SOOC: Lanscapes & Sunset

On our way home from our little golf driving range outing, I had Steve, my husband pull over on the side of the road in a couple spots that we drive almost every day.... it is on the way to the malls in Hadley, MA. Hadley has always been a farm town.... with the colleges in the area (5) Hadley is now developed and has a ton of stores, a mall and the "strip" is very commercial for a farm town in Western, Mass - although it is truly nice to have all those conveniences close by. Hadley still has that farm "feel" with the smell of cow manure when you park at the Walmart and of course with the beautiful scenery of the still existing farms all around. As I have said in earlier posts this is the organic farm meca and you can see wide open fields for miles upon miles as you drive on the roads in this area. It is home to the Seven Sisters.... A mountain range that includes Mt Holyoke and Mt. Hitchcock...


These photos show a piece of the Seven Sisters in the sunset. I really love the beauty of the lone tree in the field. I have wanted to stop and take some photos of this area for a long time and really glad I finally did. Hope you like these photos as much as I do..... :) Please leave a note if you stop by! :)

This is for the SOOC - straight out of the camera, no editing --- original photos --- hopefully freshly shot this week. Join in on the fun and view some other great photos at the link below.

SOOC & Macro Friday: Fleurs Dans Mon Jardin

I love our backyard. 

I love where we live. 

I love the woods.

I love the trails.

I love spending time out there with family.

I love sharing it with friends. 

And of course - I love taking photographs so I can share the beauty with you. 

This lily above is for macro friday

It is the simple things in life that give us pleasure.  

Like the beauty of the grasshopper on the kayak, the deer at the playset, the frogs in the little mud pool in the french garden, the rock exposed and so bright at times, the waterfall that accumulates in a crazy rain storm, the grass, the roses, and the wood pile too.  :)  And more.

Here is the selection of photos from this week to share for my submission to Straight out of the Camera.  No editing (I am too lazy for that anyway...  at least right now...)  --- so here are my flower favorites. 

This lily above is brightened with a little flash --- it came out so nice with no editing.  Perfect for SOOC

Click on this picture of the lavender from our garden to link to the entire flower collection on Nancy E Photography! :)

Enjoy!  And please leave a comment if you stopped by!  :)

Thanksgiving 2009

The Wishbone - by Summer Jackson
The pumpkin pie is cooling,
The turkey smells delicious
The table's covered end to end
With all my favorite dishes

When we break the wishbone
Here's what I will wish"
That everyone's Thanksgiving
Could be as fine as this

Memories:
Turkey Trot - won my age group and set a PR by .01 sec!
The Ma Family welcomes Jamie home as a surprise to Alex & Harrison
Dinner! Prime Rib, Jambalaya & Choc Cream Pie!
Gram, Aunt Sandy, Uncle Tom and clan visit to Mechanicville
A warm family feeling everywhere and all around!!

Family

The holidays were so grand this year as we were able to visit and spend time with much of our family. The annual trip north to my family for Thanksgiving will now become a tradition as it was so much fun and felt so good to see everyone! It has been great on facebook to reconnect with family and friends and the face to face connection has been even better because we have stayed in touch!

Christmas Eve Eve with the Cook family will also be an annual event for us - although it is so hard during the week to put it all together I think we pulled it off and had a great time for the second year in a row - although we missed Grama / Mom Cook so much! Red wine in the kitchen tasting all kinds, all years and just laughing and sharing during this time of year is so special.

And our family, the kids, Oakley - Schuyler wasn't able to be with us on Christmas when Samantha & Stephen joined us for the brunch, so we had a special gathering at the Lodge our weekend retreat at Mount Snow to open his gifts with all of our family.

Here posted is all the group photos - to share with all of you - and to give thanks for family.
We love all of you.

Photos:
Oakley in the backyard
The Stephen Cook Family in Belchertown, MA
The Stephen Cook Family (complete) in Mount Snow, V
The Peck / VanDine / Cook / Sizen Family in Georgia, VT
The Cook Families in Belchertown, MA

The happiest of Holidays!

The Tiger Cub Scout Scavenger Hunt

It worked out perfectly - I read the list to the boys and they were aware of each piece that they were supposed to collect. We gave them plastic cups to collect the stuff they wanted to bring back and off we went into the woods. At the end we went over the list and the boys showed us their collection. Also it was key that we did the hunt "in pairs" as not to create competition and keep it more fun!

Fun times!

Exposing the rock!

They say that most of Belchertown is rock and we are living right on top of it - lots of rock and dirt! The grass is growing in the backyard, but the window outside the kitchen needed more light and landscaping - so we began the journey of "lopping it" off and spent about 9 hours this weekend spraying with the pressure washer and Steve on the tractor removing the dirt - chainsaw to a few trees and boy what a change! The screened in porch overlooking it all is our new favorite place - and Oakley's too! Here are a few photos and I will post more later!

Steve also raked the driveway with me on the tractor waving at Gerry & Brian at the bottom of the driveway like I was in a parade. We have so much fun together - and what a beautiful weekend!

