Blue Monday: Summer Sky Blues

I haven't posted anything for Blue Monday in a very long time. Actually, I've only just started blogging again after almost letting this blog fade away. I've always wished I could be one of those reliable people who post something everyday, but I'm very lazy. And I live a really boring life, ya'll! Don't get me wrong -- I like it that way! But it doesn't give me much to blog about.

Anyhoo...back to Blue Monday. I know it's not summer yet, officially, but it certainly seems like summer around here. (Yay!) And lately we've been having some gorgeous, deep blue skies. Just like this one....

Also a little boring, I guess; but I love them.

But the other day we had some pretty interesting cloud cover that looked just like feathers. Almost like some giant bird had dropped them overhead. Not sure what caused them, but they hung around long enough for me to get a snap, then wafted away. (Like this blog keeps trying to do!)

Happy Blue Monday, everyone! Hope you have a lovely, colorful week.

Blue Monday is hosted by Magical Mystery Teacher

Blue Monday: The Return

Wow, it's been almost a year since my last Blue Monday post. Well, I haven't really been doing much blogging at all for a while now. And I've always been a kind of hit-or-miss blogger. Sometimes there's just too much going on and not enough time to sit down and get my thoughts together, and other times — there's just not much I want to say. Feast or famine, I guess.

But today I'm back. And I'm happy to say, the blue skies are back too. After a weekend of rain and gloomy weather, the blue finally broke through yesterday afternoon.

Now we've got sunshine (mostly) predicted for the rest of the week. (Yay!) Looking forward to getting out at some point and doing our annual bluebonnet drive. If all goes well. Fingers crossed.


Happy Monday, everyone! Hope you have a lovely, blue sky week.

Blue Monday is now being hosted by Magical Mystical Teacher.

Click here to see more or add your link.

Blue Monday: Blue Skies Smilin' at Me

Haven't done a Blue Monday post in quite a while (can it really be more than a year?), and I'm very happy to see the meme is still around. Many thanks to Magical Mystical Teacher for keeping it going!

We had quite a few cloudy, gloomy days in March and April, but not a whole lot of rain. So the drought in central Texas continues, although not as dire as it was a few years back. Lake Travis is no longer at 100% capacity, but it's full enough for boating and other aquatic activities. I kind of like it when the lake is down a little because it produces a nice beach-like area leading down to the water.

So far, late April and early May have brought mostly nice weather — a little cooler than I'd like, but lots of lovely sunshine and blue skies. The photo below was actually taken on our first "Ozone Alert" day of the year, right at the end of April. Asthma and allergy sufferers (yeah, me) were warned to stay indoors as much as possible. But out here in the hill country, the air was pretty nice. This shot is looking off towards Austin, and you can just barely make out a little bit of smog stuff on the horizon. Otherwise, though, just a lot of blue, blue sky. Which I love.

Happy Monday, everyone! Hope you have a lovely, blue sky (smog-free) week.

Blue Monday is now being hosted by Magical Mystical Teacher.

Click here to see more or add your link.

Blue Monday: Mini Blues

Blue wallpaper, blue rug, a couple of bookcases full of books, and a comfy-looking chair. Just right for some cozy reading on a winter's day. I love this room.

And I also love that it's located in this absolutely charming (and also blue) miniature house....

... built by a friend who is an incredibly talented mini-house creator.

For the time being, Blue Monday is being hosted by Magical Mystery Teacher.

Click here to add your link.

First Monday of the Year

So, here we are in the New Year. No more 2016 to kick around and complain about. I'm expecting (well...hoping, anyway) that 2017 is going to be gentler, friendlier, and more productive. Yes, I suppose that could be too much to hope for. But at least it started off well with a really pretty day yesterday. Lots of blue sky.

We had a fairly quiet holiday season. Didn't do a great deal of celebrating, but we did get to see some old friends, received some lovely gifts, and ate a lot of goodies (especially loved these "tiny pies" at one gathering).

Didn't watch all the usual Christmas movies, but we managed to fit in a few of the main ones (It's a Wonderful Life, The Bishop's Wife, White Christmas). And we finished several jigsaw puzzles — this year, they were all model train-related (with some touches of blue).

And we capped it all off on New Year's Day with the traditional black eyed peas and cornbread.

We still have all the Christmas decorations up — probably won't take them down until next weekend. And today is the hubby's birthday — so we'll still be celebrating for a while yet. Fun, but I think I'm just about ready for some normal life again.

Blue Monday was originally hosted by Smiling Sally.
Now that Sally has left us,
Jeanne at Backyard Neighbor is doing the honors.

To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

Also linking up with Our World Tuesday

Blue Monday: Here Comes December!

