Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and 50 Years of Marriage~

A late and yet warm Christmas greeting to each of you and Happy Holiday season to those who don't celebrate Christmas.  I hope that you have enjoyed this special time with those that you hold dear!

Once again, it has been quite a while since I have been able to post on here.  I have tried to keep family and friends up to date on things using Facebook as much as possible.  I miss hearing from you and I miss you.  This coming week will be a time to catch up, reflect and hopefully for each of us look forward to a year the will be healthier, and maybe more peaceful, filled with times of laughter, and many visits with family and friends.  We cannot know what even this day brings, let alone our tomorrows and so we must cherish those things we have this moment, this hour. 

I cherish my life, I cherish each of you.

  

 Happy New Year Blessings~

Remember to double click on the first image, to view a larger slideshow presentation after  you have read the narratives~

I am joining in the fun with Eileen at:

Saturday's Critter

http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/

Anni at:

http://id-rather-b-birdin.blogspot.com/ 

I'd Rather Be Birdin'

 Linking to I'd Rather B Birdin' 

   

Angie at:  

Mosaic Monday

https://tentoesinthewater.blogspot.com/

& 

Stewart for:

Wild Bird Wednesday

http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com.au/

We had an early snow that came before the leaves had fallen and so it made for some very pretty scenes~

Then right back to finish the Autumn season before the canopy went bare~

One of our little fawns was more than likely hit by a car a few months ago and stayed under some of our decks for protection as it healed and got stronger.  It's mother stayed very near it at all times.  Her name is Mannie and she has always bee a great mother to her fawns.  I named this wounded fawn Injy.  She is doing very well now~

Carolina Wren above and Red-Shouldered Hawk juvenile below~

Eastern Bluebirds still around with the unseasonably warm weather and a Yellow Rumped Warbler~

A Red -Shouldered Hawk above and a juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawk below~

White-tailed buck on the scent in November~

Red-tailed Hawk~

On July 2, I injured myself when throwing large creek stones from down into our creek up onto the bank to help reinforce a creek stone pathway I had created.  The occipital nerves run from the top of your spinal cord, up your neck, to the base of your skull. Irritation of these nerves can cause an intense, severe, stabbing pain in the back of your head or the base of your skull. The pain lasts from a few seconds to several minutes.  This continued very badly and I ended up with physiotherapy for a few weeks to help ease it off.  Then I was rear-ended on November 1 and it re-awoke the mess quite miserably for 5 long days, before it even began to calm again.  Add insult to injury, I had been complaining for a few months that my left good knee was in a painful way.  I had surgery on the day before Thanksgiving and my surgeon felt terrible as the MRI had not shown the full scope of the tear in my medial meniscus.  Today things are getting better on all counts.

You can't not feel better when you have this kind of encouragement to cheer you on. Okay what she really wants is for me to play ball, and yet the fact of the matter is that whenever I am not up and about, Svetka wants to be where I am. That is until the call to "who wants to go outside" is asked of the husby~

The end of October my Black Hills rose gold cross necklace went missing. I have had the cross since 1996. 

Google Chrome is amazing and I love using it.

For five evenings, I scanned every Black Hills rose gold cross from many sites. Once again the words helped me narrow the search. The cross was much more difficult to locate. I typed on search the type of cross with the words grape leaves. Oh my nearly all of them have that theme.

All week I spent hours searching and then the wee hours of the morning of October 27th, I saw a picture of a cross on eBay. As soon as I saw it, I got a lump in my throat, missing mine even more. I got one of the many pictures I have of me wearing it, just to make sure it was the right one. This one belonged to someone who had it and possibly cherished hers too. The cross didn't come with a chain and I had to get a new one, but I even wore it for our fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration December 22~

I stopped on my way home a couple of weeks from visiting my sister to see Zeke. While watching him out in his pasture I got to also see his owner, my friend Elena too. It's always such a pleasure to watch this handsome horse enjoying himself. Elena has done such an outstanding job with his care and training. Pedro fan de Klaster 

