
I took this photo yesterday of Pikes Peak from near my mother’s place yesterday. The mountain is snowier right now than it has been in several years. And yes, the sky really is that blue.
Swan Valentine Card

For January, the stamp club to which I belong exchanged cards with a theme of Valentine’s Day, wedding, or anniversary card. I made this simple card, which is gold embossed swans layered on gold metallic cardstock. Using The Gimp, I put a black border around the scanned image so it would show up on the background.
Color Palette Generator
The Color Palette Generator is a php application that transforms photographs into palettes. You can upload your own photo, or use the ones already on the server.
Snow

Since I hadn’t expected more than snow showers, I was surprised when I went out to feed horses last night to find it snowing in earnest. This isn’t our typical January light dusting of powder either: but wet, sloppy spring snow instead.
Wikipes
There is now a wiki for recipes called Wikipes, which was launched on January 1. I had wondered why no one had done this before, and now they have.
APOD: Shadow Set
Since I am an early riser, I’ve probably seen the phenomenon of Shadow Set, mentioned by Astronomy Picture of the Day, but had never heard the term before reading about it here.
Monument Valley Park

Pikes Peak seen through a screen of trees in Monument Valley Park.
Smoke
This weekend was hectic, becaue I spent approximately 20 hours working as Registrar at COSine, so I didn’t really have the time to worry about Smoke until Monday morning.
I noticed he was acting a little oddly when I fed Sunday morning. (Saturday night I was too exhausted to have noticed anything short of horse being down.) He left some crumbs of his chow after breakfast, which he never does if he has enough time to eat. However, he was about as bright-eyed as a 28 year old horse gets, so I decided to worry about it Monday. Monday morning I found email from Jack (who had considerately not awoken me) that Smoke had once again failed to clean up all his food when Jack let horses out of their stalls Sunday night.
Continue reading Smoke
Sunrise

Origami chicken

For Christmas, a friend gave me a Page A Day calendar featuring origami instructions. I’ve been fascinated by origami since I was a small child, but have never pursued it seriously. I am enjoying the calendar very much so far, folding at least one model each morning. This is my favorite model so far. The calendar called it the pecking chicken, because one can make it move a bit as a puppet.