Have you ever had a dream where you're living somewhere or visiting someplace with the most beautiful terrain, and diversity of animals and plantlife? You take a billion photos... then wake up and are hit with the realization that all those photos you took are nonexistant?
I had one of those dreams last night... and I had this most gorgeous sunset photo I wanted to share with all of you guys... it was magnificent.
Unfortunately, it's stuck in my head, and I've yet to find a connector cable that's compatible.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Grackles!
OK, normally I'm none too fond of grackles... and after the mockingbird incident, I will admit I'm a bit skittish around birds in general.
If mockingbirds are scary, grackles are moreso. They're HUGE, and black, with ginormous beady eyes! And they run around staring at you with their beaks wide open like they're trying to estimate whether they can get you in one bite.
But this was cute. I love babies of every species (with the exception of bugs... naturally I don't go all starry eyed over larvae). These BIG ol' baby grackles, almost the size of their parents, running around and begging to be fed, LOL!
What's funny was, they were fine pecking their own food up off the ground, but as soon as one of the adults picked up a piece of catfood (and yes, that is catfood...), the squawking and wing-flapping would start up, lol!
If mockingbirds are scary, grackles are moreso. They're HUGE, and black, with ginormous beady eyes! And they run around staring at you with their beaks wide open like they're trying to estimate whether they can get you in one bite.
But this was cute. I love babies of every species (with the exception of bugs... naturally I don't go all starry eyed over larvae). These BIG ol' baby grackles, almost the size of their parents, running around and begging to be fed, LOL!
What's funny was, they were fine pecking their own food up off the ground, but as soon as one of the adults picked up a piece of catfood (and yes, that is catfood...), the squawking and wing-flapping would start up, lol!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Apple Tree
A new photography project!
This is Tadge (thanks to Josh for the name, lol!), he will be keeping Steve and Pokeye company on my page.
This seed was inadvertently dropped into a water glass approximately two weeks ago, and much to our surprise... it germinated! It has since been transferred to a Gatorade cap, and lives on our dining room table.
I didn't think it would make it without soil!
This is Tadge (thanks to Josh for the name, lol!), he will be keeping Steve and Pokeye company on my page.
This seed was inadvertently dropped into a water glass approximately two weeks ago, and much to our surprise... it germinated! It has since been transferred to a Gatorade cap, and lives on our dining room table.
I didn't think it would make it without soil!
Pokeye Repotted!
Repotted Pokeye today... now he has a bit more room! : )
He's also finally putting out spikes. Check out my main page, the spike macro is currently at the top. : )
He's also finally putting out spikes. Check out my main page, the spike macro is currently at the top. : )
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Pokeye-Doing Much Better Now
Pokeye is making a brilliant comeback! There is now a secondary sprout coming out the side of the main cacti head that has been growing in for the past week to ten days... I'm interested to see how it will look when all is said and done!
I have successfully abstained from watering it since the sprout started coming in. : )
I have successfully abstained from watering it since the sprout started coming in. : )
Wasps
My "pet" wasp nest!
Someone sprayed it, and the original two wasps died. :(
But I came out the next day and there was a new wasp. Two days later there was a second...
And yesterday there were THREE! :D
Someone sprayed it, and the original two wasps died. :(
But I came out the next day and there was a new wasp. Two days later there was a second...
And yesterday there were THREE! :D
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
The Lake
This is probably my most favourite photo that I have ever taken in my whole entire life. It is very beautiful, yes, but it also encompasses something that is significant to me. It is combined, two things I love dearly: My Family and my art.
This lake is nameless to me. It must have a name, I know it must... but to me it has always been THE lake. The first time I visited this lake was with my family at the age of 10. There is an Inn, which can not be seen in the shot as it is behind me. I have slept in this inn on many weekend trips to this locale. It is a fine Inn, very homey in spite of it's size. Clean, comfortable, good coffee, friendly service, great breakfast (including the all-important fruit salad...), and last but not least: a beautiful view.
The first thing you need to know about me is my love for water. I grew up in Florida and Texas, where we always had a pool, or at least a wading pool. Beaches were easily accessible... shoot, Florida is a stinkin' PENINSULA for gosh sake! And Texas has a fairly generous coast, being the Gulf of Mexico. I have never lived more than 60 minutes away from a beach. I also love swamps! My first swamp experience was at the age of 3 when my mother took myself and my sisters along with some friends of ours on the airboat through the Florida Everglades. Most of the other little ones were crying their heads off at the gators, but I... I was enthralled. Elated. Fascinated.
