Tuesday, October 26, 2010
296/365 gourds galore
We picked up pumpkins at a cool little roadside place and they had this big bin of assorted little gourds and pumpkins. 4 for a dollar.
295/365
Marti knew what this was, but no one else hazarded a guess. Horse hair looks pretty strange close up. This is tail hair from one of the clydes. Just a keepsake.
294/365 The boys wanted to pose with Howard
One of those days I was hard pressed to do a photo but had no ambition. A classic "11 PM photo" if you will. (Which for me is a classic 5 PM photo. I was watching a DVD of Big Bang Theory.)
293/365 the color box
Several of my 365 friends are also members of a group called "sixty-four colors". All you need is a camera and a box of Crayola Crayons, which has new colors like bittersweet and chestnut and wisteria. Not the colors of my childhood, but fun nonetheless.
292/365 lucky shot
I was at the farm and saw the cat sneaking across the back deck and wondered what it was stalking. Turns out it was stalking this deer. I quietly slid the sliding glass door open and held the camera about waist high to get this shot as the porch railing was in the way.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
289/365
My homage to Andy Goldsworthy--leaves "stitched" together with their own stems. Goldsworthy made a very long chain and floated it down a river and it was beautiful. MIne was about 18 inches long and in my driveway.
286/365
One of those days when I was scrambling to get a picture in before the end of the day. This is a NOT made in China wooden teething ring that was Nathaniels.
Monday, October 11, 2010
283/365 caught napping
Maddie was flat out, sleeping in the sun until she heard my car pull in the driveway. She sat up, then leaned back over and scratched her face on the ground before getting up. As you can see she's getting very furry already in preparation for winter. I don't know if it is a TWH thing or what, but the girl grows an amazing coat. The only ones I have seen that are thicker are the Clydesdales.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
282/365 Echinocystis lobata
People at work are always bringing me plants to identify. This was definitely the wierdest. It's the seed pod from Wild Balsam Apple, sometimes known as Wild Cucumber. The seeds are huge, about the size of pumkin seeds only thicker.
280/365 Party at my house!
Bring a rake! LOL! When Butch and I bought this house it was in June and we had a small open house in the fall to celebrate our first anniversary and the new house. We actually put the "bring a rake" as a joke on the invitation because we were not prepared for the amount of leaves. After the first year of raking we invested in a walk behind chipper vac and even though we only use it for a couple of weeks in the fall, it is our favorite piece of equipment. The newest one has a hose attachment so we can get in around the foundation and the shrubs. We compost all of the leaves and it makes wonderful stuff. We never use any kind of fertilizer in our beds, but plant in leaf mould and use it as mulch sometimes as well.
279/365 buttons
I don't know why I love buttons, but I do. When we were cleaning out my folks house after my dad died, one of the few things I wanted was my mother's button tin, which I remembered always being there. A couple of years later when my mom's sister died and we were cleaning out her house, I found her button tin, which was probably my grandmother's before it was my aunt's. So I have that, too. When another aunt heard about it, she gave me HER mother's button box, which I never really touched in case anyone in her family actually wants it. (Her daughter wouldn't, I'm sure, but you never know if a grandchild would.) So when Butch's mom passed and they asked us if we wanted anything of hers, I automatically asked if she kept a button box. She didn't, but Butch's sister remembered it when her MIL died and now I have her MIL's button box. I have become the unofficial keeper of the buttons.
These buttons are on a sweater I just bought, one of the reasons I liked the sweater was the buttons.
278/365 What's in the mail?
I don't watch a whole lot of TV because of my schedule. If I want to watch something in primetime, I have to DVR it. So my list of must-sees is very small. 'Grey's Anatomy', 'Top Chef', 'Project Runway' and in the past "Lost" are among the few I watch. I haven't seen a primetime comedy show since "Roseanne". (Which will always be my favorite.) But during the summer, I always watch "Big Brother", one of my guilty pleasures which started when I was showing clydesdales and I have continued to follow. I kept seeing commercials for "Big Bang Theory" and always loved Johnny Galecki on Roseanne, so decided to Netflix the series. What a delight! Why didn't anyone tell me about this show before? LOL! We are now into season two, and DVR-ing the current ones. Even Butch chuckles at it. And that has to be THE best theme song to a TV show ever.
277/365
Casper tends to get underfoot when we are in the kitchen and she is always between the place where we chop things and the stove. I finally just dragged one of her beds in and put it near the chopping station (so she can catch anything that falls) and she was really good about staying put.
276/365 The Quinlan Trinity
In my family it isn't complete without onion, celery and carrots. The beginnings of a pot of soup--the trinity has joined a large pile of cabbage. It will be followed with ham and white beans. (My favorite soup.)
275/365 Morning sun
Behind my neighbor's house. It's nice to see after a couple of days of torrential rain and clouds.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
274/365
Northern Sea Oats, Chasmanthium latifolium, one of the few grasses that can be grown in the shade garden. This seed head will dry into a beautiful brown color which provides some winter interest as well.
272/365
There was a lot of local flooding the other day. This is a part of Fall Creek where it goes through Freeville NY. If it hadn't stopped when it did, I'm pretty sure this water would have been over the road as it was right up to the edges of the blacktop in one spot.
271/365
I wish I could play in the leaves, but if I don't clean them up a couple of times a week, I'd be up to my knees in them...
270/365
Rhiney has had a rather lengthy stay in London, due to his hostess having family visit from South Africa but he is now on his way home. In the meantime, we received this beautiful postcard from him. He's been in the mail for a week now so he should be home any day...
269/365
This is the road to the farm, which is just out of sight where the road goes up over the hill. We had these massive clouds all day, but no rain. I love the sky when it is like this.
268/365
There was a car show around the corner from my house and on the way to the farm I kept passing the cars as they headed to the park where it was held. When I finished at the barn, I had nothing pressing to do so I decided to stop. I love old cars and what people do with them. This Nash was one of my favorites.
267/365
September is an exciting time around here as we all await the opening of Hollenbeck's Cider Mill in Virgil NY. For some people it's the apples and the cider, made on this very old and very large cider press, and for some people (us) it's the PIES! LOL They make the best apple, dutch apple and pumpkin pies. And if you're lucky, every now and then they make a dutch lemon pie which is heavenly--the sweetness of the crumble on top compliments the tartness of the lemon filling. YUM. There is also a room across from the cider press where they make donuts and you can watch the process through a large glass window. There are always parents clustered outside with kids on their shoulders watching in fascination.
It's a favorite fall destination for people in our area.
266/365
This tiny little critter (maybe an inch and a half long) was spotted in the driveway at the farm after it stopped raining. I can't believe I spotted it, it was so small.