Pumpkin Seeds & Cat Naps

The best thing about carving pumpkins in October is toasting the pumpkin seeds after. (Okay, maybe it's the glowing, flame filled pumpkin-bellies, and orange hot faces and such...) The other day, after a rousing gut scraping fest, we ripped out the innards and separated the seeds. Delicious snacks. :D

Toast at 250˚ for an hour (we used this to help heat the house). Melt a little butter, toss. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture. Toast for 20 mins. Seeds should be lightly browned & crispy.

As the weather turns colder, on those days when we forget to turn on the heat, Spike likes to climb in bed and shimmy his way into the sheets. His favorite spot is a hip-perch or belly curl. I had to lift up the blankets to photograph him, then we took a midday cat nap. The cuteness is quite overwhelming at times.



My dogs usually jump in my bed and drool on the pillows. There's something to be said for the delicate nature of felines, particularly when you're trying to sleep, too. (Drool pillows are a shock to the system.)

Now back to the regularly scheduled grad school crazy. (Hence weeks between posts.) Brief notes: grad school overloads are silly. Don't do that. Henry James is evil. Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan are amazing. Creative writing pedagogy goes some weird places, and abstract theory sometimes makes a person want to smack a scholar. Novel writing is as arduous as it is glorious, and isn't an endeavor for the "pansy assed," as my father would say.

Last Few Days of August (28)

Mya: through the viewfinder (TtV).


Mya spinning for the camera. She adores the camera, both having her photo taken, and taking her own photos.


Momo, age 2 & 1/2.
After playing with Mya, he decided to dig in the sand.


Adorable trouble.

To Fence or Not to Fence

Back Yard in Spring
Originally uploaded by nicciwashere

The back yard is looking pretty lush after the month of rains and a little trimming up of old, dead trees. It could use a bit of a mow, like the neighbor's yards. Our hill is very steep compared to their lots. It's a pain in the booty to push a mower up and down. Not so bad if you go side to side...

We hope to put in a fence for the puppies this summer, so they can run around without having to worry about leashes or leads. Paco bounds around like a 55 pound bunny, and Momo streaks around at a gallop. They're pretty hilarious when they chase each other.

Now to gather friends who have fence building experience...

Before a Storm

front yard before the storm
Originally uploaded by nicciwashere

April was a giant string of storms and rain here in Southern Ohio. I'm not sure if we hit a record number of inches of rain fall (ever, including Aprils past), but I wouldn't be surprised. I don't remember it raining for that many days in a row... not even when I lived in Savannah.

The edges of this photo are a little extra dark, thanks to the pinhole setting of the camera, but the sky really looked like that, and the light was much dimmer than usual at 4:15(ish) on a Spring weekday.

The yard is beautiful, and though the lilacs have bloomed and gone already, they were fragrant and lovely for a couple of weeks. The tigerlily in the back yard is about to blossom, and the the dogwoods have been going strong for weeks.

I look forward to this every year.

Easter Sunday

My sister hosted Easter dinner this year. The kids were too busy zooming around in the mud to have their photos taken. Plastic eggs with change and candy are way more important. Way.

Nate took a 20 second breather (pictured above), and his cousin Mya showed me her spoils (she had the most eggs until she started winging them back into the grass). She doesn't dig on sweet tarts, you see. She has a good arm, though. I think Mya was in it for the cash and chocolate.


Very proud of her eggy gains.


Hunting eggs is very serious business.