I saw one!!! I really did!

Isn't she beautiful! I am 59 years old and have finally seen my first snowy owl!! Funny thing is that she was only about 5 minutes from my house! I probably wouldn't have noticed her but I knew that they were in this area and saw people below the telephone pole looking up at her. Snowy owls come into our area in the winter for the hunting. Then move back to the artic in the spring. One of the people there said that they saw 3 yesterday in that area. We drove around, but this was the only one we saw. But Hey, I will take one over none. I went back today but none were to be found. I was hoping that I could get a shot of one against the bright blue sky.

Here she is on top of a hotel. Great place to perch while looking for prey! We saw her swoop a few times. She had something on the ground, but couldn't see what she caught.

Another shot of her keeping an eye out for supper. When we saw her it was later in the day. Gloomy day and starting to lose the light. These owls hunt in the day time. So we were doubly lucky to even see her.
I have a request. A couple I know are having a rough time the last few days. Their pupster is very sick. Actually he is dying. They have been by his side as he goes from this life into the next. I haven't heard anything today so he may have passed away by now. Please pray for them as it is hitting them very hard. As you know. Some of consider our fur, feathered, gilled friends as family. We grieve just as hard for them as our human family. Thank you for any thoughts and prayers that you give to them. I have gone through this many times myself and it is very devestating.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope that your New Year brings you joy and happiness. Also strength for the times when you need it. Hugs, Teresa

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to jump on here fast to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. As we all get ready for the day I hope we all take a moment to remember what is important in our lives. ( or by the time you read this to take a moment to reflect on how wonderful the day was). We are very lucky to still have mom here with us to celebrate another holiday. It is almost a year since learning that she has cancer. We know that she is terminal, but we are very grateful for each day that she is still here. Day by day, I have learned strength from her, especially in the last year. I hope if I ever have to deal with such an awful illness that I have the strength she has shown. Faith in God that she has.
There will be 29+ people here today. I say plus as the count seems to grow by one or two each day. My sister said that she will bring the shoehorn! Chicken and stuffing are in the oven now. Everyone brings part of the meal. Except for the main items we don't plan the rest. So I don't know for sure what wonderful surprises we will be feasting on. Works for us!
Dark, dreary day today. No snow. It has all melted off. Just wet dirty dog feet each time the dogs come in. But there won't be any travel worries, at least around here.
Please remember the less fortuate. The ones who can't afford to eat this well or to be with family. The ones suffering from illnesses of the mind or body. All who are without hope that things will get better. We are truely blessed.
Our wishes for you are that you have a very Merry Christmas with family and friends. If you can't be with family I hope that your day is still wonderful. Merry Christmas from our home to yours. Hugs, Teresa

My Blog is open again!

I was having trouble with my blog. I think everything is fine now. Thank you for the comments and suggestions that some of you gave me.

Isn't this beautiful! Another picture from the Green Bay Botanical Garden Festival Of Lights.

Do not open my blog at this time---Highjacked?

Green Bay Botanical Garden Festival Of Lights

This is the outside of the 70 foot long caterpillar.

Trees, trees everywhere!

The dragon in the gazebo

How would you like to come upon this little spider?

Huge woodpecker!

So very colorful!

It was so nice to be able to stand next to this burn barrel! The heat felt so good after the nice but cold stroll around the gardens.

Many, many kids and adults took advantage of the caterpiller for a photo op.

This was such a nice colorful walkway. I bet you didn't know that a caterpiller glows inside!

One of the many scenes.

Even in winter we have flowers!

Just crawling along!

No matter what season it is, this has to be my favorite building in the gardens.
I hope you enjoyed the little walk around the gardens. There was so much more to see,  but I didn't want to bore you.  Hugs, Teresa

I really need to use more strawflowers and other natural items in my decorating.

These strawflowers are so bright against the green of the tree at the Green Bay Botanical Gardens.

I love how they used dried flowers to decorate this year.

Interesting! Plants are so fantastic in and out of bloom!

So wispy!

So many different shapes and colors.

                                                            So much to see!

  The tree in all it's glory!
I will have to show you pictures of the light scenes in the gardens. But that will be another post. Hugs, Teresa

This is what I feel like tonight!

21 people over was tiring for the dogs! Me too. Now Jeff and I can start planning for Christmas. But at least now we know how to fit all these people in the house. Whoops! There may be 3-4 more for Christmas. Get the shoe horn out!
I hope everyone had as good as a day as we had. Hugs, Teresa

Here is a laugh for you. Stress reliever for you.

Just a fast post before I head off to work. My birthday started off great. Chasing the dog around the yard (in my bathrobe, in the snow) to get a bird out of her mouth. Bird was fine! Dropped a dinner plate on the floor, Correl, so you know how those shatter! Then I dropped a whole cookie sheet of pretzel, toffee covered in chocolate upside down on the floor. Guess I won't be serving those for Thanksgiving! LOL! I hope I gave everyone a laugh for the day. If anyone is stressed over the holiday and getting everything done here is something to take the edge off! Hugs, Teresa
Now off to work I go.

New valance I am making

This half of the new valance I made. Almost finished. All I need yet are tabs and tying. It really is straighter then it looks in this picture. The flowered panels are there because I had a brain freeze and made it about 3/4 the width it was suppose to be. I like it though as it breaks up the strips. Did I tell you that I don't sew much (unlike my mother and 2 of my sisters). But I am proud of what I can do. As you can probably tell I made it up as I went along. (Don't mind the flowered bedspread underneath it. )

Here is Summer modeling it. She is at the age (16 months) now where I can actually get things done without her "help". Not to say that I don't have to watch if I drop anything. I don't know if it is all English Cocker Spanials, but all the ones we have had have been thieves!

