Every year a Hot Air Balloon Show/Cheese & Wine Festival is held down the road from my house. This is one of many pictures that I took last Saturday.

Jim, those are some interesting pictures! Keep'em coming.
Dixiedog, that's postcard pretty!

WOW! Dixie, what part of the country are you in? That pic is beautiful! You should frame it.

trsinc, I'm in Virginia. VA is beautiful at this time of year. Fall is my favorite season.

Dixie, I guessed that was Virginia when I saw the pic (before reading your next post). I've just moved to MD from TX, and VA is absolutely beautiful! I'd never spent much time this far north and I visit VA every chance I get. Absolutely takes my breath away.

Jim, I hope things are returning to normal in your neck of the woods. I suppose it'll be a while before that's the case, but I hope you (and the beavers) are doing well.

Jim you're lucky to have spotted the beaver.
I'm Canadian and I know beavers are everywhere in Canada including on 5 cent coins but I've never seen a live beaver that I can remember!

Dixie that is a super photo of a most beautiful landscape. It would be lovely framed, as a postcard or a calendar.

I took some pics at my Pilates class this past week. We have some new equipment mounted on the walls for upper body exercises and we had a chance to try it out.

The other photo shows a new arrangement of furnishings in the room as things are being changed around.
That's the reformer that I lie on in the foreground.

Afterwards I had coffee outside on the sundeck overlooking the tennis courts with classmates.
It was quite warm there yesterday and all 4 courts were full of people playing.

This morning Tigger sits in his favourite back patio chair. He looks like he's giving a lion's roar but actually he's just yawning and then looking very contended after his breakfast and a snooze in the warm sun.

SharonCb

Sharon, with those green eyes Tigger looks a lot like my stepmom's cat, Sassy. She earned that name, I'll tell you!

I'm behind on my pictures of my day. Here's what it looked like about a week ago, we've got nearly 6 inches of snow now:

Here's what my day looked like just about 2 or 3 weeks ago, though!

And remember those two tiny calves in the spring? Here they are now, about 400 lbs. each. This is Tom Shanks:

and this is Flank Sinatra:

Annie

Here are 2 pix from this morning. We had our first real rain this year last night (I know!) I woke up to this:

{{gwi:1470576}}
{{gwi:1470577}}

Annie and Gina what beautiful pictures! I love the way you name your beef Annie LOL.....you never seem to run out of appropriate titles!

Gina doesn't rain make the most interesting skies. That is so pretty!

Monday I was out to lunch with my group of ladies from the Pilates class. We went up the highway to a restaurant for Duck A L'Orange....must post the pics over on the WFD. Afterwards we went to the house of one of our classmates as it was nearby and this was the view from her balcony. She overlooks the Atlantic, with the Mount Teide volcano and the north coastline off in the distance, and looking towards Puerto de la Cruz, where I live.

OK, I have a few badly taken pictures but this about how my day went, right? First off the weather was supposed to be bad today so I decided to make some jerky. I seasoned it and cured it last night then smoked it for an hour this morning. Now it's in the oven on low. Those are strips of meat hanging by toothpicks. Three pounds of really lean eye of round roast. It should be done by late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Finished at 9:30 am. As usual the weather man was wrong. It's beautiful outside and now that this is done I can go play. This is my second time making pickles. I got semi famous with the first batch. I'm hoarding these.

Oh Jim I bet those taste really good, because they look great. You've sure been busy in the kitchen lately. I wish we could get good dill pickles here. We don't seem to even get the baby dills or the canning jars so I haven't even thought about making them myself although I've been so tempted with Sharon (Chase's) recipe!

SharonCb

I don't know if I've been around long enough to post here, but I'm jumping in.

Here's me walking the dog:

{{gwi:1470587}}

Then hubby and I went to the Sculpture Ranch in Johnson City, Texas (where President LBJ grew up), not too far from where we live.

{{gwi:1380071}}

{{gwi:1380074}}

Toodled around some more, stopped at a bakery which I didn't think about photographing, etc. It was a nice day. :)

That looks like you had a very nice mild day Trsinc, especially as you don't have snow or rain there.

