January 2010

Looking back on last year's Jan 12-of-12, I guess January is my hibernation month.  Interesting how this project has become a "reference archive" of sorts.

Today, unfortunately, was a "sick day"... felt lousy most of yesterday, then totally crashed after work.  This morning I woke up with a slight fever so decided to stay home and rest.

BUT, it's a 12-of-12 day... so, around 1pm, when I started feeling a little more human, I started taking some pix.  You will see that today's set is FAR from my most creative, but it's the 12th... so I tried my best to catalog the day as best I could.   

As always, thanks to Chad Darnell for the excellent idea (12 photos on the 12th day of each month).  To see Chad's site and the other cool people who post their photos, click here.

Had to scrap the workout this morning.  I've been doing a great job of getting up at 5:30 each morning and doing 30-45 minutes of cardio/weights.  But not today.  Hopefully tomorrow.

One reason for my need to get in shape (aside from a simple desire to look & feel better) is our upcoming vacation to Sequoia National Park & Kings Canyon.  I can't wait!  Five days of hiking amongst California's giant trees!  WOO HOO!!!

Spent a lot of time in front of the computer today.  This is my current wallpaper.  I LOVE this picture of the kids.  I took it January 2nd while we were playing in the newly fallen snow.
This shot is a pretty typical scene for my two... Mackie tries to hip-check the immovable TaterBug - she thinks she's tough.  He thinks she's nuts.  (She is.)

 

This little guy sits on the table next to the monitor.  For those that don't know, it's s geode (rocks that have crystal growth inside).  I picked this one up a a Gem & Mineral Show back in October.  Isn't the crystal structure fascinating??

I ate lunch with the birds (well, sort of).  Outside my dining room window I have this and 3 other bird feeders.  The Goldfinches love me for it.  They're wearing their winter colors now, but in the spring the males turn brilliant yellow... and sing their little hearts out.

Nap time!

Rarely will you find ME in photos... I'm always the one behind the camera (and I like it that way).  But since the original rules (per Chad) were to include one's self in at least a few shots, I'd try to oblige this time.






Ya know... it's tough it is to find cool things to take photos of when you're stuck in the house.
I found these two knot projects when I wandered into the kitchen.  I don't know exactly what I'd call them... keychains?  lanyards?  I dunno... but they were fun to make and turned out pretty cool looking.  The bottom one, by the way, is made with glow-in-the-dark paracord, so assuming the cord was "charged" you could see it at night.  I tried to take a picture of it, but it doesn't photograph well in pitch-black. 

I got a special delivery!

Okay, I'm sure for many people, a box of pot-pies is not high on the excitement scale.  But for me, these were an AWESOME sight!  $3.50 gets you tons of yummy veggies and chunks of turkey in a perfect little pie.  We buy them by the case!  Yummmmmm, can't wait for dinner.

Finally, I'm borrowing this idea from one of the other 12-of-12ers (I can't remember who it was, so apologies to them).  Each month they posted a photo of their home/yard that was taken from the same spot each month.  It was so cool to see how the landscape changed over the course of the year.  SO, for each month of 2010, I will post a picture like the one below, taken from my front porch.   

I'm curious to see how long it takes for the snow to melt!

December 2009

It's Saturday!  And, it's 12-of-12 day!  What could be better?
OH, I know - almost 2-straight days of snowfall and then a GORGEOUS sunny, snow-sparkling day to snap some photos.

But before I get to the snaps, first I need to thank Chad Darnell for his brilliant idea of making a photo diary of the 12th day of each month using 12 photos.  Thanks, Chad!

So, as I mentioned, it's been snowing and snowing and snowing here.  It started Thursday.  I went downstairs to work-out at 6:15am and by the time I got back upstairs, everything was covered with a thin coating of snow... and it was really coming down.  I live in "ski country" so I'm no stranger to snow.  In fact, this is one of the latest "first snows" we've had in a long time.  (We've had snow mid-October in years past).  Thursday was the first REAL snow we've had this season.

This storm was a "lake effect storm" - the Great Lakes produce bands of snow clouds that are almost identical in shape to the lake itself.  (If I had thought about it, I would have grabbed a picture from the weather.com... oh well.)  Lake effect storms tend to stay in one place, maybe "wobble" north and south a few miles, then dissipate.  This week's storm threatened to stay till today, but in actuality, fizzled last night.  All total, the weather people say we got 22.2" of snow in 48 hrs.

So let's get to the photos already!

6:30am - Time to sweat.  I have been faithful to the "promise" to myself back in October... weights/cardio, 3-5 days a week.  Today was day 5!

 

Workout complete.  Chores complete.  Time to play!

11:30am - 1:30pm - Wandering around Sprague Brook Park in Concord, NY

 
The slopes aren't open yet... next week, they say.

Burrrrrrrr

 

The pond is frozen, but the cattails won't give up! 

Giant marshmallows?  Sadly, no.  Snow covered rocks.

Not that you can tell from these photos, but the snow was really deep... 2-feet in spots... and since we are the first adventurous (crazy) souls to come out here on foot (no skis/ snowshoes/ snowmobiles) it was a tough walk.  I burned a TON more calories during the hour we were out here.

4:00pm - The kids really enjoyed their walk, too.  Here's what they look like now.

TaterBug & Mackie

They are so snuggly now that the weather has turned cold.  And with our walk today, they'll just want to sleep for the rest of the night; PERFECT, since I have a "Sock Exchange Party" to go to at friends' house.  They won't miss me one bit!

