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Archives for 2006

Binoculars for Garden and Nature lovers

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I was thinking about what kinds of gifts I could get my friends and family this coming Christmas. The idea of giving a pair of binoculars to a couple of these people occurred to me.

I think my parents in law might get some good use out of set of binoculars because they have so many birds in their backyard and surrounding area. They’re always telling me “I saw a cardinal today” or “I saw a Blue Jay and it’s mate up in the backyard maple”. I’m sure they’d be thrilled if they could take an even better look at the birds that fascinate them daily.

We have a small set of binoculars that used to be my mothers that I often use to take a better look at the birds and other creatures that frequent my backyard. My husband, curious guy that he is sometimes gets the binoculars out to look up the side street that is opposite our house to see what someones building or doing far down that street. Yeah, he’s nosy.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of giving my in laws some binoculars this Christmas. Perhaps a pair for my middle brother as well. He’s a nature lover and a traveler. I’m sure he’d appreciate a nice set of binoculars.

I have no idea what type I’d get for either of them though. There are so many brands and types of binoculars. I just went searching and I found a site that tells you how to buy binoculars. I think I might spend a bit of time there reading the information. Hopefully it will help me decide which type would be best for each of them. The site that I found that information on Opticsplanet.net also sells binoculars and offers free UPS shipping on orders over $29.95. I guess I’ll spend sometime looking at what they have to offer too.






Happy Halloween!

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I just wanted to let you know that Breath of Life has Halloween themed photos being posted every two ours all day today.

If you love Halloween drop by and see the series of 19 photos.

Update – So? Did you go to Breath of life to see the series of 19 photos or not? Come on, don’t you have the Halloween spirit? There’s some Ghoulishly fascinating photos over there.

The shots are running through into November 1st. You can view the Halloween photos that began being posted every two hours by visiting the archive section. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

Gnomes in the Garden

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My poor husband. I’ve been having fun torturing him with the thought of our garden being filled with gnomes – everywhere! LOL Don’t get me wrong. We both enjoy the cute little fellows but I’ve been teasing my poor man with the idea of hundreds of gnomes placed throughout our garden beds.

I think he might be starting to dream of gnomes.

To back up my little trick on my unsuspecting husband I went looking for sites about gnomes and I found a really good one. There’s quite the assortment of garden gnomes and information at PhenomeGNOME. I love this site! It’s chalk full of everything gnome.

There’s a Gnome forum where you can chat with other gnome lovers and collectors, Gnome Gallery that you can send photos of your gnomes to, perhaps with a story about your gnome. Another interesting feature of this site is the Gnome guide where you can learn the history of gnomes- both fact and fiction. For example did you know that by most accounts, gnomes originated in the icy vastnesses of Scandinavia.

There’s even a brand new Gnome blog called MissGnomer’s Blog. MissGnomer used to hate Gnomes until she discovered ceramic gnomes. She purchased a few of them and her fascination grew until she wanted to know everything there was to know about gnomes from their history to lore.

Vintage German gnome If you love gnomes you must visit this site. You can read about the history of german garden gnomes along with the story of one of the first garden gnome creators August Heissner. If I were to start collecting gnomes, and I’m just saying, I think I’d want to collect some of the vintage beauties like I saw at PhenomeGNOME. There gorgeous!

Naughty Gnome I quite enjoyed the Naughty Gnome page on this site. My husband has a wicked sense of humor and I think he might go for one of the naughty gnomes. Perhaps we’d be able to move on from there and get one or two more “tasteful” gnomes if we got a humorous one first. I’m sure some of you have seen naughty gnomes or perhaps you even have one or two of your own. They just make me laugh.

I’d love to find a bobble head gnome. Now that would be cool. It would also be a gnome that could travel with you if you kept it in the car. You could travel from place to place and take pictures of it at famous or scenic location just as some people do with their garden gnomes.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention PhenomeGNOME welcomes visitors to submit stories about their passion for gnomes, how they got started with gnomes, and stories about what you do with your gnomes – such as keeping one at the office or taking one on trips with you. You’re also invited to share photos of your gnomes or collection. I think they’d eventually like to have a photo gallery of gnomes from all over the world.

So, should I stop torturing my husband with the thought of hundreds of gnomes throughout the garden or should I let it rest for a while? I think I might bug him for a little while longer.

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