An Autumn Walk...

As we step into October... (Oh, I just CAN'T believe it's already October, can you?) The colors are beginning to change, here in our part of Michigan, and it's so pretty!  I love driving around and taking walks this time of year, there's so much beauty to take in.  In fact, I went for a little walk around our yard today, and found all kinds of really cool things to take pictures of... Nature's inspiration!!!  I thought I'd share a few pictures here with you.  

Happy October to all!! 

 Side view of our front yard... 
And part of our long driveway that is such fun to shovel in winter! lol!

  This is the tree stump I want to make a flower planter out of... 

 We have a perfect view of it, when we look out our front window,

and I think it would be so pretty with cascading flowers 

falling all around it in the springtime!

Our Apple Tree... We sure had a lot of apples this year!

And behind it is our pear tree... Lots of pears too!

A better view of the tree stump, wouldn't it make a cool planter?

This Willow Tree in the front yard is looking a little bare already... 

Love this tree!

The Funi sure grew all over this tree stump, didn't it?!

Pampas Grass... Grows like crazy in our yard...

Mushrooms and Moss...

I think it looks so cool, how the fungi is cascading down like this...

Yes, I do believe that beauty and inspiration is ALL around!!!

I always have my camera, and my eyes open, for those shots that inspire me!

I hope these pictures have inspired you!

On a different kind of inspirational note...

 .¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ I've been busy, busy, busy in my studio creating all kinds of new wedding cake toppers and clay creations.  I'll be posting them soon, and can't wait for you to see all my new designs!!  

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ Thank you so much for stopping by today!  

~Trina

Eeeeek, A Snake!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here lately, with temperatures in the upper 70's to low 80's, beautiful clear blue skies, sun shining, a slight breeze... Very difficult NOT to be outside!!   (I think I just sounded like a meteorologist!)

So, I thought I would take a little break from my clay work and spend a bit of time enjoying this unseasonably great weather.  A little time to stop and 'Smell the Flowers' ~ Something I don't do often enough!

I thought it would be fun to take Izzie and Emmi out for a walk by the creek.  Well... I walked, they chased squirrels and birds up into the trees... Their favorite pass-time!  

Izzie and Emmi love to chase squirrels up this big Weeping Willow that's on the bank of our creek!

While they were romping and playing I was soaking in the sunshine.  Then, all of a sudden I felt like I was in one of those movies where the audience knows there's a BIG snake lurking, but the character (that would be me) is totally oblivious!  I don't really know why, but I looked down, and there it was!!!  Right at my feet!!  It was a SNAKE!  I think I screamed... I KNOW I ran!  NOT a fan of snakes, and this one was looking right up at me, with his forked tongue sticking out, as if he were mocking me!  I have no idea how long the snake was that close to me.  He wasn't a huge snake, but he was big enough, that's for sure!  My fearless dogs had no idea, they were fixated on the squirrel they chased, trying to catch him!  They would have LOVED to to have gotten a hold of that snake, I'm quite sure of it!!  But, yes, they had no idea mommy was having a small outdoor crisis.  I'm sure they looked at me when they saw me run, but they always see me do seemingly funny things... They paid no attention!  A lot of help they were!  lol!  Once I settled down a bit, I went back to where the snake was, and he was gone.  Slithered away to his home somewhere in our yard.  Oh dear, now I will have to be even more on the look-out for snakes when I'm outside.  That was enough of the outdoors for me, for a bit.  So, back inside to my clay creations I went, to settle for enjoying the sunshine from the windows of my studio instead.  That snake was MUCH TOO CLOSE for COMFORT!

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ Thank you for stopping by today for a visit!!  I wish you a 'snake-free' great day!!

~Trina

Wordless Wednesday - A Walk Around Our Yard... On This Very Foggy Morning

 

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)  

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Happy Wednesday!! Wishing you a GREAT Day!
~Trina

Loving SPRING!

It's spring finally, and it's so pretty outside!!  Our trees are blooming and the grass is so green from all the rain we have had.  It's such a nice change to see all the beautiful colors of spring rather than the drab greys and browns of the end of winter.  It sure seemed to take a long time for it to feel like spring here...  Our fur babies, Emmi and Izzie, are having a lot of fun chasing all the squirrels, chipmunks and bunnies out of our yard.  One chipmunk sits on a little stone birdhouse that our cousin made for us, and taunts our little dog Emmi!  Emmi love to sit on the back of the couch and look out the big front window to watch what's going on in the front yard.  From that vantage point, she can see the birdhouse perfectly and that chipmunk seems to know that he can be seen, but not hurt...  He chatters toward the window and Emmi goes crazy!  I have tried to sneak outside to take a picture of that little chipmunk, but he's too quick!

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)  

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ Thanks so much for visiting today!  Wishing you a GREAT Day!
~Trina

Can You Guess What This WAS?

Well, if you guessed it WAS an Owners Manual for our truck... You were correct!  The truck was parked near our barn, and not in use for most of the winter.  Looks as though some little (or BIG) critters got in there and found some very nice nesting material and/or food!  I'm sure we may just find nests under the seats, we have some cleaning up to do.  Destructive little critters aren't they?!!  Looks like some kind of giant took a great big bite out of it, doesn't it?!  LOL!    

