Hello, Mr. Scary Tree

 Does this look like a monster from a horror movie? I bet at night it walks the trail...spooky.

A Restoring Walk

As many times as I have walked the Paw Paw Trail, I have never ever met another walker. The trail isn't long...about 1/2 mile and it is out of the way. I think that people just don't know about it. The trail runs along the Huron River and the whole thing sits in a valley away from the wind. It is pretty and the best is in the winter with a snow cover.
Walking the Paw Paw is very restful and peaceful. No distractions. It is a place to clear your mind and relax your body. Nature is meant to be that way.

I Love Barns

Found a lot more barn photos that are worth posting. Hope you don't get sick of them!

Walking

My walk on the Paw paw was gloomy, cold, windy and very lonely. I saw two squirrels and a blue jay....that was it! Got a few good photos which I will post later. Took this myself with a feature on my Canon that I just discovered... self timer that takes 10 seconds to fire and shoots 10 pics in a row. Fun!

Can We Call This Art?

As all my friends know, I have not been able to master Photoshop even though I have the program. Instead, I use Picmonkey which is easy and fun to use. Both of the above photos were edited on Picmonkey and I think they came out beautifully. I had them both enlarged to 8x10s and then I framed them and hung them....oh, I barely have any wall space left. Between my photos and pictures of my Grandchildren I am definitely over decorated. When you walk into my house you don't know where to look first but I love having it all to look at rather then tucked away in some album or on my hard drive.
Anyway, I think that these photos are as close to art work as I will ever get and whenever I look at them, I remember the beautiful autumn day at Hidden Lake Gardens.

Christmas Cactus

Click on photos to enlarge........

I am amazed every fall that my Christmas cactus is so spectacular. Even though it doesn't bloom at Christmas (haven't figured out how to make that happen) it is so beautiful. Look at all the buds yet to open.
Every summer I put the plant outside on my front porch. I water it and fertilize throughout the summer. It starts setting buds in September and then I bring it in and put in front of a south facing window.
After it is finished blooming, I put it in a bathroom in my basement. The room has two windows, east and south facing. It's quite cool in that room and really sunny. I water it infrequently and just basically leave it alone. It thrives down there. I have had the plant for years.

Chickadee Whisperers

 You may notice that Liam isn't in any of these pictures...he evidently isn't a bird whisperer ;-) 

 A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush...well this one got away from my camera

 Love the sunlight

 Even CesarMillan would be impressed

 The chickadee girl