...This year's tradition of cutting down our tree was not quite as scenic as in years past since there's no snow. We had picked out this tree earlier in the year, but discovered a problem with it on the back side and decided to look for a different one.
Fortunately, we have a lot to choose from.
This is the one!
After Jon cut it down he remarked that this was a young tree and counted the rings. The tree started it's life about the same time as our grandson Ben. Fourteen years ago. Grandpa Jon says, it's the same age, but taller than Ben (not by much), and definitely not as smart as Ben.
We had to cut a small chunck of it off and I saved it for my window display on the deck. It's a cool piece of wood.
Even without snow to drag the tree on, it was still a pretty easy job.
I took several photos and there's not one of them that Lady is not moving in. She is nonstop motion.
It is necessary to document our Green Christmas with photos of the fountain and the stairs to the deck. Normally, both we be covered with snow. A LOT of snow. As a matter of fact, we rarely walk down these steps in the winter because of that. We do not shovel the snow off of these steps.
A cluster of grapes still hanging on.
The tree decorating has begun. As of this morning I have lights and quite a few decorations on it, but still have garland and ribbon to add. More photos tomorrow.
I've listened to this album every Christamas. First I had the vinyl album, then the CD and now I've copied the songs into my digital music collection.
Jon spent the afternoon cleaning up the mess from the maple tree while I continued to work on various Christmas stuff. I am happy to say that things are getting narrowed down as far as the list goes.
After we finished all our projects yesterday we watched some football.
It was an absolutelycrazy wild Montana Grizzly game yesterday. I think it was the most exciting game we've watched all year.
There was an awesome photo taken of the game and I have permission from the photographer, Brian Christianson, to post it here.
Our friend Joe Heisel was here yesterday to make some firewood. Jon has several trees that need to be cut down before spring and Joe said he could use the wood. After making up some firewood, he volunteered to saw down a maple tree next to the house. The maple is causing too much shade on Jon's dahlia bed. It had to go.
Joe is an expert sawyer and it's always a good thing when you ask, "where's it going to fall?" and he says, "well, right there," and then points out the direction. "Or," he says, "it can go right there, if you want". Jon chose where he wanted it to fall and sure enough that's where it is.
Joe limbed off a few of the branches and both of them worked to get it cutup a bit before dark. Jon has the rest to clear out of the driveway/yard today. Managing his trees is his favorite thing to do and he's good at it. He will have some fun today.
I got to spend the day playing Santa and delivering a few gift bags of Christmas cheer. After that I spent some time making a wreath for our front porch and then I started to work on a Christmas display next to our window on the deck. Photos of that project coming soon...
Next, I spent some time taking a few more photos and experimenting with my new photo editing software. It's kind of fun. You can take a so-so photo and make something more interesting out of it.
The front porch wreath, 2023.
I was browsing through photos and came across some of my favorites and decided to share them with you. You've proabably seen them before but if you're like me, you don't remember when.
I love this sweet baby.
The snow was deep that year and winter was indeed upon us.
It was beautiful though.
Anyone out there recognize this little guy? He's not so little anymore and about to have another birthday.
I though I'd post one of Jon's favorite Christmas songs to sing.
There were some beautiful colors this morning as the sun was coming up over the mountains.
I have my new camera but I really haven't gotten out there to take many photos. The ones I have taken seem to be filled with clouds.
We had a bit of snow, but most of it has either been washed away in the rain or thawed as our daily temperatures are almost 40 degrees every day.
There are some leaves left out there that I could either rake up or try to blow away, but I'm way past my leaf removal mode.
It seems almost impossible that Christmas is only ten days away.
Along with my new camera I am having some fun with new photo editing software.
We had a big day in town yesterday since Lady needed her vaccination boosters. We spent at least an hour at the vet and then finished up several other errands before heading home.
