I walked out back this afternoon and noticed a flowering snapdragon (I think) in one of the flower beds. It’s a volunteer. And the winter has been so mild, it is starting to bloom.
A little surprise in the garden.
Tag: photography
Cornhole!
Fran, the kids and my mom leave today. Before heading to the airport we got in a few more games of cornhole. What’s cornhole, you ask? A bean-bag (or corn kernel bag, rather) toss game. Players take turns throwing the bags at the board. If a bag lands on top, you get 1 point. If it goes in the hole, you get 3 points. It is a staple of most mid-western family gatherings and picnics. Monte recently made a pair of boards.
Francine is quite good at the game, even though she’s never played it before. She’s giving Monte a run for his money…
In the shot above, Monte’s toss is dropping into the hole (it’s all in the wrist!).
Planting a cache.
Geo-caching is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game, where you look for hidden containers, or “geo-caches,” using GPS-enabled devices. People can post the coordinates for caches they have hidden, for others to find. And geo-cachers can share their stories of their finds online.
We enjoy geo-caching in the nearby parks and woodlands. And we especially enjoy taking other people, especially kids, geo-caching with us when they visit.
On my last birthday, Monte bought me an ammo-case, which is the perfect thing to use for a geo-cache because it is durable and has a rubber gasket around the top, which makes it relatively weatherproof.
Today we took Fran, Rebecca and Aaron geo-caching in the greenbelt near our house, and I brought my own geo-cache to hide. Inside my geocache is a disposable camera, so when people find and open the cache, they can take a picture of themselves, and leave the camera inside for the next people. The shot above shows the cache, as we left it.
We found 4 out of 6 caches that we were looking for… not bad. The kids, big and small, had fun.
After we got home I posted the coordinates of my new cache to geocaching.com. Now I can monitor it online for log entries from people that have found it.
Check out geocaching.com for caches near you to look for and find. Happy hunting!
Tulips in the morning.
There was a vase of tulips on the table when I came back home the other day. So pretty! I couldn’t resist posting another obligatory tulip shot this morning.
Where did January go?!
Wow. That was fast. January sure flew by.
I am in New York this week for some meetings. It is unseasonably warm here, as it is in other parts of the country this winter. It was in the 50’s and 60’s today. No snow on the ground. This tree, outside of my hotel, is covered with big buds already getting ready to pop.
February has 29 days this year. I’m going to savor each one!
Bread of life.
Some friends and I signed up for today’s bread baking class at the culinary center at Whole Foods downtown. I’ve been looking forward to it. The class was hands-on, showing how to make focaccia and ciabatta bread, both of which I LOVE.
I love to bake, and have baked bread before, but never these Italian breads. I enjoyed the class. The instructor taught us several techniques and tips that I can’t wait to try on some of the other breads I’ve made (especially my baguettes – which usually end up with too thick of a crust). We also learned how to make a starter for the dough, and brought that home for the next loaves I’ll make.
I thought it was interesting that you make both breads out of the same dough, just prepared differently — you add lots of olive oil to the focaccia – before and after you bake it, and sprinkle with rosemary and salt.
I had fun, and the breads turned out great! The shot above is a picture of the final product. Yummy!
My year.
Today is Chinese New Year’s Day. 2012 is the Year of the Dragon. The dragon symbolizes power and good fortune. Of all the 12 Chinese zodiac animals, the dragon is the mythical one, and therefore the most powerful & mysterious.
I was born in a Year of the Dragon. I am a dragon. I hereby declare 2012 to be my year.
Happy New Year!
Dinner and a movie.
We rarely go out to a movie, choosing instead to watch them at home on the DVR. When we do go out, we go to the Alamo Drafthouse, where we can eat dinner and have a few drinks while watching the movie.
Last night, we saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It’s a book that I have started reading several times, but have yet to finish. Ususally I don’t want to see a movie until I’ve read the book it’s based on. But for this one, I was willing to bend the rule. Monte has read several of the books in this series, ravenously. So, he was eager to see it.
** Spoiler Alert **
I liked the movie, it has a very complicated story line and set of characters. I’m all for realism and all, but ….. I have to say that I just can’t appreciate the “art” associated with acting out a rape scene in a movie. Yeah. I guess I’m just old school – and getting older school it seems.