And you don't at all have to be here long to be able to post as we're happy to see new faces and pictures of where you are living.

The more the merrier so don't be shy!

SharonCb

Thank you for the welcome, Sharon. And, yes, our winters are very mild. We have the occasional cold weather but for the most part it's my favorite time of year. I love the light at this time. It's our summers that are harsh. I always envy the snow in other places, lol.

Trsinc, thanks for adding to this thread. What a beautiful spot you live in. You are pretty cute, too.

I have had a great time looking back at all these pics. The world is certainly full of beautiful places.

I don't think enough people remember to come over and check the Gallery.

Trsinc, the sculpture ranch is on my list of places to go, but I haven't gotten around to it. Thanks for posting! I'm from Austin (grew up a couple hours north of there), so it'd be a good day trip.

Now here are some snapshots of my days. Right now we live in Maryland. Here's my son in the park there.

We came home to Texas for the holidays. My brother pulled my son and his daughter in a wagon at the family farm.

The cousins enjoyed "playing piano" at their grandparents' house.

I haven't uploaded my Austin pics yet. I love this city and can't wait to return, though! It's changed so much since I left, a year and a half ago. It's growing and I'm a little sad and nostalgic.

~Amanda

Aww, don't be sad Amanda. It probably just seems drastic because you've been away. If you were still living there whatever growth there is would have seemed gradual and less of a shock.

Hope you get to move back soon. And the sculpture ranch is well worth a visit. Fredericksburg is only about 15 minutes away from there, so you can make a whole day of it.

What cute photos of the kids! I love the one with the wagon.

Thanks for the compliments, dedtired!

Tammy

Amanda I didn't realize you'd had a baby...or did I just not remember....and what a cutie boy!

I love the photo of the two of them playing the piano. It really looks as though they are reading the music and playing a duet!

SharonCb

Trsinc, where is that sculpture garden? Elery and I are going to South Padre Island in February but I know Texas is one darned big state!

Amanda, that boy of yours is getting so big, so fast. I just want to kiss those wonderful little cheeks, he's so handsome! How much longer do you have in school, before you can leave the ice and snow and go back to Texas?

OK, here's what my house looked like this morning. yes, that's Elery shovelling snow. Again. We got some freezing rain this afternoon, so now we have ice on top of snow:

The snow is this deep on my deck:

Poor Pancho, we had to shovel a place in the backyard for him to go out. He doesn't like his snow "prison" much, but the snow is way over his head...

{{gwi:1470593}}

Then, to add insult to injury, I had two of these "rats on hooves" standing on the bank in my yard last week. I sicced Pancho on them, I've disliked them since the year I hit 7 of them in 11 months with my car. People started saying that my "weapon of choice" was a Buick! At any rate, I live right smack in the middle of town and here they are, Elery says they're stalking me to find out what I drive so they can commit suicide by jumping in front of me. LOL

Annie

Annie, the sculpture ranch is several hours from South Padre. I would guess a good 6 or 7 hours, probably a little more with stops. It's in Johnson City - one hour east of San Antonio and one hour west of North Austin.

Are you flying in? Renting a car? If you happen to visit the hill country (Johnson City, Fredericksburg area - near Austin, etc.) let me know and I can give you a whole list of websites to help with your visit. Sorry but I've never been to South Padre, myself. I used to work on Padre Island in Corpus Christi, but that's about 3 hours away from where you'll be.

You are what we used to call a "snow bird", lol. Meaning people that would flee the cold weather in winter and come down there to visit or live. Some people had homes and would live half and half in Corpus and up north.

I guess I don't envy shoveling snow, but it sure is pretty. I lived in Norway for a year back in 1985 -1986. I swear in that year I never saw anyone shovel snow and we had it on the ground for 5 1/2 months! Don't know what their secret was. Maybe it was just the year, but there were piles and piles along the roadsides that had been snow plowed... ??

I forgot to add the website for the sculpture ranch. Here ya go:

Here is a link that might be useful: Sculpture Ranch

trsinc, I'm definitely not a "snow bird". The first time I ever went somewhere warmer in winter was last year, when Elery and I went to California so I could meet his oldest son, DIL and grandsons who live there.

