Morris Wears Silk

Well the temperature climbed up to 28 this morning and as I put on my coveralls to go back outside Morris started his spinning and jumping routine.

Sigh.
"Morris, you got cold the other day and I don't want your frail old body going out today. I'm going to the creek to look around."

Morris stared at me with an ear flopped over.
I am not an old codger you know. I'm as old as you in doggy-human years. Well maybe a bit older. I'm fit as a fiddle and I will nag nag nag. 

I sighed and decided he should at least wear something. Right? A scarf. Hmm, he hates kerchiefs and they are too big on him.
I went upstairs to my 'Room of Creativity' and rummaged around the top drawer of an old dresser. I came up with a silk handkerchief that must have been a pocket one my dad wore years ago. I remember him giving them to me.

I looked down at Morris and then squatted next to him.
"How's this?" I tied it around his neck and he shook once then pranced happily about and stuck his nose in my camera bag.
"All right, you can go."

Of course I can you ding dong. Someone has to keep track of you! 
This new collar is kind of nice. Don't I look great in it?

"I will carry you if you get cold or tired." I patted Morris on the head and we left the house.

I will run around in the snow and 'water' things.

And he did.
And he ran and ran and ran.

He checked out as many places as possible and stuck his head under the snow to look for voles and mice.

Morris was feeling great.
I was happy.

We went to the creek looking for ice formations. That was our group theme this week. That may be easier after this weekend. An ice storm is predicted for the Holiday.
The sudden swap of temperatures has changed things drastically. -15 for the lows two days ago and 21 for the low tonight. It was nearly 34 today.
Sunday may be 40 or 50?
That will be great for a quick snow melt unless it freezes and becomes ice.

Anyway none of that bothered the two of us as we meandered around the creek.

Look at my scarf! I am incredibly handsome. But I always am!

When we got down to the 'ice wall' I was rather disappointed. Yesterday's warm temperatures had melted the formations. I'd worked from midnight to 10am so I was too tired to talk a hike yesterday.

However we enjoyed the hike anyway.

We did find frosty roots.

And we did find a coyote trail.

Then Morris did start to shake and shiver.

I reached down and tucked him under my armpit and walked with him for a while.

Embarrassing. I shake and quiver so she knows that I smell coyotes and what happens? She picks me up like I'm an old decrepit dog. I am not decrepit. Put me down woman!

He squirmed after a bit and leapt from my arm. Poof. Right into a pile of snow. He came up shaking his head and ran ahead of me.

Morris, Morris, I think. One day you worry me so much and the next day you are like a pup.

Last week I did find some great ice formations. But this week, it will be a difficult task.
Perhaps I'll make some ice cubes and 'shoot' them in an interesting way.
There is always that.

Morris and I turned around and started up the long hill towards the summer pasture. He ran ahead of me looking over his shoulder as if to say.

"Come on old lady, keep up!"

I think he is a smarty pants when he wears silk. Although I must say he does look dapper with it on.

MugWumps and Knobbin' Knockers.

Just before the snows started I decided to go out and take a walk to find some 'knobbin' knockers.

What on earth are knobbin' knockers? Well they are those beautiful dried stems of golden rod that have a bump in them from some worm that the stem grows around in the summer.

My Grandmother used to gather these along with milkweed pods and other dried 'weeds' to make a winter bouquet.

They may not look like much, but put them together in a bouquet and add a bit of glitter and it looks quite nice.
I added a them to my old wash pitcher with some fox tail and got a nice 'free' natural bouquet.

Grandma used to paint her knobbin' knockers and milkweed pods in silver and gold if I recall correctly. I think her wild bouquets were her Christmas decorations.

I think mine turned out beautiful and I was ready to go collect some more wild things when the first snow storm hit.

I think still may make good use of my cross country skis and go find some more on the ridge this week.

I mentioned Knobbin' Knockers on FB and one of my cousins replied that she recalled them also.
Then she told me not to forget about the MugWumps.

Indeed I had forgotten that term. MugWumps!
She reminded me...
Those were those things that sat on phone lines with their Mugs on one side and their Wumps on the other. One should not walk under MugWumps back side.

It brought back such fond memories of being a kid in a time and place where we had our own language.
Oh.
Knobbin' Knockers?

We used to grab them and knock each other on the noggin' with them as kids.
Thus that name.

Bitter Cold and old dogs

If you want to call it that. I know that when the air temperature outside is -15 at sunrise and it was only get to something like -2 for the high, it was going to take chores time twice as long.

Of course you have to dress very stylishly when it is frigid.

You would not believe how much these goggles save my eyes from feeling windburned.

