Hightops

A nostalgic fireplace mantel arrangement, a step back into the past for this week’s Monochrome Weekend hosted by Aileni. Click here to go to the Monochrome Weekend page to see more great photos from around the world.

A Little ‘Light’ Piano Playing

I have been unable to post for a while but am back and glad to be able to take part in James’ ‘Weekend Reflections’ meme this week.

This week I have selected an old painting of a mother playing the piano with her little daughter dreamily gazing into space while listening to the lovely tune. An old time chandelier is reflecting in the glass covering that is protecting the painting.

Please check out more ‘Weekend Reflections’ from around the world!

Tootsies On Brick

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Weekend Reflection

This reflection is one that I see all the time and never really noticed it until I was taking some photos of the furkids last night while sitting at my computer.

This is the background artwork on the desktop of my laptop computer. With the lamp on, the photos on the wall reflect into my laptop screen and create this view.

Visit James at Newtown Area Photo for more Weekend Reflections.

Our Personal Zoo

‘Z’ is this week’s letter for ABC Wednesday! So I will take you all on a little tour of our personal Zoo. All sorts of wildlife keep us company around our house.

This is a photo taken of our lawn mower at winter’s end. Apparently the squirrels decided it was an excellent place to store acorns while the mower was stowed away in our shed.

The squirrels around our house are Zany. Here is one peeking in the deck door over a greyhound’s behind. The hound never even knew because he was fast asleep…ZZZZZ…..

Also part of our personal Zoo are Turkeys, baby turkeys,

Lots of turkeys Zipping through our yard, down our driveway and across the road.

Owls perch…their vision Zeroing in on an unsuspecting prey.

Such as this little chipmunk if he doesn’t Zoom off quickly.

Various woodpeckers make our home their home all year round.

This is cardinal is another bird we see year-round, as well as many others.

A lot of deer also frequent our home year-round.

We have also had opossums, fox and various other little visitors throughout the years.

Last but not least, there is the little Zoo contained within the walls of our house…,

Renner and Scooter

Fidget and Lemme.

Our personal Zoo…hopefully you enjoyed the wildlife.

Check out ABC Wednesday for more ‘Z’s from around the world.!

The Past Meets The Future

While at Crow Wing State Park in Minnesota we came upon this house.

We were pretty interested in it and really wanted to see what was inside. However, the house was locked up tight.

We had to settle with just looking in the windows and we found it really was not suitable for inside exploration.

You can see the interesting building techniques of the inner walls, mud and sticks. Also some remnants of very old wallpaper, all in a state of decay…very dilapidated on the inside.  I do believe it is still in the process of restoration.

It really looks pretty good from the outside and was considered quite palatial  by frontier standards. The house was owned by Clement Beaulieu. Mr. Beaulieu was one of the best known traders of the area and is credited by some to be they ‘founder’ of the town of Crow Wing. This house is protected by the State of Minnesota as a historical site.

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Also That’s My World Tuesday!

What’s This?

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Color Me Minnesota

True Colors Thursday is celebrating the color ‘snow white’. This is certainly a color that Minnesota is draped in for several months out of the year. So I have absolutely no problem with coming up with photos of this color here in Minnesota this time of year!

Above is one of my favorite photos and it has appeared on this blog earlier. Ice and snow covered trees in our backyard.

Renner loves to run and play in the snow. Scooter, absent in this photo, not so thrilled with the snow.

The photo above and below is the road that runs passed our house, our mailbox on the left of the above photo.

This is our road looking in the opposite direction.

This would be a photo of our driveway and house, unfortunately it is being taken through a slushed up, dirty windshield.

Check out True Colors Thursday on Blue’s site for more ‘snow white’ photos from around the world!

Y…Y Not…

 Yes…Yowser….Yippee…Yikes. All words You say when You are playing around with any of these following boys….

Fidget

Lemme

A Fidget-Lemme Ball.

Renner

Scooter

PEEK-A-BOO!

It’s Keegan!

This week is ‘Y’ and You should check out ABC Wednesday for more ‘Y’s from around the world!

The Holidays – Looking Back

A lot goes on around our place when the holidays arrive. Certainly more than I can depart upon you right now. However here are a few highlights just prior to the ‘big day’ itself. (Christmas of course)

There is the shopping!

Shopping for us just a few days before Christmas is not really meant as ‘shopping’, we never really get anything done then. It is more for fun and enjoying the holiday decorations…’inside’ because it is usually frickin’ cold outside. :)

Looking back it seems that trying on silly hats takes precedence over actually buying something….though that too sometimes happens.

There are other things we do as well and getting there is half the fun.

For instance going to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to spend the afternoon looking at the period rooms and roaming the halls.

Parking in the ramp for the MIA is also an ‘artful’ experience as the supports for the ramp are colorfully painted in preparation for the lovely art within!

The Children’s Theater is attached to the MIA and we were pleasantly surprised to find there were still some very good rush seat available for the yearly performance of  ‘Cinderella’.  Of course couldn’t take photos of the performance but got a quick one of the stage while we were waiting. This is a riotous play full of wonderful wit and humor. It plays well on child and adult level. Funny stuff!

Of course then the Mall Of America is a place we go to see the lovely decorations and to just walk around and go into the amusement park area.

Last, but definitely not the least is the music. While we are out we often enjoy being serenaded by the finest musicians the Twin Cities have to offer. :)

Looking back, we all have a pretty good time and enjoy a lot of things during the holidays even though so much of it flies by before we even get to savor any of the ‘good times’.

I hope you all have lots of good memories too and will make more great memories of the year 2010 as it gets into full swing.

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