Wow, it's been a couple of months since I posted anything here at joysweb! And now it's already December!!! How did that happen?

We've been busy, but probably not a lot busier than normal. Just haven't been able to find time to concentrate on blogging, although I have been reading other people's blogs. Also had a few minor medical issues that have sort of detoured me. Nothing dire — just niggling things that keep drawing my attention away from the stuff I'd rather be doing.

So, anyway...here we are with the first Blue Monday of the month. And since we've been having really awful weather here lately (cold, rainy, gray), I thought I'd post a photo from a couple of weeks back when we were still enjoying our long, lovely, summer-y autumn.

Sorry it's a little grainy. Think I need a cell phone upgrade. Gosh, I really miss that blue sky!

We've got most of the holiday decorating done, although we seem to add a bit to it everyday. I'm sure I'll be posting more photos of the decorations, but for now I'll just include a shot of our most recent addition. For some reason, the hubby decided it might be nice to add Doctor Who to our seasonal trappings. So we've added the Doctor and his (blue) Tardis to the fireplace display, up there on the mantel with a mini nutcracker — who sort of looks like he might be a Dalek in disguise!

So, have a great week! More to come....

Blue Monday was originally hosted by Smiling Sally.
Now that Sally has left us,
Jeanne at Backyard Neighbor is doing the honors.

To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

Blue Monday: At the Aquarium

Last month, M and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary with a trip to Hawaii. We had a wonderful time, and we're already trying to find a reason to go back! It won't be anytime soon (it's a VERY long trip from Texas), but definitely someday....

In the meantime, it's probably going to take me many more weeks just to finish organizing all the photos we took. I'm posting some of them, a few at a time, on the blog here -- today, it's photos from the aquarium in Honolulu. One morning, we tore ourselves away from the beach and the amazing swimming pool at our hotel, and spent some time touring the aquarium.

It's not a huge operation, but it has some gorgeous displays, with hundreds (thousands?) of different examples of sea life.

I took lots of photos, and I'm sure I'll be posting more of them in the future. But for now, I'll just show a couple more shots. These are some of my favorite little creatures -- the seahorses:

Blue Monday was originally hosted by Smiling Sally.
Now that Sally has left us,
Jeanne at Backyard Neighbor is doing the honors.

To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

Blue Monday: Spiderman Blues

You just never know who (or what) you're going to run into at the supermarket these days.

On a recent trip, I noticed they had a life-size blow-up Spiderman perched over one of the aisles. I'm not really sure why he was guarding the produce and cold stuff. Maybe there was a dastardly grocery villain lurking around, that I just didn't see. But Spidey looked very nice in his lovely red and blue outfit.

Blue Monday was originally hosted by Smiling Sally.
Now that Sally has left us,
Jeanne at Backyard Neighbor is doing the honors.

To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

Blue Monday: Bluebonnet Blues

Blue Monday was originally hosted by Smiling Sally.
Now that Sally has left us,
Jeanne at Backyard Neighbor is doing the honors.

To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

Ever since we ended our exile in the North Country and moved back to Texas, the Hubby and I have been talking about planting some bluebonnets. I've always loved our state flower (well, it's blue!) and seeing masses of the lovely blooms popping up along the roadways every spring really helps boosts my spirits out of their winter doldrums. So having my own patch of lovelies has been a major dream.

We scattered wildflower seeds around our place right after we bought it, but nothing ever came of that. And they weren't bluebonnet seeds. But last fall, we pulled ourselves together, managed to find bluebonnet seeds at Home Depot ("guaranteed to bloom"), planted them, watered them, and crossed our fingers. Of course, we were pretty much convinced nothing would come of that attempt, either.

Then, lo and behold, a few weeks ago we started seeing tiny little green plants poking up among the weeds and wild grasses in the yard. Bluebonnets?

It took a while to be sure, and almost as soon as they started emerging, the new growth was gobbled up by the hungry deer that roam around our neighborhood. (Yes, I know -- deer aren't supposed to like bluebonnets; our deer are idiots.)

But one little patch of the flowers found a sheltered area on the side of a rocky hill -- where the deer don't generally wander -- and grew and grew

and grew...

until it looked exactly like a bluebonnet!

One definite blossom, and more on the way! We were so excited! Our own bluebonnet patch. We would take daily photos to show their progress. Maybe they would spread. Maybe we would have a whole field of lovely bluebonnets! And then....

We woke up Saturday morning to find that the dear little deer had eaten every last flower, leaf, and stem of bluebonnets in the yard. I suppose we were foolish to hope the adorable vermin wouldn't find the plants, even though they seemed well protected on their hillside. And I suppose the only reason they hadn't foraged them out up till then was the fact that we'd been having a LOT of rain lately. The rain kept the deer away and then when the rain stopped, the deer were really, really hungry. So even plants they don't ordinarily enjoy must have seemed tasty. And I guess deer gotta eat.

