Penny's 60th!

Penny and her children.

We are blessed with great family and friends and last night was an example as to why. One of our dear friends turned 60 and we threw her a surprise party. With the help of another good friend, Raeeda, here are some pix to share. I also included a 45 second clip of the wonderful music.

We love you, Penny, and Happy Birthday!
Andy

Does she look surprised?

The glamour girls.

The troubadours, Jim and Doc!

Me and the birthday girl!

I think Doc liked the Carrot Cake-Birthday Cake!

Winter again

Guess we kinda knew this would happen.

We woke up to snow this morning and it's still snowing.

~Michele

Cat Nap Wednesdays

I'm wondering if Katie is thinking of shipping herself somewhere??

~Michele

Macro Monday

Can you guess the object above?




Do you give up?




Here's another clue:

Scroll down for the answer.




It's a penny!

Andy

Evening Walk

I brought my camera along on my walk the other night, planning to take pictures of all the downed trees left by the early March snow storm. As I reached the top of the first hill, this was my view looking east. (The sun would be setting in about 45 minutes.) I was very curious to see what the view would be when I crested the next hill.

Over the hill....

One last picture on my way back.

~Michele

I did get a couple shots of the storm clean-up, before I became so taken with the beautiful sky.

Early Spring Flowers

Our forsythia normally flowers around Mother's Day. These pictures were taken today.

The lilacs are coming right along too! They usually flower toward the end of May.

Temperatures this week have been near 90 degrees. Mid 40's is where we should be this time of year. The ground has been very dry, so today's rain was welcome.

~Michele

Cat-Nap Wednesdays

1 - Asleep

2 - Awake and (slightly) annoyed.

3 - Going back to sleep.

Macro Monday

Can you identify the subject above? 




Any ideas?




Here is another clue:

Scroll down for the answer.

A Fly Fishing Fly!
This was made by a talented friend and coworker of mine, Jake. While I have done A LOT of fishing in my day, I don't any more and know virtually NOTHING about fly fishing. Thus, below is the description and commentary in his words.

It's that time of year--enjoy the fishing waters near you.

Andy

"It’s a variation on a common dry fly (Royal Wulff) that I call a Royal Soft Hackle. For trout. Golden pheasant neck feathers for the tail; peacock herl for the green-glittery body; red floss; and a Hungarian partridge feather for the hackle (collar). 

The soft hackle style of fly is really neat, and we have a lot of success with it – I tie it in several colors… brown, olive, yellow, rusty, gray, and this royal style, which is meant to represent no fly in particular but generally lots of them. The soft hackle fly can represent several life stages of a mayfly depending on how you fish it, and you can even represent those different stages in one drift of the fly. 

1. If you put fly floatant on it (a spray), it will ride high and upright on the water like a dry fly. 
2. As your line takes it downstream, the fly starts to slip below the surface and sits in the water’s “film” where it represents a mayfly emerger (the stage when an adult mayfly is struggling to get its wings free and become, for lack of a better term, a dry fly). 
3. As your line goes farther downstream, the force of the current will pull your line under the water even more, and the fly will drift in the current several inches below the water’s surface, where it represents a nymph, which is the stage of the fly from when it hatches in the riverbottom until it gets up to the emerger stage. 
4. If you don’t put any floatant on it and fish it in calm water, the fly will float low on the surface for several seconds, which represents the “spinner” stage of a mayfly, which is, basically, a fly that has died in the air and fallen to the water. 

Trout love these “spinner falls” and will sit in a slick part of the water, behind a stick or a rock, and gulp spinners by the mouthful. In a river, wherever you see a bubble line, that’s the convergence of different speeds of water into a fast-moving area; aquatic food gathers in these bubble lines, and trout love to hang out in them or just to the side, rise up, and just open their mouths and let the current bring the food to them."

Cheesecake

I know it's not green (for St. Patrick's Day), but it tastes great!
Andy

Crust

• 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3 Tbs muscovado (brown) sugar
• 1/3 cup melted butter (I love Lurpak)

Combine crumbs and sugar in medium bowl and then stir in melted butter until thoroughly blended. Press firmly into a 9-inch spring-form pan on the bottom and up the sides a half inch or so. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Set aside on counter until filling is ready.

Filling

• 24 oz cream cheese
• 4 large eggs
• 7/8 cup of caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 16 oz sour cream

Soften cream cheese and mix in eggs and caster sugar. Blend in sour cream and vanilla. Pour into prepared crusted spring-form pan from above and even out. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes then turn off the oven and let it sit in the oven for an hour.

Place the cheesecake on the counter to cool for 15 minutes. Chill for at least four hours and then serve. Garnish with drizzled caramel, apricot or blueberry preserves, chocolate sauce, etc.

Cat-Nap Wednesdays (A day late!)

Two weeks ago we were buried under 2 feet of snow and freezing temperatures. Yesterday we broke more records. This time for high temperatures, it was 81 degrees. This was the first time, in recorded history, that our area hit 80 degrees in the winter! (It is, technically, winter until next week.) I'm sure it goes without saying, the reason this post is late is because I was outside yesterday!

Katie loved the warm sun coming in the window. She was in this window for 6 hours! She is a very good napper!!

Happy early Spring!

~Michele

Macro Monday

"And, now for something completely different." Yes, I'm a Monty Python fan and also thought it time to try another type of theme-post a la Cat-Nap Wednesdays. In this case, above is my first installment of Macro Mondays. 

"Macro" in photography refers to pictures of subjects that are tiny. You bring the very small up to the "macro" level. When possible, I'll also try to make a small puzzle out of it. So, do you know what the above macro shot is? This is a small part of a larger, common object albeit not everyone has one quite like this. Here is another hint:

Do you give up? Scroll down to see the answer.

This is an example of Michele's amazing talent. I don't know how to explain her creativity other than when she is not battling her disabling illness, she creates one of kind artworks in mixed media. Here is a gorgeous beaded bracelet.

Andy