Sunday afternoon entertainment

Stormy and Sissy are sharing a favorite spot where they love to look outside.  Never mind that they could see the outside better if they went downstairs and looked out the large window there.  They like to be on the same floor as the rest of the family.  I wondered what they were looking at so intently.  

There are any number of things to see in the back yard and the Back 6.  You might see a squirrel, or rabbit, occasionally deer and more. 

More often than not, they are caught up in bird watching.  Just like their Mom, who loves to bird watch, too. 

I went to another window to see what had caught their attention.  The maple tree outside the window was full of Starlings.  They have about polished off all the bird seed I have out including the suet.  Well, except for the Finch seed that they can't get to.  Pesky birds.  They can devour a suet cake in one day.  How do you keep them away?  If any of my bird loving friends out there know a way, please share. 

Have a wonderful day.
Until next time... 

Friday Favorites

Each Friday I am sharing a photo (or several) of something from the past that I loved.   So far, I've shown a favorite kitty and favorite dogs. 

 In answer to some comments about my dogs, yes I do miss having a dog but have no plans to get another as long as we live on such a busy street.  And for anyone wanting a good guard/watch dog, I'd highly recommend a German Shepherd.  I feel the best time to get one is when they are very young and you can train them yourself.  And, yes, some of them can be very mean, my older brother had one, but we never did and I think it has a lot to do with training and socialization. 

 ~ my children at my grandmother's piano~

 

This week, my favorite from the past is a piano.  Or pianos.

Above is my grandmother's piano that I loved to play on when I 

was a youngster.  In fact, my grandmother was probably the one who got me started playing the piano.  Even my children loved to play on their 

great-grandmother's piano, although at that age I'm not sure just how well!

 Gran's piano was always cluttered with sheet music, hymnals 
and photos.  If you look closely on top of her piano, you might get a glimpse of yours truly's senior photo next to my younger brother's.

~my children, my piano~

       

This is my square grand piano that used to belong to my parents.

I remember that my dad bought this piano for 25 dollars at an estate sale when I was 12 or so.  I only took piano lessons a few summers from a neighbor and learned just enough to play for my own amusement.  I wish I'd inherited my grandfather's piano skills.  He died before I was born, but I'm told that he could really make a piano sing.  He could play anything by ear.  I usually had to have sheet music unless I had the music memorized.     

 

After I married, and we were living in the country, I was given the piano.  We had a nice sized dining room that it lived in.  Then, when we moved to our present house we sold the quite large and heavy piano because we just didn't have room for it and we didn't want to put it in the basement at the time.   

I'd love to know the history of this old square grand.  Who played it before it came into our family and where it is now.  I hope they enjoyed playing it as much as I did. 

 

 How about you?  Did you or do you have a piano?  Or maybe there is another musical instrument that you loved to play.  Do tell!

Until next time... 

Happy ♥ Day!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Happy Valentine's Day!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

♥ I wish you shelter from the storm

A cozy fire to keep you warm

But most of all when snowflakes fall

I wish you love.... ♥

                                                                        (lyrics by Albert A. Beach)

         xoxo           

Until next time...  

Not Wordless Wednesday

~ wishful thinking~

I didn't get a lot of commenting done yesterday even though I was on the computer most of the day.  Now, I will be the first one to admit that I'm  very computer-challenged, but I thought that surely by the end of the day I would have things figured out.  How hard could it be?  Well, by bedtime I was ready to pull all my hair out.  Really.  I've never felt so befuddled in a long time.   

What I was trying to figure out was how to put an image that I can click and will go to another page on my sidebar.  I searched the web over and read and read and tried and tried and no luck.  I copied the HTML codes exactly as explained and nothing happened.  Nada.   I don't have a clue what I'm doing wrong.  No, I wasn't looking at help sites for Word.press, just B.logger.  Anyone out there need a blog post idea and want to do a tutorial that I can follow?  I'll bet there are several besides myself that would thank you!

Until next time...

Barn Charm

This is another driveby shot of a barn in Iowa taken a couple of weeks ago.  I tweaked this photo a bit in Photoscape.

Just drop in at Tricia's Barn Charm 
to see some great barns around the country.

Thanks for stopping by!
Until next time...

Rethinking comfort foods

Do you love comfort food in winter as much as I do?  That pesky doctor of mine told me last week that I should cut back drastically on eating things like potatoes, mac and cheese, and bread.  They are loaded with bad carbohydrates.  There are good carbs and bad carbs.  Things like the above pictured fried potatoes, white bread and sugar have bad carbs.  Foods with good carbs are vegetables 

and whole grains.

 

The cherry cobbler that is quick and easy to make and oh, so good topped with ice cream is a no-no.   So is my beloved P.epsi and sweet iced tea.

You see, my blood sugar has been running a little too high and that means I need to get it under control with a better diet.  My father had adult-onset diabetes and had to take insulin shots twice a day.  I certainly don't want that to happen to me.  But, I can tell you that someone who has always eaten pretty much what she wants to is going to have a very  hard time giving up these favorite foods.  All the favorite comfort foods I love seem to fall into the bad carb category.  And, I'm the gal that loves to read recipe books like they are novels, for goodness sakes!  This is not going to be easy.  I'm just not that fond of celery and carrot sticks.  Or unsweetened tea.  I can drink coffee without sugar.  That may become my beverage of choice.   

