A Pleasant day of rest

A pleasant day outside not really sunny, but pleasant. Nice temperature, slight breeze, just feels nice. Slept in this morning and when I got up and looked out my kitchen window; my backyard was alive with movement there was all these little birds in the grass eating away. They were well hidden so mostly all I could see was movement and an occasional bird; it was kind of magical to watch them appear and disappear. A pleasant way to start the day.
I've brushed the big dog and with enough Milk Bones (what dog won't behave for a Milk Bone) and a leash and good brush; it can be very relaxing.
Now I've just doing what I want on my computer watching an old Disney movie on the Hallmark channel. I haven't seen the Gnome Mobile since I was a kid and am quite enjoying it.
My little dog, Rascal, is on medication that makes him have to go outside about every 2 hours or so, so I'm real glad it's nice out plus it keeps me from getting stiff. I've kind of overdone the last couple of days trying to make up for the time in the hospital and moving slowly cause I didn't feel good so I pushed too hard and really needed to rest up in preparation for the next couple of days.
I'm feeling better now and I'm grateful to be feeling well enough to enjoy it. I wish you, my friends, a Happy Holiday this year. ENJOY!!!!!

Home before Christmas

Back from the hospital again. This time I was put in semi-isolation. You know there is a reason they put prisoners in isolation for punishment. It is not fun at all. At least I had things to do. I edited photos and did some drawing, read part of a novel, learned from the computer and drawing books I brought with me. I knew I might go into the hospital and even if I didn't; I needed to rest so I stopped at the library on the way to the doctor and stocked up. While out I saw these beautiful flowers which I just had to take a picture of.

My wife, Johnina, is in the hospital again. Apparently the same problem as last time. She asked me to tell you all.

Tom

Mirage- moon though pine trees

Tom gave me the idea of making a copy of the moon, I liked it but decided that duplicating it again might look better. I did indeed like it better. However in the 8x10 format the copy was too far away so I went back and cropped it so that the copies would be evenly spaced. I really liked that a whole lot better. I experimented with the border and found out how to round the corners to echo the shape of the moons. I had found on Amazon.com a Dummies book for my editing program MGI PhotoSuite where I found how to duplicate the moon. I am working on my goal for Dec and learning and finessing my photos even if it's only one or two photos a day.

View from my hospital window

A friend of mine said this was sad but lovely. A lovely photo capture, but sad because I was in the hospital. This was taken on Thanksgiving Day.

Christmas in Georgia

Christmas in Georgia- fall colors and Christmas wreaths.

Art edits

I LOVE doing art edits and this one was particularly fun. I also learned a new technique.

Surgery and simple edits

Today I had surgery, so this is going to be short a sweet. It is also the reason why I didn't do a post yesterday; I decided that going to bed early was better for me than putting up a post. A friend of mine Nicu Liuta said this about being on the website MyShutterSpace "I can't live without this...it's my phototherapy!..." I agree with him whole-heartedly and couldn't have put it better. I just have to add photo taking,photo editing and my blog. I am trying to integrate my goals as I add them and taking care of myself is #1 goal. I must admit that going to bed early and putting up a new post was something of a toss-up; they both do me good. Anyway the surgery was to replace a mal-functioning port. The surgeon took out the bad port from my left side just below my collar bone and put a brand new power port on my right side just below my collar bone. Now both my arms are not working so well and I have to be careful of what I do till it heals. It hurts, too.
I decided instead of doing a complicated edit I would spend more time with a simple edit but spend more time looking at it so I could really finesse it. The results are shown here. The top picture was redone several times before I got a picture I really liked; I didn't settle on the first edit. The bottom picture was also redo several times as I learned how to change the color of the sky. They don't fit in the wow category, but I'm also learning that editing a pretty picture is alright , too.

Tom's dinner

I have not been feeling well for a couple of days, in fact I've been pretty miserable and I've been sleeping lots. Tom quite often makes dinner for us, but tonight he went the extra mile and made homemade chicken soup and homemade rolls from scratch. Yummy. He figured I needed a nice flavorful nutritious meal. He went into the freezer and found all kinds of veggies which he added, to boost the nutrition. Tom is a meat and potatoes kind of guy so adding the veggies was a real treat for me and a nice gift from Tom. His rolls tonight were the best I've had in a long time. His thoughtful gift was wonderful and just what I needed.
For the last two days I've been working on this edit of this pink zinnia. I've reworked it three times and though it's still not exactly what I had in mind; I do like it.

