had to be there, and humor helps, as does the unexpected

post #401
       Am starting on my eighth year of posting on this blog!  Once a week for most of the time! I say bravo to my crazy self, and to all the pleasure I get from focusing on story telling, with photos, each time. Tonight I am going to hunt up some of the images that I just happened to see. Just happened to have my camera with me. Just had to be there. No Photoshop. Just luck and a thrill and eyes open.

A favorite -- I had returned to my car after visiting with Sandy, my neighbor and friend.  After getting into my car, I looked around to prepare myself for backing up on a hill and a curve.  This is what I saw instead! Just sitting there next to me, on the truck tire. Waiting for me, I presume. My camera was on the front seat next to me. I slowly lowered my window and equally slowly picked up my camera and faced it out of the window. She never moved. It turns out she was pregnant at the time, so maybe she was just enough slowed down not to be bothered by me. I title this photo "on the way."

This is somewhere between a found photo and a quick snapshot. My writers group was meeting at a Panera's, and sometimes I just can't resist. Two poets at work, a quick moment saved, and some fun.

This cracked me up. All these people coming to the Louvre Museum, in Paris, to see the Mona Lisa, and this was how the scene presented itself. I was almost embarrassed to add my cell phone to the collection. All that mystery in the painting, a bulletproof glass in front of it, and no opportunity to connect with the art itself. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Mon Dieu!

 

Talk about the unexpected! Why I noticed this when about to get in my car, in the shed, I will never know.  My eyes at the ready, as they say. I had never before seen such a big snake in the wild, and I had no idea what he or she was up to. Well, up to the rafters, of course. I risked taking the time for a photo, with my handy camera, thinking the snake looked very comfortable up there and wasn't about to get activated.  I decided it was big and black enough not to be a copperhead -- a big black snake or a cow snake -- and I lucked out.

Well, this photo is being included because this birthday card showed up in my mailbox, hand delivered, and I thought it hilarious. What a lot of careful work!  Thanks again, Jean!!

     This photo has also been on my blog before, but I thought it a good example of what happens when you set the remote for a group picture, run to get into the photo, and have no idea what crazy whatever your beloved family members are plotting. 

 

This is from the summer before. I got to the pond just as J. was able to pull off one last throwing--three--cousins--into--the--air in the pond.... This photo still makes me laugh. The kids are too big anymore for this to happen again. I feel lucky to have caught this quick and happy moment.  

experimenting under the Denver Christmas tree. What would happen if.... How would it work.... I love how it turned out.

        This British sign is still there. I saw it again a month ago. I hadn't gone out looking for a sign, or something quirky, or something humorous, but there it was, and the eyes got it. 

        I've managed to use up this day already, so I will do another similar post soon.  Next week I get to share some Halloween ones.  And an outdoors wedding from last night.  This is all by way of trying to stay grounded as our midterm elections get ever closer to happening. I want so badly for things to turn around for the USA. I want to see the American can-do spirit show its power. I want some concentrated attention spent on taking our changing climate situation very, very seriously. I'm so tired of lies, lies, lies, and not just the president's. I don't see anything good about separating young kids from their families. And then losing them. Please vote and stand up against all the attempts to make voting harder rather than more universal. 
        As the ACLU says, vote like your rights depend on it.  Ain't that the truth.

More sky, more garden, more barn, more, more, more

post #342
       Yikes, this day has disappeared! I went for a short walk this evening, and remembered in the middle of a field that I hadn't done my post yet! My lawn around the house got mowed today, however, with lots of visiting at the same time with Seth and his family. Later Daniel, from my photo class, came out. He was late because he lost his keys for a couple of hours. This made me feel so much better, yes better, because I tried to drive to Prestonsburg on Friday and left my wallet at the house -- so I had to borrow $5 from a friend in Sandy Hook where, luckily, I had stopped to get some gas. It turned out I needed that gas to return home to retrieve my wallet -- which I had cleverly left in my camera case but then later I had decided not to bring the case because I might have to leave in a hot car at some point. There's more to this story, but it's getting late and I have these photos I want to share....  This is called hiding behind one's art.
        I'm choosing to start with the granddaughter photo, on her way back to the car after her ballet recital in Morehead. I love this quiet moment after a very busy day and evening.

   This second photo is one BY Thea: her three kittens. They live on the porch behind a stack of wood. So far the kittens and the puppy are not killing each other off. This is very good.

    Now back to that barn. I stopped by one afternoon before a big rain was forecast. First I had a good visit with Jean and her niece and great niece. When I got back outside, the wind was blowing the corn in Jean's garden, which now is quite full compared to a couple of weeks ago. She gave me a cucumber to take home.

     Her barn was getting siding at a fast clip. I saw today that it is now done on this side.

    
The front entrance is now back to being high and wide:

      The rain started just about when I finished up.