I didn't want to leave.
I started off crying at having to wear the ugly orange balloon vest which the guide insisted could save my life... but when it all ended, I stinking well did NOT want to leave. It wasn't just the gators, endearing though they were with those rows of sharp teeth and champing jaws...
It was all that gorgeous green water. Green from stagnation. Green from reflections of the rich full trees above us. Green in the most gloriously, beautifully, fantastically greenest way EVER! It was some of the most beautiful water I had ever seen in my life.
But, sadly, they did not permit camping, so leave we must. And leave we did. But don't pity me! I did end up talking my mother into taking me back at least once, I believe it was the next year. And I won't stop at two. One day I SHALL go back... I will storm back into the Florida Everglades in all my blazing glory with a new weapon to subdue the beauty of it all, to hold it captive and preserve it forever... Digital Photography. Geez Louise... how little did I know at the time how much my life was going to improve, lol!
Back to water, something else I like a lot is a good duck pond! This also holds a good memory for me... good times. Times that are preserved forever, reincarnated with each visit to any duck pond anywhere. This memory is from a time near to that of the Everglades incident. I was a most impressionable 3-year-old, if I do say so myself.
We lived in a nice neighbourhood with a big beautiful house in south Florida. It was me, my mom and dad, my older sister... and then one day a baby came! I now had a baby sister... I had wanted a baby brother, but when Mom came home with my baby sister, I knew it didn't matter. A baby, girl or boy, was something very new and exciting!
As soon as Mom was well enough to come home with the baby, Daddy came to get my older sister and I from my Uncle's house to go pick her up at the hospital. I anxiously inquired after her health, I'd had a very tragic day sobbing over a family portrait fearing the worst... but my father immediately set me at ease with a reassurance that she was quite well.
So, she was intact and likely to remain so, in addition to that I now had a baby sister. All was good and well, two weeks of adjusting to our new family member. Once we were all settled, Grandma came down from New York for a visit, so see her new granddaughter... and we had a smashing time!
She played stuffed animals with us, she told us stories, she taught us to play cards... and she took us on walks. Pop the baby in a stroller, and the four of us would set out down the street. Our favourite hangout was a duck pond... this was the root of my deep-seated love of duck ponds and their patrons. We watched the ducks, picked up feathers, threw stones in the water, floated twigs, then went home. Next walk, we brought bread crumbs with us, and Grandma showed my big sister and I how to lure the waterfowl in and feed them bread. It was fun! Especially the ducklings.
When we got home, I asked my mom if I could have a duckling. She said no.
So, I love water. The Florida Everglades, the beach, there's a big park right near me which is a swamp infested with gators, poisonous snakes, and ducks, my Grandma has a creek in her backyard, I saw Niagara Falls and Lake Eerie for the first time last year, and last month I discovered a duck pond on the outskirts of my neighbourhood. 30 minutes walking distance, woohoo!
To me, water is the most beautiful thing on the face of the earth. It reflects... the trees, the clouds in the sky, the grass on the banks. It's texture... the ripples and bubbles on the surface, the slightest disturbance creating effects that can range from a subtle matte due to an overcast sky on the prairie to a bright shimmering jewl-toned sparkle on a sunny day in the middle of a green forest.
Even the most bland of terrains can be a place of beauty given a creek or a pond. Ever flopped down on your stomach on the shore of a lake, eye level with it?
This lake is the epicenter of this place. It is all the life and beauty of it. Whenever the family starts talking about the place... the lake is always the first thing I remember. It is the first thing you see coming out of the hills reaching the town after an hour long drive. Praying to God that your dad reserved a room on the lake side...
2 hours bouncing between the TV set and the window... watching favourite TV shows, then returning for a fresh infusion of rippling shiny goodness.
Nighttime, you walk with the family out the side entrance of the hotel, across the wooden walkway to the restaurant. It is dark and the lights of the city, the stars and moon in the sky, headlights of the cars coming over the last hilltop... all of this reflected in the water. At Christmastime, the Festival of Lights on the opposite shore adds a medley of colour.
Dinnertime, a seat by the window, watching the boats of evening revelers zip past. The colourful lights wrapped about the railing of the outside eating-area glows on the water.
