Only Once a Year!

Yesterday was a partly sunny/partly cloudy day - depending on how you look at it! But I took the opportunity to photograph our Lady Banks climbing rose. It is just gorgeous and bursting with beautiful yellow (Paige's favorite color!) blooms. The only downside to this rose is that it only blooms once at the beginning of Spring and that's it:(

Here is a close up of how the bloom looks.

And another. I have decided to cut some and make a beautiful bouquet to bring inside to brighten up our world in here, especially since it will only bloom this one time. Happy Spring to everyone!

No Problem!

The Instrument!!

The Evidence!!

Paige cut her hair today! While I was getting paper for her to cut (I was on drugs and slow - antihistamines! ha!) and she was sitting at the bar with her kiddy scissors waiting, I heard her exclaim, "I cut my hair, BearBear!"

And here it is! She cut it almost down to the scalp right in the front but, thank goodness, it was long but not very wide! I told her mother she would have a new hairstyle for Easter and that she was being paid back for cutting one of our cat's whiskers down to a nub with her kindergarten scissors when she was a little one! ha!

All children cut their own hair at one time or another, don't they?!?

I had NO PROBLEM finding a subject to post today!

Sunday

Today being Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest so I went to church, left halfway thru and got to my mother's in time to watch her TV church with her, we ate together, visited and I came home and spent the rest of the day just looking around and playing on the computer. I feel like I'm coming down with either sinus problems or a cold. Hope it's gone tomorrow. No energy.

Playing in Puddles!

About mid-morning today, I headed outside in my pjs and waterproof shoes and a rain jacket to play in the puddles with my camera!

All this reminded me of when I was a kid and took the time to really look at things like this. Remember seeing reflections of different things in rain puddles or seeing a rainbow in oil on concrete?

The two photos above are reflections of trees in a big puddle on our sidewalk (yes, we do have a sidewalk even though we live in the country! ha!).

I kept splashing around looking for something different and found this reflection of a tire on my husband's tractor reflected in a puddle on the concrete in our carport.

As I walked up to our mailbox, I saw these two cows trying to cross in the flooded waters across the road from our house. They were trying to get to dry land where all the other cows were. It sounded as if the other cows were calling them to come over to dry land!

Also, as I was walking to the mailbox, I came across this cute little fellow, a nice surprise!

I know turtles are supposed to be slow but he was moving pretty fast. Only once did he stand still for my camera. He was going as fast as he could to get away from me. I just love his colors and had to get a photo of him. I wonder where he went and where he is now.

I had a great morning playing in the rain and hope you enjoy my photos!

My Daddy's Birthday

Today is my daddy's birthday. If he were still here, he would be 90 years old today! Just wanted to remember him here:)

Dummies

Why is learning this new technology so difficult for me?!? I cannot tell you how many "Dummie" books I have or have had in the past (or the VISUAL books!). My present challenge is iTunes for some reason. We just have a little iPod shuffle and that's all I want is a little music to listen to while I clean house, ride my bike, things like that but it takes me FOREVER to change my music on it. I can't remember how I did it the last time and I stay on the site for hours sometimes trying to figure this out! It's driving me crazy! I know it should be simple, right?

I really think I am more "right-brained" than "left-brained". But I keep plugging along:) Oh, and by the way, I just completely FORGOT to post yesterday. Just completely slipped my mind!

Spring Has Sprung For Me!

I love this magazine! It will get you in the Spring mood! Taxes are done, files purged, been cleaning house, got some sewing done today (will post later on here), even baked cookies today. If you see this magazine in the racks, take a look. Good recipes, great ideas for a lot of things and very inspiring! I love it!

Yesterday and Today

Paige and I traveled to visit my mother today and take her a plate of home-cooked food to eat tonight. But. . . we had company go along with us as you can see above. Minnie had to be buckled in, too. Minnie brought her little girl with her (not pictured!) and this little girl's bottle (also not pictured). Minnie's little girl looks just like her mother except her clothing is a lighter shade of pink:)

We had lunch with my mother - sandwiches and raisins - and I painted her mailbox for her (also not pictured). I took photos of the pretty flowers blooming in her yard - azaleas, wisteria, little 8 o'clocks (this is what my mother calls them - I don't know what they are) and snowdrops (?). Maybe I can post those photos tomorrow.