The sox I have to exchange tonight fit in quite nicely with my 12-of-12 this month... here, take a look and let me know if you agree.

Happy Holidays!

See you in 2010! 

November 2009

I had some great ideas about what I wanted to do for today's 12-of-12.... a picture every hour from 6am till 6pm (selecting one from each hour for the 12 shots of the day) and I REALLY wanted to get a picture of a cow (since I was going to be doing a lot of country driving today).

I failed on each count.
BUT... I did get some really cool other shots.

8AM-ish:
On my way to Corning, NY.  It's cold this morning... hovering around freezing.

Noon-ish:

In Corning, NY... the home of Corning Glass & the Corning Museum of Glass.

Glass was an integral part of every building.

 

 

Here's one of Corning Glass' HQ.  Slightly hidden by this pretty tree, but you can still see all the glass that surrounds it.

If you'd like to see more shots of the Corning Glass campus, click here to see the pics that didn't make it in the final 12-of -12 cut.


6PM-ish:

Back home... no more leaves on the trees and it's getting dark, fast.

My new obsession... knot tying.

Finished this one tonight... 

before 

 & after 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Created by Chad Darnell, the 12-of-12 is a photo project where participants post 12 photos from their day on the 12th day of each month.  Go check out his site for other great photos!  See ya next month.

October 2009

Is it the 12th already??? Wow, time is flying.  Here's my set for the October 12-of-12.  Created by Chad Darnell, the 12-of-12 is a photo project where participants post 12 photos from their day on the 12th day of each month.  Enjoy!

It's Columbus Day here in The States, so a number of people have a holiday/vacation day today; I didn't.  BUT, I took the day off to recover from our 4-day trip to Fairhaven/New Bedford, Mass.  It was a wonderful relaxing, slow-moving day.

10:00AM:  We started the day off right with a breakfast of Massa (Portuguese Sweet Bread) French Toast - the bread came from an amazing little bakery down the street from our friends' home in New Bedford, MA.

Heavenly!!

I enjoyed the warmth from the fireplace and spent some time correcting a major boo-boo in my knitting project afterward.

3:00PM:  We need a walk & pumpkins!

This week, we start up our exercise routine again.  The weekend was full of food, food, food, so it's time to get back on the wagon and back into shape.  The Forestry is just the place to start...

Mackie asks Daddy for a cookie.

Please, Daddy?

4:00PM:  On the way out, I notice a few things that I've never paid much attention to during our walks here (which are at least once a week).

A soft-leaf plant; today holding a fallen Maple leaf.

How impressive the ends of the logs look today... so much activity on what should be such an inert piece. 

C'mon, TaterBug!  Time to go.

Today was also PUMPKIN day.  We stopped at a local farm to grab a pumpkin and some gourds for the start of our fall decorating.

6:00PM:  We'll get another pumpkin on Saturday, and carve it up for Halloween.  But for today, we tried out something new... making Spiders out of gourds!  We found this cool little kit while shopping at The Sea Witch Gifts in Fairhaven, MA.

Here's the before:

... and the after!

7:30PM:  As I type, the pups and I are relaxing by a lovely fire (again).  There's been talk of a marshmallow or two in a bit.  Gotta finish posting, first.  I'd hate to get marshmallow goo all over the keyboard.  So, to sign off, I'll share our fire with you.  Can't you just feel the happy warmth radiating through the monitor?  :)

Cheers!  See you next month!

September 2009

Today is the 12th of September, so it's time for the 12-of-12! Created by Chad Darnell, the 12-of-12 is a photo project where participants post 12 photos from their day on the 12th day of each month.
Since today is a Saturday (with lots of free time for most people) the folks at Podcacher have suggested we make it a Geocaching 12-of-12 and post pictures taken during our caching adventures today. I'm not a "power cacher", but I go out geocaching almost every weekend with my family.

10am - Shopping!
Today was not much different from a typical Saturday... but to start, we all met at the East Aurora Farmers Market.

You can find the most amazing fruits, veggies, and flowers at this market, not to mention the honey, breads, and other fresh hand-made stuffs.















Noon-ish - GEOCACHING!!
Once we stocked up on market goodies, we made our way to Marilla Town Park a few miles away to hunt a couple geocaches. What a beautiful little park! Very well kept and two geocaches to hunt.

Geo-kids - ready to go!

The two-legged Geo-kid made quick work of the first hunt. Not many trade items fit in this cache, so we signed the log, then headed off to the second cache in the park.


I hoped to be able to place the "Viney Crush" travel bug into our 2nd cache of the day since the cache page said the container was a large Tupperware box.



The question was... could we find it?

We DID!

We finished our walk back to our starting point, but before we left this great little park of the day, we took a group photo of our caching crew. Here we are celebrating two successful finds - HOORAY!

Geocaching can really work-up an appetite, so we headed back to Mom & Dad's to have lunch together, then went our separate ways. I still have to log my finds on geocaching.com... but not before the final photos from my September 12-of-12.

5pm - Cherry Jam!!!
Earlier this week I got 10-pounds of sour cherries from a local organic grower. I made one batch of jam, but had enough cherries for two (plus some extra for a pie). So, before they went bad, I made batch #2 tonight.

Before

During
After

It's 8:30pm now and I'm ready to relax after a wonderful, yet busy day. I took a WHOLE lot more than just 12 shots today... choosing which to post was a tough decision. If you're interested in seeing more of the set, visit this link.

Farewell to summer, and hello fall. See ya next month when I'm sure there will be some new colors in the mix!