121/366 Wanderer

In Denver, we caught an exhibition of gem carvings by Russian artist Konovalenko. This aged pilgrim is all agate and amethyst and quartz. Note the two-fingered sign of cross marking him as an "Old  Believer," an adherent of old Russian Orthodox rituals.

121/366: Bonfire

It's cold and rainy and gross today. Bonfire, anyone??

Boyne City, MI

~Sil

120/366 - A Spring Walk

We took and a walk today out along the dike where they have a walking path. It is a 2 and 1/8th mile walk one way. We walked just past the one mile marker and then back so we did at least half the dike and back. Along the way we spotted this little red maple growing out in the middle of an open field along some other trees. There is nothing else but fields for crops around them. Also on the way back we spotted this little fellow moving right along from one side of the pathway to the other. We both thought he was kind of cute!

Photos taken today in Skagit County, WA. along the Padilla Bay!

Vana

119/366 - Royal blue sky

Yesterday at work we had an amazing sunset. The apartment building behind our building was glowing in the sun and the sky was a wonderful shade of blue. It looked even better than in this photo about five minutes before, and unfortunately I only had my phone with me, so the photo doesn't really do the colours justice. However, it still looks pretty good. :D (The car you can see is mine, with its funny rear end!)

Setting sun shining on apartment block.

119/366 More Flowers

Some more flowers (and critters) from my back yard.

The scillas bloom under the cherry tree every year:

These wood anemones grow wild in our yard:

And, a hopeful young red squirrel was on its way to check the bird feeder, which is already empty and will be taken down soon:

Rowanberry's back yard
Espoo, Finland

118/366 Otto the Lazy greyhound

This is my darling Otto, he loves to sleep on our bed.

118/366 One Week Later...

 

The puppies, one week later!

117/366 Hobbity Sunday :D

On Sunday, my sweetheart made scones for us for tea. :D
I'd had scones in Dorset last year, and liked them, too, but these were my first fresh-from-the-oven-homemade scones, and they were looooovely!
There's even some clotted cream to go with them: we'd found the jar in a deli store some months ago. It was clotted cream with brandy, and they'd been quite generous with the brandy, so it was a bit strong, but nevertheless just the thing to go with scones. The little jam-jars are freebies of home-made jam they give you at our currently favourite restaurant in town.
Needless to say, these were a bit too many for the two of us, so we shared the remainder and I had mine on Monday with my own home-made jam, which, although I say it myself, beat the restaurant's ;) - and I found that butter instead of clotted cream is delicious on the scones, too. :D

117/366 Out of the Blue

One evening just before twilight, the sky was a lovely shade of blue. I thought this branch of maple leaves just budding out looked beautiful against the sky. It reminded me of an ink blot painting.

Rose

116/366 What Would You Do?

:P

On a cup box in the dry storage closet at the coffee shop.


~Dubs

116/366....Peek-A-Boo....

I See You...

On a good day the view from my bedroom window is awesome.
In Real Estate terms it's a peek-a-boo view, but I don't care. I get to see my mountains all the same.
This was taken as the sun was setting so the quality is not so good, but still...


Calma.
Location: Port Orchard, Washington, USA

115/366 Spiders and Snakes!!!

Actually.....just a snake this week.

During a walk along a woodland trail, the dog walked right past this little garter snake. I stopped and snapped a few pics then scooted him off the trail so he wouldn't get stepped on. I think he was trying to warm up a bit since he knew cold weather was coming. :P


He/she's a cutie....... :D







-Tooks in Southcentral PA

114/366 Gateway

Gateway, a photo by fre1ga on Flickr.

Taken on my train ride to Denver.

If this is not called Castle Rock, it should be. This is Butch Cassidy country, allegedly a site of his ambushes and hideouts

114/366: In bloom

Pretty trees, pretty trees!

...yeah, I don't really have much to say about this photo. This is a street in the Kerrytown area of Ann Arbor, though now that I think about it, I have no idea why it's called Kerrytown. Things to see include Zingerman's (a very well-known deli and pictured at the beginning of last year's blog, actually), the farmer's market, and lots of trees in bloom right now. It also has some old cobblestone roads which are fun to walk on, but not so great for driving!

Ann Arbor, MI

~Sil

113/366 - Things I like in my yard

I finally got my gazing ball for my yard!!!! We picked it up about a week ago and I am so thrilled to finally have it out and decorating the garden.

I also have the one windchime that I can leave out all year long. I love the moon and the star and they way they are set off with the blue stones set in the face and the star.

These are some of my favorite things in my yard this year. Today I even got my hummingbird feeders back up. I hope I am not too late with getting them out and attracting the local hummingbirds.

Vana

Photos taken in Skagit County, Bow, WA. The Beautiful Pacific Northwest of the United States.

112/366 Crocuses

Finally, the crocuses on my back yard opened properly.

