The Original Italian Restaurant engulfed in flames!

When I first reported to you about this fire on January 7 there were several of my followers who couldn't access the link to Kim's FB page. After coaxing her to post it on YouTube it will now be easier to see this terrible and damaging fire. The good news is that they will rebuild and, in the meantime have another plan for a temporary restaurant. There is a "Paint & Sip Party" and Spaghetti Dinner planned for February 11 to support the employees after the loss if their livelihood when the restaurant was destroyed by fire. This is a wonderful and caring community!


After reaching +60° yesterday -  YES that's correct, we are back to +14° with some snow and strong winds. During the night (early morning) we had a power loss and it has been restored after 61/2 hours. We heard on our scanner that a tree up the road fell down on the lines. I wondered why the plows hadn't come through at least once since we awoke. Thank goodness for our stand-by generator! 

Photomanips

First of all I will tell you that I don't have any computer programs such as Photoshop. I use what I can find for FREE on the internet and don't ever pay for more options or upgrades from those sites. I have an iMac computer and the application that came with it already installed was Preview version 4.2. This does many adjustments for me. I have been experimenting with my photos over the last few years and derive a good bit of enjoyment making, what I call, "Creations."

Today I took three shots at 7:30 am when the foggy mist was still over the lake. A single hummingbird was feeding and it looked tempting to try to capture it at this with the foggy background.  Well, with every picture I took I was sure I had a nice one. After uploading to the computer, imagine my dismay when not even one contained that tricky evasive little creature. Zip! It was here and zip! gone... every time.

Later, I was going through some photos that my Photography Whiz Friend who lives in NJ had recently taken and there was my little bird. It flew to her!

I just had to do something about my empty feeder so............

One more...

Well...that's her bird on her feeder but it's is on MY background and in MY view.

And then it faded away and flew away again! ZIP!

Dear Deer

Again, I'm showing off photos that I didn't take but I'm compelled to show them anyway. My quasi sister, Jen, took these in her residential neighborhood in north NJ when riding in her car. She was visiting a friend and is NEVER without her camera. Now I know why! You should see her bird and other nature pictures! I'm trying to persuade her to blog because she's also a great writer, but she is an extremely busy lady and very involved in many areas.

Here goes..... Enjoy!!!

See what I mean?  And these are only a few of the pictures she took that day.