A few photos to share...

I was driving home from my dog-sitting and it was a dreary morning.  The fog was laying low and everything had an eerie cast upon it.

This was the look in their back yard as I took the dogs out one last time before heading home... the crows in the tree just add to the eerie feeling...

I took a little detour to where I go walking, just to see what the trees there looked like...

 

 

 

Then I went to the SC Botanical Garden in Clemson

Not far from home...

These were all taken around 10 - 11 AM on 1/1/11

Gertie & Hops

And these two sweet pups were my New Years Eve companions...

I will try to get some things posted soon about what I have made lately, I have posted them on facebook, but I will go more in-depth here.

Roses for Nana

March 4th would have been my Nana's 100th birthday. We have adopted a tradition from one of our friends to go out to dinner in honor of our loved one's birthday and eat somewhere they would have enjoyed and just celebrate the life that was.
On the 3rd, we went out for Italian (Nana was Italian) and had a wonderful meal. Afterward, we were in the grocery store and I saw these gorgeous pink roses. Pink roses were Nana's favorite. I bought them. This is a photo of them in the morning sun the next morning, which was actually her birthday. They lasted a week, but have gone on to rose heaven...

Introducing Fred

You may remember me talking about Shadow, the cat we inherited that then adopted our neighbor. Well, Shadow is gone after a long and happy life. Now our neighbor has adopted a new kitten. The kit's name is Fred.
Fred was to be an indoor cat that went out sometimes... he has turned out to be an indoor cat that LOVES being outdoors, but comes in to take care of business...
One day, I was looking out the window in the sun room and thought I saw a rare White Squirrel in the tree. Some of the panes of the window are fogged, so I moved to see better and realized, it wasn't the White Squirrel at all (known to exist in Brevard, NC), but it was Fred.

Fred has taken a liking to perching in the TiTi tree to observe the bird feeder hanging there. I have seen him there almost daily since the first sighting.
I'm not sure he deters the birds too much though, I see them flitting around in the upper branches teasing him... and if they were on the feeder, I don't think he could reach them. Sometimes he looks as though he may be curled up in the branches to take a nap.

A South Carolina Snow...

Having grown up in a snow-belt area of Western NY state, snow should be no big deal to me. But we don't get a lot of it here.
As long as I have no place else I need to be, I am very content to look out the windows at the snow, it is a thing of beauty!
I did go out a while back and sweep the snow off the deck... a futile attempt to stay ahead of the snow... it had other ideas and 20 minutes later you could hardly tell I had swept!
They don't predict this to last, most of it is supposed to be gone sometime tomorrow...
The kids around are enjoying it!

And the roses bloom...

These photos are of one of the miniature rose bushes at the house. They are of the same flower... one taken on Thursday morning and the other taken this morning, after all of the rain...
Ahhhh... the beauty of nature!

Vacationing in my mind

Our store vacation will be the first week of July. I know that is not too far away. But, (there is always one of those...) I have lots of sorting and cleaning out to do. So what most people think of as a vacation (aka 'get-away') is not going to be feasable.

So, I think I may take some of that time to 'get-away' locally for a few hours. I may take a quiet walk at the South Carolina Botanical Gardens in Clemson. They don't have as large a stream as the one in this photo (that came on my computer), but they have some tranquil ponds with ducks and carp and wonderful plants to look at. Or I may walk with friends at the Hartwell Dam. Whatever I do, even for a few hours, I will soak in the quietness of my natural surroundings. This will refresh me so I can put my nose back to the grindstone and finish that cleaning and sorting project.