Puzzles

Rick's brother Dale came to visit us - for deer hunting season. But Rick and I were sick and the weather was nasty, so we stayed home and did jigsaw puzzles! I know, hard to believe. But it turns out the three of us are puzzle maniacs. I was thoroughly surprised by our dedication.

The first puzzle we did, the only one in the house, turned out to be a Christmas gift from Dale some years back. It was terribly hard. Just look at the pieces!

We worked long and hard on this one. Do they look like brothers?

Rick's glasses didn't work at all for me, but I thought they were pretty cute.

We finished the puzzle in one day.

So I immediately went to the store and bought another one. This puzzle was better suited to Rick's glasses.

We made great progress the first day, but Rick felt better and the weather cleared. There was hunting to be done (but that's another story for Rick to tell.) So we didn't finish this one so quickly. But we did finish it!

October Leaves

I took these photos of our back yard in early October. I was sitting on the back deck enjoying a beer on a warm sunny day after work. The trees looked so pretty. I felt compelled to take some photos using my cell phone camera.

That's our dog, Berlin.

The leaves are almost all gone now. Rick and I have raked leaves on three separate occasions so far.

Thousand Springs Festival

Last weekend Rick and I went to the Thousand Springs Festival near Hagerman, ID. We waited all year for it because last year we just happened to find it -- but at closing time. This is a small festival, but the art is nice (watercolors, photos, baskets, leather works, sculptures, glass, etc) and they have live music and food. Our favorite exhibit was the slightly disturbing metal sculptures of http://www.artisan-forge.com/sculptures.html.

The festival is held at the Thousand Springs Preserve, which is a spectacular place where springs (thousands of them, really!) gush out from the cliffsides. These are some of the larger springs. It was so windy that day, the water was blowing back up the cliff!

My favorite part is where the spring water gathers into a creek that runs through the middle of the festival. The water is the clearest I have ever seen. There are green plants growing underwater that glow when the sunlight hits them.