Day 86 - Crocus

Spring! M winter weary, brown, dead looking garden has finally produced some color. Things are starting to sprout up in different places, but these little crocuses are always the first and what a welcome sight.

Day 85 - Candle lamp

I love candles! I'm partial to ones that smell like fruit. The flowery ones seem to overpower my nose. This one was given to me by a friend from church and it is spiced pear! It makes the room smell so yummy.

Day 84 - The View from the Back

This is the back of my latest cross-stitch block. I have to say that I'm somewhat fussy about the backs of my stitching. It doesn't come out perfect, but you can usually tell what the front looks like.

Day 83 - Hydrangea

These are the dried flower heads of the hydrangea bush in my garden. It is amazing how things can look so dead and still be alive. A bit more warm weather and things will start to bud and turn green.

Day 82 - Rocks

Our last stop at the museum was the gift shop. I couldn't resist snapping a picture of the bin of brightly colored rocks. Aren't they beautiful?

Day 81 - Dan and Dan

We took a trip to the NY State Museum today. The kids had a great time. As I snapped this picture of Dan, I was trying to capture the look of wonder as he looked at all the exhibits, not even realizing how much the glass mirrored his image. It was a surprise when I looked at it. I really like this one!

Day 80 - Teacup

This is the lovely teacup that my secret prayer sister from church gave me this week. I enjoy collecting teacups and this is a very lovely addition to my collection.

Day 79 - The Process Continues

We have been working in our kitchen, doing a mini make-over. Brian has done some rewiring, primed the walls and painted the ceiling. The trickier part of painting all the woodwork is next, which also includes two windows with old-fashioned 6x6 windows. This is a picture of three rolls of paint tape to mask the windows before he paints. He stuck them on top of the door frame so that little hands wouldn't find them.

Day 78 - Peanuts - 3/19

I loved Peanuts when I was young. It was always a thrill when the specials would come on the TV. Gabe has recently discovered Snoopy through a computer came. We were able to get a couple videos from the library. This is the Thanksgiving one. It is fun to trip down memory lane.

Day 77 - Hanging Snow - 3/18

We were over at my parents house yesterday. They are away and Brian did the snowblowing. They have a metal roof on their house and the snow comes flying off when it lets go. This large hunk of snow always gets stuck because of where the two roofs come together. It will come off eventually and will a whoosh, but for now, it is just hanging up there.

Day 76 - Promise - 3/17

On a trip to Lowe's yesterday, I picked up a bag of Dahlia's. I am quite optimistic about the arrival of spring coming soon, despite the fact that we got 15" of snow last night.

Day 75 - Misty - 3/16

This picture was taken the other day when it was so warm. It had started to rain late in the afternoon, the temp dropped sharply and there was still quite a bit of snow. This ground fog effect is very common this time of year.

Day 74 - Fog - 3/15

Last night we walked over to the falls and tried to get a picture of the roaring water, but it was too foggy. I tried anyway and this is what it looked like. This is the flash reflecting off the fog. I thought is was a pretty cool picture. Brian said it is fine as long as you don't see anything in the fog!!

Day 73 - New Life - 3/14

We are finally getting some warmer weather and the snow is melting. There were a few bare spots in my garden today and I saw these green shoots working their way through the dead leaves. Spring is coming!

Day 72 - Goldie - 3/13

This is our large gold fish. He lives all summer in our garden pond. He might be able to live out there all winter, but we don't want to take the chance, so he comes inside and lives with us during the winter. He lives in a plastic tub with the water plants that I bring in. He seems quite content to swim around the plants. When the weather gets warm enough, we move him back out to the pond. This is his third overwinter inside. He is about 5-6 inches long now. (Yes, that is a metal barrette in the water. One of the Littles decided it needed to go in there! )

Day 71 - Puddle - 3/12

We have had some wonderfully warm weather this week. Of course with the warm weather comes lot of melting. Our driveway has turned into a huge puddle. There is so much mud and water. Brian came home from work tonight and went to work on some ditches to drain the water off. Every year at this time we contemplate how nice it would be to get the driveway paved, but every year we find someplace else to use any extra money we have!

Day 70 - Colors - 3/11

My sister made each of the kids a scarf for Christmas. The girls got these very colorful fleece scarves. They are so fun and the kids love them.

Day 69 - Sleds - 3/10

Yesterday was quite warm and the kids had a great time playing outside. They left their sleds by the garage door overnight. It rained and then froze this morning. It was slick driving to church, but I thought this frozen pool of water in the sled was interesting.

Day 68 - "Light" - 3/9

This is my Ott-light. For those of you that don't craft at all, it is a full spectrum light that makes working on any type of hand work easier. My darling husband bought me this light. It has been such a blessing. I love to cross-stitch and this little light makes it so much more comfortable on my eyes to work. As a side note I think the hours I work under it has helped my winter blues. Now perhaps that is because I can work longer doing something I enjoy, but I also think the full spectrum light helps my mood.

Day 67 - Old Pump - 3/8

I took this picture at a friend's house. She has such a flare for decorating in the country style. I just love her house. This is on the end of the island in the kitchen. She told me she gets most of her stuff from tag sales. I think I need to start hitting the sales with her.

Day 66 - Sun "dog" - 3/7

Our dog Gracie is a pretty laid back dog. She spends a good deal of her time sleeping or at least lounging around. On any sunny days, she moves from place to place around the house to follow the patches of sun that come in the windows. In the mornings you can find her in one of the rooms with east facing windows and later in the day, the west facing windows. I often envy her the time and leisure to sit and enjoy the sunshine. Ah, the life of a dog.

Day 64 - The Office - 3/5

Hannah had a well-child doctor's appointment today. These are the assorted items that are found on the counter in each room.

Day 63 - Socks - 3/4

We had a gathering at my parents house today and while we were all chatting, I noticed the interesting array of colors and patterns from the girls socks. I have to admit that I had on white cotton...not much interest there!

Day 62 - "Reading" - 3/3

I have been working very hard on a stitching project the last few weeks, so I haven't had as much time to read in the evenings as I usually do. I've just discovered audio books, well not really just discovered as I obviously knew about them before, but I just thought of the idea. I don't know why I haven't done this before, but I started listening to books on CD while I stitch. It works out perfect, I still get my "reading" in, but can still work on my projects.

This picture is of the audio book section of our little library. We also have access to an extensive audio collection through our regional system. I am really enjoying this!

Day 61 - Silver Lining - 3/2

We have a long view west from our house and often get wonderful sunsets. This one was particularly nice as the clouds broke and allowed the sun to create this "silver lining". It was gorgeous.

Day 60 - Willow Tree - 3/1

I love the Willow Tree figurines. This "Garden Angel" sits in my computer "cubby" and was given to me by a secret sister from church. She looks like she is contemplating something deep, maybe the arrival of spring.