Patterns all around

August Break- Day 2- Patterns

The challenge was kind of made for me and my blog, if the intent was to look around, find and photograph the world around us, that is exactly my blogs purpose, to see the beauty in the everyday.  I came across this challenge by viewing a fellow bloggers post on her anticipation for this event so I have been thinking and planning for this for several days.  Even though this just started yesterday because I was also anticipating this, it has already helped me improve my blog.  It has given me the impetus to start carrying my camera with me wherever I go once again, to post more often and to get back to experimenting with my camera.  I've also enjoying visiting new blogs of those who are also participating.

This days theme is patterns and this was easy as there are patterns everywhere both subtle and dramatic.  The first photo is of a house down the street with it's rhythmic pattern of stair steps and stone work softened by the Ivy growing on and around it.

 I did not think, with second photo, that I had anything that I would particularly like, but the more I looked at it the more I liked it.  It is more subtle than a lot of my photos and the more I looked at it the more I liked the interplay of the two distinct organic shapes against the subtle gray strips in the clapboard.  Since I liked it so much I decided to play with it some.  I brought out the colors of the leaves in the foreground and took some of the color out of the background plants to enhance the distinctly different growth patterns.  I took this even farther by placing a dark vignette around the frame, thus adding to the subtleness of the background and making the green leaves pop out.  I may tweak it a little more but so  far I really like this.

 

Due to the overcast skies these first two photos lacked stark contrast which I love capturing.  Bright sunshine and it's dark shadows provide that high contrast that I love and adds an additional dimension to my photos.  These last two photos while not taken today highlights just that kind of drama and some real design surprises if you look hard enough for them you will find yourself surrounded by them.

Enjoy

Johnina

Who wouldn't want to eat like this?

Whenever I tell anyone about my following the Paleo Diet, I can almost guarantee the question "Well if you eliminate grains, dairy, legumes; what do you eat?".  Followed by"That can't be healthy!" and/or "I could never eat like that!"  Actually I eat very well, thank you. When I concentrated on eating meat, veggies, fruits and roots I actually increased the nutrient content of my food.  I now prefer to refer to the way I eat as a nutrient dense diet.  This shows the general composition of my meals- 1/2 of my plate is veggies, either raw or cooked or a combination of the two- 1/4 of my plate is meat- and 1/4 of my plate is fruits or roots.  Although this is a rather simplified example and does not explain the principles of the Paleo Diet or nutrient dense diet; it does give you a good idea of how to start. 

This meal consisted of

1 small chicken breast coated with almond flour,salt, pepper, mexican oregano, garlic powder and parsley

   1 1/2 cups frozen broccoli, cauliflower mix sauted  with butter, salt, pepper, garlic powder

1/2 nectarine sliced

Easy, peasy- simple but nutrient dense.  It didn't take long and the plate looked great. 

This post is part of my participation in the August Break event.  It is hosted by Susannah Conway and the rules are basically take a photo every day in August to post on your blog or on the flickr page or a couple of other places that she lists on the August break link above.  She also gives suggestions for the daily photos and an e-mail with an example of that days suggestion for those of us who get stuck.  Her rules are simple and you can break any of them and still participate, my kind of event it allows for all kinds of creativity.  If I understand this right the idea behind this is for bloggers to share there creativity and photos with others, to notice the everyday photo opportunities, and to take advantage of those opportunities.  I don't know if I will be able to do

this everyday but I'm sure going to try.  My posts might be shorter than normal maybe even just my photo for the day, but try I will.  Today's photo was actually of my dinner and I had a hard time with with the lighting, so my dinner actually looked better in person, but I'm learning. Also I'm getting this in at the last minute, but improve I will.

Come and join me

Enjoy

Johnina 

Inspiring post

Found this post with great wisdom in it- have a look
http://elena-myquest.blogspot.com/2011/07/let-go.html
Enjoy
☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Fun foods

Check out this blog it has some really fun and creative pancakes
http://asucculentlife.blogspot.com/2011/07/happy-4th-of-july-pancakes-just-for-you.html
Enjoy  ☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Check out these posts #1

I have so many blogs that I enjoy that I can't get to read all of them everyday, but there are times when some posts really touch my heart or stick out in my mind or support me in my encounters with life.  I would like to share them with you as I come across them.
http://geeden.blogspot.com/2011/03/are-you-excited-about-your-art.html
http://shewhoseeks.blogspot.com/2011/03/happy-international-womens-day.html
http://lifeworkandpleasure.blogspot.com/2011/03/written-word.html

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina ☺☺☺

Amazing

This blog is amazing for two reasons one is that it got done at all.  We've been having problems with either our modem or our router and my internet signal keeps getting dropped.  It has been almost impossible for me to upload or download a photo and I always add photos to my blog.  My computer acts funky if the signal gets dropped while downloading photos even if the post is on auto save and I have to start all over, but this time so far so good.

