T Stands for Vacation Week

Happy Tuesday ladies. Another T Day has arrived and today is a good kind of Tuesday for me because I am home on my winter break.

Stop over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to see what the T gang has been drinking and perhaps even eating lately because it is T STands for Tuesday.

So my vacation has been exciting for a stay at home week. First of all we had some some snow on Sunday.

It wasn't a lot as you can see but since it made the roads pretty slick I stayed home and watched a bunch of Netflix shows as well as made some art.

Then on Sunday night we had a visiter.

This is not my photo, but since I never saw our visiter it will have to make do. But of course our visiter wandered through the yard just as we were letting the dogs out for their before bed relief. If you aren't familiar with this guy-Mr. Skunk- they have the worst smelling and hardest to get rid of spray as part of their defense. This year with our warm February weather they have come out of hibernation early.

Our girl dog is smart, she managed to avoid Mr. Skunk. But our boy dog Pete is a hunter, especially for small animals like squirrels, and he was too curious about this visiter.

Mr. Skunk was not having him snoop too close.

So as you might have guessed, instead of going to bed early Sunday night I was bathing Pete, and then listening to him whine as we put him in the basement. Even still, the few minutes he was in the living part of the house  left quite an odor behind. So I spent Monday airing out the house (thankfully we are having some fairly warm weather for February) and putting out bowls of vinegar to absorb some of the smell. I washed Pete Sunday night with a mix of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and soap, which works GREAT, so much so that by Monday he was bearable in the house, but then I took him off to get groomed anyhow. He still has a residual smell which he probably thinks is wonderful. (Augh) If you have bleached your hair you know that hydrogen peroxide removes color, so now Mr. Pete is not all black but has some brown patches. You can sort of see that by his back legs.

But my pot of tulip bulbs that I bought a couple of weeks ago are looking quite pretty.

But before all of this excitement occured, Saturday my husband and I went out and drove the hour to Manchester so I could visit about the only camera shop around. Then he took me to lunch, which was really why we drove to Manchester, the camera shop was just a part of the trip.

We decided to go have some of the world's best chicken fingers at the Puritan Back Room restaurant.

This was only my second trip there.

Even though we arrived at 1:30 and the place is pretty large, wee still had a 20 minute wait.

There were a lot of big groups that day. I think people must go there to celebrate.

But we had our little table and ordered our chicken fingers.

Now the Puritan is actually an Americanized Greek restaurant.

So my chicken finger meal came with a big Greek salad and some pita bread.

The salad was delicious. And you can see I was trying to be healthy and just drink water,

But by the time my chicken fingers came, I needed a caffeine boost so you can see the Diet Coke I ordered. 

Anyhow, I took half my chicken home, as did the hubby, and we both had it for lunch again on Sunday.

So I am linking up to T Stands for Tuesday. This post has taken my way too long to write, so if I don't get to your blog this morning, I will be by later today.

Today I am heading off for lunch with some work friends so I can't dawdle all morning.

happy Tuesday everyone.

And as always, I appreciate you taking your time to stop by and visit.

Vacation is Now a Memory

But a good memory!

And school winds down in about 6-7 weeks and then I shall be on a longer summer break, which is QUITE exciting to say the least. Plus to me, this time of year makes everything easier.
(Especially today when it is going to be summer like....figures...it couldn't come a few days earlier when I was still on break! Ha-ha!)

So some assorted random vacation photos today.

Hope they're not too boring!

A fountain I saw at the Garden store that I crave and yearn to have in my garden. 

Katie, remember Mother's Day is coming up. Ha- Ha-Big Smile!

A little more baking.

 A freshly mulched rose garden.  It will be fun to see how different this looks once all the leaves are out and the roses are blooming,

And some delicious eating. An Irish coffee cake.

And my mom enjoyed meeting my dog. My mom has dementia/Alzheimer's, Still in a fairly early stage, but not really early. She is still caring for herself but has no short term memory. Plus when she gets frustrated (always at night it seems) she really goes emotionally wild. Mostly it is over control of her checkbook. My brother has taken that over since she was having problems paying her bills, and she keeps thinking he's stolen all her money.

Poor Mom. It is very very sad. But we had a nice visit so I can't let the tough moments overshadow that.

 Some exercise unloading and spreading this bark mulch. I still need another load. One of these days.

 I think this is a  child's shelf but it works perfect in my studio. I haven't yet put my little travel souvenirs on it in this photo, but what a fun way to decorate and display my travel inspirations.

 And there should always be a light in your window to welcome the good things. View from one of my walks.

And dogs playing in the lake, which is now (trumpets blowing) ice free!

 And then the public boat docks went in, so that means summer is really coming.

 My husband made himself a couple of eggs to eat and they both had double yolks. What's the chances of that happening?

 My friend and I on our walk Saturday.

You got to have a little ice cream on a nice day!
And yahoo-it is finally boating season!

And I love it!
Hope you have a great start to your week!

It Is March

Hurrah! I am glad February is over.  What a month it was with soooo much snow, the second coldest month on record (we missed the coldest by 0.1 degree Fahrenheit) , and my husband coming down with his awful kidney damaging auto-immune disease.

But it is now a new month. March! Time to start seeing some signs of spring. Of course as I write this is is snowing, again. I wonder if we will see any signs of spring this month.

I can only hope.

So this past weekend I traveled with the hubby, his sister and her husband down to Providence, Rhode Island for a hockey game and a little fun ,

It was a great way to wrap up my week off.

Not showing any of my art today, but will show you a few last photos from my week off.

Cool tile wall in Providence.And this old map on a display too.

I love  this reflection of my husband in a window but also how you can see the some city lights outside.

Here's that same view in the morning. No reflection!

View outside a window from an old train station, now a brewery where we had lunch. Oh yes, winter in the city.

My Rusty Griswald red beer. 

 My snugly kitty back home. He didn't want me to paint. He wanted me to rub him!

And the first of March is my daughter's puppy's first birthday. We picked up a little cake and also got her this bobble-head as a thank you for dog sitting out puppy while we hit the road.  She suggested we put it on her puppy's cake. What a hoot! 

Hope you have a great start to the new month and your week.

Stop by again soon.

Vacation, So Far

A few vacation views-what to do when you are spending a week local in cold and snowy New England.

What else-
eat ice cream!
Last Friday when I got out of work the daughter and I started my break off with a little spring clothes shopping (one can hope I will eventually be able to wear them) and dinner out in a diner. And we had to split one of these yummy treats,

Window art.
Oh please, No More Snow!

My trip north. More snow. 

I knew it was too much to ask Mother Nature for.

Weird how you can't see any snow in this photo. Little photo gremlins wiped the snow pixels right away.

But a great hockey game and a win.

I refrained. But a piece of one of these pies or cakes would have tasted beyond delicious I bet.

A pretty snowy morning as the storm cleared away.

I suppose the fact that these look really pretty to me, even when I am finished with snow means I am losing it.
I think I really am.

And some cool textured sea ice.

And as we drove through Portland, Maine, we passed this landmark, the B&M baked bean factory.
I wonder if they do tours?

And finally, thought you might like the view of downtown Portland from the highway.
So far, it's been a great vacation.
How was your weekend?

Thanks for visiting today.