Backyard Gardening - The Beautiful Purple Iris

It's been awhile since I published an "Almost" Wordless Wednesday post. I had gotten out of the habit of doing one and going to try to get back on schedule and publish one every week.

Today I am featuring a photo that I took last week of a beautiful light purple IRIS in full bloom. I've got 5 flower gardens on my property and in one of them I planted about a dozen Iris bulbs last year and finally...they all bloomed! 

We had planted light purple, dark purple, peach and yellow Iris'. Once fall rolls around I am going to go out and buy some more bulbs and plant them before winter sets in. I absolutely love Iris' and they are one of the easiest spring flowers to grow. 

Well, there you have it! My "Almost" Wordless Wednesday photo and post for the week of May 27th, 2015. Do you enjoy flower gardening? If so, what is your favorite flower to grow?

Pennsylvania Fall Foliage

It is amazing at how quickly the autumn season is flying by. Halloween is just around the corner and Thanksgiving follows shortly thereafter. While I do enjoy the Fall season, I really dislike what is coming after it...WINTER!

Anyway, for my "almost" Wordless Wednesday post this week I wanted to share a photo with all of you of one that I took this past weekend while hubby and I were on a road trip. It features some of the gorgeous Pennsylvania Fall Foliage that we recently saw on a road trip up to State College.

If you have never visited the State College area or the Centre Hall area in Pennsylvania, we highly recommend it...especially during the Autumn season when all of the trees & leaves are changing color. You can really see some beautiful scenery while traveling through the area.

The photo was taken about 15 minutes outside of Boalsburg where several mountain ridges come together. We were down in the valley and I shot the photo while looking up. I love all of the pretty burgundy, yellow, orange, gold and green trees in that particular area. Luckily for us...we were visiting during the peak season!

Well, there you have it! Another "almost" Wordless Wednesday photo for this week! Next week I will share some additional photos that are really fantastic! Enjoy!

First Day of School - Almost Wordless Wednesday

It is hard to believe but Summer is officially starting to wind down around here and many of us are starting to prepare for Fall. This past Summer has been a busy one for us in getting things ready for the Princess to start Kindergarten and for my daughter Jenelle's wedding which was last weekend. Sigh, I need a vacation from it all.

Anyway, it has been awhile since I've done an "Almost" Wordless Wednesday post and now is the time to get back into the habit again.

This week I am featuring a photograph that I took of my grand daughter on her first day of school. She entered Kindergarten two weeks ago and is attending all-day in an advanced class. She is as smart as a whip!!!

We are very fortunate that we only live 5 minutes away and had the pleasure of being there that morning as she waited for the school bus for the first time. Once she got on...I cried a few tears and I could barely see her sitting in those big seats on the school bus!!!

So far, school is going well although it has been a big adjustment on us all since we occasionally help take her to school and/or pick her up from the bus stop. After all of these years, I am enjoying having a little one around and attending school. Just glad...I don't have to do it on a daily basis! LOL

Well, there you have it! A photo of Princess Gia on her first day of school. Enjoy!

Pretty Little Princess - Almost Wordless Wednesday

It is February 26th, Hump Day and Almost Wordless Wednesday! Yay! I love Wednesday which means we are halfway to the weekend and then we can put the week behind us.

My "Almost Wordless Wednesday" photo for this week is one that I took of my little grand daughter who was playing dress-up, a Princess of course! I swear she must own at least a dozen different princess costumes and loves to wear them several times a week.

She got all decked out in her costume including sparkly shoes, tons of beaded necklaces, bracelets and even a sparkly tiara. She makes for a beautiful little princess!!! I am going to surprise her this weekend with a brand new costume and I know she is going to squeal with delight when she sees it.

Well, there you have it! Another almost Wordless Wednesday post for this week. Enjoy!

The Fall Harvest Season - Halloween Decorating

It's that time again...another week which means another "Almost: Wordless Wednesday post! This week I am featuring a photo of some colorful looking pumpkins and gourds.

We are definitely into the Fall season now here in Pennsylvania and a few days ago I had to turn on my heat for the first time this season. All of our trees are changing the color of their leaves and many of those trees are getting naked (leaves are falling to the ground). Pretty soon we will be busy raking up and bagging leaves from our yard.

Last week I hit up our local farmer's market for some Fall gourds and pumpkins and have them sitting outside on our porch and in our flower garden. Looks cute but holy heck, the cost of buying that stuff is through the roof. I think next year I will do something different to keep the costs down.