Just had to include this addendum to yesterday's post! These are some little wildflowers Paige picked for me yesterday. They're her favorite color - yellow - and I floated them in water which she absolutely loved!

Just touches of Spring everywhere. I love it, Paige loves it and even Minnie Mouse and her little girl loved it!

A New Beginning

I was up very early this morning, while it was still dark and the moon was still in the sky. It was beautiful and the first thing I think of is grabbing my camera for that shot but I would have had to set up the tripod, etc. so I didn't do it. But then just a few minutes later, I saw the above shot and I grabbed my camera. The photo doesn't do it justice. It was such a beautiful sunrise this morning. Got my day off to a good start! I posted it on FB first to share with friends and family there and now I wanted to share it with my blogging friends.

Also, I needed to post on this site early because I have a really, really busy day ahead of me. Hope all of you have a wonderful day today and hope you were able to enjoy this beautiful sunrise!

Flowers for Linda

Today after church, my husband and I went to visit the family of one of my friends, Linda. We got there a few minutes before visiting and no one was there in the waiting area so we waited to see them. When Linda's family got there, I asked her youngest daughter if she thought they could "sneak" me in to see her and she said yes. She is in a cardiac intensive care unit right now. So I got to see her! I got the impression from looking at her face and eyes that she was happy to see me and I was SO happy to see her. You know, you can't have flowers in intensive care and Linda loves flowers so, Linda, these flowers are for you today. I love you and your family and pray that God will take care of all of you.

Considering all that she has been through, I thought she looked really good. And I just have this feeling that she is going to make it through all this. It might take a long time but she is a very determined person and has a lot of people praying for her. I am a big Auburn fan but I even gave her a big Roll Tide Roll today and it made her laugh, which was so good to see! I am so thankful that I got to see her.

No Photo Today - Just a Short Post

Just a short post today, no photo. I'm just tired for some reason. BUT. . . after the mouse yesterday. . . the first thing I see when I get up this morning just right inside the door on the rug by the pet door is a fish! Just a tiny little fish, though - about 3 inches long. Guess hunting season is just so good for Peekie right now!

The Cat and the Mouse

We have 3 cats and one dog. This is our biggest and furriest and most laid back cat, Peekie (short for Peek-A-Boo). Does he look like he would hurt a flea? No. And he wouldn't! But he is constantly hunting and bringing us the goods! He has brought in mice, tree frogs, fish, craw fish, and "somebody" brought in a snake once! We don't know for sure who did that but have an idea and I don't think it was Peekie.

Anyway, the excitement for the day was brought to us by Peekie. I was washing dishes from lunch, just here with the animals. The dog was asleep on the couch, another cat, Halle, was asleep on the other couch, and another cat, Rudi, was way up high on the top of the refrigerator where he mostly lives, when all of a sudden Peekie comes crashing through the pet door in the kitchen with a big, huge, fat mouse in his mouth and runs to Paige's playroom in the back of the house!

Here is the room where he took the mouse. I took quick action and shut the door, rolled up a beach towel and barricaded the room so no one could get out. I called my husband and asked him if we had any mousetraps. He said yes and just to wait until he got home and he'd find them and take care of it. I left the cat AND the mouse in the barricaded room and waited. I could hear the cat playing with the mouse, just having a good old time! ha!

When my husband got home, he found the mousetraps but ended up just taking a broom and killing the mouse and set the cat free. Life in the country! I'm ok with it unless someone brings a snake into the house again, especially in the bedroom when we're asleep!

Oscar the Grouch

This was me today! At first I felt bad about being in this kind of mood but then I realized that's life and some days are just like that (for everybody!). He is cute and so is his worm! ha!

Tonight as I write this, I have hope of waking up tomorrow with a brand new spanking day! I look forward to it!

Birds in the Spring

This is a really close-up photo of one of the nests in our martin house which looks like a condominium for birds! Just about every year about this time, my husband puts it up (he lowers it when they leave) and we start watching them. He's more observant than I am and has pointed out to me that every year a sparrow lives in one of the little nests. I heard him say today that he's noticed a hawk that is bothering the martins. That's interesting. Will be interesting to watch and see what happens. Usually we have barn swallows that build mud nests on the vinyl columns of our house (which is unusual, I think, because I read that they like to build on wood as in BARNS!) but this year I haven't seen any nests being built yet. They are members of the same bird family as the martins.

