Boxing Day at the beach

We came down from the hills on Boxing Day to walk along the beach at Hopeman. Fifteen miles takes us from river valley enclosed by hills down to the rich farmland of the Laich of Moray and the Moray Firth coast.

Cloud formations marched in from the North.





A little bit of Google Map to help you locate Hopeman. Just in case the red Google blob thingy doesn't show up, it's just at the top left hand corner of the 'E' of Elgin.



Paddling in the sea is still possible in December, as long as you're wearing wellies.





The line of hills behind my welly-booted son are on the other side of the Moray Firth. On the map, follow a line straight up from Elgin to the next bit of land.





Below, my daughter waits for those of us to catch up who had been dawdling around taking photos. Despite the calm skies it was pretty chilly - the grass was frosted, even close beside the shore.

Charlotte Mason Wisdom

"The habits of the child produce the character of the man, because certain mental habitudes once set up, their nature is to go on for ever unless they should be displaced by other habits. Here is an end to the easy philosophy of, 'It doesn't matter.' 'Oh, he'll grow out of it,' 'He'll know better by-and-by,' 'He's so young, what can we expect?' and so on. Every day, every hour, the parents are either passively or actively forming those habits in their children upon which, more than upon anything else, future character and conduct depend." (CM Original Homeschooling Series Vol.1, pp. 118)

"This is the law of habit, which holds good as much in doing kindnesses as in playing the piano. Both habits come by practice; and that is why it is so important not to miss a chance of doing the thing we mean to do well. We must not amuse ourselves with the notion that we have done something when we have only formed a good resolution. Power comes by doing and not by resolving, and it is habit that serves us, whether it be the habit of Latin verse or of carving. Also, and this is a delightful thing to remember, every time we do a thing helps to form the habit of doing it; and to do a thing a hundred times without missing a chance, makes the rest easy." (CM Original Homeschooling Series Vol.4, Book 1, pp. 208,209)

Ahhhhh Tahoe - Day One

Benefit for Humane Society Truckee-Tahoe & Squaw Rescue Dogs
Checkin' things out - wow, I love this place!

View from the village - Squaw, that is!

They had a "splash dogs"- sort of - a lake dive off a really weird platform. Most of us doggers wanted to take a detour hehee!
Here's a new pal I met named Jackson.
And we met Sierra Rose later, along with some other doggies. Goldens are really rare up here hahahahahah!

Lunchtime for hoomans, though you'd never know it!

Sammie's Fifth Birthday!

Avalon here! It has been awhile - our peeps keep finding things other than our blog to attend to - imagine!!! And we have so many of our friends we need to visit - we'll be coming on over! I just wanted to woof that a couple of days ago, it was Sammie's birthday! She is now FIVE years old, so we needed to so some of her favorite things: go to the beach, eat, have a swim and... EAT!!!
Shhhhhhhhhhh... don't tell Sammie... we're going on a road trip - toooooooooooo Doran Beach all the way up in Bodega Bay!

You can see how much fun we had there - what a cool beach, and also a great harbor! There is a very cool Fish 'n Chips place - no pix - but Dad (with a stern gaze from Mom) fed us some of his...mnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn! Then...
... Sierra invited us over to pawty pawty pawty at her house, which was awesome! Sierra is a totally super hostess and we had a ball!
Sierra has this big red ball that both Sammie and I like - never mind poor Sierra, whose ball it was! Sammie and I both locked onto it and never moved for like ten or eleven minutes. Heheh! Then....
... what I KNEW was coming and had been waiting for DAH Dahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! We woofed Happy Birthday to Sammie in our best Wowowowos...
...AND DUG IN!!! Yumzers, Mama! What a nommy cake - you can see how happily Sammie ate this cake up!
Me and Sierra really got it goin' here - oh it was so good! It was peanut butter cake with yoghurt chip frosting - there was some cinnamon in the peanut butter part and we couldn't get enough! Sammie continued to love it!
Sierra and I retired to the dual pink pools to rest our bellies...
... while Sammie longingly stared at the leftover cake, hoping. We finally had to go home...
...where Sammie got to open her pressies - yay! Here's one of Sam's faves - Jerky Sticks that I (oops - Sammie) truly loves - they are from Sierra! Thank you pal!!!
Next, Sammie unwrapped a ginormous snake that I immediately had to test, to ensure that it wasn't toxic or anything! She also got a cool animal with a furry tail that had an empty water bottle inside - I love crinkly - oops - Sammie loves crinkly! And Sammie got her own big red ball, which we've been arguing over (oops - playing with) ever since! Happy Birthday Sammie! And thanks so much Sierra, for hosting such a wonderfully fun pawty!!! We wish you all a very safe and Happy Fourth of July!

Spider poetry

One morning we awoke to find that spiders had woven diamonds during our sleep.

Firebugs 169% owned!

