Addicting Stats

Stats are interesting - almost addicting to follow.  Today's visitors were from the US, Russia, the UK, Netherlands, South Korea, Poland and Slovenia.  So far this week you can add Germany, Romania, France and Hungary to that list. 'Twould be interesting to know who you fine people are (and what you're looking for.) It sometimes helps to know who one's audience is, yes?
Anyway, the Clustrmap has a lag time of a few days it seems, which is fine I suppose, though why it should have to be longer than an instant, I don't know!  We get so used to technology and it's instantaneous results that our expectations may be unrealistic! Or are they?  Why shouldn't the results be instantaneous?

Later:  Doing some more comparing, it seems the clustrmap is about ten days behind the regular stats! (and prolly those are behind a few days too).

A Snowman's Tale

Christmas day - Sabbath

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday - half a smile, and leaning a little.

Wednesday - a little more off balance...

Thursday - looks like a strange yoga pose.

Friday - Good-bye snowman....it was nice knowing you! (sniff)

Icicles etc

These are off the front eaves

Giant lollipops - actually I discouraged the girls from sucking on these....it's all from very yucky water!

We have a bit of a hill for sledding. These sledding pics are from next day after the snowfall.

Running back up the hill

Patiently taking turns

Where the water dripped from the melting snow, I guess.

We don't need the "icicle lights"

Our White Christmas

Double blessing - Christmas on a Sabbath!  Or should I say triple blessing - 4 inches (10cm) of snow to boot!  Here are some photos of the day.

We woke up to snow falling - already making our world white.

We decided to go on a drive.  Here is one of our favourite houses in the snow.

Side view of it.  Look at all the fireplaces!

Coating everything of course. 

We drove up to LBA - surprisingly there was less snow there!

At the "lake" we had some nice shots.

Back home we found all this snow waiting for us to play in.

Another one for the Comcam.

Our cosy house.

As you can see, it really IS 4 inches (and a bit...)

The trampoline is groaning under the weight.

Christmas/Sabbath lunch all ready to eat (at 3:30pm)

Our little centerpiece

Sunny loves his little snugglespot on top of the firewood.

A decent sized snowman for a change.

Let's play with our Xmas toys.

Having Christmas fun.

Who are these 3 little rascals?

Daddy opening his Christmas surprise! (he got the biggest present!)

And that's a little glimpse of our Xmas.  Hope yours was lovely too.  Next year, we've decided we need to tone down OUR Christmas and bring more cheer to the poor and needy. And perhaps we won't even have to wait til Xmas!

Feliz Navidad to all and sundry! and a very blessed new year!

Booboo

Here is the last photo I have of Booboo taken on Monday last week.  If he's in your back woodshed, please let him out. Thanks! :-)  I think if he had been attacked by animals, we would have seen some evidence....nothing so far!

Booboo not enjoying the snow

Clustermaps

Just started the little app. called clustrmaps on here.   Now you'll get to see where everyone is visiting from.  Also, there are some ads along with the blog.  If that annoys you, let me know and if enough people don't like them, I'll take them away. (They're not too lucrative anyway, ha ha, although some of them do look interesting.  Unfortunately I'm not allowed to click on my own ads! ) Oh well.

Today we got to celebrate two birthdays of friends at their house.  One of the ladies also visiting them was from Haiti and gave a very moving account of her escape from the recent earthquake.  I was fortunate to get most of it on tape so will put it on Youtube one of these days - as soon as I can arrange for a Creole translation to English.  So keep watching for that.


Here it is:

Haitian woman recounts earthquake experience.

Another bit of news is that Booboo is missing - has been since Wednesday.  Am thinking he has had a fatal run-in with raccoons!  Not a pleasant thought.  Very sad.  Spent 2 hours this afternoon tramping the woods and roads all around here to no avail....plus calling and some looking in the previous 2 days.  So I know he's not just having a little jaunt as usual.

PS: Looking at the regular "stats" they give for this blog, I see that today's visitors came from the US, the United Kingdom, Russia, Vietnam, Germany, Slovenia, Brazil, France, Croatia, Romania and Sweden.  However, the clustrmap doesn't show that - perhaps there is a lag...we'll keep watching!  Thank you for visiting.

PPS: Later on Booboo:  Several people from the area believe a coyote got the cat.  Apparently it's not uncommon for them to take cats!

Christmas jollies in the South

Not too far from our neighborhood....enjoy! (as the neighbors of these people do every night too - how lucky they are!)  ;-)

Christmas music and lights.

Some Christmas music

Here is some of Magnify's concert last Saturday night, December 11.  Don't they sound great?

Magnify sings Christmas

Listen past the first bit - they will surprise you!

