Thursday, December 31, 2015

Happy New Year!

Sorry for the silence over the last week. As you can imagine, we've had a festive and busy time.

We particularly enjoyed having Older Daughter home for Christmas. It was nice to hear the piano again.


I took the girls to see the new Star Wars film in Coeur d'Alene. The first showing they hoped to see was sold out, so we had to wait for the next one.


Older Daughter had specially ordered this T-shirt and was disappointed when no one noticed the irony.


Too soon, it was time to drop Older Daughter at the airport for her trip back to New Jersey. Because of the uncertain weather we've been having (snow!), and because her flight left at 6 am (which would have necessitated leaving the house around 2 am), she and I got a motel room in Spokane near the airport. From there, we woke up at 3:45 am and I got her to the airport in plenty of time. Tough to say goodbye.


This has been an amazingly white Christmas. Snow everywhere.


We still have geese flying overhead.


The sun has been rare lately, so when it broke through just at sunset a couple days ago (while Don was driving), I snapped a few shots.





This morning -- New Year's Eve -- dawned clear and bright, with frozen fog at ground level. The temperature has turned bitterly cold -- 5F this morning, projected 2F tomorrow morning bringing in the New Year.


Hoarfrost was everywhere, turning the tiniest branches into rows of diamonds.


With the cold temperatures, the sunshine was welcome.




In the barn this afternoon, I noticed this well-disguised hen snuggled in some hay.


She watched me suspiciously as I worked.


After a few minutes, she started cackling and walking across the snow back to the chicken coop.


Sure enough...


This was the view of the bull pen fence through the slats of the feed bins from inside the barn. I liked the way the sun highlighted the fence.


As the last sun set for 2015, I watched the alpenglow.




I wish everyone a healthy, happy, prosperous, and blessed New Year!



17 comments:

  1. Awesome pics, Patrice. Through those, it's sad to see older daughter leave, but such is life.

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  2. Dennis

    Very nice photos, you can make a living with those. :)

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  3. Blessings on you and yours in this new year!

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  4. yesterday husband saw a flock of geese heading north. hope they'll turn back. their internal clocks must be out of whack.

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  5. Always enjoy seeing your beautiful pictures. And I thought 27 was frigid here in Oklahoma this morning. Happy New Year!
    Jeff

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  6. Are you enjoying the additions to the barn with that weather? Also, could you do some more posts on the wood burning stove/oven, please? I have decided to get that oven based on the price and your recommendation. Thank you.

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  7. Such wonderful winter pictures. Thank you for sharing and Happy New Year!

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  8. Happy New Year!
    Sidetracksusie

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  9. Happy New Year!

    Can I talk you into sending some of that cold East??? It's awfully warm for this time of year over here...

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  10. Enjoying your blog! Happy New Year from warm and wet Tennessee!

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  11. A very blessed New Year for your family.
    Winter is so very beautiful, glad we have snow on the ground with this cold spell.

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  12. Happy New Year! Thank you for sharing this interesting blog. I'm afraid I'm a bit behind on Star Wars and don't "get" the t-shirt.?

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    Replies
    1. It has Star *WARS* words but a Star *TREK* illustration of the spaceship Enterprise.

      - Patrice

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  13. My older son found that shirt online and really wanted to get it to wear to the opening. Unfortunately, he didn't find it early enough, so wasn't able to get it in time for the movie. Glad someone got to wear it!!

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  14. Your photographs are excellent. I enjoy your blog as well as the pictures.

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  15. I almost spit up my coffee when i saw that star wars/trek shirt

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