December 2008 Round-up!

Chad and Angela came to visit and we took them to the Virginia Holocaust Museum.  Here they are standing outside of a genuine antique Polish cattle car similar to the ones used to transport so many to places they did not want to go during that awful time.

We were indeed blessed to have Alex Lebenstein as our guide .  There are so few Holocaust survivors left who can give a first hand account of what they suffered.  Alex was 11 years old when the cruelty of man came into his life.

There were many recreations of their suffering in the museum but this one of the crematory just outside of the gas 'showers' brings the point home.   The prisoners were used to dispose of their dead fellow prisoners reducing them to 4-6 pounds of ashes. 

While I would recommend everyone to visit be advised that it is disturbing and not appropriate for young children.

Chad and Angela brought Mia to visit also and she was cute, adorable, spunky and a whole lot of fun to have around.  Our Pomeranian, Yogi, especially enjoyed having her to wrestle with.  She made up for her smaller size in speed and spunk! 

Tona and Angela got into crafting (surprize!) and here they are posing with their handiwork! 

Tona's Celtic knot applique in progress.  She seems to always have a craft going and works on it (or them) whenever she get some spare time.

Sweetie's hair got long enough this winter for a new hairdo.  Don't you think she's cute!!!

The rest of the Heart's-A-Burstin residents - Brooke, Cosmic, Beethoven, Mozart, along with Frank and the hens are all doing fine.  

We are looking forward to new adventures in 2009 and may God bless you in His service, Randy and Tona (RAT).

Fall 2008 Update

Time for a fall update!  

Here is Tona, Yogi, and Sweetie taking a break!!!  I think Tona was going to look at sewing books when the 'crew' decided to join in.

Sweetie in a close-up!

Yogi and Sweetie having a playful 'conversation'.

This mushroom growing on the side of the old stump 'was just begging to get its picture taken'! 

Here is a side view of our house this fall with most of the leaves already down.  Our black cat  had a nice seat to keep an eye on things.

This is what I have been busy with this summer, and we have already used a good bit of wood so far.

We were inundated with acorns this fall and this one is sprouting.

A woodland shrub showing its fall colors.

This fall was very colorful and the roses do very well in the fall after the beetles are gone.

We are blessed to have such beauty in the changing of the seasons!

Time for a cup of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc!

Tona is working on some Celtic knots applique for a quilt and I am hoping for some snow this winter for the next update!

Convergence Quilting and Stuff

Tona has been convergence quilting of late.  She is going to help teach a class on convergence quilting soon so she is getting plenty of practice in preparation.

Click on the photographs below to get a larger version so you can see the detail.  

(If you see fingers in one of the corners it is the quilter's fingers!)

This one of 'Koi Swimming on a Sea of Convergence' is particularly striking.  The three Koi converging on the converged Koi in the bottom left hand corner is very intriguing.

Here is a 'Jungle Theme' that gives a good view of convergence.  The more you look at it the more you see coming together.

To me this one is a good complement of traditional block design and convergence.  Kinda mesmerizing if you look at it for a while!

Here is a picture of Tona and I converging for lunch at El Paso, a local Mexican restaurant that we have frequented over the years.  (Did you know you can use a child booster seat to boost your camera to a good height!)

Another blast from the past:  Tona and I converging for a picture a "few" years ago.

I guess you could say these mushrooms converge at their base!!!

(Just a convoluted way to stay on theme and include a recent mushroom picture!)

Just a quick update on things: Yogi is growing and doing well, from the last two tropical storms we have had the windshield broken in both of our cars, our neighbor brought his wood splitter and four wheeler over last weekend and we got a lot of firewood processed, and Tona is convergence quilting!!!

Drought, Rain, and Old Signs

Just a little update on our summer.  We have been in a drought for a couple of years now.  We had a dry winter and little bit of spring rain then a dry summer.  In April we had cracks in the ground already - usually what you might expect to see in August.

Here is what a little Oak tree should look like:

Here is a little Oak tree affected by the drought we have had this sumer:

Then we got rain from the remnants of Fay and Hanna - from Fay we got 2.5 inches and from Hanna we got 4 inches in about 12 hours.  See Tona's rain gauge for Hanna:

This Mint plant got a good watering!

Yogi had fun getting out after the rain and was playing with an ornamental squash from the garden. 

We got some wind - just enough to make a mess without causing much damage:

Traveling down route 10 in Virginia there is a deserted service station that had some old signs that I stopped and "captured".

The next two gas signs were on opposite sides of the same sign:

About two weeks after I took this picture this old store burned down:

And a blast form the past!  Our daughters when they were younger - Jessica on the left and Angela on the right.  

Two little blessings from God!

Introducing -Yogi - It's A Boy!!!

Yogi is our newest addition.  He is a Pomeranian about 3 months old.

Here are a couple of pictures of him playing outside yesterday evening.

I caught a few pictures of the asparagus yesterday morning.  I find the wispy foliage fascinating.

A couple of guests Tona placed in her garden.  

Our tomatoes are doing pretty well this year considering how terribly dry it is.  Tropical Storm Fay may give us some relief around the end of the week.

Here is Tona enjoying herself at Panera Bread in my jacket.

Hope everyone has a good week and we get more sleep tonight!

Fungi!Lichens!andMoss!-OH MY!!!

Dorothy saw many wonderful things in her adventures in the land of Oz - these are a few of the wonderful things in God's creation that we may step on or over every day without giving them a second look.

I believe this is called the 'Indian Corpse Plant'.

These next two came from our trip to the Smoky Mountains last year.  The green really blended in with the lush forest surroundings.

This yellow fungi stood out very stunningly,  I had to climb up a steep bank and brace/hold on to saplings to get this picture.  By the time I was finished I had an audience - probably wondering what that crazy man was doing.

This was a stump covered with fan shaped fungi

Mighty Mushroom

This green mushroom was from the Smokies.  I have not seen any others that were this color.

This orange upright fungi is mostly hollow and had a sickly/sweet/disgusting smell.

This is one I wish I had taken several pictures of.  The little mushroom was growing in an acorn cap.

This fungi was very gelatinous and soft.  The shape, texture, and color of fungi help make them very interesting to observe. 

This one was perched high in a tree.  I caught a glimpse of it from a distance - wonder how it climbed way up there?

These little guys looked like a burnt out forest.

Some purple and orange branch like fungi from the Smokies.

Lichens!

These lichen samples were growing on lava flows in Idaho.  

This lava flow cooled and hardened in ripples which gave it many crevices for lichen, and other things to take hold and grow.

Moss!

From the lush, green Smokies.  The area around streams are often covered with moss in the cool dark hollows.

The following moss pictures are from the Heart's-A-Burstin homestead in Virginia.

This moss is putting up capsules from which to spread its spores.

Moss on a split rail fence in Tennessee.

Not sure what category this one fits into!!!