Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.


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WordPress Photo Challenge: Muse II

Muse:   a spirit or source that inspires an artist. 

Family farms have always inspired me.  Especially those that are in wide open spaces, surrounded by the crops they grow.

Early morning light on barn.

Early morning light on barn.

My mom’s family has farmed for four generations.  I guess that’s where I get my appreciation for the beauty that is farmland.

Amber waves of grain.

Amber waves of grain.

Farms are always changing, as the grain ripens, the soybeans turn yellow, the corn puts out tassels.

Corn is knee high by the 4th of July.

Corn: knee high by the 4th of July.

Slow down, don’t speed through farm country the next time you’re there, take a moment to look.  It’s where your food comes from.

And it’s beautiful.

Barn for sale.

Farm for sale.


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WordPress Photo Challenge: Muse

This week’s photo challenge is to show something you photograph regularly, something that inspires you to take more photos.  To show us muse.

Pretty clouds...and a sheltie.

Pretty clouds…and a sheltie.

For me it’s often the sky.  Prior to retirement I had a window at work on the top floor and regularly posted ‘window weather’ photos taken on my phone of the clouds, rain, and sun streaming by.

Now that I’m not working I have to go a bit further to find that wide open sky.  But it’s still one of my favorite things to photograph; it changes frequently, it can be beautiful or dramatic; sometimes both.  I’m always watching the sky, early morning, midday, and late into the evening.  You never know what you’ll see.

Oh.  Yes there’s also the sheltie-girl Katie in this shot, another muse.  I have a few thousand photos of her in her many different moods.  Today, as you can see, she’s a very happy girl.  Because she loves to run, and because she knows I have treats.

You can see other interpretations of ‘muse’ at the original post.  Or if you like, check out a few of my favorites, here, here and here.

And don’t miss this one.

 

What’s your photographic muse?  You have time to show us, just post a photo on your blog and link to the original post.  I can’t wait to see!

Katie-girl.

Katie-girl.

 

 


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WordPress Photo Challenge: ROY G. BIV

Do you know what Roy G Biv is?  I didn’t.   It stands for red, orange,yellow,green, blue, indigo, and violet, the colors of the rainbow.  Yesterday I went over to my local nursery to find examples of those colors.  You can see other interpretations at the original post, or see a few of my favorite shots here, here and here.   And don’t miss this one, it’s wonderful!

 


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Retirement Reflections

Reflections

Reflections

It’s Monday morning, sometime before 7:00 a.m., and I’m up and out the door.  Only as I’m backing down the driveway do I remember all the past Monday mornings when I’ve headed out about this same time on my way to work.

Early morning.

Early morning.

But this morning I’m not going to work.

I’m headed out to a hillside I’ve noticed over the years.  Yesterday on our way to somewhere else I noticed the grass was a beautiful golden brown and I knew I had to get back with the camera soon before the farmer turned it all into hay.

As I park on the side of the road, pausing to let commuters zoom by, I begin to smile.  I smile because it’s a beautiful day, the sun just topping the trees, small puffy clouds in a blue sky, a cool breeze gently tossing the grass.

Field of grass.

Field of grass.

And I smile because I’m not on my way to work.

Driving leisurely back toward home after capturing the field I stop at a local park to enjoy the glassy pond.

Swimming hole.

Swimming hole.

Sigh.

I’ve got to say that even weeding is looking pretty good to me right now.

Summer arrives

Summer arrives

 


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Katie’s Day 1

Katie here.

Well.

By now you all know that my mama retired.  Whatever that means.  It doesn’t seem to be about me so I’m not all that interested.  But today I’m starting to figure out that life as I knew it is over!

This is my house and I make the rules.  Don't I?

This is my house and I make the rules. Don’t I?

First of all, mama was home all weekend, which is a little strange cause she usually goes to work at least some of the time.  That’s my favorite time to nap and get ready for an adventure.  When she gets home from work on the weekends we almost always go somewhere fun and she lets me sniff and sniff and sniff while she walks around sighing and daydreaming and stuff.

But this weekend was all rainy and we didn’t do anything exciting.  Mostly she napped on the sofa.  I bugged her a lot to try to get her to play but she was in some sort of coma, you know?

Anyway…today is Monday and she’s supposed to get up early, so I did my usual…and got her out of bed at 4:40 a.m.  She did not seem pleased.  But you know what she did?  She just went out to the sofa and went back to sleep!  Huh!  So I went to sleep for awhile too.  Then I woke her up again and she told me to go lay down.  So I did though I was confused.  This went on for some time till finally she got up and took me out and then we went back to sleep again!

And then she didn’t go to work!!  She just hung around all morning!  What’s with that?  I am missing my princess nap! How am I supposed to keep up my princess looks without my late morning nap?

And then she took me outside and she started weeding!

Yep that's supposed to be a garden back there.

Yep that’s supposed to be a garden back there.

Well!  I LOVE weeding cause I get to be outside a long time with my mama and I get to bark at all the cars that go by, and the jogger, and my neighbor, and a truck, and a duck, and a rabbit, and my neighbor again.

After awhile my mama said I needed to go inside.  But then she bagged up the garbage…so I just had to bark some more!  Geeze mama, if you want me to be quiet you’ve got to sit down woman!

So anyway, I think my mama’s new full time job is weeding.  She says we’re going to go outside every single morning and work on the gardens.  Or she might just mow over the top of them.  We’ll see.

I’m undecided if this retirement thingy is good for me.  So far I haven’t seen any adventures come out of it; mostly I’ve just gotten yelled at for barking too much.  I kinda liked it when she went to work, but I guess I’ll adjust.  Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll wait till 5:15 to get her out of bed.

You think she’ll like that better?

Kisses mama!

Love, your gal Katie.


