yesterday Bill and I finished our errands early, so we decided to head out to the Zoo to kill some time before dinner.

we had a great time, and you can see tons of pictures I took here

but I think my favorite part of our visit was when Bill got llama kisses:

Tags: critters, nature, outside, peektures
Current Mood: chilly

last night Bill's Mom gave me a bunch of lilacs from the garden.

the house smells very strongly of lilacs now.

I'm in heaven.

Tags: glamour, nature
Current Mood: bliss

you know what sucks?
finding a tick on you after a really nice hike.

know what sucks even more? finding the tick on you in the middle of the night after said hike.

and even more suckey than that? not being able to sleep afterwords because your brain keeps freaking out about creepy crawlies, and imagining more ticks and the potential awfulness that ticks bring.

know what doesn't suck but is really awesome?
having a husband who after you wake him up over said tick, gets up, removes it, administers to you wound and then does his groggy best to comfort and reassure you even though he needs to get up early in the morning for work.

Tags: nature, owies, platypus
Current Mood: twitchy

it is really and truly spring now!

about the beginning of march the ice breaker went through the St. Lawrence and ships have been coming and going along the narrow path.

but only just recently has the rest of the mighty river begun breaking up. which mean it finally is spring. (even if it is still pretty chilly out)

the view from the benches at Frink park. you can see it's clearing up nicely along the seaway, and the ice burgs are bumping around around the shoreline



the little (and big) ice floats look so pretty

Tags: nature, outside, peektures
Current Mood: cheerful

today Bill and I went to Wellesley island to go for a hike.
the weather finally was warm enough and there was no rain. and frankly we were going stir crazy.

things are just beginning to thaw and melt up there. there is still quite a bit of snow on the trails. but there is also a lot of melting and running water.

several times we cam to parts of the trail that were flooded and there were quite a few impromptu steams.

at one point we came to a spot were water was flowing towards us from both ends of the trail and diverting of to the side towards a small bay nearby. the running water over the leaves was very pretty, and the resulting curls and rivulets when we stired up the mud was kinda pretty. so I took a picture:



I also took some videos today. the first one is of the muddy stream an the next to are of a spot where the ground was covered with a layer of ice, but there was water flowing along the ground, UNDER the ice, making weird/cool shadows and movements.

( vids )

Tags: nature, outside, peektures
Current Mood: chipper

As Bill and I were leaving the house today to run some errands we noticed something strange over by the bird feeder:


After a minute we realized what it was. Do YOU know what it is?

( click to see a better picture and to find out! )

Tags: critters, nature
Current Location: 13624
Current Mood: chipper

more like Saturday sky, taken Sunday posted Monday. but close enough.

Saturday was my Bridal Shower and that took up most of my energy for the day, but on Sunday Bill and I went out to the Mina Anthony Common Nature Center out on Wellesley Island so he could work on the Blogger Bio Blitz.

While there I got this wonderful shot.
That's an Osprey, there were two but I could only get one on camera, and a mating pair is know to nest near where we were.
They were spectacular!

( osprey! )

Saturday Sky, taken Sunday April 22, 2007 around 2:00pm, Beaver Pond in the Mina Anthony Common Nature Center on Wellesley Island.

Tags: critters, glamour, nature, outside, peektures, saturdaysky
Current Mood: good

Due to the weather finally deciding to be seasonable, Bill and I were able to go for our first nice long walk of the yar.

While we were out we saw our first flowers of spring:

we think it's a species of Blue-Eyed Grass (Genus Sisyrinchium), but we aren't sure which one

correction, it's Siberian Squill

( pretty blue )

Tags: glamour, nature, peektures
Current Mood: content

Bill and I had a great time at the NYS sheep and wool festival, down in Reinbeck. We left Friday morning, and drove down to Albany, it was raining quire fitfully, and apparently my bladder is very impressionable, we had to make several stops on the way down, but otherwise we made pretty good time. When it wasn't raining I managed to get several pictures of the wonderful foliage from the car.
( Read more... )

Once we arrived in Albany we threw our stuff into the room and headed out to buy stuff. Albany has a wonderful selection of ethnic markets, unlike anything we have here in Clayton or Watertown, so every time we go to Albany we make sure to visit the Asian market to by curry paste (there's actually two Asian markets in Watertown, but nether of them carry the brand of curry paste we like, that doesn't use fish paste.) and then off to the Indian market to buy Dals (dried legumes) Bill got a four pound bag each of kala chana, urad dal, mung dal, and toovar dal, unfortunately the prices had gone up and instead of $3 a bag, we had to pay $7. which is still pretty damned good, since they last quite some time, and we can't find them anywhere in our area. After our shopping adventures we visited the Albany Borders, where I got to actually hold and play with a Sony Reader I want. And Bill bought a bunch of books that they don't carry in out local Borders. Then it was of to the Bangkok Thai restaurant for a delicious dinner, then back to the motel for the night.

Then to the main event, Saturday, it was a beautiful sunny day and the fairgrounds were packed, it was a struggle to walk through the vender barns without getting trampled by crazy fiber enthusiasts. I picked up a little beginners needle felting kit, and then the rest of the day was spend just wandering around and taking pictures of adorable fiber animals.
( Read more... )
and bought some extra yummy raw cow's milk cheese! mmmmm...

