Saturday, December 31, 2011

365/365 - New Year light


I'm currently visiting my parents in Scotland, to bring in the New Year. They've been doing up their house and this is their new front door with the Christmas lights on their new porch/veranda shining through it.

Happy New Year, Shutterbugs!!

Friday, December 30, 2011

364/365 New Computer for the New Year

My new toy. :D

The wallpaper photo is also taken by me.


Happy New Year to the TORC photographers!

Rowanberry

Thursday, December 29, 2011

363/365 Wintry Vinyards


I spent the holidays at my parents' and we took a walk on Christmas Day through the wintery vinyards above the village where my family is from. You can see the old village and behind it the industrial area (big supermarkets, DIYs etc, but also some production industry) that stretches pretty much all the way to the town behind.

We had lovely, mild weather over the holidays, so it was pleasant to walk off some of the seasonal calories. ;) :D

363/365 Dragon us to the end of the year

I painted this dragon/warrior for my daughters boyfriend. It was inspired by photos of floats of the Japanese Nebula (Star) festival that my daughter saw when she was in Japan.


Here are some of 
the goodies I made for the holidays. 
You might be able to see some Lembas bread on the second tier.
Dawn/RoseMorninStar

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

362/365: Little House


I had two of these little houses that were made for children waiting for the bus, but the second one didn't turn out.  These sit right at the road and I think they are very cute.

Vancouver, WA
Jules

362/365...Drake and the Beatles....


PREZZIES!!!


My Boys know how to make their mommy smile.

Dragons and the Beatles.  Yep, I smiled brightly when I opened these on Christmas morning.  Sean gave me the glasses and Chris gave me the dragon.

Eat your heart out, Jules.   (wink)

Calma's house
Port Orchard, WA



Tuesday, December 27, 2011

361/365 - X-Mass


Went to visit family for Christmas, so here's the tree after Santa visited.  I wish I could say that was all for me, but alas! I only received a small portion of this bounty of consumerism.


I crashed at my sister's place, and this here is her dog enjoying her gift of a toy bone, and wearing something my sister calls "Christmas PJs" but which I call "something no one in their right mind would force their dog to wear in public."  Oh well, to each their own.


I brought Shadow with me, of course.  Here she is napping on the doormat for some reason.  I really don't know why, since I brought her bed as well.  She has very strange notions of comfort.


I wound up in the Chicago area with my sister on Monday, so for something to do we went to the Museum of Science and Industry.  We saw the German WWII U-boat they have there, which was kinda cool.  It was much smaller and more cramped inside than I would have thought.

-Krawler

361/365 Ruffled some more feathers this week....

On Christmas eve I saw yet another hawk! This one just glared at me a bit as I interrupted his hunt for breakfast.

hee.




About a quarter mile down the road I smiled as I neared a certain house.  Apparently someone asked for a pony for Christmas, and it was there to greet them at the driveway......




~Tooks in Southcentral PA

Monday, December 26, 2011

360/365: Cookie time!




We made cutout cookies last week before Christmas, so of course I had to make a Doctor Who cookie. I didn't have a lot of colour options, so his clothing's not quite right, but hey, he's got a fez and a screwdriver and a bow tie, so I think we're set! Now to watch the Christmas special!

Loc: Gallifrey

~Sil

360/365 The Menorah Bush


 A couple shots from my touristy trip to San Francisco with my son. This was one of several topiaries at Pier 39. Others featured dolphins and acnhors.
Pier 39







And this is a larger version, the menorah at Union Square being lit for the third night of Hanukkah.
Union Square

I'm saving a photo of my menorah until the last night, when all the candles are lit.

-- Frelga

Sunday, December 25, 2011

359/365 - Christmas Gifts from Friends and Family

























These are some of the pictures that I have taken this week.

The first is the banner that Ryan's dad and step mom sent to me. In their card she said that she saw it and thought immediately of me because I am so into the celestial, stars and the moon. I love the banner and so we grabbed one of our arrow shafts to hang it on!

