/carrots and simmer for a few minutes. Remove bay leaf from skillet and discard. Empty meat mixture into the bottom of a casserole dish. Spread mashed potatoes evenly over top of meat mixture. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
Bake at 350 for 20 mins or so, until mixture is thoroughly heated. Makes 6-8 servings, depending on how hungry everyone is.
Sheila365 
