Tuesday's tattle and prattle.........

Yes, it is true that I have seven new violets which are developing into mature plants and I have three or four more that are mature plants.  What I didn't have though was this color of African violet in my collection.  It looks more red than it should be here but I will share it looking like this anyway.  I found it at The Home Depot in a grouping of dozens of plants.  They had them in a room with failing orchids and the doors were leaking cold air rapidly into the room.  The majority were not blooming because of the poor temperatures but I found this one that looked promising.  I brought it home, watered it with fertilizer and warmed it up.  It loves now being in a warm climate. One would think that the store would know that too.

 

While checking my water pan that I keep open for the birds and the feral cats in the neighborhood,  I looked up and saw this scene.  It looks like the wrens will need me to hang this up before spring. The apple tree is holding it with all it's arms to keep it off the ground.

I really didn't get a focus on these guys,  I didn't have a coat on and it was below zero out there on the porch.  I was doing a heebies jeebies dance because the cold was so painful when I got back inside the house. 

It is a typical winter here in Iowa but for some reason I am not accepting it very well this year.  We had three times the amount of snow last year and we had weeks below freezing last year but I just don't like it this year.  We went to a mall on Sunday afternoon instead of watching the game and it was nice to be there.  The pain that we felt though from the cold air that had developed while we were in the mall, made me wish to have just stayed home.   We spent a couple hours at the bookstore and it was a nice quiet time with books.  I bought a planning calendar which was now very inexpensive that had wonderful photos of plants and animals in it. It is an Audubon daily calender.

Let's just face it!!!!!

Let's face it, we get so busy that we forget to keep track of our anniversaries.  On February 3rd, two years and five days ago,  I wrote my very first blog.   I didn't post a picture as I didn't know how.  In fact I posted the second blog the same day and the picture I posted must have been deleted by mistake.  I didn't have followers back then.  In fact I don't think I had comments for months.

So here I am starting my third year at blogging.  I intended to consolidate two of my blogs into one, but I don't want to abandoned either one of them. Four blogs is a crazy way to live.  I guess I could start a new journey,  but I would loose all my followers.   Maybe,  just maybe, I will just rename the one blog and just keep writing on with that one and try to funnel the Photo a Day people onto the one Creative Zone.  You will just have to wait and see what happens.

Thanks to you all for your loyal following.  I know a lot of you are out there following this crazy old coot even if you are not posting comments.  Thanks for tolerating me when I should just shut up my mouth.  I will hang in there,  if I survive this  #&*(^$#@ winter.
Later..............

Blue Monday........

I like the simplicity of this shot.  Snow can be a perfect sculptural material.  All one needs is a cold 45 mile an hour of wind and some ten inches of snow on the ground.

This week is going to be extremely cold which follows two days last week that were in the thirties.  I am going to take it one day at a time.

Thanks for stopping by.........I will increase my word count soon as soon as my  life smooths out and computer time increases.

Sunday Thaw........sort of.

It has been a long week and maybe today we will get a little physical rest and emotional rest.  Our temperatures have been above freezing but we have so much snow, that the air stays very cold and that means it doesn't allow much melting.

I was in Osceola, Iowa Friday night for a funeral visitation of one of my Dad's distant cousin's.  I tried to remove some of the snow from around the house down there and they had received almost thirteen inches of snow. The strong winds had created large drifts and all I really could accomplish was to dig out narrow, deep paths to the front and back doors.  I had dug us out that morning by shoveling out our walks along our corner lot.  That means I had moved a lot of snow on Friday.

Thank you all for stopping by...............

Sick of Snow, Saturday........

Our strong winds created a lot of drifts in the snow.

 Redtwig dogwood

A wavy path that still can get you to where you want to go.

Friday and no change in the weather........

Leaning tower of Woodward. 

A bridge over frozen pond water covered with snow.

Nobody home as the smart birds went south for the winter.

Thanks for stopping by..........

Dishes of the past........

I owned a cabin in Minnesota for a few years near Grand Rapids, Minnesota.  Each cabin had random sets of tableware and dishes and pans.   I kept this set of plates when I sold the cabin.  I don't have a lot of them but I always liked the pattern.   It reminds me of red willow.

The mark didn't photograph well but it is a made in the USA product.  It is a Taylor Smith product.  I have a few plates and a cup or two.  I also have a platter and a serving dish.

When I was describing some of my cafe ware that I have collected many blogs ago, I ran into this today.  It is a small bowl that would have been used for the vegetable or fruit when your received your meal at an old time, small town cafe.   We use all of these small bowls like this for cat bowls as they are sturdy and easy to clean up. 

It is made by the Warwick company and the design is called Dakota.

Sometimes the designs on plates are so striking that the buck it costs makes it fun to purchase.  This a Bavarian piece.  The design is actually a stencil design but it is really a striking artwork.

I should have explained at the beginning that we were in the built in buffet trying to find a larger teapot.  The one we were using didn't make many cups of tea.  So we were digging all over to find the lid to the one that we found to use.  The lid was in the linen draw for some reason. Funny it was the last place we looked.  Because of all of the digging we found things we thought we should put in the kitchen cupboard to use on a daily basis. I will share some of those later.

Snow storms have shut us in for a couple of days.  We have food and hopefully will always have electricity.  Most of the rest of you I know are getting the very same weather treatment.  Stay in, stay warm, and take care.......thanks for stopping by.

Stormy white weather..........

Thanks for stopping by.............