random reflections

Pairs: Portraits of the Birthday Boy

Today is the last week for the wonderful Pairs meme hosted by Helena. It's been a lot of fun and I've managed to come up with a pair every week. I'm looking forward to next year's meme, Snap. You can check out the pairs for this week and some information about Snap at Helena's blog.  A huge thanks to Helena for making this possible all year long. 

Today is also one little boy's fourth birthday. We've been opening presents little by little all day long. As I type this his dad and Grandpa are putting together a big boy bed. The double bed is going to be a big change from his less-than-single sized bed he's been in for the last couple of years.

We started the morning with pancakes.

Chicago has gotten some snow in the last few days, and Caleb couldn't wait to get outside with his sled. They have a flat yard, but somehow his dad managed to get the sled to slide across the yard by itself. But it was throwing snow at each other that proved to be the most fun.

So my final pair is Caleb:  INSIDE and OUTSIDE on his birthday.

I forgot to take a photo of his birthday card before I left, and he's saving his cards and one last present to open after dinner. I'll be back eventually (finding time to edit photos and post is proving tricky) with that and posts from Christmas. I still have quite a few pages left to do in my Christmas Journal once we get back home, so it's likely you'll be seeing Christmas here well into January.

Pairs: Christmas Cookies

We got some fantastic help this weekend making Christmas cookies. Skylar came on Saturday, and we rolled out both sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies. Then on Sunday, she returned to help us frost the cookies. She caught on to the rolling pin right away, and really enjoyed cutting out the cookies. 

BAKING

Although she liked frosting the sheep and adding coconut for their fur, she was quite sure she didn't like coconut and wouldn't like eating one. The regular frosted cookies were just fine, though. She was back again tonight for our Christmas dinner (we celebrate early with Matt, Betsy and the girls), and was eager to have a frosted snowflake for dessert.

FROSTING

I doubt there'll be another post before Christmas, but you never know. Just in case, I hope all who celebrate have a wonderful holiday!

A Pair of Poinsettias

I love Christmas flowers. At the moment we have two Christmas cactus; one in bloom and one covered in buds. There's always a cyclamen because that's the flower my father always sent me at Christmas time. And then there are the poinsettias. This year there are only two since we already had so many flowers.

A Pair of Poinsettias
White & Pink and Red

Linking this up at Helena's blog for her weekly meme. I'm one of many hoping she'll be hosting a new meme in 2016!

Pairs on the Canal

My friend, Debbie, and I are still getting in our long walk on the canal every week. The weather for November has been wonderful, and although it was a chilly start yesterday, the sun warmed us up pretty quickly. We almost always see ducks swimming in the canal, but yesterday there were large groups of Canadian geese----

on the water and in the air
swimming and flying

I wish I'd had my big camera with me, as it was hard to get a closer, clear shot of the geese swimming across the canal.

Surprisingly, the iPhone did quite a good job of capturing them flying overhead.

Linking up to Helena's blog, and wondering how we've gotten so close to the end of the year!

 

 

A Pair for Remembrance

Two photos from the archives for Veteran's Day to honor the men and women who have served all over the world to protect and defend us. 

The Vietnam Memorial in Highland Park

The graves of veterans at Mt. Hope Cemetery

Lest We Forget

Pairs: Here's Looking At You (Or Not!)

One more pair from the Lincoln Park Zoo. This is a Meller's Chameleon from East Africa. As we were looking at him, he suddenly rolled his eyes back to look at us without any other movement in his head or body. Kind of creepy, actually.

Forward and Backwards:

Eyes Forward

Eyes Back

Linking up with Helena's meme, Pairs.

Pairs at the Zoo

We spent Friday morning at the Lincoln Park Zoo. It's a lovely place, and we had a great time. I'll be back with another post about our week in Chicago (and more zoo photos) but here are three pairs from our morning at the zoo.

We were among the first people to see the new red panda cubs. They were just allowed outside for viewing on October 15th. We were early enough that it was easy to get a good look at them, as well as their momma. I don't believe I've ever seen a red panda before.

I have two photos of this pair to share with you. These birds were fascinating and we watched them for quite awhile. We're quite sure we've never seen one species cleaning a bird of another species, but that was exactly what was happening.

But this pair is my favorite, and it won't surprise you at all!

I'm linking up with Helena's Pairs which you can find right here.

Texture Pairs

On our way from Rochester to Chicago we stopped in Elkhart, Indiana to visit the National New York Central Railroad Museum. Tracy and his best friend have spent many hours creating a model train layout in Pete's basement, and now Tracy has started a very small one at our house as well. There were several interesting displays, and a very large model train display, but truthfully, I was most interested in all the textures I found on the box cars as we walked through the outdoor railroad yard. I didn't have my better camera with me, but the iPhone camera proved to be quite good. So here are two pairs of textures from the railroad museum.

I'm linking these up (a day late) to Helena's fine meme, and off now to check out the other pairings for the week.

Pairs of Fall Treats

This morning Tracy needed to purchase treats for a committee meeting tonight, so we drove out to Schutt's Apple Farm for cider and donuts. They have the BEST cinnamon sugar fry cakes.

In case sweets aren't your thing, Honey Crisp apples are my all time favorite. Matt introduced me to them several years ago when a professor of his at Cornell brought a different kind of apple to each field trip (they were foraging mushrooms, I think). He called me to tell me to get some to try. Most of the ones at the grocery store come from Washington state, but more and more New York apples growers have them now as well. 

Knowing it would be unlikely that any donuts will come home after the meeting, we bought two of the cinnamon sugar donuts to eat on the way home. Apples later . . . .

I'm linking this up to Helena's blog. Check out the other pairs, and Helena's attractive new haircut!

 

Pumpkin Pairs: Garden Center to Stoop

We had a lovely weekend. On Sunday we drove to Hyde Park for the baptism of my grand-nephew, Finn Robert, and spent the night with my brother. It was a beautiful ceremony, a gorgeous fall day, and a lovely party afterwards.

Finn was not particularly enamored of the whole event, but the rest of us enjoyed it. My two nieces are on the left, Momma Stephanie next to the priest, and Kevin and his sister on the right. The two sisters are the godparents.

Although it's hardly "on the way home," we decided to drive to Manchester, VT on Monday. When we were working, we frequently drove to Manchester on Columbus Day weekend. We arrived in time for a late breakfast at our favorite spot, "Up For Breakfast," where we had Morning Glory pancakes (carrot cake in pancake form---delicious!) 

We spent the better part of the morning and afternoon walking and shopping. Manchester is an outlet center, and they have some lovely stores with good prices. We also spent an hour or so at Northshire Books, our favorite independent bookstore. I always find titles there I haven't seen before, and my "want to read" list gets even longer.

On our way out of town, we stopped at the Equinox Valley Garden Center to pick up some pumpkins for our front porch. We'd never been there before, and will definitely return. I think it deserves a short blog post of its own. 

But, finally, here are this week's Pairs for Helena's meme.

Pumpkins at the garden center.

 

Pumpkins on my front stoop.