Delightful Day

Today was a beautiful day.  Sunshiny bright, with a slight breeze.  I spent a lot of time outside working in the garden.  What joy it brought.  I planted tomatoes, saw tomato blossoms on tomatoes I had planted earlier.  Tomatoes have gotten sooo expensive that they have become quite the treat and I can hardly wait for my garden tomatoes to be ready to eat.  Of course no matter how how expensive tomatoes get they always taste so much better from the garden and I'm hoping for lots this summer.  Both my flower and veggie gardens seem to be taking off and doing magnificently this year.  I'm eating salads from my garden, my plants are thriving.  The picture above is an heirloom flower that I decided to try and they are blooming and thriving.
My Blanketflowers came up great this year.  I love them, they bloom from spring through several light frosts. They are always bright and cheerful and attract many kinds of insects.

T

This is my favorite.  My first rose off my new rose plants.  The Benn and Jeremy planted it a couple of weeks ago and it has certainly felt at home and thrived where it was planted.
My regular camera is back in the shop being fixed again so these pictures were taken with my old point and shoot.  I really feel lost without my camera, but I decided to try to make up for it by doing a nice pretty edit on the pics and I must say I really enjoyed it.

Walden

In running my errands yesterday which included both the bookstore and the library, I realized that I did not own a copy of Walden and in fact had never read all of it.  So this being earth week I decided it would be a very appropriate book to read, a classic to make me think or so I've been lead to believe from the many quotes I have heard that have been taken from it.  So I am going to read it in fact I started to read it last night.  In going to the bookstore which was going out of business :^C  :^C (double sad face) I was able to get this new hardback copy for only $3.  I would rather have paid full price than have the bookstore go out of business but than again I probably would not have bought it which is probably one reason they were closing.  Economics is kind of a vicious circle isn't it?

Garden Salad

This really is a garden salad from my garden.  I think it is appropriate to be able to get my first spring green salad during earth week.  I know there is a lot of political stuff to go with earth week but I feel this is the best way to celebrate earth week by enjoying the bounty provided by this wonderful earth by the help of my own hands.  This salad was grown organically and contains a couple of different kinds of leaf lettuce and mesclun, raddichio, arugula, strawberry spinach ( a new plant I grew from seed to try), spinach, Chinese cabbage, curly endive, garlic chives, parsley (much more nutritious than you would think), fennel leaves, edible flowers, and wild onions (that were growing wild in the yard).  I think it's pretty wonderful.  I cut my salad cut into strips; it's just so much easier for me to toss and eat that way.  Tip for cutting salad into strips: there is always stacking and cutting with a knife, but I've found that a PIZZA CUTTER works better and faster.  I've found with small items, herbs, edible flowers, and such that scissors work really well.  I like eating salads and enjoy them, but I think I enjoyed this one more than normal, probably because I grew it and harvested it and I think I could taste all the extra nutrition from all those yummy dark greens of spring.  Savor this season of new growth and bounty.    

Earth Week

This week is earth week with Thursday being Earth day.  I found this on video on You Tube and thought it was a nice way to start the week.

There is great photography and a great song  
ENJOY

Hawke Free Childrens Library

These are the photos I was taking when I fell and hurt my knee.

After I started on the pain killers and the muscle relaxants I was really out of it and if I laid down to put my leg up I went to sleep.  Of course the doctors orders were to lay down with my feet up so I've pretty well slept since Tues.  Today was the first day where I was coherent.  Tues I called Laura and told her about falling and she told me about Hayden's day at school and how one of the teachers had told her Hayden was her favorite.  On Weds she asked about the teachers comment and I had NO recollection of the conversation at all.  Sweet Laura just said "oh, good than I get to tell you all over again."  So much better than being mad because I didn't remember.

Anyway I finally got around to editing some of the photos I took.  See Tues post for a regular front shot of the building.  This is a nicely preserved old building in downtown Griffin that is now used by the school district, I think. 

I went to take these photos because I had taken one from the stop-light and so many people liked it; I went back to get the building from several different angles.

There are times when I edit that I am surprised by which photos I like best when the edit is done.  Do you have a favorite?  If so which one?  I would be interested in knowing.

I still have other photos to edit but I think I got some pretty good shots from many and varied angles.  I hope you enjoy them.

Benn and Jeremy you tube

This past Easter when Benn was down to visit we went onto you tube and played some of our favorites for each other.  Amazingly the boys had not seen Star Trek: How it should have ended and I had not seen this tribute to John Williams. 

My first reaction was cool but someones got way too much time on their hands.  Then I was told that they got a hefty commercial contract out of it.  Maybe not such a waste of time and energy.  As I continued to think about it I thought of all the joy they brought and shared with other peoples lives.  Last to come to my mind was the joy he got in his creation.  Perhaps my thought process was backwards and the joy he received was enough and more to justify the time and effort put into this project.  Just like the joy I receive from my art is enough.  Or the joy I receive from the boys planting my flower garden is enough,  when the flowers are in bloom I want to giggle with delight upon seeing them and I hope it is enough for the boys too.
I HOPE YOU ENJOY OUR LITTLE YOU TUBE ADVENTURE TOO Read the screen as it tells which John Williams theme is playing.

