Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Random Tuesday Photos

Tuesday again.
randomtuesday

It snowed today. About 3 inches of the fluffy stuff arrived last night and this morning. Couldn't have come on a better day either. Binny was given an activity calendar from school with a different activity to do each day. I think it's Healthy Choices Month or something like that. It just so happened that today's activity was to shovel the driveway. The Gardener and I waited until she got home from school to start cleaning up. After shoveling, Binny and went sledding down the mound (septic system) and I pulled her all around the yard. The snow was still gently falling yet it was warm enough that Binny's fingers didn't even get cold in her wet mittens.
I have also noticed that the days are getting considerably longer. Oh! and did anyone catch that beautiful full moon over the weekend? Friday night just as the sun went down it was glowing like a giant pumpkin in the eastern sky. I love stuff like that! Meteor showers too. Every August right around our wedding anniversary is the big summer meteor shower. I love to lay in the grass and watch the sky. Oh Summer, I can't wait!I'm starting to think about garden plans for this Summer too. Before the ground froze, the Gardener plowed up the garden and pretty much the rest of our front yard. The garden will be twice as big this year. In addition to having more space for MORE vegetables, we want to make sure to leave enough space between rows (especially the tomatoes) to be able to get the rototiller through to clean out weeds and keep the ground worked. I also am thinking about starting many of my own veggie plants from seed in our basement. My mother-in-law does it every year with her annual flowers and gets great results, but it would be a first for me. We have the stuff for the lights and a table but I still need to buy all of the seed trays and seeds. If anyone has any tips for me or plant suggestions, I would appreciate it!

Uncle T came to dinner over the weekend. He was ice fishing not too far from our house so he stopped by afterward for enchiladas and UNO. I wouldn't let him leave without the three of them sitting still for a photo, although they really didn't sit still. It was also an opportunity to try out my new camera toy... I wish I had the money for an external flash, but I don't and the built-in flash on my camera creates such terrible shadows, so lately my indoor photos haven't been so hot. Using just room light with my 50 mm/f1.8 lens, the photos come out grainy and even blurry if there is a lot of movement. I found a great compromise for only 25 dollars. I bought a Light Scoop from Amazon with a mirror inside that reflects the light of the built-in flash up to bounce off the ceiling for a more natural look. Amazing I tell you! It's not perfect for all indoor applications but it works great in our house. I have a whole Wardrobe Wednesday post of photos using the Light Scoop ready for tomorrow!And with that, I need to run and figure out what to make for dinner! Be sure Click to over to Keely's blog for the whole Random Tuesday line-up.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I freakin' LOVE my LightScoop. For the price, you can't beat it.

Great pics with Uncle T.

Jenni said...

Snow falling here right now...

Happy Tuesday!

Shady Lady said...

Ah...the garden. That is so not going to happen this year for us. I will have to live vicariously through you.

Riot Kitty said...

Such cute photos! I love the activity being shoveling snow :)

Secret Mom Thoughts said...

Great photos.I want a light scoop now too.

Chris said...

We did all of our veggies from seed last year for the first time. Before that we had just kind of played around with one or two different veggies like tomatoes and it never really worked out. So last winter we went to Steins and got a little 3-tier greenhouse and put it at the front window. We used our old fish tank lights and mounted them on each shelf and WHAT a difference! We had beautiful straight plants for the first time! We also bought those little Jiffy Starter Pellets. They expand w/ water and have the dirt already in them. Then we just set them into the black trays we had saved from previous years. The pellets disintegrate so you can transplant up to bigger pots if/when you need to without having to disturb the roots. It wasn't a perfect system, but it turned out WAY better than any other time we've tried to start things by seed. Good luck!!

sheila said...

This is a great post! I love the snow pic. I bet it's very relaxing there. I mean, when it's noot cold and snowing, lol.

I liked this post. Very cute.