St. Augustine's Historic District

Here's Bruce and Tom fresh from the information center with map in hand...not that Tom needed it.This is the beginning from the information center's side.
The first school house in America.
One of the side streets.
The Spanish Quarter.
I am particularly fond of monks. I LOVE monks.
Looking down one of the side streets.
Every time I see a clock tower, I think of Saudi.
Another side street. We went the best time of the year. No crowds!
Imagine a tombstone with 15-- on it!
This truly was a break from the snow. Here's a tree in full bloom.

Flagler College.
Bruce and Tom near the end of the tour.

Now Bruce leaves for a round of golf at the World Golf Village.

The Lighthouse

The light house is near the Yacht Club.The beach is through the trees..........
Two watching the waves.....

When we were younger, we always thought it would be wonderful to be lighthouse keepers. It's sad they are mostly automated now. sigh

I found someplace warm!

It's St. Augustine, Florida! More pics at the end of the week when I have reliable internet.

Enough Already!

I know you can't tell by the photo. It is snowing...again! No longer is snow the friend that comes to visit for a few days. It has now become a visiting relative that comes with no end in sight. Enough! I'm leaving for Florida. At least I'll have some pretty pictures to post. Perhaps when I am away from the snow, I'll post the pretty ice pictures of winter. I will be able to look at them with a new eye.

BBRRR!

It has been bitterly cold here as with most of the US. It's been a long time since I remember it being this cold for so long. For the past ten days we were lucky if it hit 20. Not bad if you are in upstate New York, but this is Tennessee. Since it has been so cold for so long, Bruce decided to check the ice on the pond.Still going out...
and we stop. We aren't that stupid. It's thick enough to ice skate...if I still had my skates and was thirty years younger.
It was just a couple of weeks ago I overheard my husband telling his brother that it never gets so cold as to freeze the pond. Well, that was then.

Christmas

Look whose hanging around the tree. It's Shelly her new BF Herman, a felted pig. Shelly is rather obvious on a blue tree. Herman, on the other hand, is an undercover pig.
Yes, another Christmas and the traditions are being carried on. Mugg-dolf replaced moi, Jan-doff, as the delivery system of the presents. Here she is in her new sweater...
which just happens to match the sweater I made for Alaska....
and then made a winter knitting bag from the same yarn. We are a matched set!
This is the good side of buying yarn by the bag......

BABY

This is Baby...our beautiful girl. We were at least her third home and she was with us almost five years. She just passed away of acute leukemia. She has left a hole in our hearts.

This is a life with us in pictures.

Here she and Muggs are first getting acquainted.

Soon they were my favorite Hellhounds.
Basking in the sun together. As much as they fought they were always together.
Is there anything cuter?
Disrupted from sleep by yet another photo opportunity.

It's the eyes....
In her favorite spot among the pillows on my bed.

Fresh after a bath at the groomers.

Baby is constantly being stalked by this woman with a camera!

This past September.
This is my last shot when she came home from the hospital last Saturday. We thought it was a bout of hepatitis at the time. She's wearing her red badge of courage. She never complained and loved us unconditionally.
Yes, our beautiful girl...Baby

? - 9 December 2009

First Snow!!

Having grown up in upstate New York in the "snow belt", I miss the snow...but none of the work. No, I don't miss waking an hour early so I can dig out my car. I don't miss the slipping or passing under a tree just when there is a puff of wind and snow falls down the back of my neck. And I certainly don't miss walking to school in -17F especially when the school has a dress code of dresses and skirts only. I blame the extra fat layer on my legs to the dress code. :-)

Now that we are retired in Tennessee I don't mind any part of the snow. It arrives like a good friend and doesn't overstay it's welcome. We just had our first snow. The fact that I had to go out in it first thing in the morning had it's good side. I was able to take this picture.

Cumberland Mountain State Park - TN

We really picked a great place to retire and I often forget how close I live to this park. I do not take advantage of it enough. But today, my husband took me to lunch at the park. Banana pudding is a trademark here.They were decorating the inside for Christmas and it gave me the shove I needed to get in the holiday spirit. Isn't this a beautiful tree? I don't know if it's real or not. I hate the thought of them chopping down such a pretty tree.
This is our famous park bridge. I don't know if it's really famous but I see pictures of it everywhere and on everything.
Fall is a great time to get pics of the park. I just need to set my mental timer next year and do it. Happy Holidays!

Goodbye - Farewell

Getting these three to line up for a family portrait is not as easy as it looks. We've all met Michelle and her younger sister, Shelly. Sig, their older brother, is in the middle.They didn't think I would notice they were inching their way to the patio.
Here they are playing on the waterfall.
You see, this is their last play together. Sig is striking out on his own. He's going to live with my daughter in Maine.
It's a bittersweet moment as Sig waits in his travel carrier for the postman to pick him up.
It's not like we won't see him again. We will visit him next summer and pictures will be sent. It will be fun to see where he goes and what he gets up to. It's a new adventure and isn't that what life should be...a series of adventures?