Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Ranch in Winter

Brrrrrrr! Even here in Texas, it's cold! This morning we woke up to 25 degrees!! It's been pretty foggy for the past several days as it was this morning as you can see. The horses have a heavier coat and oft spend the night against (or inside) the hen house. In fact one morning Mike found Eeyore shut in and peaking out the chicken door, looking to be rescued!!! The frost this morning was quite beautiful - our world was frosty!
The live oak tree which keeps its leaves year-round had frost-outlined leaves; the crepe myrtle right next to it looked 'flocked' (like the fancy christmas trees), and the large tree behind was a little coarser frosted, but I rather liked the contrast between the three (click to appreciate detail):
Brindle (left) was checking out the contrast between the green grass just starting to appear and the frosted shrub. Right, I thought the bird nest in the pecan tree was interesting. The loop that looks like a rubber band is likely a hair from one of the horses tails which was used in constructing the nest. The aqua blue is from the twine around the bales of hay. (click for detail)







Last week one day, I came out to get the mail and along the fenceline across the street I was met with a hundred eyes looking at me......
until Sam barked and they gathered together and then stampeded away! Sam likes to herd those cattle across the street!!








The last few mornings have all been below freezing and it's interesting to see the dog dish where Sam and the kitties have licked a hole in the ice and it freezes in rather interesting patterns.

On sunny cold days (like last week) the kitties like to gather together and take baths and hang out on a blanket on the porch. This works well until Sam decides he wants to lay there. Sometimes he'll share, sometimes not!
Sienna (front) is the senior member here. Her daughter is my semi-house kitty. In the middle of the pack is Patches (with the black and orange coat and the black eye) - she'll be a year old in May and is Sienna's sisters little one. The other three are my orphans, born in July. Bonnie (behind Sienna) comes inside part of the time. Brindle is the only one I have left with that coloring, and last is Blondie (he's the only little boy in the picture). This picture represents half of my kitties.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Check out ALO Top 10 by Travis

Wow!!! Any of my friends who follow along with personal and ranch happenings, MUST check out Travis' latest reflective post on his 3-year ALO assignment. It's awesome and I want to share with all!!! Just click on the link: http://snakeye.us/

Friday, January 15, 2010

The Arrival of Marissa

This is a grandparent entry!!! It captures our visit with Travis, Pam and Brenden while awaiting the arrival of Marissa. We arrived in Savannah in time for Thanksgiving. What a great family time. We got to enjoy Travis and Pam, but the best was getting to know Brenden in toddlerhood! Of course, he didn't remember us from this summer, so we had to get reacquainted! We got to take walks, learn a new word ("car"), shop, eat, and visit with our beautiful family:
After a couple of days, Brenden's personality really came out. He LOVES to 'read' books!!! He recognizes a ton of words and can identify most pictures (by pointing) in his First Words book. He also LOVES vehicles. His other favorite book was a fireengine book with wheels on the bottom. We 'talked' about the different emergency vehicles every day. When Pam pulled out some wooden vehicles, the favorite game became "what's this?". He didn't say 'what's this? .... but the intensity of his eyes looking at your mouth when holding up a toy SCREAMED ... 'WHAT'S THIS CALLED?'








This was his favorite floor toy. He loved the balls... to put them down the various holes and to throw them on the tile floor and watch them bounce. He liked to put a variety of things through the holes and often 'Noni' (that's me) had to get square things through the system!
Then finally the big day came... Marissa's birth day! Here's Marissa when only a few hours old being admired by her Mommy and Daddy:
..... and by her 'Grandparents Winslow':










Here she is, 4 days old! This is my favorite picture with her mom. She looks 100% cute with her dad too. (click on them to enlarge)









Such a beautiful little girl she is!! This is Marissa Hazel at one week old, and I'm sure she'll just get more beautiful as she develops facial expressions.