Welcoming In 2009

Of  course I was sound asleep when the neighbor’s fireworks woke me letting me know the New Year had just come.  I know these people that like fireworks on New Year’s Day mean well but do any of them own dogs?  Please!  You scared Grace and Petee half to death! 

I woke up the second time at 5:45 a.m. and decided to get up and make my first official trip of 2009 down the hall to let Petee outside.  A few minutes later I decided we might as well just stay up so I got Gracie out of bed, made blueberry muffins and then filled the birdfeeders for the day. 

Around about 8:30 I was thinking it would be nice to get back into bed again (my belly now full of blueberry muffins) but I grabbed the camera and headed down the road to the street corner where the fountain runs 24/7.  I noticed last week the heaping pile of ice looked prime for photo ops so out I went, bundled up against the 26 degree temp and the rather gusty wind chill. 

I was only out about an hour but, dang, it was totally worth it.  I got some beautiful ice photos and hardly have any frost bite. 

I came home, ate another muffin and out I went again – down to Chaumiere Lake to see if any of the local wildlife was hanging out (check out the mallard photo over at The Way I See It) and then came back home again to defrost for the day. 

Gracie and Petee are sleeping at my feet.  I’m doing laundry and cleaning house in between editing photos.  It’s been a good day so far – peaceful and relaxed…just the way I like ‘em. 

I’m back at work tomorrow for the whole day (I’ll probably be the only one there but someone has to answer the non-ringing phone) and then I have the weekend off.  How will I ever survive working a full work week next week?  I have no idea…but I’m sure I’ll be wanting a nap every day. 

Speaking of that…