Tuesday Muse - A Fish out of Water.





Joining in this week with Nancy (A Rural Journal) for Tuesday Muse.

Coleen and I took a short little walk around the neighborhood on Saturday and while we were out and about I spotted this in someone's yard.  I had a little fun playing around and adding some textures and effects.





Click to Enlarge:

It's been a long, hot & dry summer here and this poor fish has suffered as a result!

Have a great day & do stop by Nancy's and check out some of the other participants entries. 

A Song and a Hunt - July 28, 2013

Linking up again this week with Kathy (You'll Shoot Your Eye Out) for Song-ography This weeks song was:  Here Come The Sun by George Harrison and Friends.   

Lot's of different ways to get creative with this song and photography.  I'm not sure I achieved what I was hoping for but we'll see what you think.

Click to Enlarge:

I think this has a bit of a romantic feeling to it. 




Now let's pop on over to Ashley's blog, (Ramblings and Photos) for this weeks Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

 The prompts this week were:

Cool Colors, Leaves, Iced Beverage, Cooling Off & Raw.


COOL COLORS:

Morning Glory and some little weed that I don't know the name of.  They were such soft cool colors.

LEAVES:

Spotted these very large leaves growing out from a fence by a little creek on a short afternoon walk today.

ICED BEVERAGE:  Found this recipe for a "mocktail" - They called it a Shirley Temple but I'm thinking they had to be mixed up a bit as I've never heard of a Shirley Temple fixed this way.  I wish I could have gotten a better picture but the lighting in our house sucks.
Recipe can be found here:

COOLING OFF:  - I got so lucky with this photo today.  I was watering the lawn and had just put out the peanuts for the squirrels when this little guy decided it was time to "cool off" and head for a drink.

RAW:  Couldn't decide between veggies or fruit...went with fruit.

Raw Nectarines dressed up with some Cool Whip.  Yum!

Random 5 Friday

Wow it's Friday (finally)!  - Time to link up with Nancy (A Rural Journal) for Random 5 Friday.

Click to enlarge pictures.

1.  I've taken a bit of a break this week from blogging (anyone notice?)  Here's the reason why...

 

Yep,  never could pass up any of his Fantasy Novel's. - Notice I was "photo bombed" here!  Super Good read and it felt good to just sit and relax while reading this book.

 

2.  It's still HOT here!  Another 100+ day in the forecast for today. and frankly I'm getting tired of the excessive heat.  I haven't wanted to be outside much at all so there has been very little picture taking this week as well.

3. Was anyone else a bit disappointed that the "Royal Baby" was a boy?  Don't get me wrong,  I love babies (even boy babies) but I was so hoping the new little royal baby would be a girl.  Princesses get to wear way cuter clothes!  Plus come on...how original is the name,  George.  Why couldn't they pick out a cooler name like...oh say,  Lance, Chandler, Buckley, Irving, Marvin....anything but George.  I know protocol is the mandate for them but geez...just once you think they could break free from that.

4.  Stupid make that Ignorant people make me so MAD!!!  This week our wonderful neighbor (the owners of Fluffy the cat) decided they didn't want her anymore.  One of their kids came to tell me on Saturday that her dad took Fluffy downtown and "dumped" her off.  Yes,  just dumped her.  Mind you we offered to have her fixed and pay for it several times but instead he decides that it would be the best thing just to get rid of her.  I was furious and wanted to turn him in and just so worried about what Fluffy had to be going through.  She was a very sweet cat and deserved far better then to be treated like garbage. 

I hope the same fate doesn't await her sweet little kittens, which they still have.  (Top Row:  Apple Pie & Witch, Bottom Row:  Ghost & Fred - Their names for them).

5:  Kind People still exist.  -  Tuesday hubby told me about an add in the paper for a lost cat that had been found on Sunday.  I decided to call the people and see if it was Fluffy.  -  After talking with the woman for a few minutes and explaining the situation and sending her pictures that I've taken of Fluffy I am happy to report that she found her downtown (on a busy street) scared to death and took her home.  When she heard what had happened she was as horrified as I was.  Here's the good news...She's decided to keep Fluffy and from her last email to me she said Fluffy is eating and drinking well, getting along with her other cat and doing just fine.  I will miss seeing Fluffy over at our house as she came morning & night to be fed and petted but I will sleep better knowing that she now has a loving home and will be well taken care of.