Whooops!!!!

Today after going to physical therapy; I stopped to take some pictures of the old Griffin library, first known as Hawke Free Children's Library.  It is really quite an impressive old building that is now used by the school district.  I had taken a couple of pictures of it while waiting at the stop light there, but I wanted to get more pictures from different angles for a photo site I just joined Paintmyphotos this site is for photographers to share their photographs with artists to make derivative pieces from.  Something I would like to do as I started taking photos for reference for my own drawings and paintings.  I really think it would be neat to have someone choose one of my photos to paint.  I'd really like to see what they would come up with.

However I had a bit of bad luck and my bad ankle which is why I go to PT gave out from under me and down I went. HARD. Onto the concrete walkway.  I seriously twisted my knee and ankle and spent 5 hours in the ER.  They cast my knee because it was so unstable, making it even harder to walk at least for now.  Consequently I didn't have time to edit very may photos; maybe tomorrow I can.  Doesn't the temporary cast look like fun; crutches too.  Oh well at least it's temporary.

Look at me now

H

Hello,


I may look funny but thus far even with the pollen counts being 5000+ I've not had to make a doctor or hospital visit.  HOORAY for me!  Last year you could hear my breathing  through a closed door and I was making regular visits to the doctor AND THE POLLEN COUNT WAS LESS THAN HALF WHAT IT IS THIS YEAR.  So if looking funny is what it takes, I'll do it.

Rain, Rain Hooray!!!

Hi
After I had edited my little sketches I decided that I really kind of liked the way they looked.  This one looks kind of friendly so he's being used as my greeting today.  You will probably see more of my little sketches and drawings in my blog just because I'm having fun with them.  They are not great art but they are fun.
I've changed my layout, I got an e-mail about new blogger layouts and decided to try them.  I was thinking of changing my color scheme anyway; I was getting tired of the dark color scheme.  I think maybe it's because of a change in me.  Anyway once again serendipity came into play in the form of an e-mail.  One of the premises of Dr. Dyer's book Excuses Begone, which I am currently reading for the third time, is that when you are ready, the help that you need will come into your life.  Serendipity.  I have found that the more I accept the gifts of serendipity the more I get them and wonderful gifts they are.  Sometimes they seem small at the time but the joy they bring is out of proportion to the size.  For example the change in my blog colors, before I changed them I never would have believed how good it make me feel to see the new set up.  I could do a whole blog just on the little gifts of serendipity I have received of late, and maybe sometime I will but for now I'm going on with other things.

My last blog was on the outrageous pollen counts we in Georgia have had to endure.  Another serendipity, Tom bought me a painter's mask just a couple of days before the pollen rise and it has help me keep breathing normally or close to normal in spite of the pollen.  We woke up to dew on the pollen and it actually made it kind of pretty.  Then we got rain and got pollen sludge.  Yuck!

  After the second rain when most of the sludge was gone the pollen once again made patterns that where really kind of pretty.  That's why the post is called Rain, Rain Hooray!  Well that and the pollen count went down to 1941 still extraordinarily high but better.
I think maybe I should have called this post Hodge-Podge because I'm going to change the subject again.  The economic crisis that has hit pretty much all over has hit this family too.  Although it hasn't reached crisis proportions a little extra money would sure be nice.  I'm working on selling my photographs and now have a website on redbubble (see top right hand corner of my blog and click to go there).  I have also started with ads on my blog not something I wanted to do but I think it could be an advantage to both me and my readers.  I am only working with Amazon.com because they have good prices and service; I've used them and like them.  They also let me choose what to advertise so when I read a book and enjoy it all you have to do is find it in the slideshow click on it and it will take you to Amazon where you can order it. Convenient. I like that I can choose what to put up to advertise that way I know you will probably like it too.  Hopefully finding this will turn out to be serendipity for me too.
I hope you like and enjoy my new blog and your life is filled with serendipity too.

Seeing Yellow

Normal extremely high pollen count is anything over 120.  Well today in Atlanta the pollen count was 5733.  I think that qualifies as extremely high.  I live outside of Atlanta in a wooded area and I'm not sure that I would even want to know what the pollen count is here,  Everything is covered in pollen and it is starting to seep into the house.  You can't keep anything dusted.  I've been dusting off my computer every couple of hours and you would never know it.  I took my camera out to take these pictures and came in with a dusty or should I say 'polleny' camera.  As you can see in the first picture even the windshield wipper has a hard time keeping up. I looked off into the distance and instead of clear blue skies or even gray polluted ones it was a yellow green.  I didn't even try to capture the sky because even if I got the sky color perfect no one would believe me.  If you look at this mornings post you will notice the sunrise is definately yellow.  They say that this pollen is too big and heavy to cause any 'real' allergy, but whoever the they are surely doesn't live here at this time of year.  Allergy or not it will certainly irratate one's eyes, nose, sinuses and lungs.  Usually at this time of year everyone can hear me coming from a ways off by listening for my breathing.  Last week Tom bought me a mask and it seems to be helping as I am breathing pretty normally for this kind of pollen count.  I've been wearing it whenever I go outside to walk the dogs or work in the garden and I'm seriously considering wearing it every time I go out.  It seems Tom got it for me in the nick of time; the pollen counts have only been in the extreme range for just a couple of days.  I guess if one wants lots of trees and flowers one has to put up with the pollen.  As for meI'm going to continue taking care of myself so hopefully I can make it through this time of year with minimum problems.