Old House -Locust Grove

These are photos of the same house taken from different directions. One thing I am finding out is that some pictures even of the same subject just seem to want different edits. The same edit just doesn't seem right somehow. I edit by instinct and intuition and not by rules I don't even know if there are rules for editing, composition yes, editing ?.

Out on a limb

I have lots of Hawks and birds of prey in my area and I have tried and tried to get a picture of one. Ta-Da. This is an unedited version and I am sure He will be seen again in edited form. He is worth taking that extra time I was talking about in my December goals.

December Goals

I have been blessed with the ability to learn fairly quickly, however I also have a short attention span. Consequently I have a real problem getting really good at things. This December I am going to work on this problem of mine. I've learned a lot about editing pictures in the last couple of months and am getting better, but I find myself just doing quick edits and not stretching to really learn more like I was. So for this month I am going to concentrate on taking my photos further in my editing and maybe not do as many. The photos on today's blog are ones that I spent a lot of time on. They may not be perfect, but I really like them. We'll see how this goal goes. I think I have have done better on my goals since I have put them in my blog. I've always heard that to get the best results from one's goals is to make them specific, write them down and let others know so one feels accountable for one's goals. This blog takes care of all those suggestions quite nicely, even the last one is taken care of because I know my husband, most of the rest of my family and plenty of friends, both long time and brand new, read my blog. I hope you enjoy the photos.
Please notice on the bottom of the page a request for your quotes, jokes or inspirational thoughts, things that help you though the day. Join me on my blog. :^D

Home again, Home again

I'm home again, actually I've been home a couple of days, I just have not been up to my normal speed yet. After running a low grade fever with a high white blood count for six weeks, then having a horrible Fibromyalsia flare, then developing cruddy sounding lungs the doctor decided to put me in the hospital to find out what was going on. As it turn out from the tests I had pnuemonia. For me only having pnuemonia is a good thing. Anyway they started treatment in the hospital and sent me home. I was still running a low grade fever when I left but by then I could do for myself at home what they could have done for me in the hospital even if I was not completely well.

I'm certainly glad to be home and it has made me grateful for some things I normally take for granted, like hot water and the Internet. It's amazing how fast new technologies get accepted as part of our daily life and get integrated into our lives so we really miss it when it was gone. This hospital has no Wi-Fi and even if I knew it going in, I sure missed it while I was there. I can't even imagine what it would be like without TV. Even though I watch little TV in the hospital most others do. You can hear the many different channels down the hall; which is why I wear earphones and listen to music. It's just a cacophony in the hall. Until I learned the trick with the earphones the noise of the hospital used to keep me always on edge. Anyway back to to getting used to change and new technologies in our lives; I remember when TV was a luxury that you paid extra for; now it is a right and loud would be the protests if the charged 'extra' for it. I imagine that in the not too distant future there will be Wi-Fi in the hospital to. Already people bring their computers and use them, not long ago the would have been locked up as valuables or not brought at all. If you think about it Laptops have not even been around that long allowing people the option to even bring a computer. Come to think of it a personal computer of any kind has not been around for all that long either. I was able to do some editing while in the hospital. I was extremely grateful for having just gotten a laptop that I could take with me. While editing I even came across a couple more funny pictures.

The other thing I missed the most was hot water, a little step backward there. They turn down the water temperature so that sick people who are not thinking well can not burn themselves; which left me with cold showers. I hate cold showers and with a fever I hate them even worse. It might have been good for me, look on the bright side type thing but I couldn't think that way with cold showers. I hate cold showers period. I hate them even worse with a fever cuz they give me chills.

Of course I missed my family and Thanksgiving which wasn't fun at all. I did get lots of sleep in between everyone checking on me. I really needed that sleep. I really needed to be in the hospital.

I am really grateful to be here still to be with my family and friends, to feel of their love and concern, to know and feel their prayers and best wishes for me. Many people expressed their concern and kept me in their thoughts and it truly touched my heart. Thank you it was a most memorable Thanksgiving; one truly felt in the heart.