I had to try and get a picture of me with Zeke the visit before~

Just a little over a week post knee surgery I made myself, willed myself to get out a watch a release of a Bald Eagle. A cold, yet absolutely brilliant morning filled with sunshine and a large crowd of people gathered to watch the release of Bald Eagle 19-64. the number for those who don't know represent the year 2019 and the 64th Raptor turned into Raptor Rehabilitation of Kentucky. It went off anticipated excitement and hope for a great liftoff. Unlike many releases of Raptors, the handler will toss, thrust lift up and release the bird into the air for a grand farewell as it takes upon wings once again. In this mornings case, the bird is large weighing in at 11 pounds. She also had a rather feisty personality and so they center decided to release her in what is termed a "soft release" or rather allow the bird to release herself and that she did. From the time the crate gate was opened leading up to where one could no longer see the bird was in under two minutes. It was a wonderful showing.  Since I still had knee issues, I could not walk out into the field and so I didn't have the view that those out there had, but rather the back of the beauty. Soar into the heavens beautiful girl. You fought so hard for this big day~ 

I took the picture below at a neighbor's side yard.  He didn't recognize it until I showed him where I stood when taking it~

A few pictures of the newest Bald Eagle nest.  This pair has been together for at least 10 years and this begins my 6th year of being able to observe and photograph them~

Meaka turned 12 December 2, Silveit behind her turns 7 this week and Svetka far right was 3 last May.  Survhee Pipka cat is going on 9 I believe~

My twin sister Haze had lung scans six weeks ago, results show the cancer has not grown much in the lungs. There is a tumor growing near her wind pipe and that is the one that will probably do her in. We can't see, or know if there are tumors anywhere else in her body. The word the doctor associate told me last week was she is "terminal and in her final life stage". She has lost 39 pounds, she is very fragile, in pain, but has rally rounds like she had yesterday.  When I hug my sister, I don't want to let go, I don't want to walk away, I don't want to lose her, even in the heartache, the pain of the past, that can be eased away, but I realize every day that I can do nothing to change how this will turn out. For such a horrible disease, she has survived past her time given any for each day given, no matter the mood, no matter the pain or even the stress of it all, she is still with us and we can keep loving her through this hell called Cancer. It takes the life of loved ones and rips at the hearts of those left behind.

She is often times very sleepy, but Morphine does that to a person. She is terrible about taking her medication as prescribed because she doesn't like the way it makes her feel. She is doing this her way and while it can get very frustrating, we let it be. We love her, we forgive her, we pray for her and we take care of her the best we can, for what she will go along with. Only God knows the day, the hour, the moment He will call one home to heaven. My prayer is that I will be able to be with her, that she's at peace and that the quiet of the moment, when she takes her final breath, she will see Him face to face. That is my faith, my hope~

A few of our adornments for the holidays and a mosaic of me and my twin sister.  My husby turned 72 on the 18th, Haze and I were 72 on the 21st and our fifth anniversary was on the 22nd.  Add in Christmas, it's a busy week here~

Pictures of the birthday and anniversary cards my husby watercoloured for me along with other cards and gifts that came~

From days when we dated before getting married...we dated 5 years off and on, part of the time he served in the Vietnam war~

Our three beautiful daughters Hillary, Brittany and Ashleigh hosted a lovely celebration for us at the Captain's Quarters Riverside Restaurant last Sunday.  The whole family was there except my twin sister could not attend.  Dear friends from many years were there to celebrate us...it was magical.
My nephew Roy Foster was kind enough to take some great photographs for us to keep the memories even more alive~

Above are our daughters and our 5 grandchildren~

Bill and I, our three daughters along with Bill's brother Brian, our sister in law Laura, sister-in-law Lisa and niece Dana~

It was a wonderful day, a wonderful year even with all of the illnesses in the family, the stress of life, one must choose to find the blessings.  I try and do that every day...it keeps me stronger, it keeps me focused and I am then able to do better for others~

This is not our family stone, but I found it on my last visit to Cave Hill Cemetery and thought, one never knows... My husband's family was from Germany and they went by Krommer rather than Kromer, and it was changed to Cromer once they arrived in the states...but then again...