Gripped Or Is It Griped?

Oh my goodness, the grey skies continue along with the cold temps with only images of spring buried in our hopes that soon, soon we will be released from the grips of winter.  Yes, it has definitely gripped us, or should I say griped us.  (gripped means to hang on, not let go, griped means to bellyache).  

Which leads me to our word of the week....untoward.  Not a very difficult word, one that is quite easy to use in a sentence, but not sure if I have ever spoken the word.  Untoward meaning "not moving in the direction toward something".....Using it in a sentence "If things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next." - Jane Austen.  Which brings us back to our untowardly weather...it doesn't seem to be moving in the direction of spring.  But as Jane Austen says...it is sure to mend the next (month).

Remember this?

Here it is today....at least it's useful, dirty but useful.

I'll just keep buying tulips until they begin their ascent from the cold earth.

Saw this idea on Pinterest so bought a 4 pack of these sweet violas and planted them in egg shells.  After ruining 3 egg shells by cracking them on the side of the sink, I finally pulled out a butcher knife and cracked them with that.  Much easier.  Aren't they sweet?

Hope you are having a wonderful week and Spring is making an appearance in your part of the world.

Linking to Madge's Rurality (figured the birds and the squirrel could fall into a rural setting).


 "In the Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."~ Margaret Atwood

Until next time.....

Another Word....

Did you like my word yesterday?  Have you used it yet?  The word was temerity. I introduced the word to the women attending Bible Study this morning.  Now, introducing new words to this group of women is not something I normally do, however since we are studying the Book of Ruth I thought the word was quite appropriate to Ruth's personality and what makes this woman tick.  If you recall, the word temerity means bold with a big dose of braveness and some rashness thrown in.  Now if any of you have the slightest knowledge of the story of Ruth, you know this woman had a huge amount of bravery, and certainly had to be a little rash when she left her homeland and her family, after becoming a young widow, and followed her Mother-In-Law to a new land, leaving everything behind.  Now that woman had temerity.  How many of us would leave everything that we had ever known in our entire lives to follow our Mother-In-Law??  Holy cow....Temerity with a capital T.  So try to use the word this week and make everyone think you are really smart.

OK, I am on a roll with these words...I guess I want to get smart fast beings as I am on the downhill side of my life...this isn't morbid, just the truth.  Second word this week is Quagmire, meaning a soggy, soft piece of land that if you walked into it, your shoes would most likely be sucked off.  This is exactly what happened to the corn fields after 10 inches of melting snow, along with buckets of rain....one big quagmire.

And because I don't want you feeling as tho you have been left in a quagmire....a bunch of daffodils to brighten the day.

The sun is shining here, but the temps are hovering around 30 degrees...not exactly springtime temps, but the grocery stores are filled with daffodils and tulips right now, so spring may not be leaping forth outside but inside my house spring has sprung.

Linking with Madge's Rurality.

Until next time....

Oh Did It Snow....

Yessirrebob...it snowed and snowed and then snowed some more.

Ahhh...fresh snow to taste.  Remember that snow ice cream that Mom used to make when we were kids?  Growing up in Texas snow ice cream was a rare treat since Texas is pretty stingy with snow storms.  Kinda like what we have experienced here in the midwest for the last two years, except ofcourse, until yesterday.  When my kids were little the word was "don't eat the snow, the dangerous particles that float around in the sky has contaminated it"...oh boo hoo, so since I didn't want to contaminate my kids, no snow ice cream for them.

As the weary working people were fighting their way home from work in all that snow....I was enjoying my tulips, some fresh bean soup and a corn muffin (one of the two muffins that I bought at the grocery store, the chocolate one had been devoured earlier in the day).  Now you see how I can appreciate the snow more than others.  It was a "didn't step my foot out the door kinda day for me".  I did my fair share of tromping in the snow when I was in the "working world"....I can remember crossing those bridges in downtown Chicago when the wind-chill factor was -20...I did my due diligence, now it's warm bean soup and tulips.

Wonder what in the world this was used for....too small for barn or house sitting in the middle of a field...I know you must think this is pretty random what with the post being about snow etc, but I wanted to link to Madge's Rurality Blog Hop and none of the above shots resembled anything close to rural.  So, OK?

Reminder to self....Easter will be here in 3 1/2 weeks.

Gotta go....Bible Study and I am not dressed yet.

Until next time....

Chin Draggin'...Not a Pretty Sight

Yesterday we had another good sized snowstorm and depending on where you live in the Chicago area it snowed anywhere from 2-9 inches.  We were at the low end of that range with only about 2 1/2 inches totaled, but it was a good snow.  Good in the fact that it was wet, the kind that sticks to trees and makes everything look beautiful, but on the other hand, the kind that causes heart attacks in some while shoveling the heavy stuff.  So if you have young strapping boys shoveling your driveway it was good, bad if you are stuck with shoveling the white stuff yourself.

And yesterday was the day to go out and take pictures, but the roads were too dangerous so I stood on the front porch, such an adventurer I am.  But today after Bible Study I meandered on the way home, stopping here and there and capturing some of that beauty.  It was the kind of snow that made good snowmen....I thought he was kinda funny with his pine cone eyes and pine needle hair, clever use of availability.

Before I left this morning, I snapped this pic of the beautiful pine tree across the street from my house.

