Christmas Lights in Rogersville, Tennessee, #4

Here is my last "installment" of the Rogersville Christmas lights.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Lights in Rogersville, Tennessee, #3

Installment number 3 of the Rogersville Christmas lights! It takes forever because I only have dial-up. I'm putting the pictures on in groups of four. After this, there'll be one more. Thanks to you all who are checking them out!

Christmas Lights in Rogersville, Tennessee, #2

My favorite is the caterpillar!

Christmas Lights in Rogersville, Tennessee

On our way back from shopping last evening, we drove to Rogersville, Tennessee, and outside of town there was a home that had really nice Christmas lights decorating their front lawn. It wasn't quite dark yet, so the pictures I took don't do it justice. Then we drove through the Rogersville, Tennessee, park. They have most of the children's play areas decorated with lights, and lights wrapped around the tree trunks. It was a beautiful sight and I took some pictures. (That dark shadow blocking part of the stocking is my DH.)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Wild Critters in Our Woods

Yesterday I took a walk to the back of our property. I noticed a lot of scat on the ground, evidence of the wild critters that roam in our woods. I thought oh how nice it would be to see one while I'm walking, but we never do. Yet, we know they are there. We have proof. We "see" them with a Wildview camera. Last year during hunting season we found a dead deer on our property, presumably shot and made it to our woods to die. We put the carcass in the back of our property and set up the Wildview Camera to see what would come around. We also found a dead deer alongside the lane, hit by a car, and put it back there also. In addition to foxes, we caught these shots of a bobcat and coyote coming to feed on them. Aren't they beautiful? The bobcat reminds me of Garfield with its glowing eyes! Eventually something dragged the carcasses away and they disappeared. I've also included a picture of a coyote that we got, without "bait," during the daytime, with the Wildview Camera. That camera is great and I highly recommend it for viewing those elusive wild critters. It has a motion sensor and takes three pictures at a time, and with automatic flash. You can also set it on video. You can set the date and time, but ours wasn't set properly so the date and time are incorrect on these photos.

Wood Spirit

My DH is good at carving, and a few years ago he carved this wood spirit on the trellis that he made to support our trumpet vine that was growing into the garage. We needed to get the vine away from the garage because it would eventually damage it, but we didn't want to dig it up. It is way too big to do that anyway, and we were afraid we would kill it. The hummingbirds love the flowers in the summer and the goldfinch and other birds go for the seeds in the fall. So this is the wood spirit he put in the middle of the trellis. We had to use the tractor to get it up there. It is carved out of a poplar tree log, and then stained/sealed with Sikkens Cetol brand wood sealant (the best sealant there is, in our opinion). Its eyes are turned so that it looks as though it is looking at anyone who is approaching our house from our lane. We should put reflectors on the eyes - wouldn't that freak someone out!!

Money, Money, Money, Money . . . MONEY!

This was what we did today: we emptied our piggy bank (water bottle) and counted our coins. It took most of the day and we are really tired, and sore from sitting on the floor and leaning over the pile! We got a grand total of $490 and some odd change. We've been collecting it since around 2002. Most of the money was what we found. When we lived in Maryland, he worked as a grounds foreman for the community and while out and about, he found change on a daily basis. I found some on my commute to work on the metro. We would keep track on the calendar how much we found each month. The summer months were the best. We retired and moved here in 2004 and since then we've tossed coins in sporadically. We will take it to the bank, but not wrapped in the papers because our bank teller said they have to count it out by hand anyway so not to bother wrapping it. We wanted to know what we have before dropping it off at the bank. I know there are those machines in the grocery stores that count it for you, but they charge about 10% to do that and anyways we'd miss out on all of this FUN!! We had some old "wheat" pennies in the stash that we're not sure are worth anything but we're keeping them and checking them out. We also had some Susan B. Anthony dollars that we'll keep. Of course we also had some foreign coins, especially Canadian ones that we will add to our stash of Canadian money that we've been holding onto for years. Does anybody know where to go to get Canadian money converted into American, without traveling to the border? I just checked it out and Canadian money is still worth less than American, but not by much!

More Country Dolls

These are a couple of dolls I made previously. They are showing off their bloomers. I never know how their faces will turn out. My palms get sweaty when I'm about to paint or stitch the face on. On the last doll I made - see previous post - I actually messed up the face and was dismayed until I realized that I had painted it on the BACK of her head!! So all that I had to do was stitch her hair over it and try again on the front side. I wanted a sweeter expression for that one, but these dolls seem to have a mind of their own. Their personalities are reflected in their expressions.

Country Dolls

I like to make cloth country dolls. Here is my latest one that I made for my niece. I've never kept any for myself. I prefer the more primitive style. I crocheted the edging on the dress.

Cave & Waterfall

We have had a lot of rain in the past few days and all of the streams and small waterfalls are gushing. It made me think of the waterfall that is near to our house and that we can hike to. I dug out some pictures that I took a few years back. There are two caves under the waterfall. The story is that a moonshiner used to hide his goods in the caves. The waterfall is in a bowl-like formation on the ridge and is fed by a stream that comes down from the top. It isn't that impressive as far as waterfalls go, I guess, but it is in a wonderful location. It is in a secluded area and so peaceful with the only sound being that of the waterfall and stream and birds. Although the climb up to the caves is difficult, it is worth the effort. These pics aren't that good but you can get the idea. There was one bat in the cave when we were there. I think that now, with all of the rain we have, that waterfall is probably gushing much more than in these pictures.

Your Rainbow

I took this quiz to find out my rainbow colors. What are yours? Click on the link to find out.

Your rainbow is strongly shaded violet.

What is says about you: You are a creative person. You appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

My Mother's Purse

I finally got a purse completed that I was sewing for my mother. It is a pattern from www.creativethimble.com, and it is called the "as you like it" purse. You can make a different flap for each season or your mood - as you like it! I made her a Christmas flap and an everyday one. She had asked me to make her this purse (she saw mine and loved it), so it won't be a surprise, but I'm glad I got it done before Christmas. Oh, so much to do . . .

Christmas Angel

My DH and I "hide" the gifts we get for each other in certain corners of the house and we agree not to peek. This corner is where his gifts are, under the quilt. I was surprised to find Angel sleeping there today. It must have been that last package I threw up there today that made it comfy enough for her. Actually, I'm not sure how stable the stack is! Hope she doesn't move around too much. It doesn't look as if there's any danger of that happening!

Country Birthday Party #3 & Last One - Jethro

Jethro is an Old English Sheepdog who was at the party. I couldn't get a picture of his face because he bounced around too much. He just wanted to GO, GO GO!! and have FUN, FUN, FUN!

Country Birthday Party #2 -Pickin' & Grinnin' with East Kentucky Tyme

If you like bluegrass music - heck, even if you DON'T like bluegrass music - you should check out these guys. They played at the birthday party and they were great. They have a lot of bookings in the area. They are from Kentucky but go all over. One band member played the steel guitar AND the banjo. What a great group. Here is their website. They had their CDs for sale at the party but we didn't bring any money so I may just have to get on their website and get me one.

www.eastkytyme.com