Processed with Nancy's new texture,  Deanna  named in honor of Deanna from  (Snippets from Springdale).

Scavenger Hunt Sunday and Song-ography - July 21, 2013

Welcome!  Once again I am going to combine 2 Meme's into one blog post.  It's just easier to do it that way rather than do two separate posts.

Song-ography will go first this week followed by Scavenger Hunt Sunday.



    Song-ography :  This fun and exciting new Meme made it's debut last week and is the brain child of the wonderfully talented, Kathy from (You'll Shoot Your Eye Out).  Each week she gives you a song and you take a photograph based on your interpretation of the song.  This week the song is,  James Taylor's,
Up On The Roof.  -  I must admit I had or didn't think I'd heard this song before so I did listen to the little YouTube video Kathy had of the song and I liked it.  In fact I've decided I need some James Taylor music in my music collection so I'm planning to purchase a couple of his CD's really soon.

Much of this song is about escaping from the hustle and bustle of the world outside and finding that sweet spot up on the roof where you can see the stars in the sky and look down at the world below while spending time with someone you care about. I have to confess that I have a bit of a "fear of heights" now so heading up on some roof to photography the city below just wasn't going to be in the cards for this girl.  Instead I caught this photo and thought,  "hey this will work."

Click to Enlarge:

This is, Blondie (don't know his real name) a feral cat that roams the neighborhood.  I happened to spy him hop up on top the roof of the neighbor across the street's truck the other night.  I'm sure he felt pretty peaceful up there surveying his surroundings. This is as close as I could get without him bolting and since I don't have a great zoom lens it will have to do.

 

Next weeks song: "Here Comes The Sun" George Harrison and friends.

 

 

 

Now let's head on over to Ashley's blog (Ramblings and Photos) for Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

 

The prompts this week:  Camouflaged, Nutty, Alike, Identical and Jaunt.

 

CAMOUFLAGED:

 

Our youngest cat, Captain Cuddles looks pretty much camouflaged against the comforter on our bed.

 

NUTTY:   

1: having or producing nuts

2: having a flavor like that of nuts

3: eccentric, silly; also : mentally unbalanced

 

 

Pearson's Salted Nut Roll -  YUM!

 

Greta and Coleen acting Silly.  They were suppose to "gently" slap each others faces but as you can see someone slapped a little harder then she was suppose too!

 

ALIKE:

 

These paper salmon hanging from the ceiling at the annual Rotary Salmon bake (good food by the way) look pretty much alike.

 

IDENTICAL:  (Is there really such a thing?) 

The concrete tiles on the ceiling of the swimming pool look pretty much identical to me.

 

JAUNT:

On our way back from taking in some Log Carving today I snapped this shot of two bicyclists out on a "jaunt" with their bikes.  Mind you it was already 99 when this shot was taken.  Thank goodness I was in a vehicle with a/c and not on one of those bikes!

 

Next weeks prompts:  Cool Colors, Leaves, Iced Beverage, Cooling Off & Raw.

 

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope to comment on as many of your blogs as I can. 

 

5 Random Thoughts and of course a little orange mixed in.

It's Friday and time to share a few random thoughts with you via Nancy's blog, (A Rural Journal) and Random 5 Friday.  -  Also along for the ride,  Orange You Glad It's Friday hosted by Maria over at Life's Sweet and Spices.

How's that for some Orange!  (My entry for Orange You Glad It's Friday).

Random Thought 1:  You probably know that my hubby plays guitar but did you know that in Junior High (they call it Middle School now) I played the Viola.  Not the Violin (my parents couldn't afford one of those) but a Viola.  The school supplied them for Free while you were in Orchestra.  I have an embarrassing story about running after the bus with my Viola Case in hand but let's just save that for another time.

Random Thought 2:  I love to bake (and eat what I bake, it shows!)  Today's baked goods....Strawberry Streusel Muffins.  They were yummy.  So was the new recipe I tried for Spanish Pork Steak today as well.  Big Hit with everyone,  didn't take any pictures though. 

Random Thought 3: Why can't I have every cute kitten that I see?  The neighbor kids brought down all 4 of Fluffy's kittens today.  My favorite though is a little Calico.  I'd love to take her but with 6 cats already inside it's out of the question.  But seriously isn't she adorable.