All the picture where taken of the outside of mine and Jeremy's cars.

Sunrise

Good Morning !!!

Just in case you missed it; the sunrise was beautiful.
Such a wonderful way to start the day. 

For Hayden

Most kids go through a stage where they are fascinated by dinosaurs and Hayden is no exception.  Since my camera is broken and is in the camera hospital I have been having fun editing and experimenting with editing my photos.  Yesterday however I realized that I did not have a photo that I liked for Easter that I hadn't already used somewhere so I pulled out my sketches and used one of them.  While I was looking through my sketches I ran across several dinosaur sketches done at several different times for several different grandsons.  To make them brand new for Hayden I used my photo editing programs to give them a whole new look.
Enjoy

Happy Easter

 

About 25 years ago I was making Easter eggs for the kids from a kit that my mom had sent me.  We were spending the day getting ready for Easter which was the next day and having a good time, when I received a phone call that would forever change the way I celebrated the Easter holiday.  My sister called to tell me my Mom had had a stroke and was in a coma.  I was shocked and Tom and I made arrangements for me to fly to Florida from where we where living in Utah so I could be with my family.  It was a time that we as a family grew closer together as we talked of our Mom and her wishes and our memories of her.  Mom died a few days later.  In talking about mom we decided that she probably picked Easter as her time to leave us; as a way to comfort us as we all believe in Jesus Christ and his redemption and resurrection.  What a wonderful comfort that was to us as a family to share that kind of testimony of Jesus and all of us be able to comfort each other with this knowledge.

Since that Easter I have not dyed Easter eggs but we have had baskets and goodies, but they never had the importance to me that they once did.  Now the significance of the holiday; the atonement, the death and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ holds number one priority in my heart.

Today was especially tender for my heart as my friend Marsha died just last week, it being close to 25 years since my Mom died and today was General Conference (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) from Salt Lake City and many of the talks by the general authorities, the apostles and the Prophet centered around Easter and the resurrection.  The choir even sang my all time favorite hymn "I Know That My Redeemer Lives".  What could have been a sad day of grieving was instead a day of inspiration, peace and comforting.  I am so grateful for my knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My wish for you is that on this day you could feel the peace that I have felt, no matter your beliefs or religion.

Trees

I have found a fun blog that I am going to enjoy participating in. You can access it by clicking on Written Inc. on my blog list.  Once a week he introduces a theme for the photographers out there and then invites us all to contribute our photos along that theme.  It certainly makes a interesting blog.  His other posts are fun also.  A thoroughly enjoyable blog.  This weeks theme is trees.  Since Georgia is in fact a temperate rainforest there is no shortage of trees to photograph.  Actually it is difficult not to get a tree in any outdoor picture that you take.  I have learned to either shoot around them or to incorporate them into my artwork.  Most of my pictures have trees in them.  I probably have a couple of thousand of them.  I will not try to show them all but I have picked out a few of my favorites.  I hope you enjoy.

When this you see

I've been trying to get all my little avatars, icons, or whatever you want to call those little identifying pictures on the web to all match.  So when you see this picture on the web you will know that it is me.  I think it symbolizes me and my personality or what I hope to become pretty well.  It has a somewhat traditional look, kind of like a Chinese painting and is therefore familiar, but it is taken a step further to become creative and unique.  The colors are soft and feminine with just enough bold and dark colors for contrast, liveliness, vitality and interest.  The shapes of the limbs, branches and trees have both character and variety from both years of growth and predetermined genetics.  Lastly the frame pulls it all together for one complete whole.
As part of my living fearlessly I have decided to sell my artwork, which is why I have added the slideshow and redbubble.com icon should you wish to purchase one of my photos.  Just click on the icon and it will take you to my site.  If you do not see the photo art you wish to purchase just contact me via e-mail (listed on right) and I will see if I can get it on the site for you.  Not all of my pictures are sufficient size or resolution to print well, sorry.
In celebration of starting my own sales website I will be giving away a 16x20 print of one of my photographs on April 30.  If you would like to make suggestions as to which photo that will be leave a comment either here or by e-mail.  There are plenty of photos to look at; see the 'Contact Information' box on the right.  Please give me the name of the photo or the name of the post.  I will be deciding on which photo to give away on April 15.  More details to follow.