Fog...

We woke this morning to a blanket of fog gently covering our fair city.  Warren came into the bedroom exclaiming, "there's a 'hog' outside"...the term our son, Mark, used for 'fog' when he was just a little boy.  I quickly ate some breakfast, grabbed my camera, and went out to take pictures of the glorious fog before it lifted.  

I know our area is not notable for the fall colors, but I thought the colors were gorgeous.  I have always wanted to see the New England leaves turning, but I have to say, I think the colors on display here are pretty much up there.

Here are some yellow leaves...

 and here are some reddish leaves...

 back to yellow...

Now Red...

How about some orange thrown in for good measure.  It is yellow and red mixed together after all.

and some chartreuse...one of my favorite colors...

As the fog began to lift, I decided I had enough pictures, but then saw all these birds lined up on the fence.

It was a great morning for pictures.  

Fall is here...

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."  LM Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables.

I have the coolest wagon ever!  I got it on my visit to Corona.  It was in the yard of the place we were staying.  The owner of the ranch house where we stayed gave it to me after getting permission from her husband.  I was thrilled, and even more thrilled that we managed to get it into the back of the car to bring it home.  The trunk was already filled with Stephanie's and my camera equipment,  overnight bags for 5 people, and coolers filled with food.  There was not much room, but Neil, Stephanie's dad, managed to find space somehow.  I love this wagon.  It is a treasure to me.    

 I love all the different colors on the wagon.  It has a lot of rust...which is cool in itself, but add the splotches of turquoise, and red, and it is marvelous.  I placed it in my front yard where there were some mums already growing, then added the pumpkins around it.  I found the words, "Give Thanks" in the same rust material.  I love my yard art.

I am not going to leave the wagon outside.  I plan to bring it in the house to use to hold my indoor plants.  I just wanted it outside for this photo shoot.  After taking a ton of pictures of the wagon, I decided to walk through my yard taking more fall pictures.

Orange seems to be the color of fall around our house.  "Autumn...the year's last smile." -William Cullen Bryant

Baby it's cold outside....Brrrrr

"I wish you shelter from the storm,
A cozy fire to keep you warm.
But most of all when snowflakes fall,
I wish you love.
But most of all when snowflakes fall,
I wish you love.

     -Natalie Cole, "I Wish You Love"

Thursday evening, January 3, we began to get snow, and boy, was it cold!  Friday morning we had enough to make a nice, white blanket over the landscape.  My favorite part of it was to see how the plants had spiky snowflakes around the stems and leaves.  What gorgeous highlights it made on the plants!

This used to have a beautiful rose on it.  Remnants of summer.  

God is certainly has a good eye for color!

If you look closely, yo can see the snowflakes falling off the tree...the little white dots to the right of the tree.

Rosy Red

This is Roswell's wonderful skyline...three buildings!

The Pecan orchard

Along the walking trail.

December: Day 19...New Camera...

"Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to learn to understand art more." --Vincent Van Gogh

It has been a hard week for me.  Some I have brought on myself, and some by others.  I am happy to report that Jane is doing pretty well.  I have physical and occupation therapy working with her and she is responding.  Next, I got in my new computer, and imagine my surprise when it had no CD or DVD drive.  Seems that is the way things are going to be going.  Everything will be a download from the internet.  My iDVD program is no longer available, so I bought DVD creator which is horrible.  I have been on the phone and emailing them for two days now.  I am so unhappy with it.  My stress factor went way up in dealing with these issues.  But there is a bright spot.  I got a new camera.  I used my cash rewards from my Discover card, so the camera only cost me, out of pocket, about $15.00.  It is a Canon 5D Mark ii, and it is amazing.  There is nothing that works better for helping me destress than to go take pictures.  That is what I did this morning.  Here are some of my favorite subjects doing their morning thing.

Beard trimming time.  I like that he keeps it well-groomed.  I hate scraggly looking beards.

Maggie, looking for some mischief to get into.  She will find it.

Then I went out to see what I could find to photograph this morning at the Smith's bird sanctuary which is right off the walking trail.  It is our only little bit of water that is close, and is somewhat pretty.  Not stale, and stinky.

Yeah for cat tails.  I like cats!

