I'm thankful for...

my mom
my brothers
my niece and nephews
my cat, Einstein
Utica Firefighters and EMS
Kunkel EMS
St. Lukes ER
The wonderful people who have stopped to hold my mom's hand, call 911 and take care of her.
My wonderful friends - Brenda, Shelly, Melanie, Kelly, Abeer, Deb, Jim, Shibu, and so many more that their names escape my brains...
GTC
Utica PD
my neighbors - Toni, Curtis, Kelly, Leah, Tony & Connie, and Ann
my FB friends - it's weird - so many I haven't seen in decades - but yet we still connect...
my health, my love of biking
my belief in God

And I'm thankful to be alive...

This Holiday Season

I realized awhile ago that I couldn't do gifts for people. The going to the store and shopping for gifts type gifts. That being said I am not being scrooge.

Cookies, fudge, truffles and chocolates. From my kitchen, from my heart. I love to bake, I love to make special treats. And handmade cards....

It was a hard decision to make and in some ways I feel bad because I'm not 'buying' stuff but at the same time I'm trying to think about what Christmas is about. It is about Giving and Love and Hope and the Birth of Christ. (not in that order!).

I'm rambling...I'm tired I guess. But as the baking and making continue I'll put the recipes and hopefully pictures too. My favorite cookies to make are nut cups, nut balls, peanut butter balls, peanut butter kiss cookies, sugar cookies (thanks to my mom these are the BEST), chocolate truffles (different flavorings), and fudge (pumpkin, chocolate, and I don't know what other kind).

Ah well - I am very tired...and have to get some sleep!

Reminiscing about stuff...

Camping on Seneca Lake - watching the sun go down. Warm breeze blowing off the lake, the smell of the water, trees, grass, campfires and food cooking.

This picture reminds me of my canal rides...I love to capture the clouds
and trees in different ways.

And these roses and the purple flowers (that neither mom or I can remember the name of right now). They are now gone - they went with the old garage. Well - I say that, but the wild roses are coming back up...

Good by old garage! But the pretty new shed is in place!

Contrasts

Blue sky and sunshine

Beautiful

I wanted to go for a ride so bad. The stars weren't aligned for it so
I took a drive and then for a short walk to catch these pictures.

The Canal in it's Autumn splendor

Painting Part II

Well - I'm done - at least the major parts are done and I've cleaned up quite a bit of it. That being said - here are a couple of pictures to wet your whistle and I'll add more when I get it all cleaned up.


The white cabinet is now "Mahogany Library" and the walls are a "Mulberry Blue". The baseboards are the same as the cabinet as is the molding at the ceiling. I did not paint the ceiling, it actually needs some work first and I have to get into the plaster fixing mode.



I had the towels and the shower curtain and worked really hard to match one of the blues in them...Doc at Home Depot was instrumental in that.

It's not perfect - but it is pretty!