Flowers, Flowers, Flowers!

Yesterday I trekked outside (so far, right?!), and around the block a couple times, and noticed that just on our block there are so many beautiful flowers in full bloom right now.  There were a lot of irises, of all different colors and shades, and several other types of flower, too.  So, I came back inside, grabbed the camera, and set off to capture some of spring's beauty. 

All the different iris varieties, colors and shades are fascinating. 

Brilliant orange!

Mr. Squirrel I tried to capture a closer picture of, but he wouldn't let me. 

This tree is so photogenic.

An old wooden planter.

A perfect name for a street!

More bright orange!

White picket fences are so homey.  :)

Irises,

Irises,

and more irises. 

I love these planters hanging from the ceiling. 

Such a creative idea!

An evening of fellowship

 On Monday evening, we enjoyed a cookout with some dear friend's of ours, the owners of the Local Yocal, a locally grown foods shop in downtown.  They treated us to some grass-fed beef hamburgers, and sides, and homemade Cinnamon/Peach ice cream.  We had a lively discussion about compost, since Matt's background is Agriculture.... Yes, we engage in some strange convos. ;) 

Phoebe-dear watches the H.'s youngest son, Dean (pictured in the college above).  He'll be two pretty soon, and is an active little guy.  The H.'s also have two older children, Abby (10) and Austin (8) who enjoyed playing with Jaden.  They had a "warm welcome" planned for our family upon our arrival - confetti pops and poppers. 

If you live in or near McKinney, please stop in and support our friends' business.  They have some great products for sale, and the store is just a neat place to pop into from time to time. :) 

Thank you Matt, Heather and kiddos for a delightful evening of fellowship!  Y'all are such a blessing to our family. 

Timber!!

Sunday evening Mom prays that she will wake up early on Monday morning.  Well, God answered her prayer in a very unusual way.  Around 4:30 she and Dad were awakened by a very strange noise.  They looked out the window and saw a very peculiar sight indeed.

Yep.  That's right, one of our trees in our front yard came crashing down (one half of it).  Thankfully it was the half that was toward the street, and it missed hitting our old brown suburban by inches.  To say the least, we have plenty of work on our hands.  Caleb, our friend, Jaden & I worked for several hours on Monday morning/afternoon to get it cut off, as well as the other half of the tree.  Now our front yard is filled with limbs, sticks and huge logs.  More work to be done...

Awesome Design!

Patrick Henry Hughes

You think you've got problems!

Watch this video about a blind musician and you will be glad for what you have.  But you will also be inspired to lean on the Lord to help you overcome any roadblocks in your life.

"Outside the snow is fallin'..."

...and brothers and sisters are callin', "you-hoo". Yep. That's right, snow in Texas. A LOT of snow!

This morning I woke up around 7:15 and looked out the window and it was snowing! The ground was already covered in 1-2 inches. And it hasn't ceased to snow at all today. We have received around 5-6 inches, and in some places there's an accumulation of 7-8 inches! When was the last time THAT happened in Texas??

We've had fun making snowmen, snow forts, an igloo and having [friendly] snow ball fights. :) After being out there for several hours (not in a row), I'm inside, ah, um, freezing. It's cold inside too! :)

The beauty of snow on trees

Our backyard

A little more than 2" at around 9am. Since then we've gotten a lot more.

Jaden doing jumping-jacks laying down (i.e. making a snow angel) :)

Global Warming??

Now, how often does North Texas get snow in early December? It's never happened in my lifetime (that I can remember). But, we got it some a few days ago. I must say that it wasn't very much, but you can see it on the ground. So much for Global Warming!


What about climate change??



The snow was quite wet. Yuck!


It did snow enough to cover the roof in white (yes, I know, the Christmas lights needed to be hung up properly!) :)


Have a nice weekend, and stay warm... you know this Global Warming is making it hard to keep warm!

Photography (part 5) ~

Tada! More photos from lately. :-) You can view more on Abby's blog.

Flowers

A piece of ivy vine in the shape of a heart

Bachelor's button

Face to the sun

Another flower