Category Archives: Photography

collage – a photo challenge

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It’s Saturday morning and I’m home, on the deck, again. It’s a lovely morning it’s cool and calm and the birds are chirping up a storm, or perhaps it is because I can hear the birds and everything else with much better clarity. Ivy sits perched at the edge of the deck surveying the yard and the garden beds beyond.

I wanted to write this post yesterday, but life got in the way. It was Bastille Day, France’s national celebration of independence. It was also Pandemonium Day, really, I am not making this up. Today is either tapioca Pudding Day, Gummi Worm Day, Orange Chicken Day, or Pet Safety Day.

We returned from the lake, and the duck butts, Thursday evening. I had a couple of appointments yesterday and I leave for a three-day social studies conference in Raleigh, North Carolina tomorrow morning. I was born in Raleigh and I have not been back since I was a baby when my mom and dad moved, or returned (as I learned) to Decatur, Alabama. I image much has changed in Raleigh since – the population in 1960 was 93,000 and today it is close to 450,000.

I was enjoying yesterday’s early morning on the back deck, that time of day is the best time to enjoy the deck. The sun rises and brightens the front of the house and the entire backyard is in full shade, the deck remains in the shade until late morning when the sunrises higher in the sky. I was the only one up, except Ivy when my mom called – it was wonderful to hear her voice. Continue reading collage – a photo challenge →

bridge – a photo challenge

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It’s Saturday morning and I’m home, on the deck. I’ll be back at the lake later this evening, but for the moment I am home. I drove home Friday. I left in the morning hoping to avoid the weekend traffic and it almost worked.

coneflowerrs at the lake – destined for our garden at home
coneflowers at home

I was able to catch up with W, run a couple of errands, workout, and eat dinner before calling it a day. I have an appointment later this morning, then I am returning to the lake.

This morning I woke, made the coffee, and enjoying my morning on the deck. It was peaceful and calm, until the neighbor’s yard crew arrived. My yard crew (W) is still sleeping, he mowed yesterday and the yard looks grand. Continue reading bridge – a photo challenge →

Tuesday’s Tune – ‘America the Beautiful’

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Yesterday was American Independence Day. It’s the day Americans, like me, take to celebrate our freedom and independence. Many gather to barbecue and watch fireworks, still others, like me and my family, travel to be with family. We are by the lake, where we have celebrated the Fourth of July as a family for as long as I can recall.

Our family tradition began in after B and I married in ‘91, and with exception of a handful of years, I’ve been here on the Fourth ever since. At first, we celebrated with B’s parents and her sisters and their families. Then they moved away and they weren’t able to be here for the holiday and it was just our family and B’s parents. Then life intervened and her dad passed away in June of ‘14, then her mom followed in late ’15. Now it is us and we continue to get travel north and enjoy the lake with our friends we’ve grown to know along the lake.

We celebrated as we always do: we went to the town parade, then spent time on the lake, barbecue and enjoy dinner, and finished the day with the town fireworks celebration, and of course the traditional popcorn. Continue reading Tuesday’s Tune – ‘America the Beautiful’ →

Evanescent – a photo challenge

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It’s the Sunday morning on the three-day Memorial Day weekend. The weather forecast for today called for rain, but it appears the rain bands have shifted north and we’ll be rain-free today and, possibly, tomorrow. I walked the backyard this morning in search of peony blooms for this post. The air was thick with humidity, yesterday’s sunny and clear day replaced by low grey clouds. Weather is evanescent, ‘tending to vanish like vapor’ according to Meriam and Webster.

coral is the color – it’s in the front yard and it blooms early

Admittedly, I’d never heard the word, I had heard of effervescent, but not evanescent. I had to look it up in the dictionary. I discovered it is the root of a word that IS part of my vocabulary – vanish.

We’ve had a warm wet spring. I checked the weather page in the Chicago Tribune to confirm what I had suspected – we’ve had almost twice the rain compared to normal. It shows in the blooms. The peonies are about to bloom and coincidentally, I have written about peonies before – two years to the day: Peonies and Time. Continue reading Evanescent – a photo challenge →

Surprise: a photo challenge

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It’s Good Friday and I am out of school. It’s called a local holiday on the calendar, but it’s really Good Friday.

I am always surprised by the beauty of each daffodil….

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the arrival of Spring in a Time for Everything. At the time the crocus were beginning to break through the soil and return color to the world. Since then, more color has arrived. The grass is greener, the trees are beginning to bud, and the daffodils are in full bloom.