Elery likes to take a break for about a week in the winter, and so I go along, although not always whole heartedly. I'd just as soon stay in Michigan in the winter and go on vacation in the summer! Plus, I don't really like to fly, I'd much rather drive, but it's a long drive to anywhere warm from Michigan, LOL.

And no, I'll never buy a place somewhere warmer after I retire. I love Michigan and I love the snow. I hate the heat bills, but I dislike any temperature over 80, I'm too warm and it's uncomfortable, LOL. He says he'd like to go for a month every winter after we retire, I'm very much opposed to that, we'll see. It would at least have to be a DIFFERENT place every year!

We are flying into Harlingen and renting a car, but I doubt that we'll drive a whole day to get somewhere else. (grin) Elery wants to walk on the beach and go fishing. He's agreed that we'll go to Brownsville for the charro festival one day and that we'll meet any cooking forum members that I can find a mutual meeting place with, LOL.

I get easily bored, at least at home I can play with my horse and annoy the grandkids!

That said, I'd LOVE to visit SharonCB, any time of the year!

Annie

Well, there ya go... You and Elery could to the Canary Islands for a month every year or so. Sharon could show you around and visit, lol.

I don't know if I would want to leave my place for a month. I would worry about everything. And you have a lot more to take care of than I do. :)

Well, I hope you have a great time on your trip and don't get too bored. If you like to read you might want to bring some books (hint). I wish y'all were landing closer so we could meet up for some Mexican food and Margaritas.

See, you know what I mean when I say I'm reluctant to leave for a month every year. I've been working on that "let go of control" thing, but most of those things are my responsibilities and it's nearly impossible for me to ask someone else to take on something that's rightfully mine to worry about, LOL.

I'd probably manage if I were offered a tri to Tenerife, though. (grin)

I posted a thread over on conversations, hopefully I'll be able to meet a couple of members. Darn, I'd sure have liked to see that chrome cattle herd, though! And the other sculptures too, LOL, I don't sit in one place very well for very long but that's a long drive, even for chrome cattle!

Too bad, I've met a couple dozen forum members, I'd have loved to meet you.

Annie

Wonderful pictures since I have been back here last. Annie I am with you that I could visit where Sharon lives any day of the year! Honest, my husband and I have been looking in to taking a vacation in the Canary Islands ever since I have been coming to this board and seeing the wonderful scenery, flowers, trees, restaurants, etc. that Sharon has shared with us. I will keep everyone posted on that if/when we get to do it.

Right before we left for Illinois for Christmas we had brunch with friends at the Wayside Inn. This is a very old Inn/Hotel/Rest. from the mid 1780's (I believe). I really love this place as the food isn't bad but the whole ambiance of the place and history is what I love.

I took my husband to a nursery that is not far from there after brunch because I wanted him to see their greenhouse with all the poinsettas. My girlfriend and I go there at Christmas time and it is just rows upon rows of wonderful colors.

We took tons of pictures while in Illinios but nothing real exciting so I will share this one of when we stopped in Springfield, OH and stayed the night because I wanted to go to the Clifton Mill in Clifton, OH for their Christmas Light Show. It really was beautiful and set to great music. Here are two pictures of many that we took.

Here's how my day started today. We had an ice storm last night and part of my birch tree broke and went across the driveway. I was leaving the house at 7:30 for an early meeting when I discovered this. No meeting for me. I was trapped. I got into my work clothes and lopped off the branches so I could drive under it. Not easy and a really lousy way to start the day. It was also pouring the entire time. My tree guy is coming to take the whole thing down on Friday morning. Sad, because that tree is 40 years old.

Too bad about the tree and your meeting.

I love Christmas lights. Cheers up the dreary dark days.

Poor Pancho pottying in the snow!

LOL, Gina, not poor Elery, shovelling the snow? (grin)

dedtired, sorry about your tree, I hate it when the trees come down after so long.

Dixie, the lights are beautiful and so are all those poinsettias. So, if you visit SharonCB, you'd better be taking LOTS of pictures.....