Hubby is working on a scarecrow and that is the only thing left to complete in our Fall outdoor decor. This year we did spider webs, spider wind chimes, orange and lime green outdoor lights, pumpkins, corn stalks, gourds, plastic light up ghosts by our front door, a skeleton hanging from one tree, etc. I think the Trick or Treaters will like what they see when they come visiting in another week! ha!

Well there you have it. Another almost wordless Wednesday post! Enjoy!

Beautiful Views of the Atlantic Ocean in Wildwood NJ

We were on vacation all of last week and had a wonderful time down at the Jersey Shore....more specifically, in Wildwood New Jersey. We go down to North Wildwood several times every year and just LOVE that area! While the rest of the Wildwood island is pretty, our favorite spots are in North Wildwood.

We love to go onto the beach right behind the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse and if you ask me, that is where you get the best views of the Atlantic Ocean. If you love watching sunrises, this is also the best place to catch those while visiting the Wildwood area.

The beach here is pure white...wide and beautiful! You will find a lot of sand dunes, sea grass and if you are a beach comber, you can pick up some seashells too! One of the things I love about this particular area is that you can see the Inlet, a sand dune and then the Atlantic Ocean behind it, as my photo above shows!

You can click on the photo to enlarge it to see the pretty details. If you look really close, you can see some sea gulls on the edge of the water too! We sat on the beach for awhile that day and then got up onto the sea wall and sat on a wooden bench. The ocean & beach views behind the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse are some of the best on the entire Wildwood island.

Well there you have it! My "almost" Wordless Wednesday post for this week. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing some additional photos from our vacation. Enjoy!

The Princess & Her Cotton Candy - Almost Wordless Wednesday

Princess Gia loves going to amusement parks, county fairs and small town carnivals. The surprising thing about all of this is that she is NOT afraid of any rides...nope, not at all! When it comes to getting on the rides...she is all about the adult ones!

A few days ago I published a post here on my blog showing you all how she got onto the Ferris Wheel several times with her Pappy and it was her favorite ride at the Dauphin Carnival. If she had her way...she would ride a Ferris Wheel every day! Not me...I am afraid of heights!

One of the things Princess Gia loves after we are done riding rides and playing games is to get a big bag of cotton candy! Yes...that sugary sweet stuff that makes your teeth hurt and your tummy ache! She doesn't care what flavor it is...just as long as it's cotton candy and a lot of it!

She was quite happy as you can see from the above photo to have received a brand new bag of cotton candy from Pappy for being such a good girl at the carnival. Lucky for pappy who doesn't need any more high-calorie food...she didn't share any of it with him! LOL Good for her!

Anyway, this is my new "almost" wordless Wednesday post for this week. Enjoy!

Gardening - Petunias Gone Wild!!!

My "almost wordless Wednesday" post this week is a photo that I took last weekend of the Petunias in my front flower bed that have gone completely wild with their growth! We planted them in late May of 2013 and they were scrawny little plants with no blooming flowers. We got them at the garden store with a hefty discount since they looked terrible and weren't doing well.

We brought them home and immediately planted them. We then hit them with the garden hose and our favorite growth product "Miracle Gro" and continued to water them regularly and with the Miracle Gro once a week. Wow, what a difference 6 weeks makes and lots of love & care! Those Petunias are going WILD now and some are getting so large they look like flower bushes!!!

I absolutely love outdoor flowers and have 4 flower beds on our property. This particular flower bed has nothing but Petunias in it and I am loving how full and lush they are! Just goes to show you that you can bring a scrawny looking plant(s) back to life again with the proper love, care and nourishment (Miracle Gro) and they are doing fabulous now!!!

If you look closely, you can see one of my 12" tall solar garden lights buried in those Petunias which will show you how large they have become. I think this weekend I will trim some of them back as they are interfering with the solar lights getting enough sunlight during the day.

Well...there you have it...another "Almost" Wordless Wednesday post for this week!

Newly Hatched Baby Birds - Almost Wordless Wednesday

Hubby and I have been big bird watchers for the past 10+ years and every year we are blessed with several different species of birds calling our backyard their home. When we find the nests...we chart them on our backyard map and make sure that we keep an eye on the birds while they are nesting and living here.

