Category Archives: Uncategorized
Weeding peace
How does your garden grow?
I weeded tall grass out of our wildflower garden this morning. It’s such an easy garden to maintain; this is the first weeding I’ve done, and with the grass as tall as I am it was easy to figure out which was weed and which was not. Plus I got to weed standing up, always a plus.
Pretty in pink.
In the cool shade with a little breeze weeding was actually enjoyable. The only noises were the birds at the feeders and the bees buzzing around the flowers. I hummed along with them as I worked.
Bzzzzzzzzz….
At one point, carefully standing in the middle of the garden I looked up and thought – – I should go get the camera. This is so pretty Mom would like to see it, I’ll email her some photos.
Does anyone know what this is? About 3 feet tall.
And then, for a split second I remembered and waited for the sad to come rolling over me. But it didn’t.
Royal colors.
Instead I felt sure she was already seeing it, even before I took the first shot. And I was also sure she thought it was just as beautiful as I do.
Crazy beautiful.
I remember as a little girl picking her flowers from the fields and woods around the house. She put them in a juice glass and set them up on the windowsill above the kitchen sink. So when I accidentally broke a pretty pink zinnia I tucked it in my shirt right next to my heart. And when I got inside I put it in a juice glass.
And I smiled.
For my mom.
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge
I’ve been trying to figure out how to convert photos to black and white for a long time. Maybe years. Oh, not constantly – just when I see something I think would look better in black and white. I have Adobe Photoshop and it should be easy, but I’ve frequently poked around there searching without any luck. So I did what I’ve heard lots of people do when they get stumped about something.
I went to YouTube.
Apparently people are right; you can find instructions for anything there. After watching a couple videos, and going back to figure out exactly which version of Photoshop I had, I figured out the basics. Then I tinkered around a bit more and came up with this:
Still working on the farm.
It seems to fit in perfectly with Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge, specifically a shot of something with an engine.
This old farm truck sits out by the road advertising events held at the farm. Soon it will be pumpkin picking time. Seems too early doesn’t it, but seasons come and seasons go.
This old workhorse has seen a lot of them, and I think it remains beautiful, and certainly photo worthy, no matter what the season.
Bet you miss me!
Katie here. I bet you’ve missed me a whole bunch cause my mama won’t let me blog very often. She says it’s not all about me. Whatever do you think she’s talking about? Everything is all about me! Anyway since she’s sleeping in after our big adventure I thought I’d just hijack this blog and tell you all about it. Hurry, she could wake up any minute!
Last Tuesday mama started packing stuff in the car. Well! Last time she did that she left without me, so I made sure to stay underfoot all the time so she didn’t forget me. And guess what? Next thing I know I’m in my crate and we’re on our way!
Ready for take off mama!
We didn’t drive for very long and we ended up here at my favorite campground. We had a big campsite all to ourselves, and it had lots of grass for me to sniff! It was a pretty campsite, though not as private as the last place we camped. Still, I liked it a lot. So did my mama.
This is my camp. I let my mama share it.
Mama set up the tent. I have my own bed and pillows. I like pillows on top of my bed because I can see out of my own private window better. And because I’m a princess. But just to make mama laugh I often sleep next to my princess bed. On the floor. Without pillows. Cause I’m a crazy camping girl and always do what I want regardless of what mama thinks is good for me.
What are you looking at?
I do that outside too. In the morning when the grass is wet mama gives me a towel to hang out on. Just to prove my point I go lay down somewhere else. In the wet grass. Because I can.
I don’t need a towel mama!
I don’t think mama understands me at all.
But anyway. We had a lot of fun. I got to go on lots of walks and take lots of naps…well not really a lot of naps. I stayed awake all the time protecting my mama. Yes I did. A camping dog’s responsibilities are very demanding. You have to be very vigilant!
Just resting my eyes.
Our second night mama says we had a visitor to our campsite. She thinks it was a raccoon. Or a camp monster. It stayed around our tent for at least an hour and mama was kinda upset. I slept through most of it until the ugly smell woke me up. I think the racoon monster needed to take a shower. I barked once at it and lunged at my window, but mama held me and said ‘shhhhhhh’ and so I went back to sleep. It appeared she had it under control and I was tired. Mama was sad because she wanted to go outside right about then to watch for meteorites, but she felt like it was easier to control me while we were inside the tent rather than us being outside with the camp monster. Sigh. At least that’s what she says. Personally I think she was just scared.
Don’t be scared mama!
I love camping. All you doggies out there — I can’t encourage you enough to get your moms and dads to take you camping! You’ll get to spend quality time with them under the night sky and on walks and just hanging out at the campground! You’ll get to meet other dogs too. You won’t believe how many dogs get to go camping! All kinds! And the smells! Amazing! You’ve just got to try it! Even if you do get a little damp!
Damp curls.
Yep, I had a wonderful time and as always I was sorry when mama took the tent down. But she says we’ll go camping again someday. Now I have to go take a nap. I’m going to dream of sweet green grass and hundreds of stars in the dark sky and the fresh air blowing the leaves on the trees, and special smells, and lots of love.
Until next time!
Cause that’s camping!!
I took mama’s chair.
Share Your World
Cee has a new list of questions to answer…want to play along? It’s fun. You can answer these questions on your blog and link back to hers. Here are my own responses.
Collecting tiles that represent different factions of my life
Are you a collector of anything?
I collect the art tiles of Pat Custer Denison. For a long time I’ve purchased one tile a year. I have enough now to build a unique coffee table. Maybe someday I will. They just make me smile. Most years I buy the one tile from that year’s collection that represents something I enjoy doing. She does larger wall art too. Check out her website. She has a studio in northern Michigan and someday maybe I’ll visit.