The second amazing thing is my winter garden.  My raised garden pictured above and photographed yesterday was frozen solid last week.  When we had our ice storm last week my garden being raised, filled with icy water than froze solid. The garden was full of snow and frozen water with only the tips of the leaves sticking up. When it thawed this is what it looked like.  Looks yummy doesn't it; and I thought that I had all the greens I was going to get out of there.

Most of these greens are cut and come again and so since this is my first winter garden; I now have hope of having greens till next May when they will die from the heat.  Amazing simply amazing.
Johnina ☺☺☺☺☺

Desperately seeking distraction

Distractions

Pain, horrible pain

need to go elsewhere-

to escape- to dream- to discover other places

Safe places- quiet places- beautiful places

peaceful- restful- still.

Or maybe...

exciting places, dramatic places, places of wonder

eye-catching, unique, creative.

Then again maybe...

Thoughtful places- contemplative places- reflective places

meditative, eyes closed, relaxed.

Wherever I find- whatever I find- whoever I find

provides a soothing balm

for the

Pain, horrible pain.
                                                                           © Johnina Young

                                                                                           

Today I am desperately seeking distraction from the pain.  I'm having horrendous after-effects from the IVIG yesterday.  Every muscle and joint in my body H U R T S; even though I took my MS Contin this morning ( I take this everyday for my fibromyalsia and neuorapathy, etc.) and then took lor-tab for the break-through pain, on a scale of 1-10 my pain is still an 8. Could be worse but still hard to tolerate.  I've done some editing but only simple editing and only to the point of where frustration might start as is the case with the above photo.  I really like this photo but I'm really having a hard time with the highlights being too bright, but I included it anyway cuz I like it.

Mostly today I've been checking out the blogs that I love and finding new ones; as reflected in the poem above.  Something I haven't done for a while.  I haven't checked on my favorite blogs because I have been sleeping so much and I don't often write poetry because it is something that has to come from deep inside and just come out somehow.  I don't know how or why; it just does.

 Today I found a blog that I have always enjoyed but have never noticed before how little attention it gets.  I think many more people would enjoy this blog and the other blog Carol does if they only knew about it.  So check it out:

http://caromoom.blogspot.com/

It is a delightful photography site. 

I have quite a few sites listed on the right hand side of my blog.  All those listed I have found personally to be delightful, interesting, thoughtful, insightful, and sometimes distracting in a very good and helpful way.

For those of you who follow my blog and enjoy it and have a blog list that you personally follow on your site; I would appreciate very much being included on that list.   Thanks so much for your support of me and all the kind comments I get.  Thanks even more for sharing your thoughts and lives and the beautiful world we all live in; it has helped get me through many of my ups and downs.  You are all a blessing in my life.
Thanks again,  Love,  Johnina

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.

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.

February goals

Last night I was reading through some of my favorite blogs and came upon a post that struck home for me. I was reading mysteries (if you want to read it go to my blog list and click on mysteries) and Jeannette was talking about her apprehension on her daughters first trip across Holland on a train even though she had been riding the trains since she was 11 and her daughter was 17. I have the same apprehension with my youngest daughter as she flies cross-country. The first time I flew with her, but after that she was on her own. At first we did park the car and go in with her and since she was still a minor we could go through securitywith her. But she got independent and now we drop her off out front. Of course we couldn't help her with lay-overs and she always has lay-overs. We also couldn't help when she got to Salt Lake so she has gotten to know several airports well; Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Salt Lake and when she visits her sister, Pittsburgh. You will notice she goes through some of the busiest airport in the U.S if not the world. I know she is a very capable person and am very proud of her but still some apprehension remains. I guess it's a mom thing. I liked Jeannette's post because it reminds me that I am not alone in my feelings.
I enjoy many other blogs for many other reasons; the beautiful pictures, a different point of view, beautiful artwork, friendship and sharing in other people's lives- how they live and cope-viewing life in different parts of the world, lots of different reasons just like I have many different eclectic reasons for writing my blog.
This month I have set the goal of visiting the blogs and websites of my friends on MyShutterSpace (MSS) and putting in my blog what I like about them. I have found that if I make comments like I do on the photos on MSS that I pay more attention and learn more and enjoy it more. I decided to make my goal of visiting my friends on MSS for several reasons; to get to know them better, we already have an interest in common, and I was surprised at how many had a blog or website and it peeked my curiosity. I am still going to work on my edits but once again the emphasis changes slightly. I'm going to work on improving my blog and my friendships by learning from other peoples blogs with the emphasis on what I like on their blogs.

Sites from my friends at MSS:
http://kulanthapitha.blogspot.com/
http://lovenotionpixels.blogspot.com/
These are both by my friend Kuluth. His blogs are always fresh and interesting. His photography skills are delightful and he tells of his country (India), culture and life. He has a great love for his country and family and it shows through his pictures and words.