Vermont Trip Part 6: Scenic Views

Here are some of the scenic views of Vermont.
Many of these were taken through the van
window, so the bottom may be a bit blurry.
The clouds are pretty cool in some of them.

More? Yea or Nay?

Vermont Trip Part 5: Weather Vanes and Some of Shelburne Farms

Here are a few shots of different weather vanes.
I cannot remember where I took this first one,
other than that I was in Vermont.

This is a cool one that was at the Shelburne Farms.
The tour guide lady said this may be an indication
that when the family built the farm, they may have
seen the lake monster that is supposedly in Lake Champlain.

This one was at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill near Stowe.
I thought it was different.

Here are a few from Shelburne Farms.

I think this first one is the mansion
that the family lived in.

This was a cool one I found after
looking through my pics.
It's neat with the broken fence.

I love this one.
The garden, lake and mountains
all in one shot through Adirondack chairs.

This was another neat one I stumbled upon.
I like the sailboat between the trees.

There are still more to come.....

Vermont Trip Part 4: The Dining Room Light

There was this awesome light in the dining room.
I am pretty sure it was made from blown glass.
Here are a few different angles.

Next Up....Part 5!

Vermont Trip Part 3: Birds

I saw many different kinds of birds,
and took a lot of pics. Here are just a few.

I have no idea what kind of bird this is,
but it was in the tree so I took it's picture.

This is a nuthatch.
It's a pretty neat bird.
It kind of looks like a woodpecker.

I was surprised at the size of blue jays.
I do not see too many of these around my house,
so I took as many pics as I could.
Most of the time they would fly away before I could get a pic.

This was a crazy cool rooster
that was in the chicken coop
at the farm we visited.
It was not until we were in the coop
for a little while that we noticed him.

Part 4 will be here before you know it!!!!!!!

Vermont Trip Part 2: Chippy

Meet my new friend Chippy.
Yes, I named him.
Everyone else was just
calling him "the chipmunk".
He lived under the downstairs deck.

He was a very clean little guy!

He was also a praying chipmunk.
This was him on Sunday
before we went to church.
(Chippy did not come with us,
it was a "people only" service)

Chippy's favorite activity was eating.

The first picture is Chippy eating before church.
The second one shows how much
he ate while we were at church.
(We were not gone that long either,
it was a wonderfully short service.)

Stay tuned for part 3!!!!!

Vermont Trip Part 1: A Handful of Bugs

So, I took a lot of pictures while in Vermont.
775 to be exact and I was only there for 5 days.
This will be the first part of at least 7.

This is the lucky lightning bug that I saw. I will explain later.

Yes, this is a snail.
I do not take many pictures of them
because they make me gag!

Okay, now for the unlucky lightning bug.
This little guy would not stop crawling up the glass.
Until I turned the flash on!
Then he was frozen and did not move for a long time.
But it gave me the chance to get a cool pic.

Just a bumblebee.

Crazy looking bug in the grass.

This, believe it or not, is a lady bug.
This is what the larvae look like.
I learned that at work today
while browsing a magazine.

Another bumble bee.

This fly thing landed on me,

so I had to take a pic.

Some kind of beetle on a flower.

That is the end of Part 1. Come back soon to see part 2!

More Lightning

Here are the only three shots of lighting from the storm
we had the other day. Out of the 371 pictures I attempted,
only 3 had any lightning streaks in them.
No need to worry though, I am sure
I will get some good ones throughout the summer.

The first two were taken within seconds of each other.
The first one shows the one streak faintly, while in the
second you can see it very distinctly.
(If you click in the pictures you can get a closer look.)

This next one was a surprise to me. I didn't realize
I had taken it until I had uploaded them onto the computer.

The One You've Been Waiting For... Or, Not

Summer is a great time to take pictures, but my favorite thing about summer is growing vegetables in my garden. I have had a vegetable garden for the last three years, but this year I stepped it up a bit and started a bigger garden, it's approx. 12'x6' and was a lot of work to get started. I am beginning to see the rewards of all of my hard work. Now, if you know me at all you know that there is nothing in the world I hate more than worms, so for me to prepare a garden I go through much turmoil. It is not easy for me to simply dig a hole and put a plant in the ground. When I dig a hole and spot a worm anybody close enough will know it. I usually say "Ugh" or "Aah", but not a scream, they are more like groans. Occasionally, depending on the size of the worm, these groans will be followed by a gag. And every so often, I have to get up and walk away. So, me putting in a garden is hard work. I love being able to go out and pick my own tomatoes and green peppers, knowing I survived another planting season. Here are some shots of the garden.

This is one section out of three. It has cherry and grape tomatoes. The other sections have Early Girl tomatoes (a medium sized fruit), green peppers, and new this year carrots.

Below are the carrots.
And yes, that is a shoe print at the bottom,
they were trampled the other day, but made a good recovery!