Plodding

I have to admit I'm a little discouraged about this whole blog thing....but not to fear (or TO fear) I shall return....'cos I know you loved ones all around the far edges of the earth want to know what's going on in Green Valley! In the meantime, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving in Florida

Yay!  We got to go down to Florida for the long weekend (along with about 20 000 other cars I think!!). 

Hope ya'll had a wonderful thanksgiving - and if you live in Russia or Slovenia, etc- I know you have thanksgiving EVERY day!  So do we, actually.  But we don't eat turkey every day - whew!

Thank goodness for freeways -- and no thanks to freeways - if there's an accident, traffic can be backed up for 50 miles.  On the way south, we thus exited the freeway to go around a huge traffic snarl-up - and fortunately were able to easily bypass it and travel on south quite well, thank-you!  Coming back north we also had a major slow-down but only detoured for about 5 or so miles.  But yes, I am thankful for freeways that turn a 2 day trip into one day!  Here are some pics of our weekend including a fun time at the beach on Friday.


Well hello - looks like my photos are automatically being stored in Picasa Web albums....unbeknownst to me of course - but I'm sure I SHOULD have known!  Anyway, now I'm supposed to pay to add more storage....so it might take a while.  Sorry about that folk! My blogs might have to be photo free from now on...:-(    Phooey.  But hey, I certainly don't begrudge blogspot for trying to make a buck - how else would they survive, huh?

Oh well!  Maybe I'll go back and delete all my old blogs from 2007 and 2008.  What dja all think of that?

Let me know. See you later, alligator!

Was able to add this one!  Although the water was cold to begin with, it was lovely after a while!

We still don't know!

Just drove by the "blossom" trees again today.  They're still confused.

This is blooming longer than it would in the spring.  Do you know why?  Perhaps it's because there are fewer insects around to pollinate the stupid confused tree!  Of course I'm all tongue in cheek about the stupid tree.  I'm rather glad we have such a cheerful tree reminding us that spring is on its way - even if we do have to wait another 6 months for it!!  Do you remember last year's photo around this time? It was snow-covered.  But still patiently waiting for a kind bee or two to pollinate it! (check out the December 5, 2009 posting)

Another gorgeous view.  Since my previous post, most of the other leaves have fallen but these few ones like to complement each another. (albeit in their own odd way) They do their own special little dance every fall - the only ones - oblivious to custom, blind to the way things "should" be!  How sweet.

Sorry about the focus - it's all about the composition and subject matter in this one, right?  Oh wait, it's OK - it's just my glasses that are dirty!

C took this one just down the road from the others.  The Bradford pears are in their peak all over the place right now. I don't ever remember them being so prominent before - maybe they're later than usual this year?

 Well, these were a few Sabbath blessings!  Hope you enjoyed them.

Cars

Thought I'd just throw in a few cars for the guys, ha ha.  The other day a friend visited us from Vermont.  His car blended in so well with the fall colours that I just had to take a picture.

A rainy day

Parking lot at the Hulsey Wellness Center:  this one just has me puzzled - is the most popular car colour now SILVER by any chance?

My brother, who does body work on cars from time to time, tells me silver is the most difficult colour to match and fix!  Hmmm, is there a master plan here somewhere, I wonder.....??

While others are in school...

we get to play, yay!  No, this little video is from several years back.  We did a little Advent calendar treasure hunt....let me try ONE more time to "add a video"  from iMovie....ONE more time!  







All right people - do you see a video?  I certainly do not.

I did everything they asked.....it's a no-show! And now i must run.....I'll fix this later - MAYBE!! 

Later:  Well, as you can see, I had to put it on YouTube again.....

Advent Calendar Treasure Hunt

It's now unlisted but since you're special, you can watch it, haha.

Some Chattanooga Sights

This is the type of post that will get added to as time goes on.  So, these are just a FEW little sights you might see as you wander around Chattanooga.

A furry Dr. Seuss hand is really backlit grass.

Just for show - the time was really about 8:30.

A peek at some Houston Museum glassware - all collected by one lady, I believe.

Hunter Museum of Art

Go up this way and you'll get there.

One of numerous sculptures around town. 

On the left the Belle of Cincinnati pays Chattanooga a visit.  It's nice when your neighbours can just float down a river to come visit you.  The Belle will be giving local excursions while here. From our local newspaper, I found out it is an authentic paddlewheeler from the Mississippi river and was formerly known as the Emerald Lady.  Chattanooga's own Southern Belle is dwarfed next to it on the right. (and to think we used to think she was big!)

The paddleboat you see here is the Delta Queen - which, I believe, is only being used as a hotel at the moment.

The water stairway - very popular with the kids in summer.

Shake a paw! (or give me a bone!)

In the Bluff View Arts District.  An enchanting path leading to.......lunch, in our case!