Christmas sunrise: Off the beaten path

Christmas sunrise

For those of you who where up at the crack of dawn, but where occupied with kids and gifts and those who got to sleep in here is this Christmas morning's sunrise.

This was taken from the woods behind my house because of this:

Christmas in the woods

We have a neighbor who decorates one of the pine trees in the woods and although they can't be seen in this photo it is complete with shiny glass ornaments.

This year they added a table and chairs

and Rudolph

Enjoy

Merry

Christmas

♥♥♥Johnina♥♥♥

WrittenInc makes you think

WrittenInc is one of my all time favorite blogs.  Carmi posts everyday and he always gives you something to think about.  Today's post posed the question of where do you find comfort when the world doesn't seem to offer any?  Not only does Carmi give his thoughts but the people who comment are also generous with their answers and it makes reading the comments just as thought provoking as his posts.  I left my comment there,

He also does a thematic challenge every week.  This is were his followers can post a post from their blogs depicting his theme.  This weeks thematic challenge is Autumn.

I don't very often post a special post just for his theme; I have been blogging long enough so I can find a post to fit his theme from past posts and this is acceptable for his challenge.

But as I have recently been reorganizing my photos I have come across lots of autumn photos that I don't think I have shared before so I posted on his weekly theme today.  I hope you enjoy them. 

 Happy Autumn

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

PS click here for information on my latest giveaway. Enter and good luck

Got to walk the dog

I got my flu shot last Friday.  I know that since the shot does not contain the live virus that it is not supposed to cause any reaction or flu symptoms; it did with me.  every year when I get the shot; I get the symptoms.  They may be less then getting the actual flu, but they still make me feel cruddy.  Aches, chills, fever (100.6) and high blood sugar, (all signs of illness) but when you own a dog, no matter how you feel, the dog still needs to be walked.  Tom normally does this for me when I don't feel well, but he wasn't around, so we went for a walk. 

I decided since I was outside anyway I would bring my camera to catch the last of the summer color.  I have taught Rascal to hold still on command when we walk and that is what he is doing in the picture above.  Good dog! 

This is the space for my garden in the making.  This year we put up this hanging space for my tomatoes.  Put up hangers for my Nasturtiums and put a raised space underneath for my squash and cucumbers.  It is in the middle of this photo (click on picture to enlarge).  Eventually there will be other spaces with walkways and raised spaces, so I can garden in spite of my handicaps.  Little by little as we get the time, energy and money it will be added to.   Fortunately we live in the south where you can garden almost all year long.  Summer is actually the hardest time to garden here due to the heat, so more progress will be made now that the temperature has dropped.  Eventually there will be flowers, herbs, vegetables and a picnic table in this spot.

One last photo of the filterd sunshine in the woods across the street from me.  Rascal and I walk by it every day.

Hope you enjoyed my walk as much as I did.

Enjoy your day

♥☺♥Johnina♥☺♥

Ups and Downs and Elephants

Yesterday I got up feeling pretty good and excited about going to get my newly fixed camera.  I got my breakfast.  Rascal made sure that I got my walk in.  I had a nice chat with a friend on Yahoo Messenger I don't have many friends on there yet but I am enjoying learning how to use it.  This friend in particular is always pleasant to chat with.  Even with all this I was clean and fresh and ready to go when Tom was.  Since we had to go to Fayetteville we ran other errands, but when we got my camera I was so excited.  The lens was so beautiful, so clear, so shiny;  I hadn't realized how scratched my lens had gotten and I couldn't wait to see what a difference the new lens was going to make.  On the way home we made a little sidetrack to get a picture of the Griffin Elephant.  In the south at one time Kudzu was planted to prevent erosion along the roadsides.  Unfortunately it is VERY invasive and grows over everthing.  It will grow over some pretty large trees; softening the look and making them kind of cloud-like and quite often you can see shapes in them.  This one just happens to look like an elephant running down the side of the road.  Immediately after viewing the photos I saw how much clearer the picture was even the colors were clearer.

  When we pulled into the driveway butterflies scattered as we parked the car.  My cypress vine attracts them but they don't often let anyone get close.  I did happen to capture this one.  I didn't have a lot of time to take photos as I had a doctors appointment and still had to eat lunch, besides the batteries were not fully charged and were about to die on me so I had to stop even though I would have loved to continue to click away.