 

Had another adventure this week -- with a cow snake in the shed where I sometimes park the car to keep it from getting too hot in the sun.  These snakes are LONG.  And they must demolish a lot of mice and creatures to feed their enormous selves. I am grateful for its services and help, but I did not want to get intimate so I got in by using the passanger side of the car. The third photo was taken after I had crawled over to the drivers side and opened the window. Nothing seemed to get the snake too excited.  Where do they spend the winter??

 the shed, with a deer to show its size

First view - the snake stretched out along the top of the wall... I was using my iPhone.

the lumpy and lazy look....

      There have been many evenings this month with great skies -- these photos show the most recent one:

pond reflection

   The day lilies have been wonderful this year. Here is one of the last. And also the last photo for tonight. I hope while we all observe the 4th of July, we can celebrate what's best about America.  Surely that will include being able to overcome the meanness we are all experiencing. Reach out to a fellow citizen this weekend and say something supportive -- so we don't lose sight about what the USA is really all about. I also hope my sharing several stories about where I live count as a testimony for the country we each share with so many others.
 

fawn visits, Minnie Adkins Day, and a baby snake!

post #240
        I had big plans to do a thoughtful post about clean water today. In fact, I am kind of obsessed with this topic, and I have some video ready to share.  But realistically water will have to wait a week when I will have more time than I do now to give the topic justice. In more than one sense of that word.
        It happens I do have these great fawn photos I've wanted to share.  I know deer are tick bearers, garden destroyers, and not very bothered by humans this time of year. In a word, pests.  They are also lovely.  And this fawn is a constant wonder! This is the first year I have had fawns running joyful circles around the house. It is no coincidence that this is also the first year there has not been a proper vegetable garden on the place.
        The doe that comes the most often to the two apple trees near the house seems to visit with a big fawn and a smaller one. I'm told a doe can take over the care of an orphaned fawn, which is what seems to have happened here. Most of these photos are of the smaller fawn as it acquaints itself with all the areas I can see from inside the house.

This is the best I could do to get both fawns in the photo with the mom.

in the lily garden....

another view of the stairs down to the house

       Then there is the baby snake, on the porch, but moved to the stream, obviously not by me since I am taking the photos....Thanks, Jason!

      Next, this is what I did this morning -- be part of the Minnie Adkins Day at the Little Sandy Lodge, near Sandy Hook.  Here is a photo of Minnie, who with her own charisma and hard work and artistry has stirred up a great deal of arts activity in our area. In typical Minnie fashion, she is telling me how great she thinks the bib is -- promoting someone else's work even though she is our star.

       A great many craft vendors set up. The heat was rather severe; at least it was dry, unlike last year. Everyone is a good sport. I only stayed three hours because I have out-of-town company, my college roommate, Meg.  Between the heat and the bright sun, I only made a few photos. Be sure to enjoy the last one!!

This happens to be my set up. I was the only one without any shade, but my neighbors let me sit closer and closer to them as the sun moved across the sky. I figured I could stand half a day that way. I enjoy being surrounded by so many in the community who are also pursuing their art choices.

      This last photo, the funniest, is saved for the end. It still makes me laugh, even tonight. Enjoy!  And be ready next week for my plea for speaking up loud and clear for clean water.

keeping up in the country, end of summer, part 2 of 3 or 4

post #208    
       Things happen all the time in the woods. For one thing, trees rot within and blow over.  Like us, most land owners invaribly have a chain saw so these fallen trees can become firewood. Both forest and human do the work they do, life cycles interacting and working together.  New light will shape that new space, and, for sure, more wind will be blowing, one of nature's harvesting tools. In the meantime, photos in that place.

    

THANK YOU, FRANK

       If new firewood isn't exciting enough, how about still another visitor in the chicken house!  This time it's a beautiful and big black snake.  Usually a black snake is good to have around. -- they eat rodents and such.  However, snakes also like eggs.  (The hens are large enough to be safe, and they know the snake doesn't want them, so they don't announce to us that a snake is visiting.)  The first time we saw the snake in action, it had eaten two eggs, and it lay curled up in the nest, very happy.  We didn't see it again for a week.  A few days ago I found it in the nest again, all set to eat an egg. I ran to the house and got my husband, Frank, and my camera. The following photo is taken on the quick, before the snake was interrupted and removed, but that hand held egg shows what I'd call snake slobber.... There wasn't a single crack in the shell.
       (Oh, and by "removed," I don't mean killed.  More like "put outside by means of the far end of a long pole."  The weather will soon be turning cold and we are trying to live with this snake until it hibernates then since it is the first one we have ever observed visiting our few hens.)

       Of interest here to me and to my friend George Ella, whom I am visiting today, is that the serpent with an egg is seen at the famous SERPENT MOUND in Ohio, which is at the minimum over 1000 years old.  The mouth of that serpent is open with an oval shape just beyond!  I look forward to learning more.

       Lastly, for today, let's cut directly to hay making, so to speak -- the second time this summer.  I love the designs the rows make on the hills.  I am sharing a few of the photos today just because it is one of my favorite things to photograph.  What can I say.  For one thing, I admire the workmanship of it all.

      
      Next month I celebrate beginning a fifth (!!) year of these weekly postings. I plan to do something both thoughtful and personal, and, if I can pull it off, humorous at the same time.