MERRY CHRISTMAS!

merry christmas to all!  i am going on vacation until january 3rd, but should have some great photos when i get back! my christmas tree photos did not come out well, but these are a few of my fav ornaments (many are from crate and barrel.)

this one reminds me of kerry's farm of colors of the garden, and marie at heimdal...

i bought this one in the airport in amsterdam, so it makes me think of ye at bliss...

you know i like birds, so here's to my feathered friends... of course, the bird watch site i like most is shirl's gardenwatch...

this is my dau's favorite, the puzzle ball. this photo just does not do it justice.

oh, and have a happy new year!

HOLIDAY SNOW

just in time for the holidays, we have about 7 inches of snow. my feeding the birds has increased the cardinal population. this year i see at least 3 pairs living in my yard over last year's one pair. this female is brave and has let me within 2 feet of her (with sliding glass door between us.) the color would be better, but the light was low.

despite her new sweater, luna clearly wants to go back in the house.

the harry lauder walking stick still has ornaments, but fewer. the blue stands out a bit more with the snow.

hubs and i went cross country skiing with joe joe; this is a view across the hudson river from the old croton aqueduct trail.

here i am struggling to keep up with my "ears-a-flying" poodle.

COLUMN OF FIRE

sunday night we had a spectacular sunset that looked like a column of fire! here it is between the norway maple, on the left, and the tulip tree on the right, at peak.here is the maple with the column of fire between it's limbs, a few minutes earlier in the sunset...
same sunset, but after the column disappeared, taken through the wavy old glass of our windows... 

TOY HOUSE

one of our neighbors has taken to adding more christmas decorations each year.  i don't think the decorations themselves are anything special, but the entire effect, when viewed from our house, is really cute. the whole thing reminds me of a tableau you would find in a miniature at the hallmark store:

i need to play with the settings on my camera to get a better picture of it...

ICE ORNAMENTS

a photo of my harry lauder walking stick decorated with 1.5" blue ornaments is in the previous post.  here is a close up of one ball with a reflected landscape:

we had quite a bit of rain, and some of the balls filled with water.  then it froze hard, causing some of the ornaments to crack and the glass to fall away, leaving ice ornaments:

here is a self portrait in cracked glass...

FLUFFY POST

winter provides a fluffy dog with which to cuddle...
a fluffy grey squirrel...
a fluffy tree decorated with 100 turquoise ornaments...

and a fluffy black squirrel...