The second picture I am sure you all can see the cards that you sent to us this Christmas!! I cherish each and every one!!! :D

Vana

Photos taken in Bow, WA.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

358/365 - Christmas Roulade

For Christmas, I made a Chocolate Amaretti Roulade (which was meant to have Amaretti or brandy in it and have Amaretti biscuits, but because I don't have any brandy and couldn't find Amaretti biscuits, I put Drambuie in it, and toffee and chocolate biscuits :D).

Here's the result. It's HUGE! I've no idea how we're going to eat it all. Since it's filled with cream, it won't last very long. *sigh* Oh well!

Christmas Roulade

Friday, December 23, 2011

357/365 Flower Ornament

My older daughter, the gardener/florist, made this ornament to us for Christmas; all materials except the flowers are recycled. The flowers on the star don't show up very well, but they're dark red skimmias.

Happy Holidays, everybody!


Posted by Rowanberry
 

Thursday, December 22, 2011

356/365 Sights of the Season

It snowed last night, so I am adding a photo of one of our outdoor trees. It's one of the new trees we planted this summer.
An old piece of farm equipment decorated for the holiday at an orchard down the road.

Our tree.

It's
blurry
but it's
the best
I can
do.






                                   Happy Holidays!
                              Dawn/RoseMorninStar
       







Wednesday, December 21, 2011

355/365: It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

And the Holiday photos begin.

The tree is right in front of my desk, so I get to enjoy the lights all day long.
Portland's Pioneer Square Christmas Tree.  Lovely this year.

Happy Holidays to all Shutter Bugs!!
Brush Prairie WA
Portland, OR
Jules

355/365.....MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Stately Pawkah



 We put our tree up on Sunday.
Came down Monday morning to my little Pawkah Bear being all cute and sleeping beneath it.
I was going to put the top photo on the blog, but then Pawsha had.... just HAD... to be a part of the greetings.
Well, what was I supposed to do?
I couldn't disappoint my little Pawkah who was so good and didn't knock any ornaments off the tree?
So, y'all get two cat photos this week.


MERRY  CHRISTMAS!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!



ps.....
yes, I am surprised I got them to look at the camera at the same time.


Calma's family room....
Port Orchard, WA

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

354/365 The end is near!!!

Just because there’s a dusting of snow on the ground doesn’t mean nothing is green! The grass along the creek is always green.   





This young hawk was hanging out in an unused barn, scoping it out for some tasty meeses, no doubt.  He flew off after I took a couple photos. 



~Tooks in Southcentral PA~

Monday, December 19, 2011

353/365 Scarlet


Scarlet on Flickr.
The photo is grainy, but the color is actually pretty accurate.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

352/365 - A home with a view

This is some of the view from Elenath's new home in Redmond. Their new apartment is on the 6th floor and the view was totally awesome. I know the pictures really don't do it justice but while we were there looking out we saw some Great Bald Eagles and several large flocks of Geese headed south for the winter.

We watched and admired the cloud formations and then watched as the skies cleared to a beautiful clear blue and then proceed to cloud up again.

Their home is lovely and spacious!! Her kitchen is to die for too!

High ceilings and walls of windows open to the West for some lovely sunsets!! This was our first chance to see their new apartment and we were totally in awe with it!!!

A lovely day of snacking and going into Sugar overload was the order of the day Sunday Dec. 18th as the family got together at Ben and Andie's place! Only the cheeses for snacking and for the fondue were packaged, everything else was made by someone in the family for stuffing our faces and none of it was healthy.

Chocolates, fruit bars, Giant Cookies, Lembas, homemade breads, cheese puffs, a cheese fondue with sour dough bread, cheese and crackers, homemade pasta. Oh I am going to need to diet for the next year just to get over the sugar high!! But it was good!!!!

Vana

Photos taken in Redmond WA.

352/360 - Gift of surprise!