I took a peak at the Daffodil Glade at the Morton Arboretum this morning. And I found the glade ready for our annual visit for Easter photos. It was a surprise. Even though I know every year the daffodils bloom, it’s always a surprise.

yellow on white daffodils are bunched together

Continue reading Surprise: a photo challenge →

April Fool

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It’s our last day of spring vacation and I awoke early to watch the sun rise over the ocean, one last time, or at least until next Spring Break. At home, I can always wake to see the sunrise, but it doesn’t have the majesty of the sun rising on the horizon over the ocean, though the very act of the sun rising bring a new day and a new opportunity to make the day count is something special.

Saturday morning’s last ocean sunset, for me at least

I’ll get to see the sunset one last time before we take off and head home. Here 77F (25C) and home 32F (0C), Spring is just around the corner I keep reminding myself. Seemingly, April’s April Fool prank on me – April Fool.

Fort Jefferson in Dry Tortuga National Park – from our trip Thursday

Continue reading April Fool →

it IS easy being green

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It’s Spring Break: the annual time in the year when people in the northern parts of the United States flock to warmer climates ahead of the warming temperatures where we live. I’ll admit it was ‘spring-like’ when we left Friday afternoon with temperatures soaring to the low 80s (mid to upper 20sC) but today the temperatures are back to normal – highs in the 40s (8-9C) and lows close to freezing overnight.

white sand, green seas, and blue skies…

We’re in south Florida – the Keys – where we spent break last year and have been several times before. Here it’s green year-round and the temperature variance is quite small for this time of the year. During the day, the highs reach the low 80s and overnight it cools to the low 70s, It’s pleasant. Continue reading it IS easy being green →

path: a photo challenge

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Thursday – December 29, 2016. Counting today, there are three more days in 2016. Then a new year, of sorts. Last year, I had three hundred sixty-six to count, the coming year brings three hundred sixty-five. For educators, like myself, the year is defined by the school calendar mid-August to June or early May with a break in June, July and early August. Which means new year marks the beginning of second half and new birth of sorts for my eighth graders.

Christmas dessert – B’s homemade old-fashioned creampie

At the moment, I am on winter break – Day 7. I wish I could report I had accomplished more than catching up on sleep, but I can’t. I prepared an amazing Christmas Dinner – roasted bone-in prime rib, au gratin potatoes, and Brussel sprouts with bacon. Ivy got the bones. B made the old-fashioned cream pie for dessert.

Today marks the beginning of a new path – thank you notes, cleaning off my office desk, a workout (this would be three days in a row), and maybe some school work –  maybe.

We had snow in early December, the first Sunday of the month. The storm left several inches of snow covering the ground. A week later, we had another storm blanketing the area with a fresh layer if snow. The following week, we had bitter cold and last weekend we had rain and the most of the snow melted. The Monday after Christmas, I was outside raking leaves from the deck and cleaning up the yard a bit. Except for a few patches where the sun doesn’t shine, the snow is gone, it’s history. This afternoon’s forecast calls for a dusting of snow, but at the moment it is clear and sunny – a bonus for this time of the year.

rearly December – snowy path
late December – all the snow is gone

Same path, different days….

Continue reading path: a photo challenge →

shine/sunshine: a photo challenge

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Sunday was a beautiful day in the Midwest. Actually, Saturday was a beautiful day, too and I am not referring to the Chicago Cubs.

We’ve had a run of beautiful days. Warm sunny afternoons followed by cool nights. Tonight, the sky was clear again when I took Ivy outside. Since she and Mr. Skunk met in August, she gets an escort out in the evening. I looked up and I could see several stars. Living so close to a major city, my stargazing is limited by the light pollution. I am thankful for the stars that shine bright enough for me to see.

ivy leaves shine a brilliant red-orange
ivy leaves shine a brilliant red-orange

I spent most of my day hunkered down in the basement working on school and other things. I popped out of my cave to enjoy a slice of O’s birthday cake. It was O’s birthday and W was over to help celebrate.

It was that time in the afternoon when the sun’s angle illuminates and shines across the landscape in a special way. It makes the grass greener and the fall leaves redder, oranger, and yellower than they are in the midday sun or morning sun.

the leaves of the maple tree peak through the other trees lit by the sun
the leaves of the maple tree peak through the other trees lit by the sun

The backside of our home faces west and is surrounded by mature maple trees and a lonely ash tree. Among the maples is a maple tree that turns the brightest orange-yellow in early fall. It is so bright it appears to be afire. The other maple trees turn a pale yellow and drop almost simultaneously after the first heavy frost in mid-November. One of the maple trees has a vine that climbs the trunk and had turned a brilliant red-orange. Continue reading shine/sunshine: a photo challenge →