Foto Funday {week 49 | 2011}

- Selkirk Mountains of North Idaho -

How is your December coming along? Getting your shopping done, your gifts wrapped, your cards sent? I’m busily getting all my Christmas goodies made – chocolate peppermint crackles, peanut butter balls, dipped pretzels… yummy! I thought I would just pop in and share a few photos of our wintry wonderland, and then it’s back to the kitchen for me!

The week before Thanksgiving we got a foot and a half of snow – white, white, everywhere!

This is one of my fav pics – my wintering lilacs with snow gently falling onto their branches.

The turkeys have been coming daily to feed, even on Thanksgiving! It was humorous to stand there looking at the turkey in our oven and these fat wild turkeys outside eating the cracked corn we give them. A few times, we saw one of them jump up on my little patio table to eat directly from the birdfeeder full of sunflower seed.

When the sun comes out on the snow, there is nothing more brilliant! It is so beautiful! This is a closer look at Schweitzer Ski Mountain from our front yard.

Like I said, nothing more brilliant than sunshine on the snow – just look at it sparkle!

Don’t forget, I still have those free printable Christmas tags – download the PDF & add some fun to your gifts!

Blessings to you!

`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· Cari `·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·

 

Foto Funday {week 45 | 2011}

SQUIRREL!

Have you ever noticed how many movies & cartoons have running jokes about squirrels?? We have, & we think it’s hilarious, especially since our dog exactly like Dug in the movie “UP” – totally nuts at the slightest hint of a squirrel! lol! Other shows that fall in this category include Penguins of Madagascar and Charlie & the Chocolate Factory/Willy Wonka. Tickles my funny bone! This “nutty” little guy was posing for me when we were over in Montana a couple weeks ago … and just look at the amazing autumn foliage we saw while we were there …

Back here at home we had some beautiful views of the autumn foliage, including the brightly yellow Tamaracks, along with the first hints of snow on the Selkirk Mountains on October 29th.

This gorgeous view is what I see each time I drive home from making a run to the dump. Makes an unpleasant chore much more enjoyable to see this!

This is our porch on Halloween night – Jim did such an awesome job on those pumpkins!

Mmmmmmm……Halloween candy!

On Halloween night we had our regular visit from our little quartet of whitetail deer, only this time they bedded down in the front yard not 15 feet from the porch. They didn’t even mind when we turned on the porch light, talked out loud, and took photos. Never budged. Next morning it turned out they were just waiting for us to go inside and turn out the lights so they could sneak up to the porch and nibble on the last of my petunias as well as a few teeth out of Jim’s jack o’lanterns!

The fields out front look so gorgeous each morning with the frost on the grasses!

Isn’t autumn just a gorgeous and wonderful season?? It is certainly my favorite!

(Oh, did you all remember to set your clocks back this morning?? )

Blessings to you!

`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· Cari `·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·

 

Foto Funday {week 42 | 2011}

Good morning! It’s Sunday morning again and time to share a few photos from the past week. The above photo was taken while I was outside shooting the beautiful wall of clouds that was passing between us and the Selkirks on Tuesday, when suddenly this large falcon flew into view & landed in the top of a tree. I loved this shot I got of him just as he took off again!

Here’s a view of just the clouds moving in front of the Selkirks …

Just earlier this morning I had a nearly tragic visit from a smaller falcon, a kestrel, who somehow slammed into our back patio door. While I took this picture I also talked to him, encouraging him to keep trying to fly, and I silently put up some prayers for him to recover from the impact. I was so thrilled when he suddenly gave it a try, sputtering just above the ground for a few and then gaining a little altitude before landing perfectly on an old stump in the back yard. Not long after, he was off again! So glad he came out of it alright!

My awesome husband has been doing some work on a project he had begun several years ago, long before he became disabled. While the work goes slowly and he can’t work on it as often as he’d like sometimes (due to his health issues) he is making some wonderful progress, and the work is just beautiful. This is a wooden valance to go above our bedroom window. It features gorgeous “rope” edging that Jim long ago carved by hand. His recent work has included hand-carving the Cruse family crest and some shells from that crest to be attached to the front of the valance when finished. I just love his work and the wonderful smell of woodshavings!

This silly, fun photo is one that Jim took of me on our anniversary this past week. He was doing his usual Austin Powers moves with the camera – holding it at all angles and shooting randomly…hilarious! Of course, it always gets me laughing wildly when he does it!

And speaking of silly fun and random … I snapped this shot in the WalMart parking lot of an amazing load some folks had who are obviously in the process of moving. Now I have seen some really packed pickup trucks and trailers in my time, but I never have seen the front of a towed car loaded like this! Awesome!

Have a really marvelous, and silly, fun, random week everyone!

Blessings to you!

`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· Cari `·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·