My dogs think they run the show here.  But in reality it's Arthur's domain.  

 
When I let the dogs out this morning I saw that there were geese in my front yard.  I worried about the dogs chasing them, but the dogs walked out towards them and then thought better of it and came back to the front porch. 

I really didn't have any hope of the geese standing there long enough for me to snap photos but I decided to try anyway so I ran back inside and grabbed my camera.  I managed to get some photos taken from a safe distance.  Then I walked a little closer and got a couple of more.  The male was watching me and the female keep munching.  

Then I see this thru my view finder.

Welp, that was the end of that photo session. Thanks Arthur.  Not.  

I came back in the house and got on with my morning chores.  As I rounded the corner a couple of hours later this is what I see.  The big bed is being occupied by one little cat named Arthur and the two dogs are crammed into the tiny bed.  


Gotta love a cat who is sure of himself.   

Life is good!

Mother Nature is toying with me.  I'm just sure of it.  I drag all of my plants out and they get a day or two of warmer temps, sunshine, and some sprinkles and then the next day I'm having to drag it all back in because it's cold outside.  Today the temperature is 37 so I'm not sure it would kill my flowers but the winds chill is 30 and I just can't help but feel sad for my tropicals. I can hear them yelling "let me in, Mon!"  
Needless to say, I brought them in.  Their tropical accents get me every time.

My house has been buzzing with springtime activity.  The yard and sprinkler system are being prepped for warmer weather, the dock has been repaired.  We had one of our giant sea anchors that holds the dock in place got moved-or dragged, rather, by the wind.  So we had a big machine come in and move it back up the hill.  It dug a hole, dropped the sea anchor in, and then they covered it in concrete.  If it doesn't hold it this time we've got troubles.  I don't really look forward to those storms that test it's limits.  It makes me nervous.  

I cooked this weekend and have a couple of recipes to share with you. But mostly I just wanted to stop in and say hello and remind you to take the time to enjoy the simple pleasures in life. 
Put your cell phones down and enjoy talking to the people you are blessed to be with.  

What the heck man? What happened to our spring?  It's gorgeous one day and the next thing I know we're having freeze warnings.  Plants are all moved back into my garage.  Boo! Mother Nature!!! 
Meanwhile, I'm stuck inside just like my plants.  I used my new orchid as my subject matter for my photo of the day for my 365 project.  This is one of those days where I'm having a hard time choosing.  I've narrowed it down to two, I think.  But here's what I was working with.

On another note, I made a new recipe yesterday. I found Cyclone Anaya's recipe for their Chardonnay white sauce for enchiladas.  I made a batch of enchiladas last night and I can't wait to share.  It was dreamy.  

Life is good, eh? 

I'm very happy to be home on this Palm Sunday. I had a great trip to Dallas with Carrie.  We went to Market to buy for her clothing boutique Grand Panache.  We had two full days of power shopping and appointments and bought some beautiful clothes, bags, purses, jewelry, pants, and shoes.  I've already committed to buying a bunch of it when it comes in.  Loved it!

It's always a challenge to stay on track with the 365 photography challenge when I go because they really don't like for you to take photographs at market unless you're photographing the items you've purchased. There is a TON of stuff to photograph there and very visually appealing new things but I don't want to make anyone mad and I don't want to get my camera stolen from my car or my hotel room so I didn't even travel with it.  I felt "nekked".

It rained on us the whole way home yesterday and today I woke up to snow!  It is beautiful and nothing is sticking to the ground.  I am not going to complain because it's moisture we desperately need here.  But it's delaying planting.  Did I mention I bought plants in Dallas???  Their growing season is in full-swing and the yards and landscaping is G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S.  
We took my stow-away with us just to haul back plants.  We are crazy plant people.  
Do you know what a stow-away is?  It's a trunk that attaches to the hitch of your car.   
I love to bring back things I can't buy at home.  Food and plants is what I buy for the most part.  We brought back a tangerine tree for Carrie's mother.  The tree leaves hung over into the front seat area of the car so we had leaves tickling our necks as we bounced along the interstate. (which might explain my sneezing fits today)

I did go tromp around outside for a little while during the snow.  I was determined to give  one last attempt at trying to capture a snowflake photo.  I don't know if it's hard for other people, but it's hard for me.  I didn't get a perfect snowflake but I did manage to capture some snow on one of my cherry blossoms.  

