Friday's Hunt v. 4.22

I'm rather late in getting around to Friday's Hunt blog - it has been a busy weekend.  Just scraping in under the wire with my entries for Eden Hills' prompts!

Starts with V
We have two rats that we adopted from one of Marc's coworkers (her cat was scaring them so she was looking for a home where they would not be so frightened).  One rat is named Violet and the other is named Ivy, so they both have a V in their names, but only one starts with V.  We think they are lovely pets - easy to care for and easy to love.  They are fun to watch - although they are mostly nocturnal so we don't get to see them at their most active times.  Here is Violet yawning!

Our indoor cat, Mitten, does not even pay the slightest bit of attention to them.  Here is Violet again, after having a bath.

Festive
We actually put up and decorated a Yule tree yesterday!  We don't put one up every year.  In fact, I think I've only had a tree up once in the past 5 or so years.  However, we are now well settled in our home and it seemed like a good year to try to find the right spot for a tree.  It is an artificial tree because we are both very busy and remembering to water a tree is another thing on the list that neither of us really needs.  However, it is a nice quality tree and we had fun putting it up.

Marc carried the tree upstairs.

I added a festive bow to our house mouse's tail.

We assembled the tree and Pippin came to check it out.  He did an audit and determined all the lights were working properly.

A couple of hours later, it was all decorated.  I'm not much of a tinsel person.  I like handmade ornaments the most.

It looked pretty with the room lights off, too.  Here you can also see a festive wall decoration from Marc's childhood on the rear wall.

We listened to a CD of Harry Connick Jr., and then a vinyl LP of Bing Crosby, both singing holiday tunes.  It was definitely festive.  It's nice to celebrate the winter holidays even though we are not at all religious. 

Wood
Several of the ornaments that I put on the Yule tree yesterday are made from wood.  Most of the ornaments on the tree have a story or a history to me.

This lovely wood heart ornament came from Winston-Salem in North Carolina.  It was purchased on my last vacation, which I looked up today, and realized was in 2008.  That means it will be 10 years since I have been on a vacation, with the exception of a few long weekends or our short honeymoon, which was 3 nights in Quebec City. Oh, and one night away this year on PEI.  I think I am in need of a real vacation soon.

There are two wooden bear ornaments on the tree.  Marc is especially fond of bears.

This ornament is actually made from wood shavings.  I am sure it is from Europe but I don't remember where - my parents bought these long ago and I have this one from their collection.

This little camel ornament is actually made from olive wood, and I think it might have come from Bethlehem from somebody who visited there.  I'm very fond of camelids, so it's nice to have this one on the tree.

I'm hoping to do a few more blog posts about other ornaments on the tree in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned!

Friday's Hunt v 2.25

Here I am, doing a Friday's Hunt on Saturday again.  Friday was a very busy day, and I was helping at Marc's workplace with their inventory counts, so it wasn't a good opportunity for blogging!  None the less, I don't want to miss the penultimate hunt, so here is the week's effort!

Our prompts from Eden Hills this week are Starts with Y, Week's Favourite, and Festive.

Starts with Y
I was going to do "yarn" for Y, but today I took some pictures outside, and I had another opportunity for this letter.  I took pictures of our yew shrubs in front of the house.  They are large shrubs that are weighed down by considerable snow at the moment, and because it was a cloudy morning, you can't really see the deep green in this view.

Yews are evergreens and they produce little red berries, although not very many of them.  We have 3 of these shrubs, but I only found berries on 2 of them.  I think the yew berries also look quite festive, in a natural way, so I am using this picture for both Y and festive!

Week's Favourite
My week's favourite is this picture of Lucky Nickel.  We have had 2 brutally cold days and nights, with wind chills down to -36 Celsius (-33 Fahrenheit) and I was really worried about both Lucky Nickel and the two sheep, since my barn didn't get built this fall.  The winds were gusting to over 70 kph (over 45 mph).  However, they have all been really well and haven't seemed to suffer any ill effects.  They have the hoop house made from an arched cattle panel with tarps over it, so at least that protected them from the wind.  Still, I am glad that the temperature is headed back to "normal" levels of cold today.

Festive
I really haven't had time to do anything festive in the house this year.  I've been very busy with work projects and other things, so I haven't put up a tree at home, especially since I helped with my parents' tree, so that was my festive effort!  However, as I mentioned above, I went outside and thought that it would be nice to take some natural festive pictures, since so much of what is considered "festive" is so commercialized these days.  The yew berry above was a lovely festive shot, I though.  Here are a few more shots that had a festive air to them.

This bird feeder has a snow hat, which looks quite festive, and the sun coming through the branches in the background (it made a very brief appearance) gave a bit of a festive glow.

This was a view through the woods while the sun was trying to come out.  Again, the woods with the snow and the glow seem festive to me.

Looking back at our house through the woods seemed to be a festive scene as well.  The smoke from the wood stove chimney gives a cozy feeling, and the snow blanket on the roof is a bit like something from a children's story book or a Christmas card.  I'm glad I have a warm and cozy house, even if it isn't very festive on the inside!