Round Robin Challenge: What you are Thankful for

The challenge this week is What you are Thankful for. That's an easy one; I'm thankful I've grown so much closer to my cousin, Maribeth. She has a blog which she calls Dackel Princess where she writes about her life with her hubby in NH, her dogs, Greta (a "dackel" or as we know them, a daschund, about to have her first litter!) and Fritz (a white german shepherd), their fruit trees and garden in the summer, skiing in the winter and assorted other topics. Check her out sometime, I think you'll like her :-)

I have so many good memories of growing up with Maribeth; she lived on Cape Cod and our families would get together each summer for a couple of weeks, and usually on Thanksgiving and Christmas. She's a year younger than me, but that never mattered. We were happiest on the beach, or riding our bikes, or playing with our Barbies...at least until we were 12 or 13 or so. That's when we started to grow apart a bit. I started wanting to do things with my friends during the summers, but still...every Thanksgiving and Christmas (except when I lived in Japan) were spent together.

Now, I think we're trying to set up our own tradition of spending Thanksgiving & Christmas together; this picture, in fact, is from our Thanksgiving celebration, which as you can see with filled with food (and those were just the appetizers!).

Anyway...long story short...I'm thankful for Maribeth :-)

Knock, knock

Who's there?


Don't open the door, I'm trying to take a picture here!

Round Robin Challenge: In the Kitchen!

The challenge this week is In the Kitchen! When I saw this topic, I thought...ooh! I'll photograph a meal from begining to end! But alas...the best laid plans...are usually forgotten by me! So ... you get the finished product, the dishes it created and a final thought from my Aunt.


This is a Shephards Pie, modified a bit from the recipe my cousin gave me. Instead of ground turkey (which replaced the beef or lamb), I used leftover chopped chicken from Sunday and chicken stock instead of beef stock. This recipe is the best ever and if you'd like, I'll share it with you :-)


And these are the dirty dishes making this meal generated. Yes, I left them overnight to get a good picture...but I probably would've left them anyway cause it was one of those nights.


This is the last page in a cookbook my Aunt put together...one of my fondest memories is the Thanksgiving meals our families shared together over the years.

The Old Barn

It was extremely foggy here this morning; this is the old barn in my back yard...it's seen better times, but it sure makes a nice photography subject!

A shiba and his shadow

He's looking off to the future...which included a back flip ala Max, poor thing! Got a ton of sand in his ear, he was NOT a happy shiba! But he had a great time, as did Max, running on the beach :-)