Seriously! This is just a little nuts.....

My Sweet Husband went to put some tools away in the smoke house yesterday, and found something a little odd.

It was not there the day before.

He called me out to see it, I went and got the camera.

Pecan shells in the wood pile

As near as I can tell, the local squirrel family thinks that spring is here and they decided to throw a party with what was left from their winter hoard. I don't know if spring really is here, or not, but as long as they are not too picky, they won't starve. We have plenty of acorns.

In the woods

 This is a peaceful spot in the woods near our house. 

Since the squirrels seem to think it is spring, I decided to go looking for early signs. 

As you can see not much green yet, at least not here.

Impressions

As you probably know, I have been experimenting with settings on my camera (the canon S120). This picture is a result of that. No, it is not "Tack Sharp", but it is moody and atmospheric. 

I have been known to manipulate photos, sometimes quite a bit,  (see The Blue Fairy post if you are interested) but this one has not been altered (digital framing for nice presentation does not count).

Early buds

Here is one sure sign of good things to come.

What a racket!

I am not sure what kind of birds these are, they did not sound like crows. For something so small, they were making an astonishing amount of noise. (Lovely noise!)

The choir

Here, are the rest of the choir. 

Blossoms

These are in a sheltered spot in a friends yard. I could not believe they were out already. The tree is covered with these.

Camellia Bud

 I was very happy to see this particular sign. We lost some flowers to the frost from the storm, but the bushes are thriving and full of promise.

Dogwood tree stage 1

I call this stage one, these are kind of pre-blossoms. They will open up and look interesting, then the blossoms will show up and make the tree beautiful 

(shall I keep you posted on the stages again this year).

Daffodil

Last but not least, another picture of a daffodil.

Yes, I know, I already posted some this year, but can you think of anything that says "Spring is coming" in a more cheerful way?

It is still chilly outside, and very cold in the mornings, but spring is definitely on it's way. I found proof. 

Hope you have a lovely week.

Cheers,

Kat

Warm weather critters.

Brrrrrrrrrr.

It is unseasonably cold here at Kat's Corner.

This old antebellum home is warm and cozy but we received approximately four inches of snow last night and today. I know, that may not seam like much, but we just are not used to that sort of thing.

Anyway, to fight the cold, I am posting photos of warm weather creatures.

 Bee

 Bird on a Savannah fountain

 Birds on a wire

 Blue

 Crabby guy

 Dragonfly

 Elk

 Lizard

 Orange and Black

Got any Pecans?

Hope that warms your heart. Which one is your favorite?

Cheers,

Kat

Catching up at kat's corner.

I have some catching up to do.

Kat's corner is changing rapidly with the season now, autumn has arrived.

I am a bit behind with posting pictures so there are extras in this post.

Here is my lovely old antebellum with a serving of autumn leaves on the side.

 Did you have any visitors at thanksgiving? We did.
This guy stopped by for a while.

 This picture shows the smokehouse, the summer kitchen and in the distance, the barn.
The leaves on this tree were just starting to turn in this photo.
They have all changed now.

See the color on the middle tree, looks like gold.
I love that the trees don't all change at the same time.

Another view of the yard.
Everywhere I look it is pretty right now.

 I thought the dogwood was lovely when I posted the earlier photo,
just look at it now.

 This is one of the places we like to walk.
The road runs past our house.

 Along the way, look at all the color.

 On a different note,
we lost an old friend.
About ten days before Thanksgiving, the broiler element burned out,
(literally burned out, I saw flames in the oven for just a second, and I wasn't even the one cooking)
The poor old thing just gave up.
So,

 Ta dah! A new friend has arrived.
It looks like the kitchen got a make over.
I love the big window on the door.

Can it bake a pumpkin pie?
Oh yes, it can, with a little help from my Sweet Hubby.
It bakes it nicely.

As you can see, it did a marvelous job with the turkey too.
Our Thanksgiving dinner was just right.

 These guys came by for a visit too.
I don't know what kind of bird they are but there were a lot of them, just for the one morning.
Just to brag a little on my camera, this photo was taken from about thirty feet away without a tripod.
I use a Fuji Fine pix.

 This silly old thing prefers fish to turkey.
As you can see, she was not left out of the festivities.