I'm back inside now watching all of my t.v. shows that I dvr'd while I was gone.  I plan to snuggle up and stay warm and be lazy for the rest of the day and enjoy my pups and my sweet husband.  
We just sent the girls back to college with goody bags full of left-overs and snacks and we're already missing them.  The hardest part of parenting is letting go.  

Life is Good!

I had a hard time picking out which photo to use for today's challenge but the winner was the daffodils photo.  The others all came in a close second.  

I've got to give myself a quick pat on the back and a yay-me! I've now taken a photo every day for 65 days in a row.  That's over 2 months and I've completed 17% of my goal for the year. That's further than I ever got before! Some times I struggle to get one done and find myself looking around the house for things to take photos of but I have managed to get it done. My goal was to become more familiar with my camera and improve upon my skills and I think ? I'm doing that.   Here's a recent shot that for me was part of a lightening challenge and I will go back to the drawing board on this:

When you let others know you're challenging yourself they sure don't mind telling you what you need to work on. It's humbling and good.  I would have loved this photo a year ago.  Now I see areas of improvement that need to be made.  Good thing I don't take myself too seriously!  

Life is still good!

Last night around 8:00 p.m. I realized I had not taken my photo of the day.  It had been miserable weather outside rain, thunder, sleet.  It was not the kind of weather I want to get my big girl camera out in.  I'd had a busy evening working on our new camper. We've been working on cleaning it a little every day. We also made a modified version of the Chicken Eddy recipe that has been previously posted.  So here it was late and no picture!  My personal challenge is to take a photo every day and not rely on photos from previous days.  I got my camera and just looked around the kitchen to snap a shot of whatever was around.  I thought the following photo was interesting.  It's not my usual lake or dog photo.  :)  

The photo originally was the whole stove and I cropped it because... in the reflection of the shiny tea kettle you could see ME.  Ain't nobody wants to see that. So I cropped and when I made it into a black and white this is what I got.  Purty cool. 

The Perfect Valentine's Day trio...

Need I say more?  

It's hard to work on a photo challenge on a day like this.  Or it is for me- I really wasn't armed with much protective equipment.  My expensive camera was covered with a plastic grocery bag as I tromped around in the rain trying to get at least one shot that was worthy of posting on the 365 page.  Where it will be scrutinized by a peer group of photographers.  I picked a pine log covered in lichen.  My remaining shots I've been playing with tonight while watching the dog show and have had some editing fun.   Here are the runner ups.  

I couldn't decide which photo to choose.  I've been waiting to find out what our new challenge is for the week and it still has not been posted (grrrrr) so I was looking at other challenges and I saw one for beauty in the eye of the beholder.  Meaning, something that is beautiful to you but might not be considered beautiful to other people.  It caused me to go back and look at my photos and think about why I chose them.  It could have been easy to pick my mother's silver collection but then I would imagine it's something others would think it pretty.  That's when I knew that my photo of the day had to be the pine log.  I wouldn't let my husband burn it this summer or in the fall because I love it's shape, I love the lichen, and I love where it came from, and most of all I love who brought it to me.  So here was my Grand Champion.  My Banana Joe of photos.  

I had the BEST weekend.  First of all, we had a great dinner with friends Friday night and enjoyed some of Grove's best food at La Casita.  
Saturday we went to my sister's house and had a small family get together.  It's been a long time since we've been together.  Kitty thinks it may have been since dad died.  I know that seems hard to believe (it is for me) but life has a way of taking over.  We all have kids and one brother has grandkids.  My sister made a lunch that was out of this world good.  I left with warm fuzzies, feeling so happy that I got to see them.  Life is too short.  
I enjoyed road tripping with my husband and we agreed that we would do it again today.  So we loaded up in his pickup truck today and went for a ride.  

Today on our ride we saw some unusual things- I had to share.  :)

We have been shopping for 5th wheel campers and went out to the other side of the lake today to check one out.  While I was snapping photos my husband said "Trish...." and I could tell by his tone it was one of those "don't move" kind of warnings.  So I immediately moved.  
Then he pointed under the camper.  This little guy was down there.  It's a beaver!  I thought, wow- it's a heavy sleeper! It's hardly moved.  I stared at it for a while and realized it wasn't moving.  So I threw a pebble towards it.  :(  It was a goner.  It's in beaver Heaven.  
Which is probably good and bad.  I hate to see critters die.  But I'm glad it didn't wake up and bite me.  

Such a strange animal.  Almost looks like it is related to an armadillo.  














We were leaving and came across this.  

And all I really have to say about this is:

GOD IS GREAT, BEER IS GOOD, AND PEOPLE ARE CRAZY!