Monday, December 13, 2010

First Snow


Judy loves the snow. Especially tunneling underneath and coming up with fluff all over.

It was quite cold and slick yesterday. And we had the good fortune of receiving a flat tire while en route to Great Grandma's for lunch. With no place to pull over while on the highway we drove for a while and then opted to change it on the exit ramp itself.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Last Bit of Summer Middle Bit of Fall

Coleus Given By A Friend
Glowing Strong

How the Pea Tendrils Grab

Canna Missing Flower
Beautiful In A New Way

Leafy Sidewalk

Butterhead Lettuce

Remaining Ripes


Texas Hummingbird Sage

Blinding Pampas
Penstemon

Shaw Nature Reserve

In a large rotten tree, proving how difficult it is to have all in a photo "smiling"

Rest Time

Our Fearless Leader

Sunday was a perfect day for a warm, fall hike. In fact, it was so warm we had to avoid the prairie and other sunny spaces for fear would not be able to complete our task.
Lovely place as always.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Hard Life

Regarding all the unspeakable things that happen. How do we have any hope at all? What do we say to a mother whose 4 year old dies from cancer?

"...the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." Romans 8:26

And it is okay that we cannot even pray. Our tearful moans are prayers in themselves.

Our House

One evening, after a weekly library visit, i paged through this book with curiosity. I was interested in the pictures and thought it would make good wind-down material. I love our STL city, neighborhoods, and random information.
Imagine my surprise when i turned the page to find our house years before. (First house behind the redbud.)


Monday, October 18, 2010

Ozark Mountain Weekend

Dying Brightly

Moss?Lichen?

Big Grin Boy Little Tongue Skink


Feather Found


Cypress Arm


Beautiful Decay

Pirate Spy

On a recent weekend, we had warmer than usual weather that did not require sweatshirts in the evening and did require sweating in the day. It was a delightful time.
Before the kids went to sleep, we walked out into the clearing to gaze at the stars. I said, "Let's see who can see the first falling star." Two minutes of gazing later, one very long shooting star sizzled across the dark sky. All 4 of us saw it. Magical.
Darryl made a washtub bass and i tinkered around on it enough to know i would like one for myself. Everyone else played "real" instruments. We stayed up real late and played music on the front porch. The coyotes yipped us to sleep.
We saw a water scorpion, which i haven't heard of or seen before. It looked like a walking stick with moss on it's back. And he was swimming in the water.

Avery still had on his cast, so he enjoyed playing pirate best. Jasper caught a skink and practiced starting leaves on fire with a magnifying glass. Tullaia turned over every rock and fished as much as she could. Papa relaxed. I breathed deep and didn't even take pictures of moss

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Good Times On The Fall Farm

Old Bloom Old Barn

Wooly Bear White Tiger

Zinnia, Barn, Flannel
Lookin, Playin, Rollin
Lollygagger


New Bloom Old Barn

Bullets and Ice Cream

Real Deal


Monday, September 27, 2010

Front Porch Shoot Out


Target Practice

Two Boys With Boo Boos

We were in Iowa recently for a friend's wedding. The weather was prime time (except for her wedding day...boo)and we were fortunate to stay an extra day. Eric's run-in with a 9mm in St Louis is healing well. He is still unable to walk but is enthusiastically cleaning up the farm in his over-sized motorized wheelchair (AKA excavator, skid-loader, and 4-wheeler). Everyone, minus me, was excited to operate the previously mentioned excavator.
Mom grew pumpkins this year, and they were perfectly ready for picking. The kids carved pumpkins, picked a bushel basket of pears, and hand-fed Gloria. She is going to be the Christmas pig. That we eat.

American Gothic House


And although the American Gothic House is only 45 minutes from my farm, I haven't been there. They provide costumes and pitchforks. We made Grant Wood proud! And after Justin peeked in all the windows, we found out someone lives there. Oops!

Balloon Glow 2010




We woke up Friday morning with Judy and Stella all up in arms, barking at something outside. It was a balloon landing a block over. I am not sure if it was an early test run, but we enjoyed the balloon weekend of the Forest Park Balloon Race. We had a picnic across the street and watched the balloons glide gently up and away.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Dew Drops on Wheat Grass


The wheat grass sprouted overnight. Which was amazing, but this morning each one was capped off with a tiny dew drop from the open window.

Happy Flower

Pirate Festival



Jeff and Erin gave us some tickets for the pirate festival in Wentzville. The kids went on a treasure hunt and then become honorary pirates. Thanks you guys!
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