And, a bumblebee was busy searching for food:

by Rowanberry

112/366 - New Brighton Hovercraft

A couple of weeks ago we (as in my workplace) had a visit from one of our rescue hovercrafts. Here's a photo of them about to leave:



I took the photo on my new phone and because I'd turned the screen brightness right down to save battery power, it meant that I couldn't see which button I was pressing. As a result, I took a (very!) short video of the hovercraft leaving (you can see it rising up as the curtain is inflated, though):

111/366 Momma Shady

This is Shady about a month ago, shortly after we brought her home.

 

This is Shady yesterday evening after giving birth to 4 puppies.

If you want to see all the pics, clicky the linky, and this SHOULD also work for people who don't have Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151529416280790.845323.535280789&type=3&l=e179157ed3

111/366 Dress-ups

Tomorrow we are off to Sydney for my partners sister's 50th.  She is having a Hornblower party on a tall ship on the harbour.  Dress is early 1800s.  I love sewing but didn't have a lot of time.  So we hired the dress but I made the little cutoff jacket and decorated the bonnet. 

 
So this is us all frocked up.  Got to say hubby looked particularly dashing.

 

110/366 Butterfly

Last week, we met up with my sweetie's family in Stratford-upon-Avon, where we visited a Butterfly Farm - it was the first time I'd been to one, and it was awesome! :D I'd been a bit worried that fluttery critters all around me would make me a bit nervous, but it was fine, and the shapes and colours were just amazing.
One of my favourites was this one with the transparent wings.

110/366 A Gentle April

A Beautiful Sunset

Kale from my garden.

Blossoms from the Prairiefire crabapple tree we planted last fall.

                          

Dawn

Wisconsin, USA

109/366 Birthday Punch

This is the punch we made for the Princess' birthday.  It was so pretty I had to take a picture of it before it was decimated. :P  Sprite, lime sherbet and fresh strawberries. Yum!

~Dubs

109/366...A Birdseye View....



Silverdale


A view from the top.... Well, not quite the top, but close enough.

Silverdale used to be just farmland. A little spit of a town with horses and cows as a main business. Then the military moved in and a mall sprang up.

Now the horses and cows, for the most part, have disappeared.

Sort of makes me sad.

Calma:
Location:  Silverdale, Washington, USA.

108/366 Why did the turkey cross the road???

I have no idea, but 5 of them crossed it! Here are a few photos as proof!



A herd of turkeys coming through the field:









Getting closer:









One of them sprinting across the road. I’m pretty sure he was under the speed limit:









They headed off through a mowed corn field, in search of tasty morsels no doubt.



-Tooks in Southcentral PA

107/366: Happy Halloween!

....I just can't get my holidays straight! I bought this pumpkin in November, and it's been living on my dining room table ever since. It's not moldy, mushy, decomposing, etc. at all. I'm beginning to think it's fake like those flowers that stayed alive much longer than expected! I think I'll start dressing it up for holidays, maybe stick a wig on it... :D

~Sil

106/366 - More Whimsey at my home

I decided to show you some of the Whimsey that I have around my home.

This is the new Welcome Stone that I have at my front door entry.

I so enjoy the faeries flitting about my place.

The second is a candle holder that I found the other day at the mall. It has the laser cutting inside of it. Do you see the faery resting in it? She is sitting back and resting against a tree or weed and I think she is holding a bird. I just love how it looks.

Pictures taken in Bow, WA.

Vana

105/366 House Elf

A house elf enjoying the early spring. :D

by Rowanberry

105/366 - Middle Earth Beer Festival

So as most of you know, I went to the Middle Earth Beer Festival with Hobbi, Wilko, and Aravar today. It was good (although the atmosphere could have been better - the kegs were in the village hall which had the feel of a school hall) but the weather wasn't too great. As a result, I didn't take too many photos, but here are some.

We arrived nice and early so this was the hall first thing, before it filled!

This was a husky puppy that belonged to the falconers. You can see a hooded falcon behind the pup.

Here's a falcon/hawk (I wasn't there when they said what they were and I was quite far away when I took this picture) stretching its wings.

This is one of the dogs in the display team. This is an excitable, very enthusiastic and energetic collie called Harley. All the dogs were pets, as opposed to "professional" display dogs.

This is a grey greyhound, Lucy, just at the top of the bridge.

Lucy jumping through the ring.

Gizmo jumping through the first of four fire rings.

We paid a deposit for the glasses, which as they were nice, we decided to take home as opposed to returning them and receiving the deposit back. Here's Wilko's filled with a beer (we're back at home). (The "Return of the Ring" bit is advertising an event in the middle of August at Lougborough University: Return of the Ring.)

A close-up of the Elvish writing on the bottom of the glass. A very brief inspection leads me to believe that it's a direct letter-for-letter transcription of "middleearthbeerfestival", particularly since it ends in ".co.uk" :D

104/366 Fairy Hammock

Didn't get a chance to take any pics this week, so I'm posting one from last summer. It's a spiderweb in a tree, but I was feeling whimsical and thought it looked like a fairy hammock.

104/366 Parrots

These are two parrots that were in the tree outside my room at Halls Gap.  Not only are they beautiful but they are very chatty, they squawked and squeaked at us for half an hour before they got bored and flew off

 Early Friday morning and the wallabies are out and about

The creek at the end of the place where we are staying