In the Village.......

Living in the village seems to be a pretty fun life.  No one seems to have a job and everyone is busy playing or hanging around in town.

The firemen are having a coffee break while they watch the strolling couple go by .  The train in the back ground is transporting bears to the next town and the streets still need to be cleared off from the last snow storm.

On the bridge standing is the painter Thomas Kinkade while others watch him work.  Generous gifts of three different figures from Maple Lane were added this year to the collection. Thomas Kinkade was one of them and the horse in the background is pulling a carriage.  I couldn't get a clear photo of it.  It was a nice and appreciated gift from Mr. and Mrs. Maple Lane.

Here is a blurry shot of the artist finishing up one of his wonderful landscapes. Thanks again to M. and J. for these figures.

Our son picked up two garage sale items for the collection.  The barn in the background was one of them.  I finally got the lights set up inside all of the buildings on Christmas day.  Most were lighted but I had to buy new lights for the two Andy gave us.  It ended up being a string of six lights on one cord so I had to rework all the buildings with a new setup to get it all lighted.  I will try to shoot a lighted village in the next few days.

I worked three days this past week at school but we still had some fun going to see a movie and now a bookstore visit. We both have been so busy up to Christmas day that we really didn't have all our decorating done nor did we have time to appreciate them.  Now we get all the trees lighted each night and I am out with the camera taking newer shots.

It snowed again on Friday.  It was a fluffy snow and it just added new slick conditions to the roads.  The cities are still trying to remove the frozen thick snow that is still on the roads.  We will have to have a good thaw to remove it and that isn't coming soon. I guess middle Iowa will reach 32 degrees on Sunday and that will help them loosen up some of the frozen stuff, that is if there is sun shinning on the day.

The celebrating of a new year is low key around here as it seems it will be just another day.  Hopefully someone in Washington DC will get their act together and stop spending money they don't have on things that buy them votes.  Hopefully a balanced budget means you only spend what you earn, like the rest of us are required to do.  Hopefully in the new year some people will be held accountable for what they are actually doing and not what they are pretending to be doing for the country.

Having watched the movie Les Miserables Friday night, it reminds me that throughout history power corrupts people. The leaders who lead really do want to be treated like Kings of the past and we can just go eat cake when the bread runs out. The only problem is that so many people don't have money to buy bread and that cake never existed in the first place.  I am waiting for a miracle of integrity and honesty and I am sure from experience that we won't being seeing it. I am actually waiting for the exposure that should have come a few years ago of the lies, dishonesty and intentional deception that seems to be status quo.

I will wish you a happy new year on another less grumpy day.

Thanks........for stopping by my post today.