It was a bit difficult from the beginning of the trip because Lady does not like to get in the car. As a matter of fact she wants nothing to do with the car or any other vehicles, such as the UPS truck. That is probably a good thing, but we would like her to want to get in the car when she's invited.
The vet, one of Jon's ex students, Dr. Neher, says that the way to get her to do that is to have one of us sit in the car and the other one then tosses her favorite toy into the car so that she has to hop in to get it. She said to do that about a thousand times and then one day when she hops in, to shut the door and turn on the engine. Do that about a thousand times. After that(another thousand times), we can try turning on the engine and driving for a short distance, stopping and then let her out.
Seems easy enough...
Meanwhile, I am working on a wreath and almost finished.
We have our tree picked out but still haven't decided which day to actually go cut it down and bring it in the house. Maybe over the weekend because next week is cookie baking time. At least one batch of cookies per day.
It's been fun to watch all the football games, especially the college playoffs. The Griz are hanging in there. Also a small miracle has happened in that I've won our weekly football pool three weeks in a row. I usually don't win so just talking about it will probably jinx my streak.
If you have time, checkout my writer friends, Kristine and Marianne. Amazing women who have both published books and both have blogs. They tell very interesting stories and post amazing photos.
Kristine, who's now back in Rhode Island for the winter, just celebrated her birthday. You can keep up with her at Is There Anymore Pie?
Marianne is enjoying her newfound freedom since she is boarding her horses for the winter. She is the most busy person I know. She is always "out there" going somewhere, taking photos and telling her stories on Slight Detour.
There's always something interesting and uplifting to read on their posts.
I hope you are enjoying our mild December pre-Christmas weather. I am very happy to say that I have done very little snow shoveling so far this year.
Happy Thursday!
This is a video I created in 2018. It might be time to make another one.
Christmas 2018, a long time ago. The music is a song I wrote, Whisper. The musicians are Larry Guldberg, Bruce Bishop and yours truly.
Yes, it's raining here. A lot. It's also warm with this morning's temperature at 43 degrees. All of our snow has melted and washed away in the rain. Our forecast was for an atmospheric river of rain over three or four days. I think we are on day 3?
Yesterday I went to art class at the community center. We are painting with acrylics and trying to learn to how to paint clouds. Clouds are very difficult to paint. They are these fluffy looking things made of water droplets or ice crystals, constantly moving and changing. Then there's also the light to consider.
Our art instructors, Kally Thurman and Vera Gadman, are very patient with those of us who have never tried painting with acrylics.
When I searched through my old photos for landscapes with interesting clouds, I found quite a few and have posted them below. The first two were taken as we were traveling thrugh Big Hole country in Montana.
Washington coast, May 2010.
The Sapphire Mountains near Hamilton, Montana.
Glaciel Lake Missoula and the Flathead River near the Perma Curves.
Zion National Park
Today will be a good time for wrapping Christmas gifts and working on some cards. I also have some wreathes to make. Fortunately, I gathered the boughs before all the rain began. I'm kind of wimpy when it comes to walking around in the wet grass,etc.
It's time to bake some Christmas goodies and I still need to decide which recipes it will be this year. Almond Crescents, Cornflake Cookie Wreathes, Gingerbread, Sugar Cookies or Chocolate Mint? The choices are many. I do know that I want to bake my Grandma Ella's Date Pudding Cake. It was a hit last year.
A wreath I made several years ago. I will be attempting a different design this year.
I am going to be the lucky recipient of an early Christmas gift from Jon, a new Canon camera, and it will come with a tripod, which can also be used with our cell phones. I can't wait to take photos with it. They say that the new iPhones have better lenses, but I am not ready to part with my iPhone 7. There's something about spending $800 on a new phone, when the one I have works fine for almost everything.
I took all of the cloud photos above with my Canon SX Powershot. I've posted a photo of one of my cloud painting attempts.
Happy Wednesday. Enjoy some Christmas music as you wrap your gifts and bake those cookies.
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