Aug 6, 2017 | Uncategorized
how is that possible, anyway? why does time speed by so much more quickly as i get older? how is it that the fair is starting on thursday? it’s a strange day today; it’s usually hot and humid at the start of august but instead it’s cloudy and cool...
Aug 6, 2017 | Uncategorized
i can’t believe it’s August 8th, as the summer sprints along. here are a few outside photos from july. oh, that moon. can you spot the heron in there on the right? another evening of beautiful clouds. we had a big storm, and just as i was opening the...
Jul 28, 2017 | Uncategorized
as i ran between the corn rows at the end of may, i thought it’d be interesting to take pictures of it as it grew. corn grows mighty fast around here. may 25th: June 2nd, just eight days later: June 8th, just six days after that! June 17th, a mere nine days...
Jul 27, 2017 | Uncategorized
the addition of the giant window was fantastic, but i’m in love with my new giant chicken. lester, however, was nonplussed. here’s the view of the chicken from out new giant window. yeah, technically it is a rooster, but i like saying “giant...
Jul 25, 2017 | Uncategorized
instead of taking a long trip this year, we installed new windows in the living room. this is what the big window used to look like…there’s a beautiful view of the lake, except for the big panel in the middle where there was a mirror. plus the seal on the...
Jul 25, 2017 | Uncategorized
I woke up this morning to see that the lovely Tanja, from the site The Red Phone Box Travels, had posted my guest blog on her site! Here it is. Tanja is from Croatia, and writes about the wonderful places she’s visited; she is especially enamored of London,...
Jul 24, 2017 | Uncategorized
here are three photos from the very beginning of july, such a very long time ago, it feels like. les, always stalking something down by the water. this is a beautiful new tiny tree i bought on impulse. it’s called a Duranta, and i just read on wikipedia that...
Jul 22, 2017 | Uncategorized
whoops, i forgot about these photos. here’s a snapchat photo, which i took the morning of the 20th anniversary of harry potter. how is it that 20 years have passed since the first novel was written? i had to take this photo of the fridge because it’s...
Jul 22, 2017 | Uncategorized
so, ta da, the final photos of june as july zooms right along. here’s bev, giddy with excitement when she spent the night a few weeks ago – she had a procedure done at the hospital and they told her she shouldn’t be alone for 24 hours in case...
Jul 21, 2017 | Uncategorized
yesterday, thursday morning,kevin drove the van over to the boat dock as i slowly left the shore on the boat. i noticed that kevin had installed a nifty new black lamp post at the end of the dock! cool. the water was still, no other boats around, and the breeze felt...
Jul 19, 2017 | Uncategorized
a week ago i wrote that the pontoon boat was running great this summer, which is probably the first summer it’s done that since we’ve had it. and i said “i don’t want to jinx it.” which of course i did. kevin and i took a lovely boat...
Jul 17, 2017 | Uncategorized
a fawn appeared at the side of the fenced yard one day. can you see it, there in the middle? it saw me, and hid down in the weeds. it hung out at our house for a while, but amy and jim also saw it next door. here it is, nestled outside their fence as their blind...
Jul 12, 2017 | Uncategorized
boat ride! so far the pontoon boat has been running great; i think this is the first year since we’ve had it that it has managed to keep running this long into the summer. hmm, better not jinx it. the water was really high in june, and the yuccas were in...
Jul 10, 2017 | Uncategorized
soon it will be time for the Il state fair! it’s remarkable how quickly the summer is going by. funny that in april it did nothing but rain rain rain, and now things are dry and i spent a great deal of time watering my flowers. here’s a panorama of my...
Jun 29, 2017 | Uncategorized
last saturday night i went to see a musical at the outdoor theater at New Salem. it was a perfect evening, and beforehand i took a little time to walk through the village. If you’re not from around here, New Salem is where Lincoln lived for six years before...
Jun 23, 2017 | Uncategorized
i haven’t even started trying to find any truly spectacular doors here in springfield, IL, because i fear that there aren’t many. we certainly don’t have the beautiful old doors posted from around the world on norm’s thursday doors. but i did...
Jun 20, 2017 | Uncategorized
as the first day of summer approaches, i try to find time to sit down and write. here’s all i have for the month of may after our trip to las vegas. a spectacular display of irises in bloom. i want that many irises. maybe next year – deer don’t...
Jun 14, 2017 | Uncategorized
sometimes i feel like we’re living in the wild here. a tiny fawn appeared at the fence the other morning when i was drinking my tea. since then we’ve seen it nursing, as well as leaping and bounding after its mother. so tiny, and so darling. and tonight...
Jun 11, 2017 | travel
we didn’t leave las vegas until around noon on friday may 5th, so we had enough time for one more lovely sit by the lazy river. here’s an arial view of the exact spot where we lounged the first two days – right there in the middle. and here’s a...
Jun 4, 2017 | travel
whew, where have i been for the past 10 days? outside, or trying to recover from the infinite amount of yard work. but i love to be outside so much now that the weather is warm – i haven’t even opened my e-mail in a while and i shudder to think about how...
May 25, 2017 | travel
first, my thursday doors…this is an entrance to the signature suites at the MGM; the place has so much glass and it’s all mirrored plus i’m sure it’s top of the line anti-reflective and triple paned to keep out the blazing heat. i’m...
May 24, 2017 | travel
after we spent a lot of time getting ready – amy was in a flurry of fixing our hair and putting false eyelashes on us – we got in a cab for the short ride over to the Park Theater at the Monte Carlo for the cher concert. it may be her final farewell...
May 24, 2017 | travel
since we weren’t celebrities and no paparazzi were photographing us, we had to do it ourselves…
May 23, 2017 | travel
it was a perfect way to spend most of our day. but first, amy had gotten up early and gone out walking, and then we went together. and we went back to walgreens, because las vegas just isn’t fun if you can’t go to walgreens at least once a day. here she...
May 23, 2017 | Uncategorized
i took such a crazy amount of photos in las vegas on our three-day trip, and i’ve been doing my best to pare them down to show you. on the morning of may 2nd i had to take this photos of this duck with its little gaggle of ducklings down at the water before...
May 18, 2017 | Uncategorized
my dad died. it’s weird to think of it being four years ago. here’s an old photo of mom and dad at a going-away party for somebody, many many years ago. i have no memory whatsoever of this event, but i know i was there because i saw a picture of me at...
May 18, 2017 | Uncategorized
as i was running on the lake road i passed this intriguing opening in the underbrush. a deer doorway. it made me want to follow the path and see where it led…but i was on a mission to keep running and i’m sure i was about to be late for something or...
May 17, 2017 | Uncategorized
we launched the pontoon boat on april 15th, which might be the earliest we’ve ever done that, although i can’t possibly remember yesterday much less last year. even if we might have launched it earlier one year, it always broke down. kevin did all the...
May 17, 2017 | Uncategorized
erica got us all tickets for the Mission Outreach fundraiser so we all got dressed up. this is one of my favorite photos of bev, showing off her cute leggings. we all looks so color-coordinated! a nice meal, and erica is there in the background, hobnobbing as she...
May 14, 2017 | Uncategorized
it was nice to be home with our kitties in march. les enjoyed sitting on a rock in the water. i spotted a bunch of turtles on a log when running through the woods, but most of them plopped into the water before i had a chance to take a picture. isn’t that a...