We are in the middle of a study on Ruth in our Wednesday Bible Class and this week our discussion was about how God is omnipresent in our lives....always there, knowing us while we were melding our bones together in our mother's womb before we were born, guiding us, loving us forever.  As I left church I stopped less than a block away and captured this.  It spoke to me of God's omnipresence.  Even with the sometimes entanglements of darkness and starkness that can surround us, there is still His beacon that gives us the strength to carry us through the roughest times in our lives.

I think I am feeling a little melancholy today.  Do you ever get that way??  No reason, and I am too old to blame it on a "period" or even menopausal, too late for that too.  Maybe it's because there are several ladies in our Bible class that are having some major health issues, maybe it's because it's the end of February and the sun hasn't been shining that much lately, who knows.  I am usually pretty joyful, but ever once in awhile I fall off of the happy wagon.  This is one time I am grateful to live alone.   No one around to see my chin dragging, it's not a pretty sight.

Linking up with Madge's Rurality today.  I thought the above pic look fairly rural, altho it is right in the middle of the next town over from me.  The suburbs around here do a darn good job of leaving lots of open spaces and forest preserves, so if you are feeling a little hemmed in, all you have to do is drive a short distance and that city-feel is quickly gone. 

"When God solves your problems, you have faith in HIS abilities; when God doesn't solve your problems HE has faith in your abilities."  

Until next time....

Catch-Up

I joined Kim Klassen's 2nd Beyond Layers or Beyond Beyond or Beyond II....I am not sure how to refer to this, but you know what I mean, 2nd class in her Beyond Layers series.  The first one was a year long, and I do believe this 2nd one is the same length.  I started out with a bang the first time around, but then slowly began to skip a week here or there...shame on me.  I always have such good intentions, but somehow I always get off-track.  Kim gives such great instructions, I encourage anyone that wants to know anything about layers/textures in Photoshop/Elements to take one of her classes.  I think she even has a couple of freebies to get you started.

Well, this time around I didn't even get started with a bang, again...shame on me.  But I am catching up and here was our 2nd assignment.  To take multiple pictures of the same subject at different angles, points of view and then pick 3 of my favs and make them into a collage.  She even provided the template for the collage and ofcourse instructions on how to do it.  Here is mine...remember my little jar with the chalkboard label from Anthropologie....so many ways to use this sweet thing.  And by the way, I totally blame Kim for all my purchases from Anthropologie (I dropped a few dollars there last Saturday) with all her talk and beautiful cups she tempts us with.  And now it is on my radar.

OK....you haven't seen one of my selfies lately.  I pooped out on the last 2 weeks...the 1st one was a silly pose (I don't do silly well) and the 2nd one was in the dark...I just never came up with anything showing me in the dark.  I just seem to be in the dark most of the time anyway, shoulda just taken any ole pic...but that's not what they were going for.  So this week it is a dyptic...2 photos that make up a whole in other words 2 parts of your body...any part or parts.  That I could relate to...so here is mine. I know, silly me.  I probably could have used this one for the silly too....whatever!!

And today is the 2nd week in Madge's Rurality...a new link-up that she started last week due to a couple blog sites dropping their weekly memes.  It seems like many of us enjoy the rural parts of our lives even if we do live in the city.

This rather plain white barn was again in DeKalb County...don't ask me exactly where, I never know, I just drive and shoot, shoot the camera that is.  I have never gotten lost in any of my wanderings, the roads all seem to be squared, follow one, turn left, turn left again and you end up on the same road you started on.  Life is so much simpler in the country, at least roads are anyway.

And because yesterday was Abe Lincoln's birthday another Abe quote....

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."  ~ Abraham Lincoln

Until next time,

When What Do My Wondering Eyes Did Appear....

Instead of driving to the Arboretum which is my usual mode of operandi I decided to drive down around the dog park and check out the red barn on Greene Rd.  The barn is pre-civil war era and with years of non-use it became quite an eyesore with thoughts of tearing it down.  But back in 2010, being in huge disrepair with an estimated million plus to repair, a group decided to ban together and bring this old barn back to life.  Driving by there today, the barn has been re-painted, cleaned up, repaired and ready for business. Plans are that it is to be used for Park District activities for both winter and summer.

I took this picture a couple of winters ago and you can see the peeling paint, shriveled vines and disrepair...(actually it had great character)

This is the picture I took today....

See what a few million dollars can do for an old civil war era barn.  No wonder there are so many farms in dis-repair around this area if it takes that much money to renovate them.  It is probably much cheaper to just put up a metal barn and let the wood barn eventually become one with nature.

The parking lot next to the barn was closed for the winter so I had to park my car by the dog park and walk which was only about a block.  When I returned when what did my wondering eyes should appear, but eight one tiny reindeer (and it wasn't really a reindeer, they are not this cute) right before my eyes.  I was so startled I almost scared her away, but instead she just looked at me, paused, bent down to grab a mouthful of grass where the snow had been brushed away, then turned and darted back into the woods.  I know some see this sight each and every day, but usually when I spot a deer, by the time I grab my camera they have high-tailed it back to safety.  She must have known I was no threat.

After this stop I drove around at more snowy spots capturing beauty....even the dried queen anne's lace and the shriveled red berries have the look of magic in the winter.

And finally a stop at the golf course...so pristine, no golfers today.

Last one....with an added texture.

And yes, it did snow again...can't say that it started at exactly 2:30, but it was in the afternoon.

Linking to Madge's new weekly meme Rurality


In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. ~William Blake

Until next time.....