I was trying to capture the sun's reflection in the water...see it in the middle of the lower third of the  picture?

The pond.

Too bad these trees are not decorated for Christmas.  I wanted to catch the reflection in the water.  

So far, I love my camera, some of my stress is gone, and I am glad I went this morning because it is blowing something fierce outside right now.

Experimenting with some photo effects...

" A camera is a 'save' button for the mind's eye."--Roger Kinston


As an early birthday present, Stephanie, who is the granddaughter of Dr. Bond, and a wonderful photographer, (http://www.facebook.com/sd.photo.designs), gave me a pitcher full of interesting objects to use to create interesting photo effects.  I spent the rest of the afternoon lost in my own little world trying out all the feathers, crystals, beads, and nylon she had given me. What wondrous images were created!

Bird Yard Art

A Rose

Hollyhock

Bachelor Button flowers

I decided I would try out my new camera using the macro mode.  I loved my pictures.

Gerber Daisy?

Praying Mantis

I don't know the name of this flower.  I wanted to get the stamens that were on top.

Maggie

Purge

Aren't you glad we have a New Year?  It is kind of like a new beginning.  A chance to start over on things.  While I am not one for making New Year's resolutions, I do try to make a list of things on the back page of my calendar that I would like to accomplish in the year.  Sometimes I do well, and other years, well what can I say, other than I fail miserably.  2011 seems like a blur to me.  It came and went, and left very little impression on me other than my poor man having a horrible time with back problems.  In fact, I started to write a Christmas letter and soon nixed the idea since there was not a whole lot of things to write about.  My blog is a reflection of my life...in bad need of attention and in desperate need of a makeover.  Enter 2012.  I feel like Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables (my favorite movie of all time) who says, "tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it."  That is how I view 2012--fresh with no mistakes in it.  I have decided my word for the year is going to be "PURGE".  I liked the definition: the verb form means: cleanse, clear, purify, wash, absolve. The noun form means: removal, expulsion, ejection, eradication.  Spiritually, I want to purge my life of anything that is displeasing to God and keep clean hands and a pure heart.  Physically, I would like to purge bad habits, and "fluff" that is so cluttering my home.  Like 30 years worth of stuff.  I have to say I have felt out of control, overwhelmed, overcome, and feel like I am just keeping my head above water until the next wave hits.  Where does the time go...there isn't enough.  This morning I timed how long it takes me to make my bed. Two minutes and fifty-eight seconds.  Of that time, half is spent putting pillows on my bed.  If I calculated how much time I would save just by eliminating the pillows, I would save 9 hours and 10 minutes a year!  (3 minutes x 7 days/week= 21minutes; 21 x 52 weeks=1092 minutes or 18 hrs 20 minutes.  Divide that in half since it takes me half of that time to add the pillows= 9 hrs. 10 min--provided my math is right which it may not be since that was not my best subject).  I wonder how long it takes me to take them off each night? Hmmm. Only problem is I wouldn't have my cute decorated bed--that is what Warren just told me.

My stopwatch time of how long it took to make my bed and add the pillows.

All the pillows.  They come out to the halfway mark on my bed! But aren't they lovely?

Anyway, I am trying to get a handle on some of my out of control behavior, like eating.  I am back on my lifestyle plan (not diet) of eating vegan (for cholesterol reasons only), and I have started walking in the mornings again.  It is rather chilly, but I use that time to pray.  I usually take my stack 3x5 scripture cards, but because it is so cold my eyes water and I cannot see the cards.  Early morning walks do have their reward.  Look at this glorious sight.  Oh, the wonders and glory of the Lord!

Sunrise. Notice the church and U.S. flag to the left.  God just thrilled me this morning!

The sun is just peeking above the horizon. This was the scene on my return walk. 

I am so behind in my 365 project, but I am working on that as well.  I am up to week 47 with some additional pages to include things like birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  It is going to be a big 2011 album that will cost a pretty penny, but it is like the MasterCard commercial: priceless.  I am confident I will get things under better control and not feel so overwhelmed  eventually.  It is a process, as long as I keep focused.

My scripture for 2012 is: "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone works wonders.
And blessed be His glorious name forever;
And may the whole earth be filled with His glory.
Amen and Amen." Psalms 72: 18-19.