The hubby, however, is talking a lot about bows and arrows and thinning the herd. Even though, as far as I know, he's never actually killed a deer in his life -- he never had a private field of bluebonnets either.

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Just a (very sad) note: I almost didn't do a Blue Monday post this week, after I found out that Sally was gone. But I do think she'd want the meme and the fun to continue. So in honor of Sally of the Eternal Smile, let's just keep it going.

Blue Monday: Play Time

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.

To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

We've had some gorgeous weather lately, with wonderful blue skies.

But up until the last week or so, it's been really cold. And being the extreme weather wimps that we are, M and I have mostly stayed in and played with our toys.  I've been looking through my doll collection which is mostly packed away in boxes at the moment (waiting for the display shelves I really do intend to construct for them one of these days) and figuring out which dollies I want to hold on to and which ones I want to pass on to new homes. Also broke my promise not to buy any new dolls; just couldn't pass up a lovely new Silkstone Barbie -- I'm a sucker for dolls in Chanel-style outfits.

And she has such lovely blue eyes.

The hubby has been tinkering with his model trains. He hasn't built an actual layout yet -- that's going to have to wait until we get the garage a little more cleared out. But he has created a bit of a display space above his work bench, and even built a backdrop for them (with another lovely blue sky).

And some of the photos he's taken make them look almost like real choo-choos.

Happy Blue Monday, everyone! Hope you have a wonderful (sunny and warm) week.

Blue Monday: Blues for the New Year

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.

To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

So, 2016. And my first Blue Monday of the year. Now that Christmas and New Year's and the hubby's birthday are over, we're beginning to get back to normal around here. Finally took down the trees and all the holiday decorations and stowed them away for another year. And we managed to finish up the puzzle we've been working on for the last couple of weeks (no blue there, but a nice nostalgic picture):

It turned out to be a LOT harder to put together than we expected it to be. All those dark pieces looked exactly alike!

We ended December with a visit to the Blanton Museum at the University of Texas in Austin, to see the exhibit of Latin American modern interior design they have going on right now (I think it's there through January 17th, if you're interested). It was a good time to go -- classes were out for the winter break, so parking wasn't a problem and the campus was very quiet. I remember when we were students at UT back in the Pleistocene era, we always loved that time during vacations and between semesters, when the other students cleared out. We were Austin residents year-round, so we got to stick around and enjoy the slower pace.

The exhibit was fun -- lots of interesting mid-20th century decor, which I love. Wonderful furniture, paintings, wall hangings, and ceramics. And a lot of the walls were painted a lovely turquoise blue, my favorite color and very appropriate to the time period. (Sorry if they look a little greenish on your screen -- it's a difficult shade to photograph.)

There was also a lot of art glass I coveted, like this 1950s blue glass table lamp:

Before we left the museum, we browsed another exhibit -- paintings of the Virgin Mary from 18th century Bolivia and Peru. One of them (Our Lady of Cocharcas, 1751 by an unknown artist) included some nice touches of blue (although I think it was supposed to represent a silver processional cart):

And on our way between galleries, I snapped a couple of shots of George Segal's life-size sculpture Blue Woman in Black Chair. I'm not sure exactly what he was trying to achieve, but she was several lovely shades of blue...

and kind of spooky close-up.

So, I guess now I'm ready for 2016 to begin unfolding. And I'm hoping for more blue skies like the one we had yesterday....

Under the Tree (Part 1)

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.

To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

Michael has this thing for model trains. He loved them as a little boy, and he still loves them now that he's a bigger boy. But for most of our married life we've lived in very small spaces, that really weren't roomy enough for even a small model train set-up. He always wanted a train around the Christmas tree, but we generally had a table-top size tree -- again, not spacious enough for a train.

But now that we're living in a bigger place, and have a bigger tree with lots of room around it, he's started accumulating train stuff to play with. A couple of years ago, he got a Polar Express train set, I think (at first) mostly because that's one of my favorite Christmas movies (he's learned to like it too, I believe, after some resistance at first). And last year, he acquired the house to go with the train. (You'll notice that the train is a lovely shade of blue.)

The convertible is one of this year's additions, and just slightly out of place in the snowy landscape -- the driver must be a real outdoor enthusiast.

Also this year, he's added some figures -- including Santa -- and a little Santa's workshop structure. Very cute. And (I think because I'm such a fan of the Back to the Future movies) a time machine in a DeLorean! I'm not sure how that fits in with the Christmas theme, but it's one of my favorite parts of the set-up. Now we just need tiny Marty and Doc Brown figures to make it complete.