Happy Friday...Fall...and Friday finds...

"I'd rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion." -Henry David Thoreau

One of our favorite things to do for fall is visit our local Grave's Farm with our grandkids.  This year they both went through the Corn Maze three times.  Twice going from the entrance to the exit, then once from the exit to the entrance.  Leave it to kids to be creative.  I anticipated them taking about 30 minutes to find their way through the maze...when Warren and I went...it took us a long time!  It took them only 15 minutes.  They each got to pick their own pumpkin to take home for decoration.

Pumpkins everywhere at Grave's farm!

Pumpkin sitter number 1

Pumpkin sitter number 2

Pumpkin sitter number 3

Pumpkin sitter number 4

Last night my neighbor, Diane, and I went to a painting class.  Note: neither one of us are very good painters artistically, but we thought it would be fun.  There were about 20 people in the class, and I was very grateful when the instructor showed us what to do, then we did it.  Then she went on to the next step until we had our paintings done.  We painted gourds of all varieties.  Okay...these are not masterpieces, but they were fun.  We had great laughs at various objects in the paintings.

From pumpkins, I moved to apples.  Anyone who knows me, knows I love apples...my favorite is a Honeycrisp.  I found some at Wal-Mart, and decided to relax with my cup of tea, and apple.  I was in heaven.

Honey Crisp Apples, and Licorice spice tea...two of my favorites

Today, has been fun.  The girls in Warren's office dressed up as Minions from the movie "Despicable Me."  They wanted me to talk Warren into being Gru, which he did.  We went several places to find a "bald cap", but were unsuccessful finding one.  He refused to shave his head and beard. We did find a sweater, and scarf.  The office gang looked so cute.

The cat (bottom right) is checking out Gru.

I added black brow marker to his eyebrows.  I think he looks pretty "despicable."

The minions...

Gru...and his minions

Minion staff at their stations...

Minion Luz

Minion Loretta with fingernails painted and all...

Minion Rose

Minion Gwen...whole costume.

Photos came in from the other members of our family sharing their costumes with us.  They are all precious.

Zach's girls...

Luke's boys...Luke decorated their wagon like a fire truck...so we have the fireman, and the Dalmatian firedog.

Could this be a fire call?

Maybe so...

Ready to go...

Not to forget our grand dog...who will be dressed in a Bronco outfit.  Isn't the fall beautiful here?

Finally, our super heroes from Texas.  Flash Gordan (friend of Ryan) , Captain America (tall guy...Ryan DeFranco), the Hulk (Jack), and little Captain America (Luke).  All heroes to us.  

Happy Friday, fall, and what finds I had for today.  I am linking this up to Kim Klassen's Friday finds.  Go give her website a look, and visit all the links.

Texture Tuesday...and some pics from Down Under...

I decided I would post some miscellaneous pictures from my down under trip for  Kim Klassen's  Texture Tuesday.  These really do not have a story to go with them; I just liked them, and thought they would be fun to experiment with using various textures.  

While our tour bus was stopped for a lunch break, I went out exploring to find some nice photos.  I found some beautiful flowers... 

processed with kk_truegrit preset in Lightroom

textures: 2 LilOwls Frenzy, and Burnish, softlight 100%

Textures: kk_thursday, 2 lilowls burnish, both soft light 100%, kk_walnut preset

In one of the sandwich shops, there were all these cups for tea, coffee, or hot chocolate.  I asked the owner if I could snap some photos of them, and she was more than happy to let me take photos.  These are cups that you get to choose from when you have a hot beverage.  For tea, they had English breakfast, or Earl Grey.  Also, there was a choice of white tea (tea with milk) or regular, or white coffee, regular, lattes, or cappuccinos. (coffee with milk).  Skim milk was called "trim milk".  

This was a door to one of the shops.  Isn't it so cute? The three rust things to the left of the door are some sort of pipes.  

taken with my iPhone, processed with the app Snapseed, tilt-shift

 I really like this picture.  It is of street, and car lights with the buildings in the background.  Impressionist looking for sure.  I have no clue how the scratches showed up, or why it was not focused.  A mistake I like for sure...but have no idea how to repeat it.

straight out of camera

 This is what the night lights of the street, and car lights really look like.  I still think these are pretty nice looking.