I think, tonight, catching up on episodes of season 1 of Downton Abbey is much more my speed. 🙂
Releasing my inner artiste.
Tonight Sue & I went to an art studio called Painting with a Twist. They hold a painting class every night where everyone in the studio paints the same picture. Oh, and you can bring your own wine and snacks to help get the creative juices flowing (that’s the twist part). You can choose which session you want to attend by checking out their calendar and signing up ahead of time. They have studios in many cities, check out their main website if you’re interested. Tonight’s piece is called Moonlit Cherry Blossoms.
I know friends that have tried it, but this was my first time. It was FUN! The pic above is one I took of my painting after I got it home. I look forward to trying this again.
Look out people, ARTIST COMIN’ THROUGH!! 😀
A reminder.
My Uncle Bill passed away this morning – 1 month since his brother died, and less than 2 months since he learned that he had cancer. My heart goes out to my aunt and my cousins who have had their world turned upside down so quickly. He is loved and missed terribly by his family.
It is startling to realize how quickly our lives can be taken out of our hands. And that as much as I fret about things day to day, I really don’t have any control at all. I guess what’s important is that we get the most out of each day we have.
The shot above is of the sun dropping low in the sky on a crisp winter day. The tree in the foreground has lost its leaves, but you can already see the buds along the branches getting ready to pop in a month or so. Life goes on….
Leaf me alone!
The weather has been beautiful during the past week. Highs in the 60’s, even creeping into the 70’s, clear skies. And, it’s been breezy, the winds started out of the north and then slipped back into the normal southerlies. The wind has almost emptied the red oak of its leaves. The picture on the left was taken last Saturday, the one on the right today. Monte’s already planning his leaf collection strategy for this year. We are getting off easy, though. About half the leaves uncharacteristically fell in the Summer and the Fall, due to the drought, and they are long gone. Half of the rest blew down the street over the last few days 🙂 .
Have a great weekend!
Tea for me.
I bought a couple of cool “tipping” teacups that I ran across while browsing for gifts on the web. They make steeping loose-leaf tea one cup at a time very easy and quick. I had to, of course, get one for myself. 🙂 Then I had to find some loose-leaf tea to try out.
I am a 2-3 cup-a-day coffee drinker – have been for years. But, i was born a tea drinker. My Irish father drank a cup of tea at breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. So, I drank it as a kid, too, but very infrequently since then.
I’ve never tried loose-leaf tea, but have heard about how much more flavorful it is than tea-bag tea. I was eager to find loose-leaf versions of some of my favorite brews: Irish Breakfast, Earl Grey and Chamomile. I’m lucky to live in Austin for lots of reasons, but one of them is the local tea-shop called The Steeping Room, which is only about 5 minutes from my house. I popped over there and stocked up.
The picture above is of the before-bedtime blend called Perfect Night. It’s a mix of chamomile, rose, rose hips, lavender and pink peppercorns. I had some tonight and it was delicious.
I’ve also tried the breakfast tea and earl grey black teas — all amazingly flavorful. I think i’m hooked.
A pair of pears.
Mom sent us a gift box of Washington State pears and apples. Yum!
I’m not so good at New Year’s resolutions. I make them, but really only for myself. I suppose the important thing is that I will strive to make 2012 a better year for me — body, mind and soul — and hopefully leave my little corner of the world better than I found it along the way. I wish the same for you.
Mo’ Willy.
Today we walked 9 holes at Morris-Williams Golf Course. I’ve been looking forward to golfing with my sweetie since vacation started. The rain put a damper on that for a bit, but today was beautiful with temps in the 60’s.
This is a shot of the Number 6 hole, taken from the Number 5 green. The rain we’ve had the last few weeks have greened things up a bit. You can just barely see the UT Tower – the one building visible on the horizon.
I really enjoy Morris-Williams. I am still quite the novice golfer, but this is the course that I know best – by far. The tee-to-green distance of the first 9 holes is about a mile and a half. So I figure we walked 2 or so miles. Though the way I hit today, it might have been more like 3-4 miles. 🙂 And, on this course, every hole seems to be uphill. But no matter, it was really nice to be out there.
I did not lose any balls in the out of bounds or in the water hazards. I did, however, hit several trees that popped out of nowhere. Oh well. Maybe one of my New Year’s resolutions will be to play at least once a quarter in 2012. We’ll see….
Sheila365 