Random Thought 4:  I have a weird memory.  Oh nothing like Marilu Henner's  but I memorize license plate numbers, phone numbers, etc...super easily and I can pretty much tell you the layout of furniture for the rooms of every house that I've ever lived in. It's weird but true.

Random Thought 5:  I'm dying to go read the latest book by my favorite Sci/Fi Fantasy author,  Terry Brooks, (Witch Wraith)  It's the 3rd in a series and I just started it last night.  I usually only read after I go to bed though as I'm busy with other stuff during the day and then I tend to stay up till 1:00-2:00 sometimes as I get so engrossed in reading I forget that I need to go to sleep.

Well that's it for this week.  Do pop on over to Nancy and Maria's blogs and check things out.

Tuesday Muse - Lilies of the Field

Hope your week is off to a great start.  It's time to join Nancy from (A Rural Journal) for Tuesday Muse.

For my entry this week I chose to use her lovely texture called, Mulberry Whisper on my photo.  I love the soft colors and the subtleness of the text within this texture.  I think it paired well with my lily photo and hope you do as well.

 
 

Click to Enlarge Images:



 
 

 I love to add quotes or scripture to photo's and whenever I see lilies I always think of this scripture so it just seemed fitting to add it to my photo. 

Please join Nancy and everyone who participated in Tuesday Muse by checking out their wonderful photos.  Have a great day.

 

A new Meme and a Scavenger Hunt - July 14, 2013

Welcome to Scavenger Hunt Sunday and the new Song-ography Meme:

First up for Scavenger Hunt Sunday are the prompts:  Relaxing, Inspiring Person, Written Words, Memories and Best Friend.  I must say that I found this weeks prompts to be the most challenging ones ever.  I almost skipped this week but persevered and while some may be a bit of a stretch I think they will work.  So let's get started hunting:

 

RELAXING: 

 



Our cat, Harley looks pretty "relaxed" here in the back window soaking up some sun!   

INSPIRING PERSON:  My mom has always inspired me.  She is always doing things to help other's out including sometimes weeding my flower beds.  She's not one to like having her picture taken (that's why you don't see her face in this shot) but I snuck this shot of her one day when I caught her weeding out some of my flower beds for me.  She's nearly 85 years of age and I find her to be very inspiring.  I can only hope to still be able to weed when (or if) I make it to age 85.

 WRITTEN WORDS:  I wasn't sure about this one.  Should I find actual hand written words or just what?  Coleen and I took a trip to the library today where I took this shot:

I think books have plenty of written words in them don't you?

MEMORIES:  I kept thinking of the lyrics from the song/movie: The Way We Were when I first read this prompt and wondered how I could fit that into a photograph but then I baked a Blackberry pie and my mind went in a totally different direction for the prompt.  Are you confused yet?  Never fear I'm sure you'll understand once I explain this shot:

When ever I made pie's when my dad was alive this is what he always said.  It's one of my favorite "memories" of him now that he's gone.

BEST FRIEND:  Coleen had a chance to have over her "best friend, Ella" this Friday for a play date.  She was thrilled to death to spend an entire afternoon with her friend.  What's really cool is that when Ella arrived her and Coleen were wearing pretty much the same color of clothes.  This made for a pretty color coordinated shot.

On a funny note while searching for a Friend quote I liked I came upon this one that made me laugh.  I hope it makes you laugh too:

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
Groucho Marx

Don't forget to pop on over to Ashley's blog and check out the other participants entries for the Scavenger Hunt.

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There is a new Meme starting on Sunday over on Kathy's blog:

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out.  -  It's called,  Song-ography and if you click on the link you'll find the information about this fun new meme.
This weeks song is:  Simon and Garfunkel's,  Homeward Bound. 


I really like this song.  When I graduated from high school I went to a small Bible College in Canada but was so homesick I only stayed 1 quarter.  I drove my "roomie" crazy playing this song the week before I went home. -  Since you can interpret the song any way you want using photography I remembered this old ticket that we found inside our walls when we tore the front porch area off to build onto our living room.