Sydney at night

This is a bridge in Sydney, Australia that is right by the opera house.  It is huge, and one of the tour options was to climb the bridge...which takes 3 hours.  Repelling gear is required which comes with the tour.  I did not do this option.  It was rainy and windy.  I am more of a fair weather person.  The bottom of the bridge has 4 lanes for cars, a railroad track for trains, and a pedestrian sidewalk.  

 Holly and I in front of the bridge. 

All these suitcases were at the Sydney airport.  We flew from Cairns to Sydney which was about a 3 hour flight.

On one of our trips, we toured a winery.  This old dog was in the back of a pickup truck.  He seemed like such a nice subject.  He was nice and quiet...just staring at me while I took his photo.  Others saw me taking photos, and they tried, but he apparently did not like them.  He snarled his teeth, and barked very viciously at them.  I was glad he was so calm for me.

 Holly and I visited a botanical garden while in Sydney...they had a lot of very nice statutes.

Someone put a hat on this one. 

That is all for today.  I have many more pictures to share, so stay tuned.  Be blessed.  

On the way home...

"I have found the flight from Aukland to LA is 3 movies, 5 hours of sleep, and two meals." -Jennifer, hotel manager of Millennium Hotel, Queenstown, New Zealand

I met Jennifer in the hall of our hotel in Queenstown. I asked her who the manufacturer was of our mattresses at the hotel...they were like sleeping on clouds. I loved them a lot. Anyway, she did not know. Our conversation quickly went to where are you from, how long have you been here, and what have you done. That's when she told me her opinion of the flight from there to LA. She is exactly right. It was sort of sad leaving New Zealand, but on the other hand, I am ready to get back home.

I did not know that almost all plant and animal life in New Zealand was imported. The people who came to New Zealand killed out most of the natural vegetation, and planted what they wanted, and brought in the animals they wanted. So there are no snakes or predators...just one poisonous spider which, it seems, no one ever sees. They have a lot of sheep that are mostly used for the meat rather than wool. Cattle ranching is fairly new, and they just started with the Red deer brought in from Russia. It was interesting to see the deer in groups with a very low fence keeping them in. Our tour guide said they do not know they could jump the fence. On our last day there, we had venison which had no game flavor, because the deer are not wild.

I thought I'd post some photos of the last couple of days of the countryside.

See the one cow in the lower left corner?

Sheep, clouds, mountains, and one cow

Isn't this gorgeous.

Okay, I am not part of the scenery, but I am on the bus.

In the middle third to the right there is a herd of red deer in the picture below.

I am in the LA airport waiting the 7 hours before we leave for Albuquerque...it is almost worse than the 13 hour flight overnight. I was very fortunate to have no one in the other two seats on the long flight. I spread out across the 3 seats and had a pretty nice bed. I will be so happy to be home and see my "honey". It was his birthday yesterday. I have plans to celebrate his birthday weekend with a Tim tam slam, and he has not decided on the flavor of cake yet. I have many more pictures to share as I get them sorted out. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tim Tam slam...and animals...

It has been so fun seeing the different animals here. We went to a koala park where they had all kinds of exotic animals. Right away we got to see a koala up close and personal.

These little critters are so sweet. They are a perfect example for how what you eat affects you. Their diet of eucalyptus leaves only makes them extremely low energy. They sleep 18-20 hours a day. They have only one set of teeth, so when the chewing of the leaves wears down their teeth, they can no longer chew, and basically starve to death. They are easily stressed which affects their health as well. They don't eat when stressed. We could pet, but not hold them because of how it stresses them out.

I was surprised at how little the kangaroos were. There are some taller and larger ones, but not where we were. They, too, are surprisingly gentle. We bought food to feed them...their teeth felt weird scrapping your palm, but they did not bite.

One of the experiences our tour guide said we had to try was a "Tim Tam slam". Tim Tams are a local "biscuit", sort of like our kit kat, only better. To experience this, one bites the top and bottom corners off, places it in a hot drink like hot chocolate or coffe or tea. Then you start slurping as if it were a straw. When the chocolate starts to melt you throw the biscuit in your mouth, bite down, and you experience a chocolate eruption in your mouth. Holly and I went to experience this...

Our Tim tams, and hot chocolate...

It was weird... At first I did not think the drink would come up since the biscuit is solid, but finally it did.

Sort of messy...and it looks like we might be snorting coke, but we are NOT...just chocolate..

Holly showing the bitten off ends...

Drink it all up! So amazingly good.

Well, we are in the airport getting ready to fly to New Zealand. Good 'ay as they say here..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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