Morris used to love going out in the snow and yesterday afternoon he jumped and twirled as I pulled on my 'gear' for running water to the stock tanks. I made him stay in the house.
Watering is simple right? 

Nope 150 feet of hose goes to the large heated stock tank. Each section must be taken apart in frigid weather and drained. The hoses are stretched out on the hillsides after they have been drained and ready for the next time.
Which means to prepare one has to drag the hoses into the proper positions and then connect them, melting the leftover ice on the connections with their hands.

After the upper tanks are done, those hoses too are taken apart and laid out after draining.

Late yesterday afternoon when I came in to swap to some dry gloves Morris jumped and whined. Well, it seemed nicer out, so I went back outside with him.

Morris bolted out the door and ran up and down the plowed driveway. I joined him and then hiked over towards the meadow. The strong hearted little dog joined me, leaping into each of my tracks.

Until, when I turned and saw that he had stopped. He was overcome by a fit of shaking and lifted his paw. He turned and started to walk back.

He was having trouble so I scooped him up and unzipped my flannel jacket and stuck him inside. I took my hands out of their gloves and put them on his feet.
He licked my face. Well yuck. He does have some nasty breath.

We sat in the snow for a bit.

And looked back at our trail.

Morris the adventure dog who used to brave all of the elements no matter what, was not as adventurous any more. I had to face that fact.
No longer was he the young jack russell who flew in the face of cold weather and deep snow.

Photo from 4 yrs ago

Maybe he knew more than me. I didn't want him to age. I don't want him to age. 

But I know he spends more and more time on his 'spot' on the couch taking nice long dog naps.

He can hike in good weather, but cold? Not much any more.

He probably has better sense than I do to stay in from the cold.

I know he won't tolerate booties or a coat. So I'm going to let him be the boss of the couch as much as he wants to be.

Mr. Morris, you deserve your spot on the couch. 

And I promise not to try and take you on any cold hikes, but if you insist on coming, I will most certainly make sure that I can carry you inside my coveralls.

I know even old dogs like adventures.

How the Grinch was stopped by Morris the guard dog.

The Terrible Grinch was Grouchy. She hadn't had a good night's sleep because of the big snow storm.
Oh the snow wasn't bad, finding out that one of her co workers had started her car and then left with her keys in his pocket probably made the bad night much worse.

After only a few hours of sleep Miss Grinch woke up and discovered that the beautiful white snow was still coming down and by night fall it was supposed to be super frigid. Like -12 frigid.

Miss Grinch decided that instead of placing all of the nice gifts under the Christmas Chair she'd get them ready for the Christmas visit next week.

However she had an evil thought.

Perhaps she should just hide them.

If she stuffed them in a paper bag and hid them well, no one would get their Christmas gifts.

She chortled and chuckled.

Naughty Miss Grinch.
She thought she should be ashamed of herself but she was oddly pleased.

Hide the gifts!
Whoops, she forgot her boots. So off ran Miss Grinch to grab her chore boots and think of where to cleverly hide gifts.

And as she took off...

...thinking she was being wicked and wise...

...she was stopped by Morris.

Morris even made her put everything back.

Morris, the dog who saved Christmas from the Grouchy Miss Grinch.

Make My Day!

All things were calm and quiet. I was in my PJ bottoms sipping coffee and thinking about how cold it was outside for chores.
The phone rang.

My neighbor's car wouldn't start even though she had put it on the charger. "Could I give the beasties a ride to school?"
Why sure. I grabbed the remote to the Subaru and piled into my heavy coveralls and boots. I wrapped up and headed out to scrape off the windshield.

The kids were really quite good and we got them to school only about 4 minutes late. Since I needed a couple of things we ran into Walmart and grabbed them. Then my nice neighbor took me out to breakfast!

We enjoyed chit chatting and having some friend time.

I laughed when she took off her 3 year old's jacket  and he had a PJ top on.
"What can be better than going out to eat in your PJ's!" I laughed.

Rich had plugged in both his truck and skid steer, he was going to go and get some large bales of hay. While he took a short nap, I decided to go fetch the trail camera from the woods and make a small cross country ski trip out of it.

The sky was bright blue with trails from airplanes overhead. The snow glistened and I had to get a shot of the 'snow diamonds'. Every time I see them I think of my dad.
We called them snow diamonds when we would ski together. And it makes for a fond memory.

I like my skis that I now have. The boots are well insulated and the skis are slightly wider to break trail easier. It only took me about 20 minutes to ski around the meadow and break trail at the same time.

It was much more effortless than snow shoeing. However I can't ski in the woods and snow shoes shine there!

Now another Winter Storm is headed our way. No one is sure what the amount of snow will be.
However since I work the third shift, I decided to pack an overnight bag in case the roads were too wicked to travel on.

