Grandma's House

Some one's been busy.

Don't these just invite you to pick one up and dash it against a tree trunk?

Or against your brother's retreating back?


But while sister was busy making snow balls outside, the boys were busy at the kitchen table.

Doing what boys do with left over wrapping paper tubes...

Making ninja swords.

And guns.


Grammy made sure to have some interesting new things to explore when they got here. It helped to bide the time before Christmas actually came.

You can really turn the cage in this Bingo game. And that made all the difference between calling out numbers you'd drawn from a regular ol' game box lid, or calling them out as they spun and dropped from this cage. Grammies know.

Sawyer couldn't believe he got to open a present early. It was actually a birthday present that could have cost $20 to mail to Canada. Smart Aunt Melissa waited until we came here and that made opening it that much more special.

Aunts know.

I was instructed to open my present early. A new camera! Kit! With a second lens, and a second battery, and a cable, and another weird looking cable! And a lens hood, and a petal lens! And a thingy! And a cleaning kit! And some caps that belong on something! And some filters that don't fit that we'll have to return! And a USB key! And a thinga-muh-jiggy to do remote control! And a manual the size of a french-english dictionary!

The whole thing was overwhelming. Perfect timing too. The virus I left home with followed me all the way down here and set up house in my lungs.

I just sat and tried shots and tried to learn the new camera.

I ventured outside one day and took a few pictures to get a feel for it....

Are these foot prints showing up on your screen? I like the detail I can get. Who do you think they belong to?

Hello Mr. Cardinal!

(But this is what I like about the new camera the best...)

Same shot, magnified--

He's looking at me!

I might never have known that. It makes me feel like he's my friend. All because of a camera. I wonder if Nikon knows it's fostering kinship between the species? And anthropomorphism?

I'm so glad Todd gave me the camera early. Husband's know. By the end of this vacation I should be stunning you with National Geographic like-footage and relating a Beatrix Potter-like knowledge of all the fauna around.

.

I'll call him Mr. Sketchmudgeon.