Picnic in a Forest

It's a picnic in a forest – a Scribble Picnic that is! Thought I'd play with some watercolors this time. You can take a hike into other forests here.

Other painting I did today involved latex paint. Helped our youngest daughter paint a bedroom in anticipation of a new family member in February! What color? A nice neutral green!

(Note to Andrea if you stop by:  I've left comments on your last several posts, but nothing shows up.  If you go to "Settings" then "Posts, comments and sharing" maybe something was accidentally selected that prevents comments from getting to your posts. Or maybe your notification email address has changed? Might be worth checking anyway.)

Trunk or Treat

Have done trunk or treat at our church's fall fest for three years now.

2014

That's Brittany helping out.

2015
"It's a zoo in here! How many of the creatures God made can you find?"

There's a mirror at the back so they can count themselves as made by God too.

2016

"Don't be an Angry Bird"

Bible verses about anger and forgiveness.

Golden Pennies

Thirty-two pints of carrots finished out this year's gardening!

First Day of Fall

My good friend, Pat, hosted our church's Sarah Circle and our families for a gathering at their cabin at the lake.  It was a pleasant first day of Fall.

Who says you have to have level ground to play croquet!?

The kabobs were quite tasty, as was the rest of the food everyone brought!

November Mystery Tour

Last Fall our pastor invited anyone who wanted, to go along on a "Mystery Trip". Only two of us took her up on it, and had a nice, relaxing day as she drove us to Omaha.

Our main destination turned out to be Lauritzen Gardens. Beautiful!
This miniature weeping fig is only 35 years old. They had a miniature lacebark elm that was closer to 75.
I absolutely loved this Mexican Bush Sage. It looks and feels like velvet!
(Easier to tell if you enlarge the photo.)
They had a model railroad track built through part of the area. Would have been fun to see it running.
One of many rose bushes.Purple Hyacinth Bean
An Armillary Sphere. Looks like it was almost 1:00.
Crabapple
More Mexican Bush Sage
All that walking made us hungry. Pastor C. took us to one of her favorite places to eat, Bob Monkey's Noodle Zoo.
Szechuan Noodles--"A spicy grill of chicken, carrots, snow peas, sweet pepper and onion served over Linguini with spinach and tomatoes." In other words... YUM!
After lunch, we spent time shopping/wandering around some fun shops in old downtown Omaha.
I'll close with some "Advice From a Squirrel," taken from a t-shirt made by Your True Nature.
-Look both ways when you cross the road
-Plan ahead
-Stay active
-Eat plenty of fiber
-Spend time in the woods
-Go out on a limb
-It’s OK to be a little nuts!

November Notes

Sadly, though not unexpected, the middle of November brought the day of a longtime friend's funeral. That horrid cancer cut her life short, but it was a life full of love for the Lord and for her family. We were roommates my senior year in college.
Louise, 1978

B. and I took some time to go to Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge.
On the way there, we crossed the bridge on the left to get from Kansas to Missouri, but it won't be used a lot longer, as a new one is being built. The railroad bridge on the right is still in use.

Those big brown blobs are muskrat mounds, which some of the birds apparently like to sit on.

These deer know they're safe here, even this close to the road.

I thought these reflections were neat.

It was good to have everyone home around Thanksgiving.
K and T fixing something yummy!

Some of the relatives enjoying dessert at B's sister's house.

Our dear Pastor C loves to travel, so in early November she planned a "mystery tour," which one other lady and I joined her for. I'll post about that next time!

: ) ?

Some September/October Stuff

Seven sweet kittens--do you see all of them?

A.'s prize-winning horseshoe pitching form.

Dahlia and cosmos by the barn.

T and M at her new place

T's first kitty, Spud. Only 5-6 months old here, I think he's going to be a Big cat!

We enjoy having friends over to fly kites. This looks much better if enlarged.
This is what's at the other end of those lines!

Our swing tree in October

Oh, Beans!

We're done with the soybean harvest for another year!

These photos are actually from a couple of years ago, and some were taken by M.

It's Still November

Subbing--that's it. I'll blame my blogging absence on the fact that the calls are finally coming in this year. In fact, I've subbed every school day since the 16th, with tomorrow also scheduled. This run has ranged from Kindergarten and 5th grade to junior and/or senior high math, social studies, and "home ec" classes.

Yes, Thanksgiving is over, but awhile back I told a cousin I would post my "greeter". This bird spent most of November on the breezeway, welcoming all who entered our home via the back door. (The way our house is set up, the front door is rarely used by guests.)
We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with B's sister, then traveled to my mom's home for another dinner on Friday with my side of the family. We have much to be thankful for!

Sorry, Brad (ford Pear Tree)

In the previous post I said. "We didn't have this much color around our place this year." Today, as I approached the house on my way home from school, this was what I noticed. Okay, so the other trees just dropped their leaves, but this one got all decked out for us!