I hope you are as content as our silly cat.
November was wonderful,
I'm looking forward to December.
Cheers,
Kat

It's all about the lighting, (Lots of sunshine) and an award for me

One of the secrets of good photography is lighting. It really is all about the lighting. Just look at the pink from the sunset on the side of the house. Beauty! I got this one on the way back from our walk the other evening.
This lovely old tree stands at the end of our driveway. The lighting almost makes it look spooky. It really isn't spooky at all. We call it "The Guardian".
The barn looks one way in the evening light, you can feel it is the end of a long old day. I don't think it looks tired, just relaxed. It looks different in the early morning, like it is just waking up. I feel like having a big stretch when I look at this one. I love the way the sunlight sparkles from the dew on the magnolia leaves.
The view from our front porch, with the railings back where they belong. Isn't it a lovely sunset?
Here is the same sunset from the road a few minutes earlier. How about this one for awesome? Love it!
Bright sunshine filtering through the trees in the early evening, this was taken earlier on the same evening walk.
You know I love classic cars! This is SUNSHINE! (I wonder what people think when they see the crazy lady pull over to take pictures of their cars).

What says sunshine more than a tree full of birds?

Now for the award.

Thanks to Jeanne Klaver from Daily Reflections from Atwater Pond who was kind enough to offer me this award. Apparently she enjoys looking at it (that makes me happy).
The instructions are as follows;

1. Thank the person giving the award.

2. Copy the award to this blog.

3. Place a link to their blog (so far so good, all easy stuff).

4. Name seven things people don't know about you (that is a little harder).
5. Nominate seven bloggers who you admire (this is the hardest part, I love reading your blogs).

6. Place a link to these bloggers.

7. Leave a comment on their blog notifying them of the award.

So, here goes

1. Earl Grey, hot with milk is my favorite tea but any British tea will do just fine. I am enjoying a cup of "P.G. Tips" right now.

2. My favorite incense is Egyptian Rose, I also like sandalwood and several others. Incense is much nicer than nasty chemicals from an aerosol can.

3. I do not like butterscotch and am not fond of black licorice.

4. I like to do calligraphy and illuminated letters.
5. I am just a little nuts about heraldry, (the whole "Knights in Shinning Armor" thing).
6. I have lived in Utah, Illinois, Idaho, Great Britain, New Mexico, and South Carolina (as well as two long months in Texas and a total of about three months in Italy).
7. I grew up in a big happy family. I was the youngest so my older brothers and sisters had quite a bit to do with raising me (they will tell you, I have always been spoiled, but that is OK, I deserve it).

As for the seven bloggers I admire,

1. Life Through Reflections...

2. Richard Jesse Watson: My Inner Zoo

3. We Three, Ginger cats tales

4. Drawing a line in time
5. Cottage Garden Studios

6. WaystationOne

7. Corner of Cat's Mind
I know I have nominated number three before, but it is such a great blog! There are several others that I read and enjoy regularly. What is your favorite?

Ok, one more picture of sunshine. Spontaneous says hello (she is even cute when she is grumpy).

Kat

Deck the halls

I am attempting to join my first Blogging block party. It is "Deck the Halls" hosted by Dianne from http://www.thoughtsfromovertherainbow.blogspot.com/

She has several lovely ideas and links to bloggers with lots more. I attempted to do this last night, it didn't work, wish me luck.

I talked about how much my Mother and Mother in law influenced our Christmas decorations and traditions in the last post. Here are a few more examples. This lovely angel belonged to my Mother in Law.

These figurines go with my Mom's Christmas Village. I painted most of them for her when I was a teenager. She loved this set!

Here are some of the buildings that go with the same set. I painted all of these. Mom had a set up where the buildings fit on top of little lights so the houses twinkled. If you look closely you can see the windows are all cut out to allow light through. I light the lanterns, but not the houses.

Mother nature has been decking her halls too. We don't have any snow, but aren't these little red birds lovely?

This video is a little shaky, I was trying to get closer to the birds. They are very hard to photograph. If you have kitties, play this video for them. Spontaneous appreciates the bird song.

Instead of putting ornaments in a glass bowel, my Sweet Hubby decorates with home made caramels. MMM!

Each year, when we take down the tree, we cut part of the trunk off and save it for the next year. On Christmas morning, we will start a fire in the fireplace with this one.

Another one of Mother Nature's Southern traditions, Camellia's blooming for Christmas time. I have two big lovely bushes in my yard.

This picture with exterior decorations is from last year. In one of the next posts I will show you why we don't have them up yet this year. In the mean time, I love this picture so I decided to share it again. Yes, that is me up on the balcony.

Last of all, a tired little sweetheart. You can't decorate properly without the help of the cat.

Thanks to Cass, from http://cass-thatoldhouse.blogspot.com/2009/12/holiday-touches-old-and-new.html for giving me the idea to join the block party.