Well, it was supposed to be sunny today, and it was, when I left the house, it was. But when I got to Freeland, a layer of fog was hovering over Holmes Harbor. And then it thickened, and spread, and soon it was covering everywhere.

Suze bought this decoration at one of the craft faires - it's a collection of cups and saucers glued together into a tier, which can be used inside for food, or outdoors in the garden. The artist had many, using all different kinds of cups and mugs. A fun idea!

A misty moisty day - we went to visit various Holiday Faires in the area. Above is a drippy tree at the Greenbank Farm, where the first faire was.

On the way there, down a foggy hill.

At the Langley faire, mary anne tried on a soft green coat, while Suze and Sandra helped.

Yesterday was my birthday - every few years it falls on Thanksgiving! Cory, our son, found a great pair of snowflake earrings to give me. Love them!

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2008
We had a nice family gathering - much to be thankful for! Left to right: Barbara, David, Barb, Sandra, Jonathan, Suze, Ashlen, Tiffany, Jon and Cory.

Here's the table before filling it to capacity! We moved all the furniture out of the living room, and swapped it with the dining area so we had room for the larger tables. It was nice to have the space for everyone and all the food!

Here's the living room furniture in the dining area - it becomes a nice, cozy, quiet spot to relax, and we get a lot of sun in the (newly washed!) windows.

David and Jonathan dissect the turkeys.

Suze, Cory and Jon.

No pics today - busy cleaning and cooking and getting ready for Thanksgiving Day.

A fence and gate design.

OK - I know a lot of people think Christmas decorations shouldn't show up until after Thanksgiving, but I do love pretty lights, so stopped to snap some shots of the Freeland Tree at the Chamber of Commerce. It looks a little skinny here, but it is actually a pretty nice tree. They'll be having a holiday to-do pretty soon.

First little frost - the by-product of sunny clear days, so I'll take it. Of course it's all melted off as soon as the sun is up a little, but plenty of little frosty vignettes.

Tiny little mushrooms hiding in the grass . . .

And the drops that I photographed the other day were frozen - still reflecting the world around them, though!

David took his mom Barb, sister Suze and me out for birthday dinner in Oak Harbor, along with Suze's husband Jonathan. We went to a Thai restaurant - lots of interesting food. We had a lovely time!

But Christmas seems to come earlier every year! Oak Harbor had decorations on the light poles - I liked this view of the snowflakes.

Today was very windy, and I got to see a sight I've never seen before. The kite-boarders were out in mass at Double Bluff beach, and they were having a blast!

There were more than a dozen, and they would skim off a wave and fly 20-30 feet in the air. It was quite a sight - I was glad to brave the cold wind to watch for a while.

There were lots of birds out this morning - probably stocking up for the nasty weather to come. The crows were there first, baying at the moon, but when they left, all the little birds came out.

The old apple tree was full of juncos working on the apples and softly chattering away. Then, for no apparent reason, they were suddenly gone.

It was almost frosty overnight, with plenty of dew drops on the branches. And you know me, I'm a sucker for these little upside-down reflections of the world. An added bonus is the left-0ver spider webs sprinkled with dew, too.

We have another Photo Art Journal finished: Photo Booth. We were to create pages that mimic a strip of photos that you would get from a photo booth, but we could use any subject. It was fun - there were a lot of animals, and people, but also assorted objects and natural items like leaves.

It's a fun book to look through!

I played around a little in Photoshop with this night shot of the horizon and clouds. There are even some stars peeking through. I had to really brighten the photo, which brought out the grainy texture, then I added some color. I like the effect.

Very interesting clouds and sky today. I noticed that looking through my polarized sunglasses made the clouds into rainbows, so I tried taking my photo through the sunglasses lens. Oddly enough, it didn't work out so well! It did darken the exposure quite a bit, and sucked all the blue color out of the sky. If you click on it and look very close, you can see some rainbow-y clouds. I never know what I'll get unless I try!

Most of the maples and willows are pretty well finished with their autumn show, while the alders are still quite green. But then, they will just turn brown and drop when it's their turn.

Fun with the kitty today - I put her up on a branch in our willow tree, and got some shots against the late afternoon sun.

She wasn't very happy at first, but then she traveled further out on the limb before coming back and jumping down.

The sun was shining nicely through the leaves.

This is a little basket made from a calendar cut up into strips. I received it in my Basket guild's gift exchange Wed. night. It is very intricate with double weave diagonal plaiting, and casts a wonderful shadow!

It was a random exchange, with everyone drawing numbers, so it was a bit of a coincidence that the artist who made this basket also received the gift that I had made! Oddly enough, it was also a diagonally plaited paper basket, although not nearly as complex as this one. What fun!

After severals days of wind, rain and cold, the sun is out again! It came flooding in the windows, lighting up my houseplants. Sure feels good.

The Basket Guild meeting was tonight, and it was very windy and rainy. This is a shot of the raindrops on the car window catching the light from the streetlamps.

I experimented with catching the lights as the car moved down the street. It was fun, and especially nice with the wet road adding reflections.

Our book group met tonight - we discussed Loving Frank by Nancy Horan, who, incidentally, lives here on Whidbey Island. It was a good discussion - the book describes the relationship between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick, which began when they were both married to others, in the first decade of the century. It was extremely scandalous, and ended tragically. Society was so very different then.

Everyone came, so we had a very full room. I couldn't get everyone in the photo - four of us are not visible.

I made a pouch to hold the notecards. I used paper strips left over from a Jackie Abrams workshop and diagonally plaited them into a little pouch with a fold-down lid. Then I sewed on the buttons and added the waxed linen cord for the closure. It was a fun project, trying to figure out the right size!

These show the pouch closed, open and with the cards next to it. There are 10 different cards with photos of basket details.