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Memorial Day; remember

Today, Memorial Day in the United States, I wish for all of us to take a moment and remember.  Remember someone in your family, or a friend, or a friend of a friend, who has served this country.

Remember that some didn’t come home.

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Remember that some came home permanently changed.

cropped cemetary

Remember that we owe them all.  And that we owe their families too.

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And then get on with your weekend party.  Celebrate summer and life and family.

But never forget.

Imported Photos 01026


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Katie pronounces it officially summer.

Katie here.  Guess what, guess what, guess what?

At my park last night.

At my park last night.

It finally got warm!  And our grass is green!  And sometimes I get to sit in my kennel and watch the birds and bark at anyone on my street!  It’s amazing.  This weekend my mama even said she might put up the tent!  That means it’s summer, right?

Well, maybe not quite summer cause she never did put the tent up and we had to sleep inside the boring old house.  She said she was too tired.  I swear, that mama is always too tired to do fun stuff.

Well, I take it back, she did come home Sunday evening from somewhere all dressed up and she rushed out of her good clothes and put on her park clothes and we got to go to my park just as the sun was going down!

She said we had to get my dandelion photo, whatever that is.  And something about the park people mowing the grass if we didn’t hurry up.  So we rushed over there so fast she forgot my treats…and she marched me out to the middle of the field and guess what?  Apparently dandelions close up when the sun goes down!  Who knew?  So she found a little patch of them in the last bit of sun and said that would have to do for this year.

Boooorrrring

Boooorrrring

I found the whole thing terribly boring.  But then she and I walked all the way around the park and it was just wonderful.  Don’t you think the sun makes my coat look good?  I hear I’m going to the groomer Friday.  Maybe if you all tell her how beautiful I already look she won’t make me go.  It’s worth a shot, right?  I’d give you her private cell number to call her, but she won’t tell me what it is.

Golden sun on my golden coat.

Golden sun on my golden coat.

So anyway.  We also got to do weeding this weekend.  I’m not sure what that is either, but it seems to mean I get to lie out in the soft grass while my mama digs around in the dirt and gets all smelly.  She is definitely not a princess.  Sometimes I wonder why I hang out with her at all.

Then tonight after supper she and dad went back outside to weed some more.  I loved it because I got to sit in the grass again and watch my road.  I kept them safe from two marauding joggers and a couple of trucks.  Good thing I’m around.

But when the sun started going down mama said that was enough and now she and I are hanging out on the deck!f  The sky is getting all apricot, and there’s a big pink puffy cloud to the south.  AND…best of all mama saw the green herons come back for the summer!  All three of them flew over and made a big production of landing in our trees.  Boy they are noisy!  She seemed awfully glad to see them though.

AND we just saw a humming bird!  Mama put the feeder up yesterday cause she figured they’d be around by now and sure enough, just a few minutes ago a little hummer flew around our heads and went to the feeder!  He seems more skittish then he was when he left last fall, but he’ll get used to me.  I never bark at hummingbirds.  They are so cool and they make my mama happy.

So anyway, I almost forgot…mama says that by Friday it’s supposed to be hot here!  And if there aren’t any storms for sure we’re going to go camping in the back yard!  I almost can’t remember what that means, but I’m sure when I help her put up the tent I’ll be all excited again.

This was me last year!

This was me last year!

So all of that means it’s summer.  Right?  I think it is.  Princess Katie proclaims that summer has arrived.  I don’t care about stupid calendars and official dates.  I can’t count anyway.

Everybody enjoy this beautiful weather!  I hope no one has storms and you all get to go out for walks with your peoples or your dogs or (I suppose) even your cats.

Now I need a nap.  This weeding thing gets a girl exhausted.

See you soon in my tent!

Come camping with me!

Come camping with me!


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Need an adventure

Hey Mama!

Hey Mama!

Katie here.  Mama’s busy working on that truck stuff so I figured I could get a little blog in while she wasn’t looking.  Shouldn’t be hard, she doesn’t pay attention to me much anyway.  She works works works and then she comes home all tired and stuff and doesn’t want to play with my pig or my cow or my elephant.  I bring them to her and she doesn’t even realize until my dad tells her that I want to play.  Good thing he’s around to make sure I get the attention a princess deserves.

I really want to go on an adventure with my mama, but all she will say is not now baby.  Maybe the weekend baby.  It’s almost summer baby and then we’ll go camping.  Sure mama.   Whatever.

So for now I just focus on doing my job.  I let my mama know when it’s 9 at night and time to go to bed.  I start huffing at her at exactly 8:48.  I have to start early because, as I’ve said, she’s not paying much attention to me.  I keep huffing and stomping my feet and if that doesn’t work I poke her really hard.  That usually gets her attention.  Then she checks the time and is usually grateful that I’ve reminded her to go to bed.

Once she gets settled in for the night I vigilantly watch over her for about 4 seconds and then I crash myself.  My mama’s a big girl, she can sleep without me checking on her.  Plus I need to get my beauty sleep you know.

Then sometime between 5 a.m. and 5:02 a.m. I make sure she’s up!  Oh yes, I know her alarm isn’t set to go off until 6, but I’m saving her the stress of having to hurry in the morning.  I can’t remember the last time that silly alarm even had to go off.  She doesn’t need it.  She has me!

As soon as I’m sure she’s wide awake, (sometimes I have to bark at her quite a bit to get her fully awake, and I find a good walk in the rain helps too), I go to my favorite spot, curl up and go to sleep.  That way my mama can get ready for work without any interference from me.  I’m thoughtful like that.

So anyway.  Don’t you think she should reward me for all my hard work and take me somewhere fun?  Soon?  I think it would do us both good.

Yes I do.

Pay attention Mama!

Pay attention Mama!