Back at the hotel after dinner, all the lights are out. Everyone is sleeping and you are the last one awake... quietly pushing the covers back and creeping to the window, stopping at every creak to listen for the sound of sister's uninterrupted sleep. You push back the curtains and watch the lake for a time, until you cannot remain awake any longer. Back to bed.
Waking up early to watch the sunrise and mist over the lake. The sun is not yet risen, only barely are the first rays of light spreading across the Eastern horizon. But it is enough... and you watch: up so high, from over the high hill, out of the thick fog so as to make it appear that they come from the sky itself... headlights come down, as people make their way into town. It is surreal. Strange, but beautiful.
And now the sun is coming up... maybe pale colours such as in my photo here. Is it sunny or overcast? Maybe the colours are bright and rich? There is nothing more beautiful then a sunrise reflected in the water on a clear day, marking the fresh start of a new morning.
The Lake is beautiful. It is a memory to me, and when I go back to it, I observe these traditions and rituals faithfully as I did then! When I am there, I savour every delicious moment of it.
It reminds me of my life then. My family as it was then. My views on the world then. Even... my skills of photography then! Only recently had I the privilege of capturing it via digital photography!
It was a time for family. Those weekend trips undisturbed by work or school or appointments or meetings.
Because that's what vacation should be. The making of memories together forges a bond that I am sad to see lacking in the lives of many I know. It has an impact of stability. Not waiting for work to give you time for family, but stepping AWAY from work to MAKE time for your family. Not going somewhere necessarily exciting... an amusement park with lots of fancy rides and junk food, but somewhere peaceful, quiet, and beautiful.
And this is what I think of when I see this photo. The artistic beauty of water, my favourite subject in photography. The rabbit-trailing of memories that entails. And most importantly: my family who loves me.
This lake is nameless to me. It must have a name, I know it must... but to me it has always been THE lake. The first time I visited this lake was with my family at the age of 10. There is an Inn, which can not be seen in the shot as it is behind me. I have slept in this inn on many weekend trips to this locale. It is a fine Inn, very homey in spite of it's size. Clean, comfortable, good coffee, friendly service, great breakfast (including the all-important fruit salad...), and last but not least: a beautiful view.
The first thing you need to know about me is my love for water. I grew up in Florida and Texas, where we always had a pool, or at least a wading pool. Beaches were easily accessible... shoot, Florida is a stinkin' PENINSULA for gosh sake! And Texas has a fairly generous coast, being the Gulf of Mexico. I have never lived more than 60 minutes away from a beach. I also love swamps! My first swamp experience was at the age of 3 when my mother took myself and my sisters along with some friends of ours on the airboat through the Florida Everglades. Most of the other little ones were crying their heads off at the gators, but I... I was enthralled. Elated. Fascinated.
I didn't want to leave.
I started off crying at having to wear the ugly orange balloon vest which the guide insisted could save my life... but when it all ended, I stinking well did NOT want to leave. It wasn't just the gators, endearing though they were with those rows of sharp teeth and champing jaws...
It was all that gorgeous green water. Green from stagnation. Green from reflections of the rich full trees above us. Green in the most gloriously, beautifully, fantastically greenest way EVER! It was some of the most beautiful water I had ever seen in my life.
But, sadly, they did not permit camping, so leave we must. And leave we did. But don't pity me! I did end up talking my mother into taking me back at least once, I believe it was the next year. And I won't stop at two. One day I SHALL go back... I will storm back into the Florida Everglades in all my blazing glory with a new weapon to subdue the beauty of it all, to hold it captive and preserve it forever... Digital Photography. Geez Louise... how little did I know at the time how much my life was going to improve, lol!
Back to water, something else I like a lot is a good duck pond! This also holds a good memory for me... good times. Times that are preserved forever, reincarnated with each visit to any duck pond anywhere. This memory is from a time near to that of the Everglades incident. I was a most impressionable 3-year-old, if I do say so myself.
We lived in a nice neighbourhood with a big beautiful house in south Florida. It was me, my mom and dad, my older sister... and then one day a baby came! I now had a baby sister... I had wanted a baby brother, but when Mom came home with my baby sister, I knew it didn't matter. A baby, girl or boy, was something very new and exciting!
