Let's Take A Trip

It's outdoor Wednesday, so what better way to start the day than looking at beautiful sites. These photos are all of New England, taken from Pinterest. I keep telling my heart to be still. I'm not sure which scene evokes more emotions for me, what about for you? I love the first photo, wouldn't it be fun to stay there for a few nights?

Covered bridges can be seen throughout New England; in some places they are called Kissing Bridges.

I can just imagine little ones swinging here, adults too.

This town reminds me of Booth Bay, where hubby and I spent several days 13 yrs ago, celebrating our 25th Anniversary.

One of the things I love most about New England in Autumn is that almost every porch and yard is decorated for the season; when we came home from that trip, our first stop was to a nursery so I could purchase about 8 Mum plants for our front porch.  Seems like so long ago, but New England definitely has a place in my heart.

I'm off this morning to my ladies bible study and then will spend the afternoon with hubby.  Yesterday we bought some paint for our office; I doubt we'll start it today because we have plans for dinner at a friend's house.
I hope you liked my eye candy; would you go somewhere special for the Fall season?
Hugs,
Noreen

Birthday Fun

It's hard to believe I am just getting these up, but last week we had two family birthday parties-this one was on Wednesday. Little Man and Miss D have birthday's within 5 days of each other. When you have a large family, you tend to combine parties. Love it.

Don't they look alike!  Both sporting their shirts from Disneyland, where Little Man got to spend his birthday.

Cousins-planning on playing some baseball together.  We gave Little Man a nice mitt(left handed), and a baseball shirt.

Miss D is into Owls and Cooking, so she got several owl items as well as several cookbooks.

It was so fun; hard to believe Little Man is 4 now and Miss D is 8.
Have a great Tuesday.
Joy to you!
Noreen

Good Morning Friends, It is so hard to believe that we are in the month of October; you know the rest of the year is just going to fly by! I finished this Christmas wall hanging last week and wanted to share it with you. Unfortunately, because half of the quilting is on the white squares, it is hard to see.

I hung it up, hoping for a better shot. I'm please with it and I know it will be a fun addition to my other decorations.

There is quite a bit of quilting in the white areas-a dahlia adorns the middle of the white squares.

While you can see the medallion in the center, the feathers on the border don't show up too well.

I actually ended up adding more stitching in the white sections. It was a really fun project; now I'm onto another that I bought last week at the show. When that is done, I have some Christmas presents to make and eventually after the New Year, I will begin hand quilting my blue top that I started in Sisters. We had a nice weekend~two grandsons spent the night Friday, after Miss F's birthday dinner and party. The boys brought the latest Avenger movie and I watched about 2/3 of it, but honestly couldn't keep the characters straight since I only saw the first one. Saturday morning we made a big breakfast-it is traditional to have pancakes, bacon and orange juice with us. If we try and do something else, they will eat it but miss the meal we usually prepare. We played Yatzee after breakfast and I won-yeah!  We gathered with some neighbors on Saturday afternoon and then yesterday just had a relaxing day and watched football as well as golf.
I hope you are having a good day and enjoying the start of a new month.
Hugs,
Noreen

Farewell September

Happy Friday Friends! With September bidding us farewell, I thought I'd show the photos from the other day~as you can see the colors are definitely on their way out, at least the oranges are and many trees are bare. Still many of the Aspens are displaying gold.  I am content now and ready to prepare for colder weather and lots of indoor time. This morning however, I'm walking in the rain and then will have some grands over for a bit.

May your day be sweet and filled with contentment!  May your weekend be a fun one.
Enjoy!
Noreen

What a Surprise

Happy Thursday to you! As I mentioned yesterday, hubby and I took a drive to the mountains. We drove the Peak to Peak Highway, outside of Boulder and came around a bend in the road and saw lots of folks pulled off-a sure sign there is wildlife in the vicinity. Sure enough, this cow(we think she's a cow)was in this little lake. You would not believe how my heart and spirit soared. I had heard via KB's blog that there were Moose in the area where she lives. I've only seen them up close about 7 years ago and this was thrilling. My heart was singing. When we first approached the hill overlooking the lake, she was faced away from us. Hubby had the camera, so he ambled down the path so he could get a better shot or two.

We are not sure what she was after, probably some grasses or weeds in the water.  Oh, she is beautiful.  We do know that you don't want to get to close to them and that they can pose quite a threat to humans and other animals.  From that moment on, I didn't care about the colors any longer-may day was made.
Have a great Thursday.
Blessings and joy to you.
Noreen

Hello,  It's hard to believe that most of the day has gone by~it has been a great day none the less.
First thing this morning I had my ladies group and it was so good.  I got home, hubby and I had lunch~I have to tell you that I stopped at Pannera's yesterday and got a take out container of their Autumn Squash soup.  I love their Butternut Squash soup and this was just as good.  So I had a bowl for lunch today, again I love it.  It would make a great sauce for a white fish; I need to google their recipe and see if I can achieve the same wonderful taste.  Hubby was surprised that it was so sweet.
After that we headed up to the mountains again to see if we could find some great pics.  We did and also had a great surprise-but  you will have to wait until tomorrow to find out what it was.  We drove through Boulder Canyon and I got to see the area where blogging friend KB lives-but I'm not exactly sure where she is located.  It was such a beautiful day for a drive; I feel that I have done my best to see the colors and will have to wait until next year.  I will also say that last year I messaged KB, but it was in Oct., about the colors etc.-so my take on it is that  our colors have peaked a lot earlier than last  year.  Tonight we are going to our daughter's home because it is Miss D's 8th birthday and Little Man's 4th birthday celebration.  He turned four and celebrated last week in Disneyland; can't you just imagine what a birthday memory that will be.  Tomorrow I'm watching some of the girls and then we have a dinner with friends.  Friday I'll be watching more of the girls and then we have another family birthday party.  September is quite the birthday month, all three are within a week of each other.
I hope you've had a great day!
Hugs,
Noreen

Memories of Wildlife

Happy Tuesday to you! Last Saturday hubby and I took a drive out the Poudre Canyon, basically to see if we could spot any colors. The trip was a bust that way, but it made me remember other drives we've taken in the Canyon. Back in 2010, we decided to take such a drive and I couldn't believe that I spotted this bear; I told hubby he had to pull over so we could get pictures. I love having a telephoto lens just for that reason. It was so exciting to watch this guy and we were far enough away that we weren't in any danger.  I believe from the size that he was fairly young.

We stood watching him for an hour at least-so remarkable.  We've had friends that have lived here their whole life and not seen one; in fact, one friend was quite jealous.  Now if you know my friend KB, who lives up in the mountains, you know she gets them all the time along with a lot of other incredible wildlife.  This was the second time in our lives that we saw one; the first was when we lived in Ca. and were driving in one night to our cabin~one big old bear crossed the road in front of us.  I will say that time it was a bit scary.  When we went to Alaska 3 years ago, I watched and watched for some-to no avail.  I love seeing them from a distance and wouldn't want them around my yard.  I also remember going to Yosemite when I was about 6 yrs old and staying in a small cabin with my mom and dad.  Each night the bears would roam through the areas surrounding the cabins, looking for trash.  We could hear them and I think even saw them in the area.
I've also been thinking about the colors changing and I have a hankering to get up to Steamboat Springs for a night or so, we'll see if we can make it work.  I've walked already, finished washing some more windows and now going to look at a sewing project I need to finish.  Hubby will be gone all day until about 7:30 tonight, so I've got plenty of time to play.  I hope you have a great day today.
Joy to you!
Noreen