When we found it the ticket was still all in one piece but today when I took it out of the book it's been stored in the ticket had broken in several place so I pieced it together as best as possible and photographed it.  It's really pretty cool when you start looking at it.  The date of this ticket is:  Nov. 25, 1901 so that makes this piece of paper 112 years old!!!

I did some research and found out that the Market St. Railway Company was located in San Francisco.  You can read about it HERE:

Please stop by Kathy's blog and support her new Meme.  I think it's going to be a fun one.

Some Random Facts and A Bit of Orange

Thought I would join Nancy (A Rural Journal) for her Random 5 Friday and of course Maria (Life's Sweets and Spices) for Orange You Glad It's Friday.

Random Fact #1 - I love flowers!  It's the doggone weeding and watering of them that I'm not all that fond of.  With summer heat in full force recently the weeds have almost taken over.  It's cooler today so perhaps a bed will get weeded (or not)!

These are Nasturtium's from my garden.  I think they are so pretty and this is my entry for OYGIF.

Random Fact #2:  Baked a Blackberry Pie yesterday (no photo of the pie because it will be used on Sunday for another Meme) but I tried a new recipe where you put Cinnamon in the filling.  Everyone seemed to like it although my mom thought it was odd putting in cinnamon. She said that's for Apple Pie, not Blackberry Pie!

Random Fact #3:  It's Muggy in the Swimming Pool where Coleen takes her lessons.  It's indoors and they keep the Temperature in the room between 80-85 degrees and I feel so stuffy sitting there watching her for the 40 minutes she swims.

Random Fact #4: Crazy Drivers drive me crazy.  The other day I was driving down the road and a Garbage truck had pulled half-way out onto the road trying to make a turn.  I decided to go past him since I had the right-of-way and the stupid guy honked his horn at me like I was doing something wrong!

Random Fact #5:  I need a hair cut badly.  My hair is so fine and thin and well it's just bugging me.  I'm thinking of a lose perm once I decided to get it done.

So that's my 5 facts and I'm sticking to them.  Do pop in on Nancy and Maria's blogs and check out everyone's photo's and facts. 

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday Muse - July 9, 2013

Come join me as we hop on over to Nancy's blog (A Rural Journal) for her Tuesday Muse.  She's got a lovely piece there today that you won't want to miss.  Plus many others have shared their photo's so you'll want to check them out as well.

Here is my contribution this week.

Click to Enlarge:





Version#1

For this version I used Nancy's texture:  nc_Arapaho.  I edited on Pic Monkey and also added a frame called (leaves) from Pixlr.

Version#2

I'm not sure what textures I used on this version as I forgot to write them down.  I know I used some Star Bokeh from Pic Monkey effects and one of their textures and the frame. 

So which version is your favorite?  Below is the original photo without edits.  I was bummed that the shadows from this shot were covered up when I added textures but I liked both the results in spite of that.

Cattitude Monday - Say it an't so!

Caught this shot of Callie-Jo and thought it would be great for a Monday protest!

Click to enlarge. - You can almost see down her throat in this shot.  That's one big yawn!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - July 7, 2013

Welcome!  -  Let's get ready to go on a Scavenger Hunt as we join Ashley (Ramblings and Photos) for Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

This weeks prompts are:  Red, White, Blue, Stars & Sparkle.

CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTO'S


RED:  -  I have 2 photos for this prompt.  I have an archive photo that I've been wanting to use and one that I took this week.

First up the archived photo:  This was taken back in March when Coleen and I were out hunting for SHS prompt photos.  I believe there was a (red) prompt back then as well and I went with a different photo that time but still liked this one so I'm using it now.

Red Playground equipment.

RED#2:  Some Rudbeckia  flowers in my garden:

WHITE:  The blossoms on Coleen's Jalapeno Pepper plant (and a surprise visitor):

BLUE:  I was having a hard time with this prompt and then I remembered that Mike dug this up in my mom's yard:

An antique marble (these are called, Benningtons) - Isn't it cool looking.

STARS:  I got a little creative with this one as I was having trouble finding something to fit this prompt.

This is actually a portion of a patriotic T-Shirt that I have.  I used the (Orton) effect on the photo and love how it turned out.

SPARKLE:  Some of my sparkly pins that I have.

That's it for this hunt.  I hope you have enjoyed your stay and do take time to visit Ashley's blog and check out some of the other participants entries.  Have a great week.