Have you had to make some healthier choices in the eating department?  And, if so, what did you find that you liked that was a good substitute for those favorite foods that are loaded with bad carbs? 

I hope all of our blogging friends that live in the areas hit with snow storms are safe and warm this Monday.   

Until next time...

Friday Favorites

~Rex~

It's Friday!  Time for Friday Favorites and this week I'm going to focus on favorite dogs in my life.  First up is Rex who was one of the smartest and most loyal German Shepherds I've ever known.  He lived on the farm when I was a youngster.  I mentioned in a previous Barn Charm post how we used to play games with him.  My younger brother and I would go swimming in the pond and pretend we were drowning just to see Rex jump in the water and swim out to us to try to save us.  Ornery, weren't we?  Once my mother was in the machine shed where my dad was working on a tractor.  She was standing by when he started it up.  Rex ran over to her and grabbed her gently by the wrist and pulled her away.  I saw that for myself. 

~Duke and Lady~

Duke is one of Lady's pups.  I'm showing their photo to tie in with the next photo below.  

Not a very good photo, I only had a little Brownie camera in those days.  That is Duke in the foreground.  Lady had a litter of 8 puppies, as I recall.  Aren't they adorable?  There is nothing cuter than little GS puppies.  They were all given away except for Duke.  Yes, I cried.

 

~Bullet~

When my hubby and I got married we decided we wanted a dog, so Bullet came to live with us.  Sadly, he didn't live too many years.

~Baron with my son, daughter and a friend~

When our daughter was small, we got another German Shepherd.

This is Baron, who was equally as smart and loyal as Rex.  He was

always watching over the kids and followed them everywhere.  When my daughter was very young she was playing near a large puddle of water.  Baron would stay between her and the water.  He wouldn't let her get too close to it.  And I never worried when strangers stopped by our house in the country, as they frequently did to ask for directions, because Baron only had to walk up to their vehicle and bark and no one dared to step out of their car or truck. 

~My son and Baron~

Our son always had Baron for company when he played outside while our daughter was at school.  Baron was a good and faithful dog and lived to a ripe old age.  If I had to choose a favorite out of all of the dogs, it would be hard but I'd probably have to pick Baron because he was so good with my kids.  And to me, too!  I would often walk down the highway and back, about a mile and a half walk, after the kids got on the school bus.    Baron would always go with me. 

~Harley~

Last, but not least, was Harley.  We got him after Baron passed away.  He was two years old and had been hit by a car and injured pretty badly.

Harley had recovered from his injuries when we got him and was a good dog, but he never really grew up.  He thought he could climb onto your lap any time he wanted to.  Do you know how big and heavy these dogs are?  Ha!  I would sometimes take him with me when I visited my dad.  Dad always loved German Shepherds, too, and thought both Baron and Harley were great dogs.  Harley lived to an old age, but has been gone for a few years now.  He was the last dog we've owned.  

I hope you enjoyed seeing my favorite dogs.  There were other dogs on the farm where I grew up, but German Shepherds were always my favorites. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful day and weekend!

Until next time...

Wordless Wednesday

~Just because,,,I'm wondering if anything is nesting in the tree~

Barn Charm

This barn scene was taken in Iowa last week.  They had a bit more snow
than we did.  My son shot this with his iPad mini.  Can you believe I had my camera but when I got ready to shoot I discovered I'd left my camera card behind!  That'll teach me to keep a spare card handy.  We saw some nice barns along the way and Son snapped several for me.  The day was overcast and we were moving right along, but I still have a few barns that are good enough to share in the next few weeks.  I always love to find a red barn in the snow!

Stop by Tricia's Barn Charm 
to see other barns around the country.

Thanks for stopping by!
Until next time...

Super Bowl Commercials

Did you watch the Super Bowl?  I didn't watch much of it, but heard about a couple of the commercials that were favorites and checked them out on Youtube.  If you haven't seen them, they are definitely worth watching.  The first one is narrated by the incomparable Paul Harvey.  It's titled "So God Made a Farmer".  Since I grew up on a farm...you may have noticed that by my blog name :)...this commercial was really was special to me even though my dad nor my hubby ever drove a R.am truck.  Be sure to click at the bottom right corner for the Full Screen.  

 

 The other commercial I really liked was the commercial with the Clydesdale.  I was told that part of this commercial was filmed at the Clydesdale ranch in my area.  I must say that it caused me to tear up a bit at the end.

 I really didn't have a favorite team until I realized Michael Oher was playing for the Ravens.  You may remember him from the movie  "Blindside".   I'm sure he would prefer to be thought of as a football player and not in connection to a movie.  However, I'm happy his team won!  I haven't been a huge football fan since Joe Montana was playing for the 49er's and then the KC Chiefs before retiring.  I'll have to share a photo of Joe and yours truly standing together.  Yes, I was thisclose to the superstar quarterback!  I'll leave this story for another post...if I can find the photo!  

Until next time...