Sunday it was MUCH less busy, I got to try out a bunch of spinning wheels, bought a pumpkin needle felting kit. (Reinbeck is dangerous; every time I go there I come out with a new addiction!) ( Read more... )
And generally wandered around more. I really wanted to buy some roving, but I haven't really had a lot of time to spin lately, and I still have a bunch of cayenne fur to finish up before I can even look ant anything else. And most of the yarns just were too expensive for too little for me to really do anything with them. Before we left we watched the parade of llamas and alpacas and then stopped by the Wildman Jack reptile show, which was a lot of fun, it was amusing to watch he kids reactions compared with their mothers.
( Read more... )


then it was straight home form the festival, it was a nice drive, but once again, started raining again the farther we went along. Although I did get another great picture before we left the Albany area.
( Read more... )

for even more pictures from the festival, check out
the slideshow I made. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Tags: knitting, nature, outside, peektures
Current Mood: calm

Identify that plant!!!

I know next to nothing about plants or plant identification, but I want to know what kind of bush this is.

It smells delightful, it's right in front of our apartment, covering about half of the southern facing wall including both windows on that side of the apartment.

We have a robin nesting in its branches in front of our living room window. The flowers are blooming right now. When there are no leaves we can see a rather thick trunk at its base, as if it had been a tree of some sort which had been cut down, and then regrew in a more bush like fashion.

Neither Bill nor I remember any fruits or nuts last summer or fall, and there is nothing around the ground to indicate that we just missed them.


( pictures )

Tags: nature, platypus nest
Current Mood: curious

I snagged a few lilacs from the bush in our yard today. They are quite strong and lovely smelling, the whole apartment smells of delicious spring. Lilacs are my favorite flowers.

In other springy news, the robin eggs have hatched. We noticed the Robin momma leaving the nest more frequently the other day and today Bill pulled the shrink wrap off the window and opened it a crack while she was gone, as we cannot see directly into the nest, and were unsure of the egg status. Sure enough we could here the little peep, peep of hungry little nestlings. It will be about two more weeks until they are big enough to leave the nest. Hopefully we will be getting a glimpse or two of them as they grow bigger.

I have decided to enter a few things into the Jefferson County Fair this year. My work hours let me out in plenty of time that we will actually get to go, and I've wanted to submit something for judging for quite some time. I have a large oval doily in mind to crochet; I should have plenty of time to finish it if I work for at least an hour after work, and a little more on my days off. The only thing I'm missing is thread, so I'll be picking some up tomorrow while we are out. In the mean time, I've been practicing on a small pineapple doily like the ones I made everybody for Yule.

My only problems now are the fact that the entry rule booklet available online is a tad confusing and riddled with typos and mistakes. I'm not quite clear when my deadline to get items to the fair office is. Well actually, I'm not quite sure when the office is open to accept submissions, and if I can only make them on a specific day/time or if I can do it at any time before the deadline. This may be my only sticking point, because as far as I can tell, the fair office closes every day before I'm even out of work. And while I could go in on my day off, one of the sections referring to my submission category only lists two day as available days and nether is my day off. I'm going to try and remember to call the office at some point before I get too far into this doily, but I can't find their regular non fair office hours anywhere, so I am unsure weather they are actually open, let alone when to call.

Tags: critters, crochet, glamour, knitting, nature
Current Mood: calm

Hey!

We just had a pine grosbeak in our yard!

First time either of us have seen one of those, they're pretty!

Cool.

Tags: critters, nature
Current Mood: chipper

Ok, so other than the Geocaching let down, today was a BEAUTIFUL day!

Warm, sunny, naturey!
Bill too hundreds of pictures while we were out, we even cam almost close enough to touch a couple of deer! Such gorgeous creatures.

Our clothing smells like the outside (cayenne had to give us a through sniff over when we came home,) and it was sooo pretty.
And it's just going to keep getting warmer this week, up to about 60F by Friday! :D:D:D:D

Wednesday we are hoping to go out around town and see if we can find any of the Clayton caches, and to scout out locations for a new one we want to place.
And maybe another outside walkies adventure on Friday!

Oh bliss, oh joy!

Tags: geocaching, glamour, nature, outside
Current Mood: tired

I hear geese honking away over in the river, there are some sort of small chirpy birds in the bushes outside, a couple different kinds I think. (I could be wrong; I'm not good at identifying birds by their chirps.) And a few moments ago I heard a dove whoo hooing out in the driveway.

Yep. It's spring.

Tags: nature
Current Mood: chipper

It snowed last night, A LOT. It looked beautiful this morning. Bill went out and took some gorgeous pics of our front yard:

( in all its snowy glory )

Tags: nature, peektures, platypus nest, weather
Current Mood: chipper

Owies

Yesterday Bill and I went to a Geocaching event on Wellesley Island.

We had a blast finding the temporary caches, hanging out and talking with cachers from all across the state and Ontario, we went out to hunt one of the permanent caches, And then got some neat booty in the drawing (We got this cool orange tee shirt from the nature center with a turkey vulture on it, bill LOVES turkey vultures.)