When I got to the doctors office I was sweating badly; usually this means low blood sugar or a start into shock.  Went in had low blood pressure,  when they used the pulse/ox meter my heart was pounding and my oxygen level was 90. Nothing was really bad but it wasn't good either.  They had me do some deep breathing and shaking and rubbing my hands and my ox level went up to 97 which kept me out of the hospital ER.  This was probably due to the Addisons and my body was short of steroids. Stress is stress be it good or bad and in this case the good stress was getting to me.  Talked to the physician's assistant about my knee and the continued swelling and pain and was told it could continue for six months to a year.  She also agreed that since I have had a vitamin D deficiency for so long I probably did have soft bones, I was tested for osteoporosis and did not have a problem there.  But soft bones is not easy to diagnosis mostly it is through a vitamin D deficiency and bone pain and could have been one of the reasons for the extra pain that I have had.  This could also take six months to a year to heal.  Meanwhile I have metal pressing down on soft painful bones.  Much more pain than bone on bone at times.  I also no longer make my own endorphins so the pain levels are higher for me anyway.  By the time I left all I wanted to do was go home curl up and cry.

But I didn't, I read in "The Sound of Paper" by Julia Cameron where she is talking about her and a friend living in places they do not like and she gave me a new perspective.  I may not like where I am physically but this is where I am and I have to work with it.  This is what she said
"It is difficult to commit to living where we are, how we are.  It is difficult and it is necessary.  In order to make art, we must first make an artful life, a life rich enough and diverse enough to give us fuel.  We must strive to see the beauty in where we are planted, even if we are planted somewhere that feels very foreign to our own nature.  In New York, I must work to connect to the parts of the city that feed my imagination and bring me a sense of richness and diversity instead of mere overcrowding and sameness.  In California, my friend must work to do the same.  If we are not willing to work in this way, we become victims.  If we become victims, we first become choiceless and than become voiceless.  Our art dries up at the root.  We must, as the elders advise us, bloom where we are planted."

So this morning I decided to go out and find some beauty to enjoy and to share.  My first stop was to my winter garden where my winter veggies are coming up; radishes, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, beets, and salad greens.

I than turned toward our backyard and the woods freshly lit by the morning sun.

Our small woodpile complete with spiderwebs and the first of the autumn leaves trapped in amongst the cut up wood.

Pine cones on the woodland floor caught in the early morning light.  Beautiful in the soft light and deep shadows.

And more beauty at my feet.  I was so glad to have rediscovered Julia Cameron and to found this book at the library.  It has helped to put things back in perspective for me, helped me to once again find the beauty in the world and once I find the beauty in the world I see the beauty in my life.
Johnina :^A

I never thought that .....

I

I would be excited about getting a walker.  Not only am I excited but I feel really blessed and thankful.  I've had a regular walker for several years and even when I should use it I usually don't.  The Doctor's even tried to convince me a couple of years ago to get a scooter because they were afraid I would fall an injure myself badly and permanently; since surgery for me is so dangerous for me at this point I have to live with injuries.  Even if I could have surgery I have taken corticosteroids for so long now that my tendons and ligaments tend to stretch out and the surgery would leave me in worse shape after the tendons stretched out again. As it turned out I did not qualify for the scooter with the insurance.  I fought it also because I HATE to think of myself as handicapped.  In fact for the longest time after I got my handicapped parking I only used it on really bad days even though I certainly qualified to use it.  Anyway the Doctor's were right and I did fall and hurt myself and tests are still being run to see the extent of the damage.  I may qualify for the scooter after all. 

This walker is wonderful especially in comparison to a standard walker.  For the first time in a loooong time I don't feel like I have to fight to keep my balance.  It was exhausting.  I can walk a straight line; hey no more walking into walls or doorjambs.  I recently found out this is because there are nerves in your tendons in your ankle that help you balance and since mine are damaged...well ...    Good thing I'm a good driver cuz if I ever got pulled over by a cop there's no way I walk a straight line; and I don't even know what alcoholic drinks taste like; never had one.

