A field of Poppies

A local home education group schedules craft days at the local Michaels craft store once a month. Christy needs to take photographs to the next one so she can work on her scrapbooking skills. She asked for some poppy pictures to take with her. Here is what she chose - these were taken at a poppy field close to our village in England. We are glad we took them when we did - the field was mowed down the next week.

Book Tag Thingy

Romany tagged us for this. It looks like fun. Here are the rules:
~Pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages
~Open the book to page 123 and find sentence number 5
~Post the next 3 sentences
~Tag 5 people

Here are our results.
~ The book: "Old Town in the Green Groves", by Cynthia Rylant.
~ Page 123, sentence No 5-8:

[Ma explained,] "It is melted and applied around each pane of glass. It holds all the pieces together to make a picture." Laura looked closely. The lead looked like the same lead that Pa's bullets were made of.

We tag:
Mike W.
Mark & Britt
Jon & Janet
Jimmy & Gretchen
James & Jana

You can just post your results in comments here, or send us to your blog if you've got one!

- Scotty, for all the Nowlins

Playing along the banks of the Potomac River

We parked along the Potomac River and then walked to the memorials and monuments. The children immediately gravitated to the water. At this point on the river, it serves as the flight path for the commercial jets landing at Reagan National Airport. Therefore, there are several low flying aircraft right overhead! Its a wonderful place to just sit for awhile (or play near the water with sticks and leaves).

I'm officially a neglectful blogger!

Well, I've been an extremely neglectful blogger! That goes without saying, but thought I'd admit it anyway :-)

Our Washington Monument on a beautiful late November afternoon...



Here are some images from the National Mall in Washington, DC on a beautiful late November afternoon/evening. Our dear friends, the Lundy family, flew out from Colorado to spend Thanksgiving with us and that motivated us to get out and enjoy all that we're blessed to live near. It was very inspiring to sit on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and look out at the reflecting pool and Washington Monument as the sun set. The girls sat on the steps and made sketches.








I had fun framing the Washington Monument and Reflecting Pool using this side of the Lincoln Memorial. I was pleased with the results.











Earlier in the day we all went up to the top of the Washington Monument and had exceptional views of the city. After we watched the sun set and all just sat and reflected quietly for awhile on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, we finished our day by walking down to the WWII Memorial which is between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial - at the base of the reflecting pool closest to the W. Monument. The WWI Memorial is quite remarkable and inspiring at night when it is all lit up. I'll try to get some pictures of it when we visit next.