I love Spring and watching nature during this time and have decided to make an effort to be more observant and watchful of the life around us outside at this time of year as my husband does. Would love to hear some of your stories!

A Beautiful Springlike Day

Ever have one of those days that you just kind of float through? That was my day today. I just kind of floated through the day just doing whatever anyone wanted me to do. I went to a beauty shop and watched my daughter get a haircut while playing with my granddaughter, ate candy, went with husband, daughter, granddaughter to watch them choose flowers to plant a bed, went to the library with my husband and looked around while he checked a couple of books out, went back by my daughter's house to see the new flowerbed, went to grocery store, drug store, ran into a neighbor in the parking lot and talked, came home and read outside a little while, ate Moose Tracks ice cream, just enjoying the day, the flowers, the people and the beautiful day.

For Marty

Marty, here's the flower in color - beautiful, isnt' it?

Full Circle

I feel like I've come full circle here. This is the first photo I posted on this blog. Today I cleaned house like a mad woman and I enjoy it SO much better when I listen to music. SO. . . I listened to a little James Taylor, Michael Buble, The Eagles and Josh Turner. I need to add or change some more music to my little shuffle. I feel SO good about what I accomplished today!

Tax Time :(

Wouldn't want to waste a photo on this but it's tax time. Had to gather papers, receipts, etc. together for this necessary part of life.

But I spent the majority of the day with my mother, having lunch, watching TV, watering plants, hanging a new shower curtain, tidying the kitchen, and trying to get rid of a huge antbed in her backyard, and just visiting. This part of the day was a lot more enjoyable than the tax part! ha!

Finished - Finally!

I read and finished (finally) the above book and I did thoroughly enjoy it and would recommend it. I checked it out from the library and only had to recheck it two times. It only took me a total of about 9 weeks to read it! ha!

I keep reminding myself that this blog's purpose is two-fold: 1. to chronicle the days of my life on the year I turn 60 with photos and 2. to learn more about photography by using my camera everyday. This post is one of those days that I just put the camera on auto and snapped.

A Flower from The Biltmore

I've had a rough day today so I just wanted to post something I think is beautiful. This is some sort of flower I photographed when I went to The Biltmore that I thought was beautiful. I made it a B & W and loved it. Happy Weekend to all!

Another Fun Search

On my February 8th post, I started a fun search for items in nature, architecture, etc. that resemble letters of the alphabet. While we were in Auburn, I found a few more that I think might work with a little cropping here and there. Above could be a Y or a V.



And with a little cropping, I think this could be a P.



And the back of this chair would be a wonderful Y or V.

We actually saw some of these framed in a gift shop while we were in Auburn. I liked them very much. I'll just keep looking and collecting and when I get enough letters to do a name, I'll try this project.

Family

This was not me today. I did not snap one photo. But I had a wonderful day today. We had our little pumpkin, took her to a park, then home again to swim and play in water. Then I left to go to my mother's to eat my baby sister's good cooking. My brother was there also. We had another small family reunion.

What A Coincidence!

Today was such a beautiful day. I rode with my daughter and granddaughter to my mother's house where my youngest sister and her husband were visiting. It was another small family reunion. We had a wonderful day just sitting on my mother's screened-in porch watching my granddaughter play around in a little pool and visiting with each other and the neighbors, too.

When I got home late this afternoon, my husband and I were doing some things outside and I decided to make some oatmeal cookies. He came running inside and said he wanted me to grab my camera and take some pictures of the moon, telling me how beautiful it was. What a coincidence that I was just reading a post on a new blog by my other sister here about the moon!

So I decided to try out my tripod tonight to photograph the moon. I have not used that tripod in years! I made 24 shots and my husband liked the very last one because it showed the craters on the moon, shown above.

By the way, I burned the cookies! Just can't multi-task anymore!

Necessary Things

Been "monkeying" around so much and having so much fun lately that I just had to stop and clean this filthy house! Not very exciting but necessary!

Family

I spent today with family, some that I don't see very often. These photos are of the children and a new dog in the family. The top photo, my great nephew, turned out great and he was so cooperative about posing for me. In fact, when he saw I had my camera, he asked me to take a picture of him in the tree. This is one of many poses he did for me.

