SOOC - Snowy Bird

It has been an unusually cold winter in Southern Connecticut, the coldest on record (since 1905) in some towns in this small state. However, this Straight out of the Camera (SOOC) capture of a bird in a tree in the back yard with a mere hint of snow seems to suggest that Spring may be here soon. Warmer temps and melted snow would feel like seasonal change was in fact here...but the bird lets me know that the change will be soon :)

SOOC - Tree Lighting

2013 Christmas Tree, downtown Ansonia, CT

2014 Christmas Tree, downtown Ansonia, CT

Due to a variety of computer issues and holidays, I have missed SOOC - Straight out of the Camera - but am back! Since it is still the Christmas holiday (I count until the Twelfth Night), the Christmas tree on our green downtown is still lit at night, and a lovely sight downtown. This year and last, a good looking tree sits under the stars - last year it seemed a bit more winter-y with the snow under its boughs, but this evergreen looks so seasonally nice any year!

Wordless Wednesday - All I want for Christmas...

Would a smallish Maine Coon do? Our late feline Sir Humphrey of Upland was indeed a gift from heaven! See WW and WW

Whimsical Windows - Tinsel

The holidays have been busy, but happily I am back for this week's fun Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors, hosted by Toby. In this view, the era is the mid-1950s, the place being my grandparent's home on Oregon Avenue Steubenville Ohio, the person my Aunt Terry. The windows here seem peripheral to the giant holiday tree.

However, in an FB exchange last week with Terry, the picture window has a prominent history as she advised:

"Grandpa did like big trees - and he loved displaying those trees in the picture window. I remember when I was little we had small living room windows. When it was decided to replace them, Grandpa insisted that the windows be simple plate glass so that everyone would be able to see his Christmas trees in full view. When the city busses drove down Oregon Ave. they slowed down so that passengers could gawk at the tree -- and everyone rode the bus in those days"

Further, the tree was a part of the lore in Steubenville it seems:

"And, yes, one year the tree was featured on page 1 of the [Steubenville] Herald-Star. The paper had been asking for several years to feature the tree but they wanted Grandpa to decorate it a week before Christmas. He would have none of that when I was small. But one year he gave in. It might have been this tree that was featured"

So the giant tinsel tree makes the window whimsical indeed!

Wordless Wednesday - Not mere ornaments...

Parents, it seems, dote over their babies on many ways. Like Christmas ornaments that celebrate the little ones intro to the spirit of the holiday...see Wordless Wednesday

Ruby Tuesday - Ruby leaves falling up

Leaves falling up. Captured by Patti

An uphill climb. By Patti

Ruby Tuesday Too returns in this autumnal season. Of course we think of red leaves falling from the trees down - not falling up as these leaves on the ivy are going uphill on this maple tree at the bottom of our back yard. An illusion or is gravity being defied here?

Ruby Tuesday Too - Ruby Pink

Ruby Tuesday Too allows us to continue our quest of finding a lot or a little red in any setting. 

Here it is the soft pinkish color combined with the red sneakers to meet the theme with a hint of cute for emphasis :)

The year is 1996, the month July, daughter Allegra and two cousins at a family function. Cute may be an understatement here, but the now grown trio might prefer that term to adorable these days. The quest for rubies knows no limitations...

SOOC - Tinsel (and then some)

SOOC - Straight out of the Camera - takes me back to the days of yore and that steelmaking city of Steubenville. Grandpa liked big Christmas trees full of tinsel - this example that sits in the middle of the living room certainly describes the big tinsel-y tree quite well...Given the picture of Aunt Terry on the modern for the day television, I'll guess this was taken around 1957 or so. I believe this view is straight out from his German Exa SLR camera - a proud tree decorator he! A merry and happy Christmas to all!