Of course I can't leave out our 8 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi. I swear if one does something the other one has to do it also. They don't like attention at all!
I can't believe that it is Thanksgiving in a few days! We are having it here as my mom doesn't want to travel far in case she gets tired. Cancer is such a draining disease. We are less then 10 minutes from her house. Usually we rent an out building at a school that my sister works at. But that is about 25 minutes away and usually on the cooler side. The heat doesn't get turned on until a few hours before we get there. So this will work out much better for her. There will be about 20 of us. We all bring part of the meal, so that works out great. No one has to do it all. Which is great for me as I have to work the night before. Luckily I have a husband that is very helpful! We will make the chicken and stuffing. Yes chicken! My family isn't big on turkey. So chicken is a tradition for us. Plus my brother will bring a ham.
In case I don't get back here before Thanksgiving, I hope all of you have a great day. Hugs, Teresa

Birds, birds, birds and a few more pictures from our trip.

This is my favorite one of a greater white egret. Usually they stay farther away, but this guy was close to the near shore. Yeah

 

 

Coot.  Look at those red eyes.

The grasses were colorful when we were there.

Green winged teal. So pretty!

Look at the colors on the water! So pretty! I don't think I have ever seen the water like this.
 

Northern pin tail
 

The spider webs were flying all over. Some with spiders attached. It was odd to see spiders on webs that looked like they weren"t attahced to anything. This tree had a good collection of webs.
 

 Collage of birds. Such pretty birds.

We had a good time at Horicon Marsh. This time of the year is so nice there. Migration brings in so many different kinds of birds. I guess there were even more this weekend. (we were there last weekend).

Blogger has been such a pain for me for awhile now. Takes forever to up-load pictures and I have to try to up-load each picture twice to get one that works.

I hope this gets better to use soon. Not sure if anyone else is having this problem. Hugs, Teresa

Colors of Fall.

The orange in these leaves just glowed yesterday! The skies were so blue. I could really see them from a distance.

All the different colors. These hills were on fire!

Another shot of this hill from a different direction.

I love the twisty trunks on these trees.

Zoomed up on this one. These colors in fall always amaze me.

It looks like the red one is saying BOO. the orange one is reacting!

Pop of orange. It really plays off the blue of the sky!

Yellow takes on a orangy tint when in the shadows.
On the first part of the drive I didn't think that I was even going to see much color. We are getting to the end around here. Then I got lost (for miles) and ended up near here and decided to go to the nature center. The woods around the nature center were pretty much done with color. Except for the mountain. Most of the pictures I took were from the highway going past the nature center. Getting lost can be a good thing at times.
Hugs, Teresa

Fall trips this weekend ---color, color, color

 

I am putting these in collage form as I am having trouble putting pictures on here.

As you can see we took a couple of fall trips this weekend. Jeff actually had a couple of weekend days off. This was our Saturday trip. This collage is from High Cliff State Park about 45 minutes from here. We drove through the park and thought that maybe we had gone there too early. But then we went to the camping area and WOW! Beauty everywhere. Trees turn at different times and this area had early turners. Well there were a few that had turned and lost their leaves already, but we will let them rest. In the rest of the park the trees were either still green or light yellow. But that will extend the season. Maybe another trip is in order??? I love the bottom middle picture as you are able to ssee the many different layers of trees/colors. It was such a beautiful day with sunny skies and the temperature  were nice for hiking.

These pictures were taken today. Sunday.  We went to Penninsula State Park. I took these before we started our hike. I love the harbor against the colors of the trees. We didn't go on the lighthouse tour as the place was packed. We stepped inside and we couldn't move. Another time. Maybe during the week. If Jeff and I take a day off together from our jobs. Or vacation next year. I love beeing by the water.

These shots were takaen during our hike. And what a hike it was!!! The sign said that it was difficult and they weren't kidding!! As you can tell from the top, far right picture we had to deal with roots, rocks and climb over fallen trees. Oh and I forgot to mention the muck! Being that there is hardly any top soil the roots were on top of the ground. How trees even survive like that is amazing! But the rocks/cliff  at the bottom of the trail were worth it. It was hard to get a good shot though as you couldn't back up very far or you would be in the water! We did the whole loop and it was only about 2 1/2 miles. But with the steepness and condition of the trail it seemed much longer. The last 1/4 of the trail was much easier. Not as many rocks or roots. We did get turned around once for a short time as we couldn't see the trail clearly. But we back tracked and found the marker. Whoops.
The picture on the top left is one I shot of the road. I love this one. It almost looks like the road is water.  I was surprised not to see more mushrooms or fungus as wet as it was in there. But then I was watching where I put my feet. But we did pause on the trail and didn't see any more then the ones on that log. I was hoping to see some unusual ones.  I am really surprised that I am not more sore tonight as I am not in the best shape and that was two days of hiking. Long trails yesterday and tough one today.

 

 

 

These are just a few pictures of some plants still blooming in our yard. We have had frost which took a few annuals out. But some of the plants look good yet. Mainly perennials. We have cut back the plants that are done for the year. That is always sad for me.
Well anyway. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Hugs, Teresa