Annie

Good exercise! (darfc)

Beautiful lights, dixie!

dedtired, I see why you are dead tired! So sorry about your tree. I would have skipped the meeting. I love your neighborhood, though. :)

I should have mentioned how much I am enjoying everyone else's photos. I love the Christmas decorations -- the poinsettias are gorgeous.

Love Annie's photos of snow and deer, but I don't like snow and deer -- especially deer.

Adnama, I have to remember to look at your photos from home. Work is blocking them. Ratz. What part of MD? I have family in Bethesda.

When I left the house this morning the tree guys were already at work. Goodbye tree and $550. I'll have to think of a good type of tree to replace it.

The house across from my driveway is a newly built McMansion. My house doesn't look like that! They knocked down a perfectly nice smaller home to build a house that fills every legal square inch of the property. The house is pretty but needs a much larger lot. The builder expects to get $1M for it. Excues me while I fall down laughing. If I spend $1M on a house, I'd like a yard, thank you.

Annie I love your deer pics. I know people who have them on their property, such as my daughter and her hubby, don't like them and have problems with them eating their garden plants. But to me, as a deerless person....I think it's charming to have them come so close. :-)

Dixie those are lovely photos of the lights and poinsettias. Although I have those growing like tall bushes in my garden, I still love to see them like that arranged on shelves in the nurseries.

Pam I'm sorry to see you've lost such a big tree, and now have to pay for the removal. Just lucky that you and your car weren't under it when that happened though.

Pictures of my day yesterday are not very interesting.

I went on the intercity bus to Santa Cruz to the clinic for an annual mammogram, ....and no I won't show photos of that procedure

Raining today, but the rest of Spain is covered in ice and snow and Madrid airport was closed today.
Many people up in the mountains of the mainland are using chains on their wheels for the first time ever.

SharonCb

Sharon, that is absolutely green and beautiful. I'll send you a couple of deer for your garden, they're small, LOL.

Like you, I had a mammogram. Mine was yesterday and no, I didn't take pictures either. (grin)

Annie

Sharon, I really liked getting to see some 'real life' type pics. It's neat to see how people look and dress, the types of cars, etc.

What is that in front of the bikers on the right? It looks like a tree growing right up the side of a furry building.

Tammy....they build the sidewalks around trees here if they are in the way lol. You can also find no parking signs and lamp posts right in the middle of sidewalks so you always have to be careful to look where you're going. That's a dark red rough concrete wall enclosing a backyard next to the tree.
When space is at a minimum, they find all sorts of unusual ways to fit things in here in public places LOL.

I have oodles of everyday street photos and can certainly post some of them.
I know it is interesting to catch glimpses of street scenes in a foreign country. Sometimes I forget that as what I see looks so normal to me now.
Here are a couple that I haven't posted from the Easter procession last year here in the town where we live.
The people standing around with cameras are pretty well all European tourists:

SharonCb

Thanks, Sharon. I love the lady in the upper left of the second photo - in the jazzy black and red outfit. That's what I imagine everyone dressing like, LOL.

Trsinc, Thanks for the sweet words about Austin. We're hoping that I'll find a job there this summer, after I graduate in May.

Dedtired, I'm in Baltimore. Here for school.

Annie, I love that Elery is the one shoveling! I think you may have enough fun in Padre to justify indulging Elery in his trip. It may stay below 80 degrees while you're there. I bet you'll find some great food in Brownsville. Check out the local grocery stores and bodegas for interesting jellies, like prickly pear and apple pecan. :)

Thanks, Amanda, I'd forgotten about that prickly pear jelly and what was that "bean" jelly you were looking for a recipe for at one time?

Annie

Today has been beautiful. This morning I went out for a walk to do a bit of shopping at a supermarket.

The sky was blue, the mountain was topped with snow, and the tourists were out in their shorts and sandals walking around in the sunshine.

SharonCb

Oh Sharon, how beautiful. I'm sure you never tire of the views and the sights. Do you wake up every morning and pinch yourself to be sure it's not all a dream? What an impossible shade of blue in that sky and the snowy mountain peak is majestic.

Pam sometimes it seems hard to believe that there is so much to do here if one just gets out of the house. Yesterday I went down to the beach with my friend Anne.
It was windy and there were heavy seas so the red flag was out to signal that bathing was prohibited.