Speaking of nests... We have had quite AWFUL weather here lately and the other day, with the nasty weather, came very strong winds... The next day we found this beautifully made nest on the ground, next to one of our trees.  Those poor little birds worked so hard to make a nice home, and there it was laying on the ground.  Still in perfect shape though, I am always amazed at how perfectly created nests are!  It's amazing really.

 Still NO blooms in our yard, but the birds are building their nests... 
A sure sign of SPRING!

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ Thank you for stopping by today!  Happy SPRING!!   

~Trina 

Wordless Wednesday

Well... Maybe just one word... 

SPRING?

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)  

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ Thanks so much for visiting today!  Wishing you a great day, hope it's warm and cozy and spring-like!
~Trina

Our Little Tree...

We have a tree that is right outside our kitchen window.  When we are in the kitchen, we can see the birds in the tree, building their nests, eating the birdseed we put out for them... We can see the hummingbirds fluttering around their feeder... Love our little tree and so do the birds.  Sadly, over the last two summers our little tree has been looking quite pathetic really.  First George cut the dead branches and it seemed to promote growth for the other branches... But this spring it didn't look too good.  We decided we would probably need to cut it down.  So George went outside with the chain saw, telling me he was going to cut it down, but instead he cut off more branches and this is how our sad little tree looks right now.  We know it'll have to be completely cut down, and we will plant a new tree in it's place, but I think George knows that I'm wishing it would come back...  

We are lucky though, we have a lot of trees in our yard.  Well, I think we are lucky... George thinks some are way too messy and difficult to keep up with.   Our Weeping Willow by our driveway, in the picture below, looks great this year... I love how it sways in the breeze.

Well, we thought that the farmer next to us was going to plant corn this year, but he didn't... So we can still see all the way across the farmer's field and our dogs love that.  Izzy loves to sit between our two little pine trees, (sitting watch at the edge of the field), I don't think she would have liked the corn, it definitely would have hampered her view!  

It's so cool, we get a new pine tree to plant each year when we recycle our Christmas tree at the nursery.  We go to the same nursery each year to pick out and cut down our Christmas tree and they give us a certificate to come back in the spring and pick out a little live tree.  We have four now, two in the front yard and then the two you see below that Izzy likes to sit between.  They sure look small next to those big black walnut trees!

Izzy and Emmi are enjoying the summer!  We are in the middle of a heat wave right now and we desperately need rain... But that doesn't stop either of them from wanting to play outside!  They like to run and catch golf balls when George is outside practicing his swing.  It's turned into a game now, and he'll just throw the balls out, and they run and fetch them, and then bring them back for more.  They love it and they can go and go and go, but it's too hot right now for too much of that.  Here's a couple of pictures of Izzy and Emmi at rest... Something you don't see all that often!  In fact, Izzy looks like she's about to take off in this picture!

Emmi and George

Right after I took this picture, Emmi was licking George and looking at him with those big eyes... Her way of asking to go outside... Of course George couldn't resist, can't say no to that face!

 ♥•.¸¸.•´♥`•.¸¸.•´♥`•.¸¸.•´♥•.¸¸.•´♥`•.¸¸.•´♥`•.¸¸.•´♥•.¸¸.•´♥`•.¸¸.•´♥`•.¸¸.•´♥

The other day I was driving down the road and I saw a baby horse romping around with his mother, it was the coolest thing.  I stopped by the side of the road and watched them for a while, they were so sweet.  I took a few pictures, but they didn't turn out so good.  The one below was the best of the bunch, so I thought I would share it with you. 

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Thank you for stopping by today!  Wishing you a great day and a Happy and Safe 4th of July! ~Trina

A Walk Around Our Yard

The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous, so I ventured away from my studio this past weekend and we spent some time outside in our yard. I thought I'd share some pictures that I took while we were enjoying the beautiful afternoon.  

 .¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  We walked along the creek, the dogs looked for rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels and snakes... Happily I did NOT see any snakes!!  The farm next to us has now been planted.  We think it's corn, so soon we won't have the view that we do right now, it'll be rows and rows of tall corn for a while.  I remember the last time they planted corn, it looked so bare when they harvested it, it took a while for me to get used to the open space again.  I'm wondering what our dogs, Izzy and Emmi will think of the corn when it starts getting tall... Izzy is used to being able to see everything across the farmland and keeps a good eye on all of it, making sure nothing scampers into our yard.  She likes to sit at the edge of our property and watch for the longest time.  She wasn't with us yet the last time they grew corn.

 .¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Looking around our yard, one of my favorite trees is our Red Maple, and I also love our Weeping Willows.  I always thought Weeping Willows were such romantic trees, George... Not so much!  He thinks they are a bit messy... He's right, they do shed their leaves a lot!  Among many other kinds of trees in our yard, we have quite a few Black Walnut trees and a few Apple trees... We also have a tree stump in our front yard that has petrified mushrooms on it, so I took a picture of it.   

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ ...Oh, and an update on those baby Robins;  Yes, they really did grow into their very BIG beaks!  Only three of the five are left in their nest now, and one of them ~ anxious to fly ~ tried to get away while we were looking at them.  It seemed like he wasn't quite ready to fly yet, so George put him back in his nest.  They sure grew up fast!

 

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Thank you so much for sharing our walk today!  Wishing you a great week!  ~Trina