Ibex Peak

Ibex Peak peaking out of the clouds for the first time in weeks!

as seen from the Ross Creek Cedars scenic pull-out on my way out of the Cedars. Gorgeous!

Thanxgiving Day

Here is the view from the cockpit of the borrowed kayak i used to take a spin around Angel Island on Bull Lake before dinner (and it started raining) on our day of great gratitude!

I tried to sneak up on this flock(?) of nine swans on the lake, but the were on to me and flew off. The blurr makes them look like really long necked swans, but I love the blurr effect.

Backcountry skiing

Heading to St. Paul Peak to do some backcountry skiing.

Getting pulled by a fat rope with a bike tire tube tied to it.
My immediate view of the scenario.


If you can make out that body of water through the fog, it is Noxon Reservoir.

The up track,

thankfully made by another party entering the wilderness just before us.

It is a nice bonus to not have to actually make the first up track in deep snow! Definitely gives the legs and the lungs a break and makes it so you might possibly make more than one run.

Due to unfortunate circumstances, (the snowmobile driver failing to negotiate a large drift~ we did a warm-up work-out of intense shovelling and snowmobile wrestling so the pre-set up track was a welcome morale boost! ) we were only able to make 3/4ths of a run and still not quite get out before dark!

The First Snow of the Winter Season (at home)

Today is the day marking the first snowfall at home.

I awakened at 5 am and peeked out the window, just a normal day....

I promptly fell back to sleep and awakened at daylight to see SNOW!

It was a great day for crafts and cooking, so as you can see, I busied myself with both~ I took the basket of wild apples that were from an old tree that hasn't ever produced before and made very gingery applesauce, as seen here, warm with fresh cream and the Sunday funnies.

And I did a pear block carving. It doesn't print terribly well with stamping ink, I tried acrylic paint and that was a bit better, I guess I need to purchase a brayer, they seem to be much better for this kind of thing.
Act surprised if you get a pear holiday card, OK?

The Road Home

Copycatting my cousin, Meaghan's blog, where she often posts fotos of her drives to work or home or to side trip adventures...here is a scenic view on one of my routes home. This is just after picking up fresh milk from my "neighbors" on Iron Creek Road.

Gillette Castle State Park

That is the Connecticut River in the background from above on the hillside.

A tunnel, I believe a small train used to run through.

Gillette Castle State Park

This is a grand place on the Connecticut River.

There is actually a castle made of craggy stone.

I did not take any fotos of it, but google it, it is fascinating!

The grounds are lovely and great to explore during any season.

I have even taken a moonlight stroll through and the shadows

from the big deciduous trees are very dramatic!

Mikes parents live maybe a 1/2 mile away tops,

their yard and neighborhood look like this!

Here ends the vacation fotos, finally!

Now I can start taking more fotos closer to home!

Stay tuned!

Rocks

Love the Orbs!

See there is magic about in these rocks!

Are you bored yet?

I could play in these rocks for weeks, all the nooks and crannies, Oh My!

I long to go and just have all the time that I want to spend exploring, camping & scrambling around!

The Rocks at Coopers Rock

What more can I say?

These are the rocks.

The fotos don't do them justice.

More Coopers Rock

Can you see Bruce peeking through the daylight?
Molly and Costa

The pay telescope.

The Cheat River.

Coopers Rock West Virginia

This was my favorite part of the entire vacation!

I love this place! It is very magical.

Molly coming down the steps to the scenic over-look.

Coopers Rock is an amazing place and very scenic. I love the rocks; they are huge and in very interesting formations making all manner of passageways and cave sort of places. It seems very magical. Way below is the Cheat River and the canyon walls are steep and rocky, but not jagged rocky like you experience in the west, but very soft and rolling, seeminly gentle until you are actually wandering around amongst them and then you quickly see how dramatic and dangerous they can be.

West Virginia, Let's Go Mountaineers!

Here are some shots of the West Virginia Mountaineers vs. UConn Huskies game.

Always thrilling, and am always infatuated with the marching band and how they play music (really well) while marching and form the outline of the state of West Virginia, which, by-the-way, is not an easy state to form. Nothing like say, Utah or Nevada! And the baton twirlers, those guys are crazy good and it is just so outside my realm of imagination....I love that grown people still like to play with batons enough to be entertainers!

Creepy New Jersey haunted display!!

Adi was terribly excited to show us this creepy Halloween display that a local dentist does every year in their area. It was amazing, actually WAY overdone, but amazing to me that anyone would spend so much time and effort to do something like this! These are just a few of ths shots that I took; it was honestly too much to take it all in! There were many people walking around looking at it; quite the attraction.

Trippin'

Slowly, but surely I am updating the trip fotos,

bear with me as I get them uploaded and hopefully add some text!

This is, appropriately, taken through the windsheild!

We had a LOT of car seat time!

Connecticut

I love to wander around in CT, George and Nancy live in a wonderful area with a State Park nearby. There is a castle in the park and the grounds overlook the Connecticut River.
I loved the early morning shadow play on this big Oak.

Our Connecticut accomodations.