Science lesson

Please, don't report me to PETA (is there a PETInsects branch?). For some reason, we have had a few flies in the house -- I don't know where they've been hiding with all the snowy weather -- but Sabine wanted to catch one. So this poor fella (gal?) was buzzing on his back on the window sill, and Sabine put him/her into her bug jar thing and gave him/her a bit of apple to eat...alas, it looks like it just didn't cut it. Sorry 'bout that fly.

Tape is cheap

Vivian started by putting tape over her mouth (really, I swear, I've never done that to her or Sabine (or Bret!)), then moved on to one of the kitchen cabinets. Fifteen minutes of fun!

Snow, snow everywhere...

These are from a few days ago...that's the bike Bret rides to the in town ski area with his skis in the makeshift burley...



The back yard swingset...no swinging for us for a while!


The front yard pile...BTW, for those of you in warmer climes, the extension cord you see in the tree is for plugging in the car at night when it gets really cold (like 20 below)...keeps the battery warm (or something...who cares, it works!)

Soup...glorious soup

I'll try to post a photo of the scene outside my door this morning, but in case that doesn't happen soon you can check out the Jackson web cams here. BRRRR!

It made me glad that Escarole and orzo soup with turkey-parmesan meatballs soup was on my menu for tonight...

I was introduced to this soup by Anne Sibley's mom (Phyllis, I think...how embarrassing, I can't completely remember her name...). Anyhow, she's a FABULOUS cook, and she made it for the musicians when Anne and Pete had their concert at the Pink Garter a few years ago. I was lucky enough to get to sing with them then...how fun!

For the recipe, scroll down to the bottom of my blog and click on the link.

Tapestree table

It's a big hit...so glad we got to see this at LIFE is Good last year, and thanks to Granny Jean and Boopy for the Christmas gift.

"School Picture" day

Sabine decided it was "School Picture" day on Sunday, and pulled out Bret's tripod. You might notice these photos look like they were taken at different times. They were. School pictures can take place all day here. Bret's best shot was in the evening. Vivian's was during the day.


Notice Carolyn's Hello Kitty backpack (thank you Aunt Livia, Uncle Brian and Cousin Gabriel)...and notice Cisco's eyes...they seem to be staring off into the distance (you should have felt his rumbling in my arms...)

...to the bird outside our window. I hope to add some photos of the 40+ (I'm not kidding) chickadees we have too...will try again tomorrow...they're camera shy.

It's been a while...

And as you can see, we've been busy!




This was a photo technique Sabine called "Falling Sky" -- Bret and I called it "Paint all Over" -- but the results were interesting. Afterwards, we found a cool site: jacksonpollock.org where you can make "splatter" paintings on your desktop. Sabine spent a fair bit time there, too.


This is an old one (Sabine still has both her front teeth!), I think it was from Vivian's birthday.