We were in a bit of a hurry when we went on the hike for the permanent cache, so I ended up pushing myself too much on the level five terrain (lots of rocky uphill down hill steepness)

We were pooped when we got home, but that was ok, because I hade made dinner in the crock pot and it was waiting for us. Mmmm YUMMY.

But now my calves and quadriceps (not to mention my knees!) are killing me!!
:: whimper ::

But you know the weird thing? I would so do it all over again; we had such a great time!

Oh yeah, and it was a bit chilly yesterday, so I wore the hat I had knit myself from black yarn. It has ear flaps with ties and pom-poms, and cute little kitty ears with pink fuzz.
Ever now and then when we met up with somebody along the trails they give me a strange look, or get these huge smiles. And it took me a minute to realize why. I was kind of making an unintentional glamorbomb! :D

Tags: extrovert, geocaching, glamour, knitting, nature, outside, weather
Current Mood: in pain

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/10/24/california.wildfire/index.html

holy crap...
that looks scary as hell

I have no idea where mactavish lives but she hasn't posted since yesterday morning...

:: worries ::

Tags: friends, links, nature, weather
Current Mood: rushed

I decided today to take duchess out for a ride in the car, since I haven't taken her out for a while.
We drove all over the place, through the park and the cemetery. You're no longer allowed to feed the birds anymore, its kinda sad. Also the place was over run by Canadian Geese. It was crazy there were geese at the opposite side of the cemetery form the ponds. And there were hardly any normal geese or ducks to be seen.

Then I decided to go up and take a look at Talcott Falls, we've driven by it a million times going places but I have never actually gotten out of the gar and gone up and looked at it. So I drove up outer Washington (Rt. 11) and pulled over to get a closer look. I was kinda bummed to see that there was no proper parking area for the falls, just some gravely part right of the road that was so pitted and puddle I was afraid to park. But I really wanted to get a good look at the falls.

I'm glad I did, it was breath taking, I mean, it's no Niagara Falls or anything, and there wasn't much water, but it was really pretty. I think some day I'm going to take my camera up and take a bunch of pictures, it's so beautiful.

Tags: nature, pets
Current Mood: accomplished
What's Playing?: The Pillows - Crazy Sunshine

It rained for a bit tonight, boy did it rain.

I had interesting luck with the rain throughout the day; it would start to sprinkle while I was in the car going someplace, but stop by the time I needed to get out. Or while I was I PP it rained some, but was done when I was finished, and it sprinkled a little on the way to school tonight.
But once I got to class my luck changed. (I don't say for good or bad, I like rain, but getting soaked sometimes sucks) no rain while I was in class until JUST before he let us out, and then it poured like a bitch until I was safely on my way home, and then I began sprinkling again when I got into my driveway and had to walk into the house.

Ah well.

The rain and watching the students run all over the place with their heads ducked got me thinking.
When it rains, I don't duck my head and hunch my shoulders (as if that would keep anyone even a bit dryer) I usually walk at a leisurely pace with my head up, sometimes my face turned to the sky and falling drops.(what? A cat who like the rain? Yeah I'm weird.)

I think this all started after reading a Tom Robbins book, Another Roadside Attraction I think, or it could have been Half asleep in frog pajamas I can't remember it was a while ago. (If you've never read anything my Tom Robbins, GO OUT AND GET ONE OF HIS BOOKS! He is a magnificent author.)

But he said something to the effect of, why should people be afraid of the rain? Its natural,, its not going to kill you, and if your so vain that a few rain drops are going to ruin your image, you have other problems. He also alluded to the fact that rain is a part of nature (duh) and by being hostile and afraid of rain you are denying a very important part of the world.

That's another reason why I don't hunch up and try to hide from the rain, it's a part of nature, of the cycle of the earth, I'm pagan, the earth, nature and its cycles (the good and the bad) are all very important and beautiful. I love the rain, it's cleansing, and it cleans all the crap out of the air, and drains away the stuff in the ground. It drops the humidity to a nice comfy level (like tonight) it's just beautiful; it brings food to plants in the ground.

You can almost envision rain as something like mother natures menstrual fluid. No rain, no crops no life, but when it rains regularly, there is life and plants everywhere, but if it rains too much everything gets flooded and dies. And the rain cleans everything up on its way down.

So when it rains I stand tall, shoulders square and head up, and sometimes I even lift my face to the sky, and thank the goddess for the cleansing waters.

And really if you think about it, your mother's old argument that you'll catch pneumonia or something is a bunch of hooey. If your eat and live properly and healthily, your immune system will be in good working order, and a few drops of water and a little chill will be a walk in the park.

So yeah, don't be afraid of the rain, I'm not, its happy rain. And the air always smells so beautiful after a good raining. (And during as well)

Tags: bookworm, introspection, nature, spirituality
Current Mood: contemplative

:: deep breath ::

mmm I love the smell of fresh warm rain.

:: is tempted to go outside and dance ::

Tags: glamour, nature
Current Mood: cheerful
What's Playing?: rain drops