Saturday Critters #638

- only one picture today -

 
This is Melody, she lives at 

Arrow Acres Farm

and loves to play with her food.

If you would enjoy seeing more pictures of the Alpaca 

you can view previous posts about the farm

here, here and here.

Sharing today's images with Eileen at 

Viewing Nature With Eileen 

for Saturdays Critters

Keeping Busy

 Keeping busy this winter has not been difficult for me.

I have way too many hobbies, I love being at home, and I enjoy being immersed in a craft project.

I have been coloring a lot recently, something I have not done since last year.

This book was gifted to me by my friend Liz...

Nature's Inspiration

The Hydrangeas colored are my favorite so far...

I am almost finished with the birds.

I tried to color the birds to look like the birds I see at my feeders.

I only color during the day, when the house is lighter.

I am also working on my 3rd blanket.

This is a blanket kit for beginners, and although I have been knitting for 10 + years,

I find these kits fun and inspiring.

The kit from Sierra Yarn includes everything you need to make the blanket.

All of the yarn, the circular needle, the pattern and a tag for the finished product.
It is their Dream Cloud Blanket in light blue/ivory.

The yarn is 60% Baby Alpaca and 40% Pima Cotton, it is as soft as a cloud.

I work on my blanket at night, I am able to knit on the blanet

and watch t.v. at the same time!

Watching "Older" Movies

 When I was under the weather, (I'm all better now), I was in search of good Romance Movies to watch.

I watched 3 excellent movies, that I had already seen and I enjoyed watching them.

 I enjoyed both movies more, the second time around.

The first really good movie I watched was...

- P.S. I Love You -

If you decide to watch it, be sure to have a full box of tissues with you,  you will need them.

Both Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler were excellent in this love story.

Without giving too much away, a wife finds out husband is dying.

The young widow discovers that her late husband left 10 messages for her before he died.

Very cute, romantic and just so sweet.

The second great movie, I watched was

- A Little Bit Of Heaven -

A romantic comedy about a free spirited woman who learns she has terminal cancer,

 and falls in love (head over heels) with her doctor.

The last of my favorites was...

- Look Both Ways -

This Netflix romantic comedy is about a young woman whose life splits into two parallel timelines 

on the night of college graduation.

 - one where she gets pregnant and stays in her home town and raises the baby -

the other where she does not get pregnant, moves to L.A. to pursue her dream as an animator.

The movie shows both outcomes back and forth so you have to pay attention.

It is not a good "knitting" movie.

Two other favorites that I did not watch because you have to pay for them now,

- Five Feet Apart -

- The Fault In Our Stars -

Another all time favorite is

- The Notebook -

Soup and Stuff

The hubs picked up a five dollar chicken at Costco before the last storm.

We get three meals from one chicken.

I don't have a recipe for my Chicken Noodle Soup...

these are the ingredients...I just eyeball everything.

Whenever I make this soup, I always used leftover chicken from Costco,

and for this pot of soup, I had frozen stock that I made myself.

I wrote about making my own chicken stock here.

The homemade stock was delicious and made a big difference in the soup.

It was so delicious, we can't eat soup without crackers and I always have some in the pantry.

And because I had the good ole' five dollar chicken from Costco...

I made a big bowl of chicken salad...here's a look before I added the mayo.

We still have snow on the ground and I am debating if I should switch out my flag.

My daffodils are starting to make an appearance, but the crocus will bloom first.

16 days until spring and as much as I love winter and snow, I am looking forward to spring.

Our 10 day weather forecast is awesome, 70's next week!

Back To The Aquarium

 A few weeks ago we spent an afternoon at our local aquarium...

Jenkinsons Aquarium

It is a privately owned facility located right on the Point Pleasant Boardwalk.

It is a nice size, not huge, but extremely enjoyable.

It was very clean, there were plenty of staff, and the staff were extremely knowledgeable.

 

In my initial post I shared pictures of the animals that live on the first floor. 

These images are of the animals seen on the second floor.

This is the area they have for the 2 seals that call the aquarium home.

Harbor Seals, Gray Seals, Hooded and Harp seals are known to visit New Jersey.

Turbo came to the aquarium in 2024.

Turbo and Noelani

Their tank is large, this is the view from the first floor.

There were a lot of Penguins, difficult to photograph thru the glass.

This is Poncho, a blue and gold Macaw.

She came to the aquarium in 1991 and is believed to be about 40 years old.

This is Louie, she is a Moluccan Cockatoo.

Louie came to the aquarium with Poncho in 1991 and is also believed to be about 40 years old.

These little frogs were adorable.

Screech Owl

The monkeys were all so active and adorable.

Titi Monkeys are known to intertwine their tails when sitting next to each other.

This is a sign of affection and companionship.

This was the hubs idea...

I kinda' played along.

They had an old fashioned "penny" souvenir machine, I had to make one.

I have a lot of these!

This is a great place to visit any time of year but it's a really nice spot during the cold winter.

Out For A Drive

 This past weekend was special.

Blessed with blue skies, sunshine and warm temperatures, 

the only thing missing was a was a jaunt in the car...destination unknown. 

We stopped at the usual places...

Howe Street Beach

After the storm, the ocean was calm and only one surfer was testing the waves.

We stopped at Lake of the Lilies where I only saw two Female Mergansers, no Males...

and a lot of Mallards.

The Mallards were mating, a ritual that is difficult to watch.

There were a lot of Greater Scaups there also.

About half the lake is thawed now and it is nice to see the ducks, and photographers returning.

Down at the inlet, we watched the Northern K come in.

It was the only boat that came in...

it's still cold here for boating standards, but the commercial fishing boats are always in and out.

It looks like the Northern K had a successful bounty, the baskets were overflowing with clams.

I saw only one Loon at the inlet.

It was so good to be out of the house, to roll down the car window and breathe in the fresh "ocean" air.

I need to appreciate that more.