I became a father

Yes, finally I became a father...God Father that is. Jasmine was baptized. She was wide a wake prior and after the ceremony. But during the church sermen, I guess the Paster's lecture was too long for her, she fell asleep. When the water touched her head, it woke her up. Imediately she was in her usuall mood, jolly and smiley again.

Jasmine

Of all the trouble with airplane tickets overbooked, I finally got to Houston, TX. Oh boy! After playing with Jasmine for a couple of minutes, seeing her teethless smiles and drooling lips, it was worth all the trouble.

Rabbit Hunting

Hunting snowshoe hare is like looking for a needle in the hay stack. Walking for hours in a cold, white environment can take a told for many people, but for me, this is where I like to be. I carry a gun but mostly shoot with an XTi Canon camera. Following the hare's tracks is quite amusing. Every bouncing step tells a story. Once is a while I see a pair of wings marking on the snow...a raptor was here. Watch out rabbit, I am not the one after you.

The Beech Tree

A beech tree is just a beech tree for many people. As for me, beech tree is unique. In winter its dead leaves are the only deciduous leaves that still cling on to branches. Big beech trees are also a good place to look for signs of wildlife, such as these claw prints left by a nice size black bear. The claw prints are not from this year, because the claw wounds have been healed. Black bear climbs beech tree to eat nuts for its valuable energy.

Tai Pepper

People called me "Hot lips" for nothing. No Salsa is hot enough for me, yet. I grow Tai pepper because its hotness ranks way up with the Habinero peppers. These little Tai peppers pack a punch and when eaten, the hotness lingers in the mouth area for a while. I like to eat my pepper fresh. When I bite into one of these, it bites back, Grrr! Just the way I like it.
Growing indoor is one of the best way to continue eatin them fresh, cuz Vermont growing season is very short.

It took us 1 hour and 20 minutes roundtrip to hike Haystack. We wore orange cuz of deer hunting season. We saw hunter foot tracks but did not hear any gunshots. There was snow on the ground but we were warm. On the way back, the trail was more slippery.

How the car got onto my pumpkin

On a Saturday evening (a week passed Halloween holiday), four of us sat around the table edging to do something, " We had enough pumpkins on the deck, lets do something with it." No theme to worry about (making it hard to get a subject to carve) most of us pondered for a while. I cut the bottom of my pumpkin and de-gutted, saving all the seeds for roasting latter. While reading the newspapers that were spreading under the pumpkin; "bingo," the car-ads picture was staring before my eyes.
The pumpkin was too small for this model. Better yet, my camera needed a fisheye lens.