WOW! Here it is February and I haven't posted anything since November! Why?? Since I didn't get any feedback I felt that no one was looking at my Blog so, therefore, I quit! Well, I have heard from at least a couple of people that they did look and there was nothing new here but they did appreciate the pictures anyway. This pumped me enough to resume posting from time to time. Here goes!

Christmas has come and gone. We had a very nice celebration here at home with Tony and his boys on Christmas eve. Mom fixed a wonderful dinner but some seem dissappointed that we didn't have the usual turkey! She fixed a prime rib roast and it was super - cooked just right. Maybe that will become the new tradition, at least I hope so.

January was a mixed month weather wise thus limiting our outdoor activities - read, little model flying. Also, there were limited photo opportunities so all I could share this month would be dreams for springtime. These dull, gray days have pretty good light for photography but the subjects are few. We take our walks around a lake here in a Collierville park where we can usually see our Blue Heron but he has gone to warmer waters where the fishing is better I guess. At the end of January Phil gave his Drip Irrigation talk to the two new Master Gardener classes. They went over well and seem to have been appreciated.

February brought another opportunity for Phil to give a Photography Basics talk to the Collierville Garden Club. There were about 15 ladies there who all seemed to be interested. One even brought her camera. I'm scheduled to give a lecture next week about the various settings on digital cameras at the Botanic Gardens "Brown Bag Lunch" group. There are so many that people either get terribly confused or they just ignore these settings and resort to "point and shoot" photography. I hope it goes over well.

In April I'm to give the Basic Photography course at the Germantown Library's luncheon program.

All these lectures coupled with facilitating our weekly Scripture Study is keeping me on my toes. We haven't traveled anywhere since November when we went down to Texas to visit our nephew, Steve, and his family. We are already talking about going over to the Smokies in May and perhaps a side trip to Fall Creek Falls State Park since it is "on the way".



We did get a new car - a Dodge Magnum. I call it our Mafia Staff Car since it is all black - no chrome on the outside. See the picture attached. What do you think? The Caddy was getting a bit 'long in the tooth' and I was looking at some rather expensive repairs to a car that was already 10 years old. I wanted a car that I could carry my airplanes in easily as well as haul other stuff. So, a station wagon was in order. I just couldn't bring myself to have a van or SUV.

Do you know where the expression 'long in the tooth' comes from?

Later, Phil