When you stumble upon a nest, it is really important to NOT touch it and do not disturb it in any way. When we photograph eggs, nests and newly hatched birds, we always make sure that mom is out hunting for food and that we do NOT touch the nest! We use a high powered camera with telephoto lens to get our snapshots.

Well, last week we stumbled upon a Robin's nest that is built in one of our large bushes and inside that nest was 4 beautiful blue robin eggs. Two days later...one of the eggs hatched and the following day...two more eggs hatched. It has been five days now and the 4th unhatched egg has disappeared.

Officially, we got three beautiful little robin babies that are growing stronger each day and will be ready to fledge the nest in about 4 to 6 more days. They are doubling in size daily and each & every day they have more and more down & feathers on them. When mom leaves the nest to collect food...they are pretty noisy awaiting her return.

Well, there you have it...my "Almost" Wordless Wednesday post for this week and this post is also being filed under our bird watching category here on the blog. You can find other bird watching info & photographs by visiting that category.

Do you enjoy bird watching and if so, what are some of your favorite species of birds to watch? We are big backyard birders and we love to watch sea birds and owls too! Happy Birding!

Wordless Wednesday - The Physical Therapy Lamb

I went in to see my physical therapist in the office 2 weeks ago for a major workout session and I was really surprised to see that they have a new member to the physical therapy team. They already use a beautiful lab-mix dog as part of the team and now just recently they adopted a 2 1/2 week old little lamb!

The lamb's mother died during a c-section to remove the lamb twins (both twins survived) and they adopted them out right away as they need 24 hour care (bottle feedings, etc.). This gorgeous beauty that you see in the photo even wears disposable Pampers which I found adorable! That's right, Lambi isn't potty trained just yet!

All of the patients are in-love with the new addition to the staff and we are all looking forward to spending more time with Lambi during our physical therapy appointments! On that particular day...I received all kinds of kisses (licks to my face) from Lambi, so I think I made a new friend!

Well there you have it....my almost Wordless Wednesday for this week!

Beautiful Yellow Iris Flowers in Bloom

I love gardening and last Fall I picked up some Iris bulbs and decided to plant some of them in my flower beds and around the house near my front door. I have never planted Iris's before and I wasn't too sure how I would do with them, because our weather here in Pennsylvania can be finicky and harsh at times.

Anyway, I purchased purple, white, yellow and red Iris bulbs (some people call these flowers "FLAGS") and planted them back in late September. (really easy to plant and care for these flowers & they come back every year). As I always do, I tossed a layer of hay over top where I planted them to give them some protection during our harsh winter months.

Once winter was over, we removed our layer of hay and waited for all of our spring flowers to bloom. The first ones that came up & bloomed were our tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinths, hyacinths, lilacs and our 8 azalea bushes. The this past week I finally saw one of my Iris' blooming! Yay!

My Iris' range in size from 9" up to 1 1/2 feet in height and are doing well. So far, the only ones blooming are the yellow ones, but the purple, red and white ones should be blooming later this week. They all look healthy & beautiful and come fall...I will be planting more of them!

Once the other Iris' start blooming and looking lush in my flower beds, I will snap a few more pictures for all of you to see. I am really pleased with our new flower beds and how all of our new landscaping projects are coming along. Yay! I love gardening, don't you?

The Pumpkin Patch - Almost Wordless Wednesday

My almost Wordless Wednesday photo and post for this week is a photograph that I snapped when we took our little 3 1/2 year old grand daughter to a local Pumpkin Patch a few weeks ago. We spent almost 2 hours at the Pumpkin Patch while she searched for the perfect pumpkins.

While on the hunt, her daddy and her pappy helped her to select 4 gorgeous pumpkins which we brought home and carved into Jack-o-lanterns and into jackie-lanterns. I must say, Princess Gia had a blast at the Pumpkin Patch and we will be taking her again next year. Perhaps, a new family tradition in the making!

After we carved them up...we roasted their seeds in the oven and chowed down! We love roasted pumpkin seeds! Anyway, that is our "Almost" Wordless Wednesday post for this week :)

Halloween Jack-o-Lanterns :: Almost Wordless Wednesday

Two weeks ago we took Princess Gia to our local Pumpkin Patch so that she could pick out a few Halloween pumpkins. We spent 45 minutes at the pumpkin patch that afternoon and came home with 4 beautiful Halloween pumpkins.