As you saw in the first photo this walker allows me to sit down to weed my garden but also to take close-ups of my flowers and do much more experimenting with different angles and techniques.  I took many different angles of that bud from the other side then I was able to shot from the this side which turned out to make for more interesting photos but I was only able to do that because I didn't have to squat down to photograph them.  Remember my blog about using photography for exercising because of all the deep knee bends.  Well deep knees bends are no longer a good idea as I have probably torn ligaments in my knee (I go for an MRI next week).  One thing the walker is making possible without extreme pain and sweat from the extreme effort it was.

  This walker also allows me to walk over dirt and grass.  I got to go out back into the woods and take this photo of forest wild flowers.  Tom has been telling me about them for days.  He sees them when he walks the dog but I haven't felt steady enough to go out back and look; much less take pictures.  Today I was able to do that and they were real pretty white yin-yang flowers. That's what what Tom calls them because they are mirror images of each other.  Next time I'll bring some clippers and gloves cuz this walker has a basket to carry things in (oh, so nice).

After all the extra I did cuz I felt like I could because of the walker I still had to go to Physical Therapy and for whatever reason the skies were a brilliant blue with these wonderful, beautiful, majestic cloud formation.  It made for a delightful ride home, a little distracting, but beautiful.
I never thought that having this walker would make such an improvement in my life; not just physically but emotionally.  I expected some physical help but the old walker was almost more of a nuisance than it was worth and emotionally it frustrated me and brought out and reminded me of just how handicapped I truly am.  Now I am blessed with one that helps makes me feel secure when I walk and increases my independence.  Hooray for my new walker.

Church in the woods

I found this church sitting back off the road after the leaves had fallen off the trees. Actually since I have taken up photography and have started to notice things more; I have seen a lot of buildings I didn't know were there especially since the leaves have fallen off the trees. This part of Georgia tends to be very wooded and it doesn't take long for an unoccupied building to return to a wooded state. Anyway it is not unusual for a building to be built in the woods and than be difficult to see. I liked the look of the steeple sticking up out of the trees and took the picture. I didn't particularly like the dull browns and the light colored sky of the original so I added some blue to it. Then I thought about stained glass windows; the colors kind of reminded me of stained glass plus it was a church so I decided to go with that theme. I did the photo with a small mosaic effect, then went to FastStone (freeware editing program I downloaded from cnet.com) for it's frame effects and picked out a larger mosaic effect in light blue and then I added a light blue border to match and signed it. I really liked the way the edit came out it's much prettier than the dull scene that it started out as. I am really grateful for software that can change and enhance the photos I take. You have to have a good basic photo to start with but very seldom will all the elements of a photo come together for that shot that you really like, mother nature does not always co-operate, so it is nice to have a back-up. Sometimes I just plain like the art edit better; it gives the picture an boost toward that WOW.

Websites from my friends at MSS:
http://talitz2550.multiply.com/
This website is from Lolit. She choose a blogsite that is both unusual and creative. It is a photography site for people to use kind of like blogspot it gives you a template but this template is a collage and gives quite a different presentation. Her site is fun and delightful and well worth checking out. I love the collage approach.

Fall colors

It seems to me that this autumn the colors on the tree and leaves are turning colors in a different way. It could also be that I just didn't notice the color change until the whole tree had changed. This year I've noticed that on some of the leaves only part of the leaf have changed color making the leaf half red and half green. On some of the trees I've noticed that only a few scattered leaves have changed while on still others only sections of the trees have turned. I alway thought that trees of the same kind changed at the same time, but not this year. It also seemed that the trees tended to all change about the same time, but it looks like this year some trees are going to be completely bare before the trees next to them turn colors. I remember in years past that I would be driving down the road and the sun would hit the yellow and orange trees and it would take my breath away, of course that may come about in the near future but the leaves this year seem to have more of a brown tint to them. I know from years past that every year is different. I'm probably noticing more and am just impatient in waiting for a Georgia fall. I've been looking at all the pretty pictures from up north so I'm probably just impatient and the colors will come. Right now I'm just noticing earlier which I've never done before. Maybe since I'm noticing earlier I'll enjoy it longer. I must admit that I have become much more aware of the world around me since I started taking photos and much more appreciative. The Lord really did create a beautiful world for us to live on.