Summer of 2013 will be one for the books

The title of the blog says it all. This is going to be one fantastic summer.

First of all my oldest son, Brian is getting married in August to Christie, a lovely young lady. I absolutely adore her and they are the perfect couple.

Brian and Christie

So I have a big wedding to go to in August out in Wyoming.

That's right. Wyoming!! Yee-haw. Home to open ranges, cowboys and big rivers for fishing.

You heard me right. Fishing. Mother and son fishing....hopefully if plans go accordingly.

I am heading out a week or so before the wedding and Brian and I are going to try to get out. He wants to learn some two handed casting and at the same time we can fish together. It has been a long time since we got to fish together, it should be a memorable time.

Christie won't mind because she is an avid outdoors kinda gal as well. She likes to hunt, fish and go camping right along with Brian. Christie asked me to tie some boutonnieres for the wedding so I did a dozen of 'em based on salmon fly patterns. I can't show any pictures of them yet because their big debut will be on their wedding day. After the wedding I will share some pictures. I was pretty nervous making the flies but all in all I think they are great. Better yet, Brian and Christie love them.

So now I am going to start tying some flies for the trip. Maybe even make a wedding box of special flies. One for Brian and one for Christie.

Double Rainbow Fly

My son sent me this the other day. Enjoy!

Double Rainbow Fly

Blizzard. Beauty and ice.

 

Friday, February 8th.
School was cancelled on Friday as most of New England waited for the impending blizzard. The winter had been pretty mild up to now with some snow storms but nothing of any significance. What little snow we did get had already melted so I took this photo of the backyard as the "before" picture.

 

 

By late afternoon this was all the snow we had and I was starting to think this was a bust!
But by 5pm Friday evening the wind started howling and the snow really started to come down.

By 4am Saturday the wind had drifted the snow up to the back door and we had to push it out just enough for the dog to go outside. She bounded down the steps as she usually does and then hit the landing. As she touched down she ended up being completely covered by snow! She promptly turned around and ran back into the kitchen.

Shortly after 5am Rob and I were out and trying to clear a path for Cleo.

 

Yeah, we love our dog. We made a nice path out to the yard and a couple of wide spots for her to "take care of business".

 

 

While I am sure Cleo was thankful for the work we were doing for her she still didn't want any part of hanging around outside!

 

 

Once we took care of the back it was time to tackle the driveway. The only way to go out to the driveway was through the back door and garage. The snow had drifted up to the front door and steps and we couldn't get out.

 

 

 

Amazingly enough the wall of snow did not collapse one I opened the door.

 

 

Yeah, I know, I know but where the hell else was I supposed to toss all that snow?

 

Because as you can see we had piles of it on both sides of the driveway.

 

 

 

So Saturday was spent cleaning up.  We even got enough room at the end of the drive for Rob to feed the crows.

 

 



 



On Sunday we decided to take a trip up the river. It was 9F, sunny and absolutely beautiful. I was drawn to the contrast of bright snow and the dark ribbon of water.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a very good spot to fish!

I can't wait to get back into these spots!

 

So there you are. Blizzard. Beauty and ice.