What is your biggest fear or phobia? (no photos please)
I’m afraid of being trapped in a car underwater. I actually know someone that survived that, but I could hardly listen to his story it upset me so much. There’s an ad running on TV right now that has a woman in a car trying to get out. I don’t even know what the ad is for because I have to switch the channel immediately when it comes on. I don’t know how I got this phobia but I’ve had it for years.
Do you prefer reading coffee table books (picture), biographies, fiction, non-fiction, educational?
I mostly read fiction, though I have read many biographies and memoirs that I enjoyed. I also love coffee table books because I love good photography of places I’ve been and others I’ll never see any other way.
In fact I like to poke around in just about any kind of book. I almost always find something fun or interesting, even if I don’t buy the book or read the entire thing. You never know what might interest you unless you explore. This is one of the reasons I like libraries and book stores…you can browse books on either side of the one you thought you wanted. You’ll often find much more than you anticipated when you visit your local library or independent bookseller.
Complete this sentence: If I Must Be Reincarnated, In the Next Life I Want to Be…
Well, obviously, I would want to be reincarnated as a dog at my house! But I suppose if I was being reincarnated then there wouldn’t be my house to be a dog in..right? So if that were the case I guess I would want to be a dog in any of my dog friends’ homes…we all spoil our furkids and wouldn’t have it any other way. I want a place with my own pillow and lots of toys, but where I get to sleep in the human bed at night. A place that feeds me great dog food but also shares a bit of their own food with me. A place where my people take me on adventures and I get to share their world. Yep. In my next life I’m going to shoot for being a spoiled rotten dog.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up
I’m retired; I can’t remember last week. But I think last week I was up north enjoying my favorite lake, Lake Michigan, and the company of good friends. That might have been the week before, but it feels like last week, and I’m getting elderly, so indulge me. This week Katie and I are going camping and I’m looking forward to that so much. Katie doesn’t know yet so she’s not particularly excited. But she will be.
Trust me.
Did you say CAMPING mama?
Happy Birthday Mom
You’d be 86 today. We miss you.
Love,
All of us
Busy day at the bath
I was doing dishes and noticed a flash of dark grey wing in a shrub beside the deck. I immediately felt alarm. The wing color looked like a junco, and those are only around here in the winter. Surely they were not already descending on my summer! I stopped doing dishes and watched intently.
Turns out this is what I saw:
Visit from a catbird
I saw catbirds when Katie and I were camping a few weeks ago. I know they are also in our yard, but they stay out by the road in the jungle of grapevine covered bushes. I’ve only seen them, even there, a couple of times in the twenty plus years we’ve lived here. I was surprised to see two catbirds in the honeysuckle bush, chasing each other around. And I was stunned to see one hop up on the birdbath.
Turns out there was more fun coming.
A nice cool bath is just the thing!
She (I’m deciding it’s a she) jumped in the bird bath and began to enjoy herself. But then she had an unwanted visitor.
Stay away! This is MY bath!
Then her mate showed up to guard her while she continued to bath.
I’ll keep watch for you.
She enjoyed her bath for a long time.
Shake it mama bird!
But once the mate flew back into the shrub she got even more visitors!
Look! She’s hogging the bath!
Eventually it was all just too much for her.
That’s it! There’s no privacy here!
And the visitors were left on their own.
Was it something we said?
Always an adventure. And to think if I was working I’d have missed it all.
Internet photo of Junco. Not here yet. Thank goodness.
WordPress Photo Challenge: Beneath Your Feet
My feet have been to many exotic, beautiful, interesting places. But when I think about what’s regularly beneath my feet I can only think of one thing. A fun, silly, and furry girl who is always underfoot.
Whatcha doing mama? Can I come too?
Check out a few of my favorite “Beneath Your Feet” offerings here, here and here. And look down right now. Where are your feet? Anywhere interesting? Share it with us!
NOW what are you doing mama?
There’s a Christmas card on our bird feeders
I have often thought, as I watch the birds visit our feeders, that it looks like a familiar Christmas card. You know the one…where a different kind of colorful bird peeks out from behind all the letters in “Happy Holidays!’ on the front? Just a few minutes ago I was reminded of that card again and went to get the camera, moving slowly, carefully, quietly.
If I had gotten the shot this is what you would have seen:
A huge bright red male cardinal lording over the flat feeder, the feeder I had just moments ago filled with black oiler seed. A female, or perhaps a juvenile cardinal, a chickadee, a house finch and a titmouse were all sitting on the feeder with him, some grabbing a seed and flying up to a branch to eat before coming back for more. He didn’t move from his spot. A juvenile oriole and another female cardinal sat on the top of Katie’s kennel a few feet away waiting their turn. A small black and white woodpecker slips in, grabs a seed and departs. The bright orange male oriole swoops down from the trees to the oriole feeder. There is no grape jelly left. He hops to the top of the pole and stares into the window, voicing his displeasure with a quick burst of machine gun chirps. The male cardinal, impatient with all the activity on his feeder systematically chases all the smaller birds away. Most go to sit in a line on Katie’s pen. Waiting. When he’s done gorging himself and flies off the activity on the flat feeder picks up again. Bright yellow goldfinches have stuck to the thistle feeder throughout all the antics. They are pigs. And a female hummingbird zig zags nervously around her own private feeder.
Can you imagine all of that? I hope so because I didn’t have a chance to get the shot.
As soon as I moved to the kitchen and picked up the camera, turning slowly back around to head to the living room Katie woke from her spot in the dining room, raced to my reading chair next to the window, leaped up and commenced to barking. Because if mama is grabbing the camera and heading toward the windows there must be something out there!
So you’ll have to be satisfied with a picture of the princess instead. After all, she says, nothing else is as beautiful.
Who;s the prettiest one of all?
Sigh.
Change Is Hard 