Kelly's Irish Class in the Athens Paper

Kelly Belle's 1st Irish Preformance

Irish Step dancing is Kelly Belle's favorite new dance. It's very fun and very fast paced. She started this style of dance in September. She just loves it. It is an expensive style of dance. The girl with the orange dress, she is selling it for $1,600. There is plenty of opportunity for Kelly Belle to dance. Her class is booked for 3 more performances before her recital in May.
I think she looks like an Irish doll. The wig, crown and dress...wow. I am very proud of Kelly Belle, she works very hard at her dancing. I never have to remind her to practice. She takes ballet twice a week, tap and Irish once a week. That is four days at a dance studio. Very fun!!
Enjoy her show...the camera work is really BAD. Not use to my camera.

Rain, Rain

We have been having lots of rain lately. The weathermen predict many more days of rain. I know we need the rain, but I really think we might grow moldy.

The horses are making a mess of the pasture...muddy!!!! The drive way has a small stream running down it.

I took a few shots with my new camera of things that have some rain droplets on them. I love the simple pleasure of nature and what it give us to enjoy!

Yellow daisies are my favorite flowers, so sweet and simple.Morning glories are all over our yard, the previous owners must have planted them.

Watermelon plant is growing very nicely, we never planted it...go figure!

Yes, the spider is back!

Spider Obession

I have been so obsessed with spiders and their webs for the past several weeks.

On our front porch we now have two yellow garden spiders, I have to say they are getting big. They make the perfect orb webs.

Then last week we found a funnel spider web, what a great piece of design. It's the home of the field spider. The tunnel serves a 'backdoor' to his web home. Can hide there or run away if threatened...all this is very cool to me. Enjoy these shots.

See the long tunnel/funnel web.

Moonflower

I had to post my pictures of our Moonflower plant. Last year Helen gave me this moonflower plant. We never got to see it bloom, since it only blooms at night. We would go out to wait, then decide to do something else, like dinner and then night life starts and totally forget about it. Then the next morning we would say, bummers we forgot to look.

It dies back in the winter or re-seeded itself. But it came back. It has really grown, twice the size as last year. It's hidden from the sun behind a tree. It has bloomed so many times this year but once again we have missed it. Once it blooms the white, main flower dies and falls off.

(The two round things hanging off the plant are the seed pods. The plant has a soft velvet stem and leaves.)

Now last night while I was trying to take pictures of a spider at twilight (talking to my sister the camera expert) I looked over and one of the flowers was in full bloom. I was so excited and it is so lovely to look at.

I am practicing with my new camera and the flowers were taking in full darkness...very nice.There was some bug inside, too.

These were two spiders that I was trying to photograph when I saw the moonflower. Was an exciting night for the girly farmer.

Playing in the Rain

Couple of evenings ago the weather was nice and warm. Then it started to rain and that maked perfect conditions to run in the rain. Well, at least three kids were home and they had a blast. Nice to see my 14 year old still enjoys the simple pleasures of life…..jumping in mud puddles. Moments like this I wish would never end!!

I even got a cool shot of a water droplet with my new camera!

Tree Identification Class

Today was our first Plant/Tree Id class and river day at the Barker family’s home. They have such a lovely homestead and lots of acreage for the kids to run and play. The most exciting part is their river. There is so much to explore.
We started out with Bob taking us on a walk through the woods looking at trees…wow there are lots! And even more information to know!! We collected some leaf samples. Then we came back and Bob showed the kids how to ink press their leaves in a notebook. He gave the common name and the Latin name. Even Ryan got to do some leaf rubbings.
The three trees we identified today was:
1. Sweet Gum/Liquidamber styrasifluia
2. Red Bud/Cereus canadensis
3. Red Maple/Acer rubra

We changed clothes and ate lunch and then headed to the river for water fun. Daniel even brought out his two kayaks. I would post more photos but my camera battery went dead after 8 shoots.
We had so much fun, we hope to make this a bi-monthly outing.
The out doors, some education and lots of fun with friends…you can’t school any better than that!
cool spider