Well, yesterday was just beautiful. Martin and I met up at North Burleigh surf club to set off, heading south which cleared us of the remaining smoke pretty quickly. By Currumbin it was all gone, and we managed to squeeze the full 173km around the Tweed valley into the day. The food at Uki was beautiful (the Uki Dreaming Cafe is one of my favourite haunts in the world!), the temperatures were perfect (6-22 degrees C), and the scenery was beautiful as it always is down there. This was a photo I took down there on a previous ride when my camera was working:

The first magpie attack for the year, too. About a month later than normal. Two of them in fact, I ducked the first one, then grabbed my waterbottle, which scared him and his mate off. They both went after Martin, but I'm sure he'll get me back for that one! I think he got me first by making me lead into that monster westerly wind that was blowing through Chillingham. All in all things went pretty well. I concentrated on riding slightly within myself on some of the less steep gradients yesterday (1,639 metres of climbing in total) which seemed to work pretty well -- although I'm still paying for the ride today.
On arriving home and checking my e-mail (couldn't update this yesterday -- website not working), I found one from rsvp.com telling me my stamps were only 10 days from expiry. Some time ago I relented and decided to defy my cynicism by joining a couple of those Internet Dating websites to see if there was anyone out there at all. Apparently that isn't the case. Well, perhaps it is, but I got *zero* replies from the people I contacted. Those that contacted me seemed to lose interest as soon as they saw my picture.
Hey, don't like my looks, well, fine! However, what would be so wrong with a simple "thanks but no thanks"? Suffice to say, I don't think I'll bother renewing my subscription.

A Garden Addition?

The photo on the left is my herb garden where I hope to do the wine bottle project.  Details below.                                                                                                                                                           
This is a garden at the manor house where we stayed in Williamsburg; Powhatan Plantation.  The gardener had outlined this herb garden in upside-down wine bottles.  
I thought that was such a clever idea, and one I could do in my herb garden.  So I'll start saving my bottles and should have enough by Christmas.  Kidding!  I'll put the word out and have all my kith and kin collecting too.  Except that most of my family are teetotalers, so I'll have to ask my kith!

Pilgrim's Inn-One More Quote

"Hilary always found it impossible to look at a candle flame and remain gloomy. The shape of it, like tapering hands held palm to palm in faithful prayer, the wavering yet hopeful fight against the darkness, its tiny loving glow of warmth. It was no wonder that Mother church, all down the ages, has had such a passion for lighting candles."

I remember going into one of the side chapels in a European cathedral and finding a stand holding many tea light candles. Not being Catholic, I hesitated to light any, but I overcame my reluctance and lit one for each of our five children saying a prayer for each child as their individual candle was lit. It was a reverent, touching moment for me, and I'm so glad I didn't listen to my fearful self.

In these long winter nights, I light candles throughout the house; ones that smell like the winter. Balsam, Pumpkin Spice, and Apple Vanilla. I do look forward to Spring coming but will miss the coziness of winter after all.

Williamsburg, Virginia

It's final!  We're going to Williamsburg in one month.  I'm so excited I could just squeal.  I absolutely LOVE that place anytime but especially in the fall.  The weather will be so cool and crisp; perfect for sweaters.  I love sweater weather.  I might even need a light coat in the mornings.
I think this will be my sixth trip up there.  I never get tired of it.  We went last year for Darcie's birthday.  We rented a colonial dress and bought her a fan and bonnet.  She thought she was something.  She wanted to do it again this time, but I said, "Just wear your bonnet and you'll be fine."  It cost a lot to rent that dress.  Maybe I'll make her one before then so she can have the "full experience."  
We'll be there for five days and will swing by my parents in East Tennessee for three more.  Actually that's a big swing, but if we don't go now we won't go this fall.  And I have to go to Tennessee in the fall.  It's a tradition.  And another reason, it's my birthday; October 27.  I'll be 53 years old, and life has never been better.  In fact, it's great!  You can tell this cooler weather is really affecting me!More on our trip later.

Lehigh Trail

The Lehigh Trail is in Flagler County, Florida. A Rails-2-Trails corridor. I rode the trail this morning because there was a local bike shop (PC Bike) ride. Turn-out was a little space - likely because of the holidays.
Three of us rode the trail end-s-end. My riding companions had ridden from other parts of the area for the ride. I had driven to the Graham Swamp trailhead and rode the 1/2 mile to the Lehigh Trail trailhead.
We stated at Colbert Road and rode the 7 miles to US 1. With just 3 of us riding, the pace was a little faster than "leisurely". Most of the ride was at 13-14 mph. Got my heart rate up and worked up a sweat.
Of course it was not hard to work up a sweat this morning. It was in the 70s when we were on the trail - on December 21st!
When we turned around to return, I told the guys to not wait for me - I likely would be stopping to take photos. Got a couple that could be considered for a future calendar.
After the ride, I stopped in at the bike shop. Picked up a new helment 9mine has been getting pretty bad) and a Trails Guide for the area.
Thanks for the ride, Sam & Patrick. Watch for more info on trails in the aea.

Volksmarch

I enjoyed walking in the Broadway neighborhood so much last week, that I had Bob join me on Saturday. However, we did 5K (3.1 miles) instead of 11K (6.8 miles), due to his plantar fasciitis which is still giving him problems.

We started the walk at 7:30 a.m. and finished walking a little after 9 a.m. We walked through the campus of University of the Incarnate Word, then added a little extra by going to the Witte Museum parking lot, then Bob took me down Avenue B to look for the Little Aussie Bakery and Cafe. It wasn't open until 11 a.m. so we couldn't check out their menu.

Here are the few pictures I took while we were out...

Bee looking for cactus pollen.

The original San Antonio spurs...

Sculpture in front of Witte Museum.

Pretty sculpture on Witte Museum parking garage.

Hamming it up for the camera.

Another sculpture in front of Witte Museum.

If you enlarge the photo of the seed pod below, you will see it has orange bugs with black spots on it. Interesting color.





One of the shops along Broadway in San Antonio.



The walk was just right. After the walk we headed back to the 5er and Bob went to work until almost 6 p.m.

Bob and I love watching the hummingbirds coming to our feeder. Here are a few more photos.











What blog would be a home without photos of the cats?

Bowie

Sunnie in the sun.

Sunnie giving himself a bath.

Th-th-that's all folks.