A country fence...

Taken on the grounds of The Salem Cross Inn in West Brookfield, Massachusetts, where we had lunch with my brother Rob while he was visiting earlier this month.

My son and I went to see Star Trek, The Next Generation last night on the big screen at our local cinema Cinemagic.  What fun!  If you are any bit of a Trekkie, I would recommend it if it comes to a cinema near you.

Linking to Friday's Fences.

A fine dusting...

I had to get up literally at the crack of dawn this morning to make my way into Worcester for a physical therapy session.  I would have loved to stay in bed for an hour or two more but as the sun was coming up, I saw that the little bit of snow that we got yesterday was hanging onto the shrubs and trees in a most attractive way.  So I decided to take my camera along with me.

As I passed our neighbor's house, I noticed a lone turkey making his way through the woods.  Lucky him for surviving Thanksgiving.  Of course, he probably knows that as long as he sticks around in the neighborhood, he will be safe.

On the way home from physical therapy, I decided to drive around a little to  check out some of our local places where I thought the snow might be nice and I came across this little bridge that someone decided to use as a message board to remind us that all we need is love.

I am a real sucker for that copper color of an old leftover oak leaf against the white.

So I moseyed on home.  I still wish I could have stayed in bed for another hour or two this morning, but if I had to get up, at least I got to enjoy the beauty of the fine dusting of snow that we got yesterday.  As I was enjoying my first cup of coffee finally, I took a glimpse out the window and saw this fine specimen posing so nicely.  

I hope you all had a good morning, too.

Back in the Hunt!

It has been a month and a day since I got my new knee.  Generally speaking, I am doing well with it.  I'm still battling the fatigue factor but I am hopeful that that will go away soon.

  

In this past month, I have done very little with my camera but I did manage to put a few together for this week's Scavenger Hunt.   Here are the prompts for this week:  Home or Thankful, In the Kitchen, Couple, Bubbles and Trees.  And here are my entries:

Home sweet home!

Here's a glimpse of my merry, messy kitchen.

A couple of cute little visitors to our bird feeder.

I have a bottle bubbles and intended to take a picture of a few of them floating around, but it was so windy here yesterday that they just kept flying toward the house and getting stuck on the slider.  So this is what I got.

This is our European Beech tree that  sits in our front yard.  It's a beautiful tree and always the last to lose its leaves every year.

Linking to Ashley Sisk's Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

Living the vertical life...

The villa where we stayed on the Amalfi Coast in Italy was close to the city of Positano.  What a place!  This place is vertical living at its most beautiful.  Here are a few pics from our visit to Positano...

These grow wild around there. 

This is my current Facebook banner.  Isn't she beautiful?  Queen of all she surveys.

Tired old barn...

I pass this patched up beauty now and then.  I was glad that no one was behind me on the road the day I took this pic.

Linking to Bluff Area Daily's Barn Charm.

Skyfall and Scotland...

We went to see the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, this week and enjoyed it very much.  It made me forget about my aching knee for a couple hours for which I was grateful.  Maybe one of the new medical protocols for knee replacement surgery should be Bond movie marathons.  I may bring this up to my doctor when I see him next.

I enjoyed the movie a lot but I left wishing I could go back to Scotland, which to me, is a very enchanted place full of natural beauty and friendly, generous people.  At least that was the experience we had when we visited a couple years ago.    Not like the last few scenes in the movie, I can insure you of that.

I decided to go back through my many photos and see if there were some that I didn't get a chance to edit or look at thoroughly.  Well, there are way more than I expected.  I picked out a few and will post them today.  Hope you enjoy a little taste of Scotland.  Most people tell me that as long as haggis isn't involved, they are good with it.

Castle Stalker

These seals were in the Oban Harbor.  

Revisiting autumn...

I didn't get enough of fall this year.  I didn't have enough time to even look at my autumn photos to see what I had lurking on my machine.  I've decided to do that today.  I so love fall and already miss the color.  

Off the Common in Brookfield, Massachusetts.

I thought I'd throw one in of Ms. Olive who loves to go leaf peeping with me.

Airing My (thoughts on) Dirty Laundry...

Let's face it, if you ever came to my house, you would soon realize that I would never win the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.  But of all the household chores that must be done, I hate doing the laundry the most.  Let's face it.  There is no satisfaction there, because it will never be completely done.  As you sit there folding the stuff, the underwear you are wearing is just the beginning of another load.  It goes on and on and on...  And in my case, I also have to go down into the deepest, darkest reaches of our basement to get to the machines.  Hauling the stuff around and up and down stairs has been a true challenge for me.

Having said all of that though, I have to admit that I find something rather cheerful about seeing laundry hanging on a line.  And we saw a lot of that while in Italy.  People there seem to wash their clothes and then let nature take over.  What a good, green idea!  Of course, the year round climate is more conducive to laundry hanging there than it is here in Massachusetts USA.  But I think that if I ever am able to move my laundry facility to the first floor, I may just start hanging the stuff out.  And I might even take pictures of it.

Colorful day...

It's a beautiful day here in central Massachusetts.  Though we still have snow on the ground, the birds are singing and the snow is melting.  I like snow and winter but this seems to be a little early.  I'm really not complaining though because it is beautiful out and I learned a long time ago about the fruitlessness of complaining about something that I truly have no control over.

My knee seems to be getting better every day.  The major thing I am having a problem with is the fatigue.  Here I thought that by now I would have all my Italy pics gone through and edited and would be starting on other things I have ignored over the last couple of years but no!  I just can't seem to sit here long enough to get a lot done.  Oh, well...best laid plans and all that.

But going with this beautiful day, I decided to post some colorful pictures from our Italy trip.  These were taken at Villa Miragalli where we stayed.  A little of this and a little of that...

My hat likes Italy.

Italian fence...

Here's a little fence on the property of Villa Miragalli where we spent a heavenly week.  It kept us from falling into the sea after drinking that wonderful Italian wine.  Just one of the Villa's many charms.

LINKING TO FRIDAY FENCES.

More fun in Italy...

I said that I would be posting pics of the place we stayed on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, but truth is, I haven't been doing a lot of sitting at the computer because I'm not sleeping too well because of the knee.  But I did get to a few pics and will post them today.  Here are a couple of sea view pics I took right after we got there.  Nice  view, isn't it?  The second is a shot of a cruise ship passing by.  

This is a  photo of our good friend Sean who was with us on this trip.  Sean is the consummate host and is  so good at helping everyone feel at home.  One afternoon, Sean prepared a nice tray of cheese, salami and olives for an afternoon snack.

Sean picked up the first "tray" he found in the kitchen.  That stylish cheese tray just happened to be Greg's iPad.  We got a good chuckle out of it.  I guess that Apple has thought of everything including making this iDevice  do double duty as a serving tray.  Note, that Sean didn't skimp on the wine there.

How about a nice Italian sunset picture to end this installment?