Planting the Christmas Tree

Thanks to my son and his girlfriend, our Christmas tree is happily in the ground. It's planted about 20 feet in front of and left of the beehives.

I love having our Christmas trees scattered throughout the yard. It gives me a sense of continuity -- good memories of the past and a promise of the future.

December... Brrr

Dec 9 before the snowstorm


Dec 13 after the snowstorm, this is before "winter" officially starts!


Doors in front of my office


After skiing on Sunday... little Methodist church in Peninsula.

Sunny Day for the Google Truck

Here's how our house was captured on Google Maps. But what I really love is the view from our house as captured on Google Maps. Country Living!!

Hibiscus Blooming in November

So glad we pulled these inside from the deck last week! Yesterday was the first snow, but today I got two wonderful one day blooms from my hibiscus plants. It's like a little bit of Hawaii here in northeast Ohio

Cardinal and Blue Jay Going After Lucky's Dog Food

Lucky didn't finish his dog food last night. This morning I heard a giant racket outside and when I went to the door to see who/what was making all the noise, 5 blue jays flew away.

So got the camera. And hid behind the door. The battery almost went dead as I was holding my breath waiting for them to steal more of Lucky's left over dog food from his meal last night.

I caught two birds, in two separate photos... but with the power of computer editing, I was able to put them both in the same shot. First thing my husband says is "Wow, those two birds don't like each other!" Can't fool him!!

Remembering those Lazy Hazy Days of Summer 2010

Well, I don't know how LAZY those days actually were, but now that we only have leaves on the ground and just a few still on the trees, I'm clearing the photos off my phone and feeling like reminising about warm days of summer.

Sisters weekend at Somerset PA. Happy Birthday Nancy!
Mums in Keith's vegetable garden did a "pretty" good job of keeping out the critters!

Fountain with the Hibiscus on the deck:
Hotel California in my very own backyard:

Love that Lily pond:

I Love Fall in Ohio

The colors, the sky, the snap in the air. I LOVE LOVE LOVE fall in Ohio.

Incredible Red Leaves on a Maple Tree

Click on the photo to enlarge it!

This was taken just outside my office on Georgetown Road in Hudson. Incredibly beautiful red leaves just tinged with green. Yesterday we had a wild wind of 50-60-70 MPH winds and gusts come thru and now this tree is just about bare of leaves. So glad I snapped the photo above last week!

Here's how it looks now:

October on the Towpath

Had a great walk along the towpath from the Winking Lizard to Boston Mills Ski Resort and back during the best week of the year for fall foliage. My photos really didn't capture the beauty!

Lucky and I walked about five miles or so. Gorgeous weather.

Autumn Colors in Peninsula

Bath Road between Akron-Peninsula Road and Riverview Road... Looking south toward Akron.


Bath Road between Akron-Peninsula Road and Riverview Road, looking nouth toward Cleveland.

The corner of Riverview Road and Route 303 in Peninsula.

Near the Hike/Bike Trail on Route 303 heading into Hudson.
I love fall in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
I saw these deer crossing the river and had to stop to shoot their photo.

Sedum is RED and October is in the Air

That cold, damp feeling of October is in the air. While the pumpkins are still missing from the decorations, signals of fall are everywhere. No denying that fall is here!

Officially Fall.

The garden seems all dried up all of the sudden. And it's officially fall.

We bottled honey yesterday. 138 pounds.

And I wandered around looking at my gardens. The gardens don't inspire me this time of year. The opposite actually.

Ugh. I don't like fall this year.

I am spending more time with the dog. Kinda boring, but I don't want to do the maintenance on the gardens. I love weeding in the spring, with all the promise of the new flowers. But tidying up in the fall. With the promise of wind and cold and wet snowy weather. Ugh. Not a fun prospect.

Used to be I'd have 4 pumpkins for the front porch. I'd decorate for fall. But now it seems silly. No kids at home is bumming me out.