Grass is ALWAYS greener growing it from scratch!

Reaching to the heavens for the sun and the rain!

Our new baby grass!



Our BIG backyard - - & my latest favorite thing to do - - "watch the grass grow". It is starting to look green out there - just check it out for yourself!

Happy Mother's Day!

"My day"

7 AM - run 7 miles with Oakley
9:00 AM - clean a little house and play games with Schuyler & Steve while drinking Rao's coffee
10:30 AM - Go to the "Roadhouse" for Brunch - French Toast, Pancakes, Omlette and the best organic coffee around!
12 - Shopping in Hadley - TJ Maxx, Stop & Shop, Blockbuster, Dicks, Liquor 44 - all my favorite stores!
Flowers
PJ's
Perfume
Speed Stacks - Schuyler's 4th set! Although we played competition with them today!

3 PM - Steve spread grass, I cleaned house and did laundry and played with the Pitch Back with Schuyler
5:30 PM - dinner with my favorite guys!
6 PM - The Golden Compass - movie with popcorn and some J. Lohr Chardonnay!

To sleep early and some very special sweet dreams!

We are growing grass!!

Some really beautiful photos from the back yard to share on this post as I was wandering around seeing the beautiful colors in the flowers that spring has to bring... AND WE HAVE GRASS! Such a cool thing to see the seed turning to grass. Pretty funny how the line in the yard delineates where we stopped planting.... can't wait to see the see of green lawn - - soon, oh so very soon..... sun keep shining!

The first mountain bike ride of the year!

We live on 42 acres in Belchertown, mostly woods... that connects to trails - connecting to a path wide enough for 4 wheelers and more out in the woods. The trails are known for recreational use in the area and the other day Steve and I walked the property showing me the boundary lines and the land. Really cool to be in the woods and exploring... once we got the bike for Steve we have been clearing the land, so finally today we connected the back yard to the trail in the back, clearing the little trees and making way to get on the trails. Once the trails were cleared we took Oakley and went out exploring and connecting the area through the trail network. We rode for 2 1/2 hours up hills, through swamps, mud, rocks and had a blast! Steve had his first crash going over this tree lying in the trail diagonal and hit some rocks. OW! But got back on and we connected to the road and went home.

Here are some photos to mark the day - - so much fun to be together and enjoy the outdoors and get some great heart pumping exercise!

Big Boy and his toys!

Landscaping the backyard this weekend - - leveling the land, and moving dirt around to get ready to seed! Shopped this week online for a rake for the back of the John Deere and then... we drove around Belchertown and Hadley looking for the perfect rake to do the work. We talked to the first place about a York rake that would need to be ordered. So we drove to the next stop in town - Orchard HIll Farm & Equipment on Federal Street - they are a Woods dealer and Steve talked to the guy for quite a while learning about the right one to buy.... so we are now the proud owners of a Woods 107 - 72 inch, medium duty rake! Steve has spent quite a few hours last night and all day today going around and around the yard, raking up the big rocks and leveling out the land. It is starting to look really great and ready to seed! Me - I can't wait for the grass to grow and have a green back yard!

Happy Easter!

We got up early and headed to Mt. Snow on Easter Sunday for the egg hunt and for Steve to work with the Alpine Program. The season is winding down and the crowds are subsiding. We were thrilled to see our friend / ski instructor Tabi at the base and talk to her as well as Samantha and Seth were out skiing too! Schuyler is pretty tired of skiing but we had a great time looking for eggs on the side of the trail. They hide one "golden" egg and a few with numbers to redeem at the ski shop for "stuff". We found 4 eggs, with a toy, candy and a sticker. It was fun to search! Hide & seek at a different level. Before we left the house we did a egg hunt for Schuyler to come home and enjoy at the end of the day too!

Samantha came over for Easter dinner, and it was great to see her. Stephen and Cait are on their way home from Florida and stopped by last night to visit. We are looking forward to spring!

Happy Easter everyone!

"Snow Running"

Training in the winter time is a challenge. The darkness, getting out a warm bed to a cold outside, dressing with SO many layers, covering your face and hands if it is really cold... and the fact that they don't plow the roads very wide to give a shoulder to run on. I have been almost hit a couple times and had to dive into a snow bank. Now I just try to pick the quieter roads as much as possible and I have found the back way through the woods trails to get to the house through our property. It is an amazing workout to run in the snow. Tougher than sand I definitely think so, and the unlevel surface makes it more of a challenge. The ups and downs in the woods, partially on snowmobile trails and the rest in the snow that is semi breakable granular about up to the tops of my ankles. Oakley LOVES running in the woods and it is much better for him to go off leash to have fun!

This is the last HILL up to our house - such a happy sight with home just yards away!

"My Great Big Backyard"

The sunset
Diving over the hill
Buried in the rocks and twigs
Beautiful color
Reaching out for one last breath of air
Sharing its great light
Until the morning comes
We say goodnight