Ben

This is my grandson, Ben, who is 22 months old. He is a "busy boy". I visited him yesterday and he was showing me all of his new toys. He's so entertaining...and a lot of fun!

Chloe

This is my precious little Chloe who will be 10 years old in March. My DH says she's the age of a fifth grader...and he says she's "smarter than a fifth grader"!

Mimi and Ben

On July 4, we had a cookout with family. I love the time I get to spend with my grandson, Ben. I have enjoyed watching him grow and develop. It's been a long time since we had a new baby in the family...and now we have two...Ben and Mary. We plan to make our July 4th celebration an annual event. Since my son, Tony, and his wife, Ginger, live right on the inland waterway, we get to watch and enjoy lots of fireworks celebrations from the beaches.

OMG...where have I been?

What a cutie!!!

Oops...looks like I've totally neglected my blog for the past three months. I definitely need to get busy.

Just got back from a nice weekend at the river with some of our family that came visiting. See the photos of Mary, my dh's new grandbaby.

STRANGE PLACE FOR A BIRD NEST!

About a month ago, we were doing some spring cleaning...and we were setting things outside on a little stoop, that we needed to take to storage building. Well...in the midst of our work and before we moved these items, a pair of wrens began building a nest inside this "foot spa". Since they started their nest, we haven't touched those items. She laid her eggs and they hatched. So far, we haven't been able to tell how many babies are in there, because the nest goes so far back in the container and it's so dark.

Last year, we had the wrens build two nests, but one was close to our bird feeders and we think the blue jays got the babies before they were ready to leave the nest. They built the next one on another deck, but too close to the ground and we think a snake got them. We saw the snake crawl right straight up the wall close by. So, this year's nest is in a more secluded area from the other birds...and hopefully, wild animals. We're hoping they make it this year.

Wrens are such busy little birds and their song is SO beautiful! We've enjoyed watching them feed the babies...in fact, we once almost had a "collision". I was going out and one was flying in. This is an entrance that I have to use. They don't seem to mind our sharing of this little porch.

MY TULIPS!

I thought "Spring had sprung"...but for the past few nights, it has been below freezing here in North Carolina. I brought in some of my plants, covered some of them, and took a chance with the rest of my flowers.

I'm not sure whether the freezing weather will hurt tulips or not...my husband says "no", but I have a friend who said "yes" and told me to cover them...so I did. I have the most beautiful red tulips this year. This is the first year I've had tulips do so well. In the photo, you can see the dew still on the flowers.

CLEANING MY STUDIO!

I have a beautiful studio that I had remodeled about three years ago right before I retired from teaching high school art.

Here is my old studio before it was remodeled.

"Before Photos"

I pulled everything out of the room and had new upper and lower cabinets installed on three walls...with white tile on the floor...but beautiful brightly colored purple counter tops.

"After Photos"

This is my painting corner!