Looking at where they used to wait for the bus. Thinking about a fall halloween party. Carving pumpkins. Making a scarecrow to sit on a chair in the front.

I gotta find a new "place" to be. The old fun fall activities aren't doing it.

Sitting around having coffee with my friends whose kids are off at college, trying to console each other, that isn't working either.

Maybe time to start making my Christmas presents (kinda early) or cleaning the basement again (as appealing as like weeding a fall garden)

It's fun to look at the spring and early summer gardens. I just gotta find the beauty in the fall again.

Happy Horses

When I was a little girl about 10, 11 and 12, there was only ONE thing at the top of my to do list, want list, gotta figure out how to have it list. You got it. A horse. Or a pony.

I would use every birthday wish, every first spoonful into a new jelly wish and every shooting star wish on getting a pony. I bought myself a card of an old lady shoveling horse poop, because inside the card said: I just know there is a pony around here somewhere.

As a teen I would babysit horses and ponies when their owners went on vacation. One summer I had a horse (3 different horses actually) 3 weeks in a row. Those horses never had been brushed, fed carrots, rode and pampered as much as when their owner was away.

Even though its many years later, I still pine away for a horse every so often.

Yesterday when I was taking a walk on the street around the corner, I snapped this photo. Looking at it, it occured to me, this place is less than half a mile away from my house and I've never set foot into their horse farm (eh, em) "equestrian center". Maybe because they only ride english. Maybe because they charge people to ride, but mostly because I'm sure they wouldn't find it at a normal for a woman of my age to want to swap cleaning stalls for brushing and playing with the horses. How silly.

Maybe I don't want a horse as much as I thought I did. Now all the things I was told as a kid come into my head whenever I think about buying one. "Horses are expensive." "What if it got lose?" "You'll never be able to go anywhere." "What if the horse kicked somebody and we got sued?" "We don't have a good place to keep a horse."

Meanwhile, horses still take my breath away.

Walking Lucky

New Day - Feeling Like September

It's still August, but this is the first morning that I felt the "cold" snap in the air. It's a nice feeling that fall isn't that far away.

Went out and gave the chickens their food and some corn, changed their water and grabbed one egg. They're slowing down on their laying. Maybe because the days are getting shorter, maybe because they're getting older. I don't really know why. Curly has decided she's a brooder. We tried a couple of tricks to get her to stop just sitting on those fake easter eggs we put in the nest, but she's taking care of them like they're gonna hatch.

Each morning I find some of those eggs rolled into the main part of the pen, so somebodies having fun playing egg olympics. I suspect the 2 leghorns, because they are the most fiesty. The Americanas are the nicest behaved, but get picked on my all the others. And I think they are the best layers too.

Sunrise in Hudson Ohio

I love a summer sunrise. That time between dawn and sunrise is magical to me, the absolute best hours of the day.New promise. New adventures. A dawn of a New Day! Quiet. Full of anticipation.

These few minutes are my most favorite minutes of the day and I love to get up and experience this little miracle!

Summer Time - Our Overgrown Split Rail Fence

It's the lush and lovely time of summer. I think it's time I trim back some of the over grown row along the fence so I can actually enjoy all the great flowers!

Blackberry Time

Can You Hear the Music from the Sky?

When ever I go to Streetsboro it seems I get the best view of the sky. This one is from outside of Lowes near route 303. I can hear the trumpets and harps from heaven when I look at this!!

More Deer 2 babies and 2 moms

This is in the field next to our house.

Summer Garden

Water Lilies

Black Eyed Susans

Deer and the Dog

Happened again today.

The deer really aren't afraid. Even when the dog is outside!

Deer Haven or Deer Heaven here in Hudson?

Three full grown and two babies:



I have never seen so many deer in our yard as this year. Even with our Norwegian Elhound German Shepherd mix! You'd figure he'd keep them away, but NNNNNOOOOOOOOO!