These pictures were from August. I took lots of garden picture in August with the idea of posting some of them this winter when I would need a little extra encouragement. Well, so far I haven't seemed to need the extra encouragement until now. Tonight I just felt the need to go back to August and take a walk through the garden.
These pictures are of Maya. So often in late summer I would send her out to pick something out of the garden for supper. She LOVED her little chore SO much. She would always bound out the door with so much eagerness and I remember watching her bounce up and down, just barely visible above the rows. I think this time I sent her out to pick peas. Peas were one of her favorites. We will have to remember to plant more this spring. Here she is giving me a thumbs up!
It is only the 1st of February tomorrow and in our part of the country, February means there is still a lot a winter left. But really it's only 6 short months before we'll be picking stuff out of the garden again. I guess it's all in how you look at it...
Grandma Alice and Grandpa John~52 Wedding Anniversary January 21, 1997
I wanted to post this picture last week but didn't get it done so thought I would do it today. It was a special year in my life when I got to live next door to my special grandparents! I will always remember them and all they meant to me. I miss them so much and often wish I could load up my family and head over to their house on these cold winter evenings to sit around their table or around the hot fire and visit.
52 Weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!
About two weekends ago, we had some beautiful days here. When we sent the kids out this day, the only snow clothing requirement was snow pants so they wouldn't get sopping wet! It was beautiful and warm out and so I put the zoom lense on the camera and took some pictures.
Not sure what Kyla is doing above because there wasn't even a hint of snow or even a cloud in the sky but I thought it was a fun capture when she didn't know I was taking a picture.
The girls wanted to ice skate. They would skate about half the length of the rink and then drop down and slide the rest of the way... Colter just wanted to dig snow with his excavator for a while... I like how the camera captured the snow flying around the bucket in this picture and the expression on his face... A happy boy! Uh, oh! A not so happy girl. I think it must have hurt this time when she hit the ice... Now it's colder again and the ice needs shoveled off again after a blanket of snow fell yesterday. I think I'll head out there now for some fresh air...
This form of self-indulgence had become part of my life and still is; a reluctance to come down from the high country; a penchant for stepping out of the stream of life and loitering on the brink for a few minutes as an uninvolved spectator. And it was easy to escape...
Here is another fun picture we took in December when we were trying to get a family picture taken. This is a great old John Deere tractor we found in the entrance of an undeveloped subdivision called Harvest View. This old tractor has been around a few years. It probably was manufactured around 1927. You see a lot of old tractor bone piles in this country-sadly deserted relics that speak of the years and years of hard labor that went into making this country what it is today.
It's interesting that this tractor would have likely been built right before the days of The Great Depression. I wonder if a farmer bought this shiny new revolutionary tool with high hopes one day, and then shattered dreams the next as the world's economic structure crumbled. Maybe he lost it to the bank and then eventually it was restored to it's useful purpose. I don't know, but when I hear the stories of my own grandparents and great-grandparents, I just wonder...
Now, it sits in the entrance to this new subdivision. The subdivision was put in quite some time ago but remains largely unoccupied. With the worlds recent economic downturn, our real estate and building markets have been hard hit here in our area, and there are many subdivisions and homes in this same condition. To me, it's ironic that this old shiny tractor sits there in the middle of the evidence of loss... loss of better times. Loss of hopes and dreams. And like times past, this old tractor may be hoping for better times... just like we are.
And then there's John Deere. It's been here through it all...
52 Weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!
1. Seed catalogs arriving in the mail2.nieces and nephews3. spiders don't thrive in the winter4. I don't live were there are tarantula's 5. or scorpion 6. or Monotir Lizards (that would be Africa)7. African Violets thrive in Montana8. chocolate covereds 9. the beautiful sunrise this morning10. my five year old humming while she eats her snack11. a camera to capture so much of the beauty and a little of the reality of life12.blogging friends who inspire me to be a better wife/mother, 13. be creative, 14. enjoy the simple things in life, 15. take pictures with me in them, 16. and many many others who share their day to day lives with me and broaden my world17. James Harriet Books and 18. a quiet evening to read them with my husband19. Tillamook Cheese20. time spent in my kids classroom21. a plowed out driveway every morning 22. the library23. frosty mornings 24. looking forward to Spring Break (yes, already) 25. Letters and pictures from other lands 26. the bible study 27. my mother28. that life isn't too busy to do this29. that the dog and cat get along so well and 30. that we have a garage for them in this cold weather31. my husbands smile32.When I hear "mommy, I love you!" 33. finished laundry
On New Years Day, we headed up to the Izaak Walton Inn in Essex, MT (population-223) for some outdoor fun!This unique alpine lodge was originally built in 1939 by the Great Northern Railroad to house the mountain winter snow removal crews. The old building and surrounding wilderness are bursting with history. Click here to read more about it.
For some of our friends, this is a yearly tradition to come here on New Years so we had lots of fun with friends and family... It was so fun to spend the night. Grandma and Grandpa got one room and we had another. Our rooms were on the second floor looking out on the railroad tracks. We didn't get to see Amtrak come in that night as it was over 3 hours late! Here is a slide show of some more pictures. I'm hidden in it somewhere for the 52 week challenge! ;)
When Amtrak whistles from a few miles away, all the people and employees go out on the back porch and bridge that goes over the tracks and wave. I've gotten to take part in this a few times in my life. I've also been on the train many time and have seen the wavers from the Inn. It sounds like a simple, maybe even silly thing, but in a place that has no televisions in the rooms, no cell phone coverage, and where everyone gathers around the sitting room fire place to enjoy the REAL old fashioned wood and smoke warmth of the fire to visit, it isn't silly. It's just seems like the right thing to do. And as the train going from Chicago to Seattle slows to a stop in Essex MT, the passengers know that this is a warm place, a very, very warm place.
And here are the kids waiting for the train on top of the bridge that goes over the tracks...
We are well into our New Year here! Enjoying -12 degree temps this morning but thankful for our own "old fashioned" fire and a beautiful bright sun outside! Makes a person feel warm inside, very very warm!
Have a wonderful, warm day wherever you are ((waving)),
52 Weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!
Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last weekend...
These pictures were taken by 3 different cameras. So tonight I spent way to long uploading, downsizing, saving, editing, re-saving and posting. So this will be it for tonight... until I am ready to have some more fun!
These pictures were from August. I took lots of garden picture in August with the idea of posting some of them this winter when I would need a little extra encouragement. Well, so far I haven't seemed to need the extra encouragement until now. Tonight I just felt the need to go back to August and take a walk through the garden.
I think this time I sent her out to pick peas. Peas were one of her favorites. We will have to remember to plant more this spring.
Here she is giving me a thumbs up!