Still, the tourists were out in full force, lying on the sunbeds and turning a shade of pink that could be seen from the promenade, where we were walking. We stopped for a bowl of soup with some bread and wine in an open restaurant then after walking around for an hour we went back home.

The yellow train is a free transport to a nearby animal, bird, dolphin,and whale theme park. They charge a rather stiff admission price to the park though once you're there.

Here are a few photos and some more on the slideshow at the bottom link.

SharonCb

Here is a link that might be useful: Slideshow: Beach at Punta Brava, Jan 29'09 Tenerife

Are those beaches black from lava? Cool. What temp is the water there? Good surfing? (I dunno why I'm asking - just a sponge for data, LOL!)

Gina...yes that's black volcanic sand...it gets too hot for walking on in bare feet on sunny days!
Water temp is somewhere between cold and very cold at this time of the year...as it's the open Atlantic. Sorry I can't give that in degrees F lol.

There is a windsurfing area on El Medano beach on the other side of the island where I believe it's good enough for world class championships to be held there. Here's a link that says they also do the other surfing there too. There are a couple of beach webcams there on this link. We're 8 hours ahead of you so it's night right now.

I made a short video a few seconds long with my point & shoot camera just to show the waves and the sound of the sea where we were yesterday.
It's on this link. I don't know if anyone could surf in this, but nobody was allowed to go in the water. I think the undertow is very strong and people do drown if they go swimming in these conditions.

SharonCb

Sharon,
What beautiful pictures of a glorious place!!! We went to a black sand lava beach in Hawaii years ago and I was fascinated! Thanks for posting the pics!

Grace

Oh, Sharon, that black beach is just beautiful.

We have undertow in Lake Michigan too, when Ashley was small I tried to explain undertow. When we went to the beach she just looked at the water and then asked me where the "big drain is that will suck me down". LOL

Still, tourists under estimate the power of the water and drown, I'm sure it's no different there.

I'll bet that black sand WOULD get hot, I wouldn't want to sunbathe on it for long, I think.

Annie

Annie....
Ashley was just asking a logical question wasn't she LOL!
But it's so true that tourists....often strong German men.....underestimate the strength of the undertow on the open Atlantic and there are drownings here, of either swimmers or people being swept off rocks when they get closer than they should.

I just came back from a little walk down to a lookout point near our house and as it's late in the day, I caught an evening cloud over the volcano, as well as a look over the edge to one of the downtown beaches. Here's the volcano,and here it is 6 minutes later, taken from another vantage point. The clouds have totally changed formation.

Here's the view looking downtown to one of the beaches and the developed pool area with nightclub in the centre of the artificial lake, all together called The Lido, then a closeup of same.

In the second photo you can see that the waves are still very large here as the islands are all on 'orange alert' which is one step below red alert or extreme danger from the seas.

And in a calmer note, I decided to make better use of the lovely little two-tiered Moroccan cake plate I bought at Laura Ashley, since we buy cake one piece as a time, so I put it into the little tree outside my computer room window where the birds congregate every day. I filled it with dry cat food and set my camera up on my desk. Only had to wait a few minutes before they noticed that their food was now up in the tree! I hope to get some wild bird feed for the smaller birds and wild canaries as they also abound here. They came to check out the cat food but the biggies chased them away. The kibbles are too big anyway for small birds.

SharonCb

Sharon -- thanks again for sharing. It makes me feel warmer and more relaxed just looking at your photos and knowing that somewhere on the planet it is warm and lovely! The snow here is lovely, but not warm and most of the birds have flown away long ago for warmer climes.

I await their return!

Sharon, the beach pictures are lovely but I'm just drawn to that second picture of the volcano, the clouds look like snow covered pillows, it's so unusual looking.

I had to go back and look a second time, I liked it so well.

Annie

Thanks Annie and Pam....Yes I also though the second photo had very unusual clouds. I think it's because there are strong winds on the islands right now and they do wonderful things with the clouds. I felt it looked almost like another landscape up there in the sky....sort of heavenly LOL.

SharonCb