Tree Trimming and First Snow

It is a tradition in my home to have a tree trimming party.  I cook and the family comes over and helps me decorate the large tree.  This tree has around 300 ornaments on it so it takes all of us to get it decorated in a day.  The party was this past Saturday so I thought I would share a few pictures of the tree and my new ornaments that I collected during 2010.

This year I put the large tree in the living room.  I put up 5 trees and I will show the other 4 in another post. 

My Mother-in-Law is so good to me.  Every year she buys me the new State of Oklahoma Christmas ornament for my birthday.  This is the 2010 ornament. 

I bought this ornament at the Palace of Versailles in Paris.  We visited Paris in April.

In April we also visited Scotland.  This ornament has the Scottish Thistle in the center. 

In July we went to Branson, Missouri and visited Silver Dollar City.  It was their 50th anniversary. 

While at Silver Dollar City my oldest granddaughter bought my husband (her grandfather) a penguin ornament.  He loves penguins.  She calls him Buddy so she had that written on the side and she gave it to him for his birthday.   

Below you can see some little green boots.  I bought those at Kew Gardens in London. 

And my youngest granddaughter bought her "Buddy" a peace sign.  He calls his car the "peace-mobile".  Every time the grandkids see a peace sign they think of him.   

And speaking of the peace-mobile.  Tonight we got our first snow if you want to call it that.  There is no snow on the roads or ground but it did cover the peace-mobile since it has to sit outside. 

Until next time,



Empty Nest Gardens before a freeze

The weatherman has forecast an artic freeze for Thursday so I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures before the Empty Nest blooms are gone.

I love having blooming roses in November.

The leaves on the oak trees were so beautiful this year, the most color I can ever remember.

In the greenhouse the Bird of Paradise is still blooming.

 The greenhouse is absolutely jammed packed with plants.  I always try to save everything from the killing frost.  After Thanksgiving I will have to take cuttings of some of the plants and try to downsize a little so I can get inside the greenhouse to work....lol. 

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving.  I will be hosting 11 at my house.  Let us all be thankful for the many blessings in our lives.

Until next time,

Fun with Kaleidoscopes

It has been a while since I posted new kaleidoscopes.  I recently purchased a new Filigree template that I can use in my Kaleidoscope Kreator 3 software.  Here are a few of the pictures I have created.

The picture above was created using a photograph of a castor bean seed pod.

This was created using a picture of a coleus plant.

This was created from the photograph below. 

Nosey, our female cat.

And this is our male cat, Brutus.  I used a simple circular kaleidoscope template.

Enjoy your weekend,

World Series

Tonight I am watching My Texas Rangers play game 4 of the World Series on the television.  Last night I was at the Ballpark in Arlington, watching game 3 live and in person.  During commercials tonight I am going to cobble together this post about last nights game.

WooHoo  I like the word Champions!

We bought our tickets before the SF Giants won the National League Champsionship so our tickets say "TBD" To Be Determined at Rangers. 

My hubby - the view from our seats.  We sat on the club level.  They gave us lanyards to put our tickets in as a souvenir.

A fly over during the National Anthem, it is great to be an American.

In closing let me just say.....Texas Rangers are number 1. 

Until next time,



Baseball,Bird of Paradise and Carrion

First I have to say Yipppppeeeee   WooooooHooooooo  my Texas Rangers won the American League Championship and for the first time in their history they are playing in the World Series.  

I took this picture off the Texas Ranger website and I would give credit to the creator if I knew who it was. 

 We have our World Series tickets.  We will be going to game 3 next Saturday October 30.  Look for me on TV.  I will be the one dressed in red....hahaha...lol.  

It's that time of year.  The Bird of Paradise is blooming again.  Later this week I will be taking it into the greenhouse.

This year my African carrion (Stapelia Grandiflora) has 8 blooms at one time!!!  This is another first. 

I will be blogging about the World Series after Halloween.   Hope you have a wonderful week. 

Until next time,





"MY" Texas Rangers

Last Sunday, 10-10-10, we were fortunate enough to be able to attend a Texas Rangers ALDS game in Arlington againest the Tampa Bay Rays.  And even though they lost that game they were able to win the American League Division Series in St. Pete. 

Tonight is the first game of the American League playoffs, Yankees vs Rangers in Arlington.  We aren't attending but we will be driving to Dallas tomorrow to go to the Texas State Fair (about a 4 hour drive).     Anyway, I thought I would share a few pictures I took at Sundays game.

So when you see all those people waving their towels....the ball club has given you the towel and they tell you when to wave it!!   It is soooooo much fun.

                                                                                                               Josh Hamilton

Ian Kinsler

Derek Holland

The game is getting ready to come on TV so I am going to root them on.    I love "MY" Rangers.
GO RANGERS!!!!!

A quick update

Hello friends,  I have been remodeling my bathroom so I haven't had much blogging time lately.  When I am finished with the remodel I will share some pictures.

It is getting cool here.  I have added another blanket to the bed and my winter robe is now out of the closet.  For today I will share a few more pictures from the yard while I still have blooms. 

This frog is about 1 inch long.  My daughter was able to take a focused picture of it. 

The spiky plant on the right is a Bronze Leaved Crinum.  The teeny tiny frog was hiding down inside this plant. 

My papaya plant has a fruit!!  I hope the fruit will continue to enlarge once I take it into the greenhouse for the winter.   

The mandevilla likes the cooler weather.  The swimming pool does not.  The leaves are starting to fall so we will have to cover the pool soon....how sad :-(

I hope you have a great week.  Until next time,