A new artist

Zoey LOVES to draw and color...I think we have a budding artist on our hands!

Our Lady in Stained Glass

 My friend Kate and i stopped in at an art show this past Fall, and saw some lovely things for sale, offered by a wealth of local artists in the Sand Lake NY area. One of the offerings that i especially loved was this stained glass portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

 The artist who created this piece was a lovely woman and i am currently searching for her very modest business card. I hope to see her back at another art festival so i can purchase more of her lovely work.

 The sunlight was glowing thru this piece when i woke on this freezing cold morning 

and i thought i would share it with you.

details of the work...

Love

You know it is love when you can't throw the box out that the gift came in, because it says this. I'll use it as a book mark and keep it forever.

Snowy Night

 It snowed again last night, so i took a few pictures of the front of our house. This is with the flash. You can see the snowflakes

and this is without flash...

Got High Hopes

A Pie in the Hand

 Bill and i went to the Farmer's Market this weekend to buy some homemade Empanadas from the Peruvian vendors. But when we got there, the vendor was completely sold out. We were very sad....

This morning, i got this recipe in my inbox, and i decided to try my hand at making my own Empanadas, or Hand Pies. This is my very first attempt. I was a little clumsy with the dough, but they sure tasted good, and weren't all that hard to make!

 The dough is a basic pie crust dough, and while most empanadas are fried, these were brushed with cream (i used half and half) and baked in the oven, so i am hoping they are also less fattening!

The filling was really easy to make. Kale, sweet sausage, apple, onion and golden raisins. De-Licious! For the recipe, click here.

Not yet......

 It's January 15th...We are already half way thru January

(does anybody else out there feel like time is speeding up?)

 Even so, we are still a LONG way from Spring.

 But with the thaw and all the rain we have gotten here these last 3 or 4 days, my herbs have been tricked into thinking it is Spring and time to wake up. I noticed this yesterday but it was too dark to take pictures. Above you can see my fancy Thyme, with a thin coating of frost on it.

My strawberry plants are frozen solid under a thick glaze of clear ice.

Very pretty...I know they are protected under there...

And this is my cat mint or cat nip, pushing up thru the old wilted growth. .

My indoor houseplants are responding more to the light coming into the windows and they are starting to put out new growth too, tho a bit early. Some of my smaller indoor trees lost most or all of their leaves this Fall and it will be nice to have them green again. Maybe we will have an early Spring.

January Thaw...

 We have been in a deep freeze and surrounded by thick layers of ice and snow since the Holidays. So this weekend when the temperatures got up to 57 degrees and we had lots of rain instead of snow, i grabbed my point and shoot camera and my umbrella, and headed down to the Cohoes Falls. 

 The city closes the Falls Park for the Winter months but there is another overlook near the old mill houses near the power plant, so i took these pictures from that point.

 At first there was so much fog and mist surrounding the falls it was hard to see the water flow, but i stood there for a while enjoying the energy there and eventually the fog and mist lifted a bit.

 

I included this little picture because i love that little lookout house on the edge of the wall there. Imagine what it would be like to be in there when the falls are like this!

Rosie

Thank you Faustin Baron for this beautiful portrait of our Rosie

Tiny Dancer

During this super cold spell we find ourselves in, i've noticed some pretty interesting ice and frost patterns form on our windows. I tried to take a picture of this one, which is blurry, but i think it is the best photo i got of it. It looked just like a little frost fairy, until the sun warmed it and it faded away... 

Precious Gifts

 I have always loved children's artwork and homemade gifts. I wanted to share with you a few cards Lola made for me for my birthday this year. 

This is a Garden Fairy, who lives in my garden

and here is the messge side.

And this drawing for me is priceless. It is a drawing of my three dogs who have passed. Zebedee, Amos Moses, and Gipetto. I think Lola would only remember Gipetto as the other two passed on before she would know them. The Beautiful Angel in the center is my Grandmother Mary.When telling me the story of this drawing,  Lola said my Grandmother and the three brothers(dogs) are all Angels and they are here,watching over me. Love, love, love....

Angels in the Tree

 My sister Nancy and her husband Ned came home from Florida for Christmas, and she and Lola made these sweet angels out of macaroni, lace, markers and glue. Everyone got a special angel ornament. This one is mine

 and the boy angel is Bill's. These little handmade ornaments mean so much to me, and will be hung on my tree forever.

Lola also decorated the little nutcracker ornament in the background. They may stay up here and be hung on one of my indoor trees. You can never have too many angels hanging around, can you? 

Baking up a Storm...

With all this stormy weather around us, i've been baking up a storm..Cooling on the stove are two loaves of my home baked bread, an apple berry pie, made with farmer's market apples and our own wild berries that i froze(not sure what kind they are) and a big old pot of turkey barley soup! That should keep us fed and warm for a while!

Baby it's Cold Outside!!!

This morning we are having a heat wave! It is 4 degrees above zero! WooHoo!

Sub Zero

The Nor'Easter has passed thru, and here comes the cold. -2degrees, with a wind chill of -19.

Brrrrrrrrrr......

Hey there! You with the stars in your eyes.....

 It's Jack, looking like he has a couple of Christmas tree lights for eyeballs!

Ahhh....That's much better....
I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and we wish you all a Happy New Year!

Some children see Him