As soon as Mom was well enough to come home with the baby, Daddy came to get my older sister and I from my Uncle's house to go pick her up at the hospital. I anxiously inquired after her health, I'd had a very tragic day sobbing over a family portrait fearing the worst... but my father immediately set me at ease with a reassurance that she was quite well.
So, she was intact and likely to remain so, in addition to that I now had a baby sister. All was good and well, two weeks of adjusting to our new family member. Once we were all settled, Grandma came down from New York for a visit, so see her new granddaughter... and we had a smashing time!
She played stuffed animals with us, she told us stories, she taught us to play cards... and she took us on walks. Pop the baby in a stroller, and the four of us would set out down the street. Our favourite hangout was a duck pond... this was the root of my deep-seated love of duck ponds and their patrons. We watched the ducks, picked up feathers, threw stones in the water, floated twigs, then went home. Next walk, we brought bread crumbs with us, and Grandma showed my big sister and I how to lure the waterfowl in and feed them bread. It was fun! Especially the ducklings.
When we got home, I asked my mom if I could have a duckling. She said no.
So, I love water. The Florida Everglades, the beach, there's a big park right near me which is a swamp infested with gators, poisonous snakes, and ducks, my Grandma has a creek in her backyard, I saw Niagara Falls and Lake Eerie for the first time last year, and last month I discovered a duck pond on the outskirts of my neighbourhood. 30 minutes walking distance, woohoo!
To me, water is the most beautiful thing on the face of the earth. It reflects... the trees, the clouds in the sky, the grass on the banks. It's texture... the ripples and bubbles on the surface, the slightest disturbance creating effects that can range from a subtle matte due to an overcast sky on the prairie to a bright shimmering jewl-toned sparkle on a sunny day in the middle of a green forest.
Even the most bland of terrains can be a place of beauty given a creek or a pond. Ever flopped down on your stomach on the shore of a lake, eye level with it?
This lake is the epicenter of this place. It is all the life and beauty of it. Whenever the family starts talking about the place... the lake is always the first thing I remember. It is the first thing you see coming out of the hills reaching the town after an hour long drive. Praying to God that your dad reserved a room on the lake side...
2 hours bouncing between the TV set and the window... watching favourite TV shows, then returning for a fresh infusion of rippling shiny goodness.
Nighttime, you walk with the family out the side entrance of the hotel, across the wooden walkway to the restaurant. It is dark and the lights of the city, the stars and moon in the sky, headlights of the cars coming over the last hilltop... all of this reflected in the water. At Christmastime, the Festival of Lights on the opposite shore adds a medley of colour.
Dinnertime, a seat by the window, watching the boats of evening revelers zip past. The colourful lights wrapped about the railing of the outside eating-area glows on the water.
Back at the hotel after dinner, all the lights are out. Everyone is sleeping and you are the last one awake... quietly pushing the covers back and creeping to the window, stopping at every creak to listen for the sound of sister's uninterrupted sleep. You push back the curtains and watch the lake for a time, until you cannot remain awake any longer. Back to bed.
Waking up early to watch the sunrise and mist over the lake. The sun is not yet risen, only barely are the first rays of light spreading across the Eastern horizon. But it is enough... and you watch: up so high, from over the high hill, out of the thick fog so as to make it appear that they come from the sky itself... headlights come down, as people make their way into town. It is surreal. Strange, but beautiful.
And now the sun is coming up... maybe pale colours such as in my photo here. Is it sunny or overcast? Maybe the colours are bright and rich? There is nothing more beautiful then a sunrise reflected in the water on a clear day, marking the fresh start of a new morning.
The Lake is beautiful. It is a memory to me, and when I go back to it, I observe these traditions and rituals faithfully as I did then! When I am there, I savour every delicious moment of it.
It reminds me of my life then. My family as it was then. My views on the world then. Even... my skills of photography then! Only recently had I the privilege of capturing it via digital photography!
It was a time for family. Those weekend trips undisturbed by work or school or appointments or meetings.
Because that's what vacation should be. The making of memories together forges a bond that I am sad to see lacking in the lives of many I know. It has an impact of stability. Not waiting for work to give you time for family, but stepping AWAY from work to MAKE time for your family. Not going somewhere necessarily exciting... an amusement park with lots of fancy rides and junk food, but somewhere peaceful, quiet, and beautiful.
And this is what I think of when I see this photo. The artistic beauty of water, my favourite subject in photography. The rabbit-trailing of memories that entails. And most importantly: my family who loves me.
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