She told her daddy that she wanted a "Princess" design on her pumpkin so her daddy did the best that he could in designing her a spooky princess pumpkin. After 30 minutes, he came up with Princess Jackie-Lantern! LOL My little 3 1/2 year old grand daughter is very proud of her new Halloween pumpkin and every evening she turns on the battery operated candle that sits inside Jackie.

So there you have it, my Almost Wordless Wednesday post for October 17th, 2012. Enjoy!

WW - A Visit to the Local Pumpkin Patch

My almost Wordless Wednesday photo for this week is one I took of my little 3 1/2 year old grand daughter last weekend when we took her to the local Pumpkin Patch for the very first time. At first, she didn't understand what a Pumpkin Patch was....but once we got there and she got to run through the farmer's field looking at pumpkins, well, she was all for it!

We spent about 45 minutes at the Pumpkin Patch and left her pick 4 huge pumpkins! Two of the pumpkins are sitting on my front porch as part of my Fall outdoor decorations and the other two pumpkins are at her house. Her daddy is going to carve them into Jack-o-lanterns for her later tonight. She is super excited about that!

Happy Wordless or Almost Wordless Wednesday!

The Beach in Wildwood NJ :: Almost Wordless Wednesday

My "Almost Wordless Wednesday" post for today is a photo of me standing on the beach in North Wildwood New Jersey. I chose to share that photo today because in exactly one month, I will be down in North Wildwood enjoying my final one week vacation for this year!

I have been to a LOT of beaches up and down the eastern seaboard but the beach in North Wildwood (not Wildwood) is my absolute FAVORITE beach on the east coast! I love that it's a big, wide, sandy beach and it's free! Not only that, it's super clean and very roomy!

I can walk right out our condo and within 2 minutes be standing on the warm, soft sand. I am a total beach lover and I look forward to us moving down to North Wildwood once we retire.

Have any of you ever been to North Wildwood yet? If not, you really should check it out! We love it there!

Play Dates with the Grandchild - Wordless Wednesday

My almost Wordless Wednesday post for this week features a photo I took of Little G a few days ago when she came up to our house for a little play date. On this play date we were playing with the Candy theme'd building blocks set from Learning Resources. I love giving her educational toys and games to play with and as soon as she saw this one...it was a hit!

We had fun building a candy house, a candy swingset (shown in the photo), a candy buggy car and even a candy theme'd boat. It is hard to believe that little G is over 3 years old already! Time sure does fly but I am enjoying being a grandmother to this precious little girl!

The Cape May Zoo - WW

My "almost" Wordless Wednesday post for this week is a photo I took earlier this month at the Cape May County Zoo in southern New Jersey. We love visiting this zoo and visit at least three times a year.

One of my husband's favorite animals to watch are the zebra. While I do find them pretty to look at it...they are pretty boring. Every time we sit to watch them they are always standing there feeding! (hubby finds that fun though) hahaha!

When I visit the Cape May Zoo I like to watch the primates and check out the big cats, especially Rocky the Tiger...one of my favs!

Almost Wordless Wednesday - Charlie the Squirrel

My almost Wordless Wednesday post today features a photo of "Charlie" our friendly squirrel who my 3 year old grand daughter has taken a real liking to. We have about a dozen squirrels who rob our bird feeders but they are mostly agressive and nasty. However, this one particular squirrel who she named "Charlie" is people friendly.

Mr. Charlie will come up and eat peanuts right out of your hand! He doesn't attack our bird feeders but will sit underneath them and eat the seeds that drop out from the other squirrels attacking it or from the birds dropping them.

So there you have it...a photo of "Charlie" on my backyard patio having a bird seed snack! You can click on the photo here in my post to enlarge it which really shows him nicely. What a great squirrel!

Wordless Wednesday | The Family on Easter

My almost wordless Wednesday photo for this week is a photo I took of my daughter, grand daughter and hubby on Easter. We had a great Easter dinner together and then got to play a game and build a puzzle with our grand daughter. In the photo she is holding her new snuggle bunny who she fell in love with as soon as I gave it to her. I love spending time with my family!

Almost Wordless Wednesday - My Pal for Autism Awareness Bear

I am a day late with my almost wordless Wednesday post this week and I apologize for that as I have been swamped with work all week long. My Almost Wordless Wednesday photo for this week is one of my grand-wee-one snuggling with her new "My Pal for Autism Awareness Bear" who has quickly become her new "best friend."

I love capturing innocent moments like this when she wasn't paying attention to Nanny with the camera. I love those type of shots!