Friday, February 27, 2015

It has been forever





                           Old Bridge Street Bridge on the Middleboro/Lakeville town line.
                                                  I took this photo on New Year's Day.


Hello my friends, can you believe it? I'm actually writing a post on my blog. I know it has been a many, many months since I last posted. I don't know if anyone checks my blog anymore as so much time has gone by.
As time went by, I just didn't know where the heck to start up again. Guess I should have started in January to start off the new year. Anyway, that didn't happen. I haven't created any art in a very long time.

My mom remains in the nursing home with advanced Alzheimer's. Sad to say in the past couple of months she know longer knows my name or my brothers. At times mom will start to say something and then silence as she can't finish the sentence she started. Most of the time mom just sits and stares with a blank look on her face and doesn't make eye contact. So heartbreaking to watch.

My dad has now been gone for 8 months, and that just doesn't seem possible. At times, I catch myself going to pick up the phone to tell him something or see if he wants to go for a ride.
I am still doing everything for my 90 year old Aunt.

Below is a photo of a bracelet my son, Tommy gave me for Christmas. I cried when he told me about the beads. The beads were made from the red roses that were at my dad's funeral. There is a woman who makes jewelry from rose petals. Tommy had a white snowflake Christmas ornament made for himself  , a tie tack for his brotherand a heart necklace with a bead for his daughter, my oldest granddaughter, Katie. What thoughtful and touching gifts. I was blown away and it is so very special to me. This is the company that made the beads
angel rose beads




So...
I guess the only thing to do is just start. I I will get started.

Belated Happy New Years!!! I hope you all had a great January. I am going start my catch up.

On New Year's Eve day Tom and I  picked up my Aunt and we went to see my Mom at the nursing home. We celebrated with mom and the other residents at their New Years Eve party. We had a nice day.


Celebrating with my 91 year old mom


My 90 year old aunt Gert, my Dad's youngest sister


Tom and I having a champagne toast to the New Year 2015                                              

In January I took my sons Tommy and Steven and their families to Disney World.  9 of us in all. We had a great flight and everyone was so excited to go. We left early in the morning from  T.F. Green airport Warwick/Providence, RI. Unfortunately,  My husband has a bad back and couldn't do the walking so he stayed home and filled my bird feeders and took care of all of the cats..indoors and out.

We didn't need to rent a car as we stayed at the Disney Caribbean Resort and with our package we had transportation to and from the airport and all the parks. We went to all of the 4 Disney parks.        ( Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom)  I had never been to Animal Kingdom before, and I really enjoyed our day there.

Florida weather in January is always iffy...The morning we left home the wind was howling and the temperature was zero. Brrrr!!! So we were glad to be heading to Florida. We were in Florida from the 8th-13th and had temps in the 60's. It was windy , some warm days in the 70's, we had 2 rain showers but all in all the weather wasn't bad. Better than the freezing temperatures at home. It was the first time going to Disney for my youngest granddaughters, Sammi 20 months and Bella 4 1/2 . Both were so good the whole time especially during the flights and the long days in the parks.

                             We enjoyed many live shows, fireworks, the rides. I went on all of the roller                                                     coaster rides with Katie, my oldest, granddaughter.

                                  Bella, Sammi kissing Pooh and Paul. The kids loved the charecter                                                                              dinners as did the adults.

                                          
Katie and I love the Tower of Terror

Rocking Roller Coaster
Love the Mickey waffles. We had the food plan as it was easier and we enjoyed all of the restuarants that we ate in.

Katie, Sammi and Bella

nightly fireworks

Epcot


Tommy and Kelley. 
                                         
Steven, Sammi, Bella and Robin

Me and Pooh


Jake and Katie

Me and Katie



Sammi and Bella taking a break


Katie all excited on the bus ride from the resort to the Magic Kingdom


The only bad thing while in Disney my right foot turned black and blue, swollen as did my leg which also broke out into a rash. The leg swelled up and was very sore. I hobbled around the whole vacation and at night elevated my foot and leg. It didn't help much. When I got back home I went to see the doctor. Had xrays and ultrasound to rule out a blood clot. No clot, but they found a Baker's cyst in the back of the knee. 


I took a bazillion photos on our Disney trip, and these were just a few.



On January 20th,, Tom and I also celebrated our 47th wedding anniversary. We didn't do anything special because of the weather and we were going to be leaving for Florida in a couple of weeks.

January was a cold month and we didn't get snow until the end of the month. I spend a lot of time in Plymouth visiting with my mom at the nursing home. I love taking photos and birding. Both are  such a great stress reliever for me and being outside in the fresh air getting excercise from all he walking is a good thing. I usually go bird watching after every visit with my mom. 

My son, Tommy made me this large, covered bird feeder before Christmas.
The covered feeder replaced the old one that had fallen apart that my Uncle Rei had made for me many years ago. The birds love the heated bird bath on my back deck. During one of the January snowstorms I counted 27 different species of birds at my feeders.


Brown Creeper..such a quick little bird that doesn't stay still very often so it is hard to get a good photo

Pine Warbler.. I had never had this bird in the yard before

red bellied woodpecker

The bird photos below were taken in Plymouth

                                                                coot..look at it's large feet

hooded mergansers

juvenile black crowned night heron

wood duck


I thought this old piece of farm equipment that I came across while out taking photos. I thought it was pretty neat

spent a lot of time in Manomet on the cold and windy cliff at low tide watching the numerous 
                                                              harbor seals sunning on the rocks

peek a boo

Well, that is about does it for January. Next time I will do a catch up of February.
Elaine