Now these two were a little more shy in front of the camera, then they couldn't be still long enough to get a good picture! ha! They really had a great time playing together.

Then came the dog. I didn't do so good on the focus with this one but he seems to be a great dog.

We all had a great time together eating and talking and just being with each other. Watching the children play together was wonderful.

Auburn vs. LSU - We Won!!!

Na, na, na, na, boo, boo, - We Won! By at least 10 points, too (an inside joke).

Paw Paw won two tickets to the Auburn/LSU basketball game today and Paige, her mommy and I went along and shopped while her daddy and her Paw Paw went to the game. We shopped in downtown Auburn and had a great time. Had a lemonade and ice cream at Toomer's and everything!

And, of course, I had my camera with me and took lots of pics. We HAD to get one in front of this sign at Samford Hall which is such a tradition at Auburn.

Thought you might like a little history I found on Samford Hall. **Originally, Samford Hall WAS the university, housing classes until 1969, when it became solely the university admin headquarters. It was named for Ala. Gov. William James Samford, who attended Auburn in 1860-61.

The first campus building, Old Main, burned in 1887, leaving nothing but brick and ashes - some of the brick was used in the foundation of Samford Hall. The legend that a number of students led a cow through the attic and into the bell tower in the 1920s remains unsubstantiated, but it IS true that, in the dead of night, a group of enterprising 1977 students, armed with paint, cardboard and tape, turned the stately clock into a Mickey Mouse watch face! **

**Taken from the Auburn Magazine, Winter 2008

Trip to the Zoo

Went to the zoo today. Was a beautiful day for it and all the animals were out because it wasn't too hot. I'm exhausted!

I took 99 photos! Will go thru them later and play with them and probably post on FB. Most of these I manually set the exposure (except for auto focus)! whew!

A Peek of Spring!

These are our little Phlox peeping out. When this happens, we know Spring is on its way! I can't count how many years we have had these little flowers but they never let us down.

Hats

I wear many hats but this was the "hat" I wore today at the hospital. There's no photo of me in this hat but I know I looked very cute:) I actually had a good time but hope I didn't embarrass my husband or daughter. They told me I was hilarious and some things I did and said that I don't remember. They said I kept wanting to shake hands with the doctor and asked the doctor how old he was, etc. I do remember that when I woke up and the nurse was "unhooking" me from all the paraphernalia and told me I could get up and get dressed now, that I told her I didn't want to get up and get dressed and didn't they have a place they could take me and leave me for about an hour so I could take a nap! ha!

But results were quick procedure, good doctors, good nurses, good facility, and good results and, hopefully, not having to go back and do it again for 10 years! Yay! The only bad thing about it was drinking that "floor cleaner" the day before - yuk!

Now. . . on to quilting, sewing, babysitting, reading, drawing, my camera, my computer, my church, my family, my life!!!

Just a Photo for the Day

This is just a photo for the day to post one. You don't want to know what I'm doing today or tomorrow! ha!

This photo was taken on Sunday coming home from church - the day it snowed. I thought that maybe the snow would show up on the photo but what I really like about it is that this is straight out of the camera and it looks like a B & W photo with only the reds showing.

More of Birds

It is really amazing what you can do with a computer! When it snowed on Sunday, my husband and I rode around a bit (I had my camera with me - always now!) and I snapped a few pics but I felt like I really didn't get any good shots of the snow. It did snow a lot but it was too warm to "stick."

I was just snapping from the truck with the window down. We saw this Cardinal flying around in this tree and I just rolled the window down and snapped. I really didn't think you'd be able to see her at all but when I got home and put it on the computer and played around with it, I got this!

The Cardinal is my favorite bird. Isn't she beautiful?!? We saw a male, too, but he was too quick for me. One day. . .

Something Really, Really Different!

Today was a really exciting day around here because something very rare happened - it snowed! When I first looked out the dining room window to see the snow, there was a bluebird in the tree outside the window. So I grabbed my camera and just shot a photo really quick (manually setting it but forgetting, once again, to check my white balance which was set on inside light) so. . . the blue everything . . . blue bird, blue tree, etc. I started to delete it but then decided to play around with it on the computer and this is what I came up with and I kind of like it. It looks more like a drawing or painting than a photograph.

I took other pics of the snow but I don't think it was in the cards for me to get a good photo of the snow. It was just such a rushed day. But it was a good day.