in fact not only are my hands cold but my feet are freezing, it is now officially winter in NC and I have to admit that I do not like it one bit. I actually like it being 70 odd degrees in January, I do not like it being 29 degrees, quite frankly it sucks. The sooner this winter storm leaves and gets us back to our balmy 60 odd degree temps then the happier I will be. Of course this might or might not have anything to do with the fact that I hate having to pay large electricity bills. Also there is a cat asleep on every horizontal space in my house, when the temps are nice they sleep outside.

With the jackpot at 180 million (cash value approximately 90 million) I bought some tickets this evening on my way home and have been sat since daydreaming about what I would do with the money. Pay off all debts (of course) and for those people that have given me grief in the past I would pay them off in pennies, delivered by a UPS truck. I would give money to family and friends of course. Get in a home improvement company to complete some much needed repairs to the house, install vinyl windows and expand the bedroom and bathroom (there would be a jacuzzi in the bathroom that is for certain). I would pay my boss a handy amount for our office (so he could retire) and convert it into my gallery, as well as hiring someone to run it (I will be too busy taking photographs). I would buy an old building in the down town area that I have had my eye on and turn it into a pub called "The Duke of Lancaster" complete with pub grub and atmosphere. We would of course buy my husband a truck from hell, cause you know that is what he wants. We would donate a bunch of money to my husband's band (cause he says so.) I would hire a full time maid, with 90 million in the bank there is no way I am ever going to do housework again, ever. We would have a tall fence professionally installed in the back so the boxers can no longer escape. I would have a white picket fence installed in the front, just because it would be pretty. I would go to Pender Pines garden center and just spend, spend, spend on all of those plants I have been lusting after for years. I would buy a new couch and loveseat to replace the ones that the boxers have eaten. I would upgrade my camera to a nice new digital SLR with lots and lots of lenses. I would buy a new bed. You notice that I would not sell the house and buy a Mcmansion somewhere, I have no interest in a large, sprawling house, although I might buy the rental house next door to me and keep it as a guest house just so I can utilize the garden space for an above ground pool and more flower beds. We would buy an apartment in Columbus County for my husband so he didn't have to spend so much time in motel rooms. I would sponsor a local no-kill animal shelter that would once a week go to the local pound and pick up all the animals that were scheduled for euthanazia. I would sponsor a wildlife rehabilitation center to care for injured wildlife. I would buy land in prime hunting areas and put up "no hunting" signs and bequeath it to the Nature Conservancy. I would sponsor low cost/free spay and neuter clinics. I would pay for peoples groceries at the grocery store who look like they need it for no reason other than I can. I would be a secret santa all year round. The way I look at it I could spend 10 million and then live off the interest of the remaining 80 million without ever touching the principle. Oh and Cueball and Judy would have custom made matching leather jackets.

Barbara Boxer (rabid democrat) subtly criticizes Condi Rice for being a) single and b) childless. Since when has it been okay to criticize a woman for the life choices she makes? Condi is probably the smartest woman on the planet, well guess what, she couldn't find a man she liked enough to marry. She decided that children were not part of her future (perhaps she thought that having children would be an inconvenience in her life, perhaps she thought that if she had babies then perhaps raising them might be at all the thing to do as opposed to hiring a nanny to do the same thing), and in this day and age, in this post Helen Reddy "I am woman" Virginia Slims "you've come a long way baby" age it is considered okay for a democrat (everyone is created equal) to diss a woman because she is unmarried and childless, have we all of a sudden reverted to the days of the GEICO caveman ads? Where a woman is considered less of a person because she is sans husband and kids? Is it just me or is this the absolute height of political hypocrisy?

In a moment of sheer beauty in the midst of winter there was a sulpher, fluttering through the garden, no doubt woken by the warm temperatures and set out in search of some nectar (which is why you should never destroy your winter dandilions, sometimes that is the only nectar available for butterflies and bees). It always amazes me when something like that happens, when one sees a butterfly in January, it makes me believe that despite what we think everything does not die in winter, they simply sleep. And when the sun warms the air enough for them to wake they do so, and live a little in the warmth. As I was out tidying up my garden and trying to decide where to place my new gargoyle I noticed this, my forsythia was blooming, just a few spotty blooms on otherwise bare branches, but it was blooming



and then I turned, and in a moment of pure joy I saw these, which, for some reason, I had not noticed yesterday, the jonquils are blooming, way too early you understand, but they are blooming, and with a fanfare of pure yellow and the scent of heaven they are proclaiming that life will begin anew soon, everything is in the ground and waiting, waiting for the first suns of spring to waken them, life is waiting, and as a herald of that life the jonquils are sending forth their delightful blooms to tell us, hold on, just hold on for a little while, Spring is almost here. Oh joy, but spring is almost here!

I spent yesterday and today printing and framing some shots from vacation. To explain what follows I have to tell you that I buy all of my frames from thrift stores and make sure they have a nice inside mat. (It costs a fortune to get things professionally framed and seeing as I am pretty handy I do it myself). In any event the process pretty much goes this way, I measure the inner mat of the frame that I have and then pick a suitable photograph to go in it. I then dismantle the frame separating all parts into frame, mat(outer and inner)glass and original art and then proceed to do my thing (I keep hoping that I am one day going to find an original masterpiece in one of these frames but no luck so far). The frames for the most part are spray painted gloss black (unless they are gold or silver and then they are left alone) the outer mat is spray painted flat black and the inner mat is spray painted either gold or silver depending upon what the shot asks me for. Once everything is dry I mount the photograph, clean the glass, reassemble the frame, finish up with backing paper and a business card and I am set. Today I was framing a couple of waterfall shots as I had two matching frames and I wanted to create a matching set of shots. I chose Linville Falls in the Blue ridge mountains and Looking Glass Falls in Pisgah National Forest. Anyhoo when I am working with spray paint I work outside on an old computer desk that I have by the fire wood pile. (it is so much easier to spray paint things when you have something to prop them up on). I had the two frames propped up on the computer center and wanted to spray the inner mats but had no place to prop them so I rested them on the large tree stump that my husband uses when he is chopping up firewood. After I while I went to retrieve the mats as they were dry and upon lifting them off the log I discovered this.



Now, I wish I could tell you why this speaks to me, but I really can't, all I can tell you is that it speaks to me on an almost subliminal level, I mean I just love the look of it. It is of course a very surreal looking image, and I just love the way the leaf is entirely covered with silver but the fungus on the side of the log have escaped somewhat. I wish, I wish I knew what is appealing to me here, because it is such a polar opposite of what normally attracts me, I mean I am as you know heavily into natural things and this is clearly a very unnatural image. Still when I saw it I immediately had to get my camera and take some shots. I am thinking tomorrow I will print one out and frame it, just to see how it looks, methinks a black frame and silver mat would work well. Here's another angle.