The Ice On the Lake Has Melted

Thursday morning our view of the lake was half ice and half water. The geese were walking around on the lake but I was not quick enough to get a picture. Today the ice has melted completely and we can see windy water. The water level is high because so much debris has collected near the spillway. I am going to include a picture of hundreds of geese on the water when the lake was frozen.I took it sometime this winter.
I have the classical music channel on in the background. It is my favorite way to listen to music. Whatever I listen to is a surprise but it is always classical. IT seems to be lots of Bach and Chopin.
Yesterday afternoon Rick and I went to see Avatar. It is the number one movie at the box office and is suppose to win the Academy award for best picture and we did not want to miss it. We both liked it because it had an engaging story with beautiful scenery. I almost felt like I was in one of the forest in Northern California which my daughter Bradley loves so much. The story is very philosophical since it was about one group of people (us) the American military complex trying to annihilate another group who were from another planet The story takes place one hundred and fifty years from now when we supposedly will be able to take our space ships and visit this planet of Pandora. It was 3D and you felt like you were living in this enchanted forest with the characters. They had strange bodies with flat noses and large pointed ears but it did not matter.
Any moment now we will become grandparent to our second grandchild so this is always in the back of my mind. Tucker is going to come this next weekend and he might take Griffin which will make me very sad.

The Watercolor League at the Cavalier Inn

Monday after tennis I went to the Watercolor League Meeting. The speaker was a professional and she critiquing paintings othe the different members. I brought a painting that I had done with Trilbe. The painting was a bunch of daffodils in a kitchen vase. I kept it on the seat beside me and never had it critiqued. I am mad at myself now. I ws embarrassed because I thought it was such a simple subject. That was silly since many of the subjects were much more amateurish than mine. The theme of the group this year is going from Amateur to Professional. I need help on this topic.
I just looked out the window and saw our neighbors, Peter and Mary talking to Charlie Rivers. They stoped and chatted for awhile and then resumed their walk around the lake. There dog stayed longer but now he is gone too.

I have a load of wash in the washer. I was going to go to knitting but decided I had too much to do here.

The most difficult thing about watercolor is the transparency. You are suppose to see some of the previous colors underneath what you paint. The water gets real runny too. I am going to try and paint and think about colors everyday and maybe I will master it.

What Happens after the Snow Storm- Buying A New Car

This weekend we purchased a new car, a real surprise for me because it happened so quickly withoout too much discussion
My Freelander which I have driven for about seven years was parked at the top of our driveway during the snowstorm so I could leave the house if I had to. Rick's was parked there too so he could leave for work. During the storm the snow piled on top of the car and a gigantic branch from one of the white pins fell right across the whole car. When he was out shoveling snow on Saturday morning Rick saw what happened. He told me. He had already pulled the branch off the car when I went outside. We both started shoveling and pushing snow from our cars. There was so much snow to deal with we did not notice the dent on the hood and it was even later I saw the dent in the roof. When I went to find out how much it would cost to repair the attendant ask me if I saw the other big hole that was in the roof. To make a long story short to fix the car we had to replace the hood and the roof. I wanted to just knock the dent out but Rick did not seem to think that solution would work. Rick told me to drive to Car Max and find out what the car was worth. While they were making the estimate I looked at small SUV's. The salesman Hans told me where to find them. Then he came out and we looked together. I found a Jeep Compass that had only three thousand miles on the speedometer. It was a great color, silver and just the right size. Later, I told Rick about it. He did not say much but after his nap on Saturday he said let's go to car max and look at cars. We looked at several and then looked at the Jeep. He thought it was a good deal but thought we should comparison shop. We spend the rest tof the afternoon looking at other car dealers, KIA, Subaru, Hyundai, When we talked to the new sales person Joe he told us when Carmax opened on Sunday. We pretty much decided the Jeep was the best deal. We took two cars to church, Rick went to the office to get a check and we drove out to Carmax and bought the Jeep. It tood about an hour.

Expecting another storm

We are suppose to have another ten inches of snow today. We had flurries for about two hours but now it has stopped. This will be our fourth snow storm this winter. The one over the weekend was beautiful. It was very wet and very dense and made our lake and surroundings look like a winter wonderland. I would like to add pictures but I don't know if I can add more then one. It shut down Charlottesville.
When you walk or drive through West Leigh there are lots of Tree limbs everywhere and our neighbors lost one tree which fell across the Road. Walker and Hallie were with out power Saturday night and all day Sunday. We invited them to stay with us but they wanted to wait it out and finally got power doing the super bowel. We talked about going to the Powell's to watch the super bowel and we also talked about inviting neighbors over but in the end we just watched it together. It was an exciting one. The New Orleans Saints won with and unproven quarterback named Drew Beers.
We had a storm last Weekend too but in the end we got out. We went To ST. Pauli's Memorial church to hear the first women of the Episcopal Church ( Jeffers Shear ) give a sermon. I am going to add a picture the take Griffin for a walk and then do another post.