Oh, the squirrels

This little fellow was on the ground, eating a nut (aren't they all?) when we spotted him. While I whipped out my camera, he ran up into the tree. I thought he may scamper on up out of sight, but he didn't. He "posed" on this branch for me and every once in a while, he would chatter and look down at Brownie like "How dare you have interrupted my lunch!"

We walked by the water

We also walked a little bit down by the water. It is so peaceful. I loved seeing her little footprints in the sand. It says, "We've been here." We leave a mark on this world and the people in it everywhere we go. I hope the marks I leave are for the better.

Our walk this morning

We had a really beautiful walk this morning. It was overcast and with the weather forecast predicting thunderstorms the next few days, we really wanted to get our walk in. I'm always struck by the beauty I find on our walk. We've walked the same paths at least three days a week for the past two years and I almost always see something I haven't seen when I take the time to look. And if I see something new all the time on the same paths, I can see how in heaven the scenery and the view will never grow old, even for eternity. I had wondered how many artists could still continue to paint once in heaven, what would one paint when we are all seeing the same thing? But I think even if we all see the same thing, we wouldn't interpret it the same. We would still paint from our experiences, our feelings and that would make all of our paintings different. I'm looking forward to all the possibilities I have as an artist and as a person.

More roses at Woodward Park

And here are the rest of the roses! These last two pictures have something extra in them. The one above this last one has a little surprise in the center and this bottom one has a little surprise under the rose on the right. I thought I'd let you look and see for yourself what it is, but will put it here in case you can't see the picture that closely (a bee in the one above and a ladybug in this one below).

The roses at Woodward Park

We went to Woodward Park last weekend to see their beautiful roses. I've already shared with you the fountain, but wanted to save these roses for today. They are so gorgeous. I love flowers.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers (and to my mama who is with my sister and her husband and kids near Dallas)! My sisters and brother and I got Mom a (surprise!) ruby red digital camera just like mine! I know she's loving it (I sent it to her before her trip so she could have it to take pictures this weekend). (After I got mine and loved it so much, I told everyone else about it so my sister got silver ones for her and her husband. My brother is considering one.)

I think it would be neat if Mom would do a blog, too. I'd love to see what she is taking pictures of. She has a bird feeder right outside her kitchen window and she sees all sorts of wonderful birds come and eat from her feeder. She wants to get pictures of them and I think it would be neat to see her pictures. Especially if she has a bunch of pictures of birds or flowers or sunsets (because they are gorgeous out there). I guess we first have to show her how to download the pictures from her camera to the computer, but we could go from there to a blog. If she does, I'll share her blog address with you so you can see her pictures, too.

Hugs to everyone who needs some on this day.

Ant carrying sesame seed

We ate outside on the back porch at our patio table tonight. Chann picked up Arby's on his way home from running errands. We ate and threw the ball for Brownie and listened to the sound of our neighbors mowing (it seems like they mow at least once per week, whether it needs it or not). After we ate, I happened to glance down and noticed an ant crawling around with a seed. A sesame seed that must have fallen off the top of the Arby's roast beef sandwich onto the ground. The little guy was really muscling it around. I asked Chann to herd him for me (because he was headed home) and he did while I went and got the camera. Ants really aren't my thing (they come in my house, they die), but you've gotta admire a fellow who is trying to heft a sesame seed home for supper.

Fisher Price Little People Play Farm #915

This is what has I've been doing for the past few weeks. I've been on e-bay for my Mama to find and replace some of the Fisher Price toys we had when we were kids. She is turning one of her rooms into a "toy room" for the grandkids and she wanted classic Fisher Price toys.

This farm was one of my favorites. After being on e-bay and seeing what a huge demand there are for these vintage toys and how much they were going for, I decided rather than spending $80 and getting a farm with a barn, silo, a few fence pieces, and some animals, that I would rather piece the farm together and try to get her more for the money. Plus, when I'd play with it, I always wished I had more than just one cow, one sheep, one horse, one pig, and one dog. That's probably where I got a little carried away. By the time I got finished, I did save her a little money, but now she has three horses, five sheep, two pigs, five cows, and three dogs. More is better, I say!!!

Of course, now I may be looking at trying to get her one more silo because the second tractor and trailer don't seem to fit. And if I win a lot of circus animals tonight on e-bay for her, that has four more pieces of fence which would make another silo a necessity. Hah, hah, hah, hah. But wow, what a farm!!!

Our walk this morning

We went for our walk/jog this morning. Brownie and I sure enjoy it when Pooker goes, too. Pooker works such long hours and this is our time to be together and walk and talk for a little bit (when I'm awake enough to be coherent). We all walk together down to the trail, then he goes on ahead to jog. Buppa pulls me because she sees her DaDa running and wants to run with him. I have to remind her if she runs with him, there won't be any sniffing and I know she would sure miss her sniffing. Even then, she still pulls a little until DaDa is out of sight. We continue our walk, depending on how far Pooker is going to run. We try to turn around and start back before we see him coming so we can be near the end of our walk when we all meet back up. Sometimes she will watch all the men that jog by, wagging her tail in the hopes that it is DaDa coming. When she sees him, she lights up. Sometimes she sees him and we keep going so she can sniff as rapidly as possible (knowing once DaDa reaches us, we'll be heading back) until he gets even with us and says her name. Then she wags her whole body and bounds over to him so she can lick him and he can pet her. Other times, she spots him coming a ways off and runs towards him as fast as she can drag me, whole body wagging, until she can get to him and give her lick and get her petting. Then we all walk home together to start going about our day.

Fountain at Woodward Park