This is a random post from skies past. This first one was from last year when I went to Bermuda for a week. We had a blast - just a girls trip (well, and Prince Charming). My creative and wonderful friend from UStamp4Fun.com took me as her guest. (Note: Amy is NOT taking me to Hawaii this month . . . her husband decided it was his turn. Whatever). It was incredibly windy for part of the trip, but you’d never know it from this picture.
This next shot is more recent . . . we’d had a huge bonfire on a Friday night in early February. The next day, the cows were warming themselves by the coals - in fact they visited that area for several days in an attempt at staying warm. It reminded me of Farside jokes from long ago . . .
And, for those of you who have been missing it, here’s a shot of our pond - in the winter time. Some time I’ll post a photo of the kids playing on the pond - for now, this is an undesturbed pond in the winter time.
You can see more photos of skies (and ponds and even animals) from around the world by visiting here. Happy Skywatch Friday!
Here’s something that should have been blogged, but missed it’s time. . . and alas there are no photos. It was a photo-worthy and bloggable thing for sure.
We’ve been having some amazing weather. The contrast between hot and cold on two different days is crazy. And the wind!! It’s been so cool to watch and hear. We were home on a day off (President’s day or another day when the teachers had inservice) and the forecast predicted strong weather. With the radio on, the "weather alert" was going nuts - every few minutes that disturbing, belching and mechanical "beep, beep, beep . . . we interrupt this broadcast with a special weather update . . . " with tornado warnings and watches and strong wind advisaries. Living on a hill with a panoramic view is awesome at times like this - you can see the wind, but can’t feel it. I love that! And when it rains, it feels like you’re sitting right in the rain, but you don’t get wet. It’s the coolest thing. Anyway - we were home, and the winds were picking up speed. We kept saying "the trampoline is going to fly" and we watched it - and it lifted and lowered, but didn’t move. Until one huge blast of wind picked it up and threw it down the hill and across the drive way. It was like the thing weighed less than a feather - it was so effortless. The rain was coming down in torrents and so some of our visibiiity was obstructed. When it cleared enough for us to see, the trampoline was upright against the neighbor’s fence. Upon closer inspection (after the storm) we saw that part of it was over the fence. There were trampoline parts all the way down the hill (mostly springs).
A couple of weeks after the storm, we had a house-full of guests. Prince Farming suggested we use the man-power to bring the trampoline back up the hill (makes a person want to stop in for a cup of tea, doesn’t it?). It wasn’t too difficult with all of us - and we had the kids do a sweep of the hill for missing parts. Almost half the springs were "sprung" all over the place. We dragged the trampoline up and put it back where it had started, but it wasn’t "jumpable" yet - two of the legs had been ripped right off.
Last week Prince Farming got home from work "early" (still daylight). He went down and got the welder from the shed and I found all the extension cords I could in the garage. We figured out which leg parts went where and did the necessary repair. We had to bend some of the net-braces up and fenangle a few other parts to fit - but we finally got the trampline looking almost like it used to. There is a significant bend on one edge which gives the trampoline an almost egg-like appearance, and the kids say it doesn’t have as much bounce - but at least it’s useable for getting rid of the extra energy and craziness that periodically occurs in smallish people.
Isn’t it great to have someone around who can fix things!? In a former life, that trampoline would have sat there, on it’s end, till it naturally deteriorated. Or it would have been dragged to some trampline graveyard heap. Prince Farming can mostly fix anything!!