We hosted my Company Party a week ago on Sunday evening. It was great fun!!

As one of the gals I work with came in she brought this lovely and fragrant Christmas Centerpiece with her. To my surprise it was a gift for me for hosting this years party! What a lovely surprise and a great holiday gift for my table. It is live greens on a beautiful candle with ornaments and bows. So pretty and it was silver and white like my decorations on the tree.

Vana

Saturday, December 17, 2011

351/365 - Winter in Glasgow

So, I went up to visit friends in Glasgow this weekend just gone (and finish my Christmas shopping). I took my camera, however I forgot my camera cable, which is why these photos are being back-dated! In recompense for waiting, I'm giving you a bumper crop of photos of Christmas decorations taken around Glasgow.

Christmas decorations in Princes Square
Christmas decorations in Princes Square - a posh indoor shopping area.

Wheel, helter skelter and lights
George Square, complete with helter skelter and wheel.

Christmas tree
Christmas tree and Sleigh (there are lit-up reindeer pulling the
sleigh but people wouldn't get out of the way!)

Wheel, cenotaph and Christmas tree
Tree, cenotaph and wheel. The ice rink went around the cenotaph.

Swings and wheel
Wheel and swings. The painting on the swings was amazing.

Friday, December 16, 2011

350/365 - Decorated Christmas Tree


Finally finished decorating the Christmas tree, only to have to do it again the next day because the cat knocked it over. 

(Posted by Heliona for PatriotBlade.)

350/365 Glittery Stuff!

One of the nice things in the dance styles that I do, Bollywood and Bellydance, is that it's perfectly allowed (even expected!) to glitter and shine on the stage. Here's what I'll be wearing at a show tomorrow evening.






The picture didn't turn out the best in that light, I might post a better photo later if I get one.

Rowanberry

Thursday, December 15, 2011

349/365 Let there be light



I tried to take some night-time outdoor photos of the lights hubby put up, but they did not turn out the best. I tried again early this morning and the bottom photos are from Friday am. There are more lights in front of the house, and the basketball hoop looks like a candy cane (but that is not showing up in this photo). Our yard is large & the lights are spread out. It was difficult to get all of the lights in one photo.

Dawn/RoseMorninStar 

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

348/365: Make a wish!!

A gift from the turkey.
I said it was a 24 pound turkey and that gave us a huge wishbone.
Brother Jim got the better part of it, I hope he has his wish come true.


Now this looks like your average wishbone, but see the next photo.

 It may appear that I have small stubby hands, but the truth is I have long fingers, so this wishbone was HUGE, the largest I have ever seen or pulled.

I promise this is the last of the belated Thanksgiving photos. Now on to Christmas.
Jules, Brush Prairie, WA

348/365....Good Morning!

Sunrising.


As I was driving by the elementary school down the street, I happened to see this pretty sight. I have been trying to get a shot of the Olympics from this angle all year. Either didn't have the camera or it was cloudy or too late in the afternoon with too many people in the way.

Pretty sight, eh?


Calma
Port Orchard, WA.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

347/365 - Christmas Decoration

My one and only seasonal decoration: a plastic fiber-optic tree thing with shifting color lights.  When I was growing up, every year Christmas would 'explode' in my house, courtesy of my mom's love of the holiday.  I'm not as enthusiastic about it, so this is all I have in my apartment.

To be honest, I didn't even drag it out of it's box.  It's been sitting in that corner of my living room since the end of the previous Christmas season, partly because I'm lazy but mostly because that's a very blank corner of my living space, and a green plant-like object helped with that.  But I only plugged it in after Thanksgiving.  After all, having it lit all year would just be tacky.

-Krawler

347/365 Cattle and horses and trees (oh my!)

It was another nice weekend for my morning runs. 

So today you get...... 


Cattle!



Horses!







And.... um, trees!  The orchard looks like it was tended by Entwives, yes???







~Tooks in Southcentral PA