I like to have actual seasons. I like it to be cold in winter, neither hot nor cold in spring, warm in summer and then brisk in autumn.
This year, as we all know, has been weird, to put it lightly. Winter at Halloween (snow). Not much to talk about as far as winter goes. Now it seems like we're skipping spring. Does this mean it will be hotter than hades this summer?
I shudder to think.
But since it's so warm, we may as well take a moment to enjoy the flowers....
Enjoy....

Happy Leap Day!
How will you be celebrating?

(PHOTO -- 1941 shot from National Geographic)

Proposing to your boyfriend (that supposedly is one tradition)?
Out geocaching? For some reason, that's another way people are marking the day.
Too bad it doesn't mean we can leap forward through the working part of the day, to happy hour.
Or leap past chores we don't want to do.
Or leap by people we simply don't feel like dealing with today.
But one thing is predicted... rain, maybe a little snow. So February will be going out like a lion, thanks to Leap Day.
 Does that mean March will come in like a lamb?
Hey, February IS the best month (since it's my and my daughter's birthday month), so it deserve this extra day.
However you plan to celebrate Leap Day, have fun.... And think of all the ways February rocks!
(Goundhog Day, Valentine's Day, Presidents Day...)

Saturday was a great day for just getting in the car and taking a drive. So my daughter and I headed north, to the Poconos area.
She wanted to do some shooting -- with a camera, not a gun -- and decided to head to the long-empty Inn at Buck Hill Falls. More than a decade ago, she had been there when they actually had part of it open at Halloween as a haunted house. MTV also did some filming there at one point for its Fear show.
You can see why it qualified, from this photo I snapped Saturday.

And here's another...

It's a huge, sprawling place. This is only a portion of it. It's near a small town called Mountainhome, but don't go looking for it. While we were there, a somewhat nasty man pulled up in a pickup truck, said he was the caretaker and that we were trespassing. Now we had made sure we didn't go beyond the marked area, and had been there a few times before and had taken photos, without incident.

But he claimed the entire road was a "private road," and that it was marked at either end. Now we saw no such signs, and there were plenty of private homes on the road, so that seemed a bit doubtful. But we made a little pleasant conversation and then were on our way. No need to poke the dog, after all.

Will we go back? Time will tell. The caretaker claimed the inn  was "going to be restored to its previous life."
A posting below the no trespassing sign about a zoning hearing for condos, a hotel and apartments made that seem a bit less likely. This place probably has  empty since about 1991 .... can't imagine what it would cost to restore it.
But, despite cranky man, it was a great day.
Hey, it even snowed a bit!

It's February, Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter and here it is...

SNOW!!

Here are a few photos snapped in Upper Salford on Wednesday afternoon...

Grab a cup of cocoa and enjoy...

(By the way, that's our Alien Cat... doesn't like snow...)

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!

OK, I am posting this on Wednesday evening, just so it will be taken care of since I rise early for work. But who would want to miss Groundhog Day? Not me!

Have you ever been to Punxsutawney? I have ... but not on Groundhog Day.

I ventured there once with my daughter when she was in high school. She had her  photo snapped by the huge wooden groundhog statue in the park, we checked out the map of how to get to Gobbler's Knob and visited with Punxsutawney Phil at his home in the library. His photo isn't so great, but that's him at the glass wall of his abode.

 

And of course the day would not be complete without this Pennsylvania Dutch greeting, on a hefty groundhog image ....

Yes, good health and good luck to all, from the groundhog!
Happy Groundhog Day ... and just what will that prediction be, Phil?

Somewhere,  in the Montgomery County area, in an office that must remain secret, there is a machine ... nay, more than one ... that we all could use. Yes, as you see by this sign, this office has COPING machines!
And as anyone who has ever worked in an office ... or anywhere, for that matter -- or never worked outside the home -- will tell you, we ALL need coping machines.
In this office, for some unknown reason, one of these coping machines somehow broke down, and this note had to be attached. What made this coping machine unable to cope? Was a certain person's  problems just too much to handle?
And how DO these coping machines function? Does a person have to speak into them, telling the machine of his or her dire straits? Is it fed the information through a computer? Is it, dare we dream, simply able to magically read your mind?
And why don't we all have these coping machines? We certainly could use them, especially when Monday morning rolls around!
But, with my luck, I would wind up with this unfortunate machine, which obviously could just no longer cope. Mine would be the one with the tearful sign attached: Use other coping machine.

We can only hope someone ... or some coping machine ... was able to come to this machine's rescue.
Fare thee well, oh coping machine!

If you haven't seen "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" yet, go soon.
I have to admit that I rarely go to the movies -- you know, actually pay to get into see a film. Generally I figure I can wait for the DVD release.
But this move drew me and it did not disappoint.
It tore me apart, but did not disappoint.
It's not an easy watch, but well worth your emotional investment.
It touches the heart and soul; it sears them.
But it heals them, as well.