Oh, when Rich went to start the truck, it ran just fine. But it won't go anywhere. No hay hauling. It was a very bad time for the truck to break down.
But there we go. Bad things happen, but going out to a PJ breakfast and skiing sure made my day!

Cool backdrop and cold weather fun.

As the temperatures dropped and the winds picked up I decided to work on my Christmas Cards.
I found out that I was short some.

What to do? What to do? I don't like most choices in the boxed items they sell in the stores and ever since I found out I could print them out myself, I've done it that way.

Well I had an hour or so to kill before going to get and delivering groceries chores to my mother in law, so why not 'make' some?
I had read somewhere how aluminum foil on cardboard pieces made good reflectors and interesting back drops. Even more fun was to add glitter via glue to the aluminum.

So I found a box. I cut the flap off from it and made a 'reflector'.

I even covered one in pink, red, and silver glitter glue.

Then I went to the 'magic creative room' and set some things up. An old box, some parts of cards from years passed, and the foil backdrop.

This shot shows the pinkish glitter glue on the foil. A white board leaned up against my chair. The table is a plastic tub with a white piece of board on it.
Over that is an old lace table cloth.

Well I had a bit of fun with it.

I 'developed' it with an Antique look in ON1RAW2017. I even liked it enough to send it to print.

Then I tried this one.

This one is my favorite. The yellowish golden glow is from an old lamp with those now extinct bulbs in it...for light.

The items that are poinsettias and Merry Christmas are things I pulled off from old cards that my Aunt and Cousin had sent me a few years ago.
The old paint cracked box makes for a wonderful texture and the foil added a bit of zip.

I sent this one to print too. Walgreens and Walmart offer easy 1 hour pickup and you cannot beat the prices.

Then it was time to go to town. The winds were howling and the snow was blowing across the open areas.

I got strange looks when walking around the stores. I don't care, I wore my heavy coveralls and was nice and toasty warm. I don't get the ladies who dress with skinny jeans or those who wear capris and a light top with no hat or gloves in very cold temperatures with extreme wind chills.
They must live in town and not have to negotiate snow blown drifts.

I know if I get stuck in the drifts I can still safely walk somewhere or sit in my car and be very comfortable.
I carry a sleeping bag and a space blanket along with tea lights and extra clothes.

Friday afternoon until midnight I am working. If the roads and the snow and drifting are bad at midnight, I'll pull all the sleeping blanket and take a nap until the roads are clear.

No use risking my neck to drive 30 miles of twisted roads that go in and out of steep valleys and windblown ridge tops to get home until it is safe to do so.

Pictures of self.

I dislike taking a shot of myself and I dislike the camera aimed at me.

My father loved the camera lens from both sides. But dad always took a great photo.

I however see age creeping up on my face in harsh lines and freckles. I guess that is what surprised me the most. Those lines.

Friends of mine that are interested in having some fun in photography and I have formed a group where we share photos each week. Each week one person picks a theme and we eagerly try that theme out.

While working on some methods of light reflection today I thought I'd try out our new theme.
Self Portrait.
Not a selfie.

Ohhhhh nooo! Eeek gads! Cover my head up! Can I use Val-Barbie as my body double?

She is much better looking and she even has a Morris just her size! She never minds the camera pointed in her direction!

Me? Not so much. I did this one against the new bright white wall in the kitchen. But my ugly t-shirt was hanging out.

A bit more glamorous I think. Yes the hat suits me, and I wear it as often as I can.

Even if I get strange looks while shopping.

I'm not going to hide the fact that I have ... wrinkles and lines. I look in the mirror and can't deny it any more.

Probably all those years of abusing my face by not putting on creams, yet hiking in the extreme cold, gardening with a baseball cap and no sun screen. Being out doors and mistreating my face.
Well I didn't worry much about it to tell you the truth.

And now I am stuck with this face.

I am finding that it does make for an interesting 'self' study though.

Moody. No glasses and bounced lights off the ceiling in the spare room.
Cracked textures added to make it look a bit abandoned.

Harsh black and white.

Then I got very creative. How far could I go with my own 'self portrait'?
How far do I dare go?

So I went very far....

The photo is interesting and I took a lot of liberty with my edits.

Original:

All of these photos were taken in RAW Nikon files and processed in ON1RAW2017 pre-release.

I'm pretty impressed with this program and love it...hands down it is easy to just do a straight forward process, or you can get as complicated as you want.

After today I don't think I'll be as uncomfortable in front of the lens.
I think as long as I am taking the shot!

My Still Life for today:

I'll be selecting this one for some cards I'll send out.
Backround glitter was provided by cardboard covered in tin foil ... slightly crumpled.