Friday Randoms - April 15, 2016

Happy Friday!  - First I want to thank everyone for their,
Concern and Get Well Wishes over the "eye issue" that I had earlier this week.  I'm happy to say that my vision is almost totally back to normal!

Now Let's join Nancy (A Rural Journal) and Tanya (Around Roanoke) and Cath (Cath @ Home) for some Friday Randoms.

 

RANDOM FIVE FRIDAY:

 

1.  We had a hail storm yesterday! - The morning started out pretty decent but by afternoon it had clouded up.  As I was sitting at the computer I heard a noise outside and looked out the window to see that hail was coming down.  I grabbed up the camera and snapped a picture of the hail on the lawn.

2.  I'm participating in 52 Frames and last week the theme was the "Golden Hour" - This is the photo I submitted.  I just loved the lines, colors and textures in this shot of a farmers field.  This week we are doing "Food" as the theme.  I haven't yet figured out what I'm going to do for the challenge but I have an idea.

3. Coleen and I went out for a walk last night (the rain had stopped) and we took my mom's dog Pixie with us.  Can you find her?  No....well you'll have to wait until further down to find her.  These people seriously need to mow!

4.  On the walk I was looking at different trees and happened to see this limb on one of the trees and thought that the peeling bard and bumps on the top of the branch were really interesting.  I hope you do as well.

5.  One more photo from our trip last week to McNary Dam.  These are scale models of Salmon.  They are huge when you see them up close.  We hope to go back in August when the Salmon should be returning up stream to spawn so we can actually see them in the viewing room.

WILLY-NILLY FRIDAY FIVE:

1. Spotted this cute little scene on our walk last night.

2.  This was my (2nd choice) for the Golden Hour but I went with the one of the field.  I still like the sunset here and how it is bathing the valley in golden light.

3.  Where's Pixie?

Here she is!

4. We almost had another cat last night (We don't need anymore cats!!!)

This sweet little thing came out from some one's yard while we were on our walk and wouldn't stop following us.  I ended up taking it back to the yard that it came out of, I tried knocking on their door but no one was home.  The cat started to follow me again but finally gave up and moseyed back the other direction.  Whew!

5.  Redbud blooms.  The trees here in town are spectacular this spring.

FUN FRIDAY FAVORITES:

Since this post is already so long I'm not going to include 5 more photos but I will share just one more Dogwood Photo with you as I simply love how this one turned out.

I told you the trees here were spectacular and I wasn't kidding.

These are all great meme's.  I hope you'll check them out.  Have a great weekend.



Wordless Wednesday

Joining today with Create With Joy  and ImagesByCW
for Wordless Wednesday.

Of course there will be a few words as I've added a quote to one photo. Note the (bracket portion) are my own words for those who've had so much of it.

Have a beautiful day.

Random 5 Friday

Happy Friday! - Did you all have a Happy 1st Day of Spring!

 

So now it's time to join in the fun of RANDOM 5 FRIDAY hosted by Nancy from A Rural Journal. 

 

Please click to enlarge photos.

 

 

 

1.  Hooray for Spring!!! -  Spent some time walking around the neighborhood looking for flowering trees.  It was such a joy seeing them in bloom again.

2.  For those who watched the opening season of Dancing With The Stars, (DWTS) what did you think?  Did you like the new co-host, did you like the new band. who were your favorite dancers?  My answers,  I liked Erin Andrews, the new co-host,  I did NOT like the new band or the music (to modern and noisy sounding for my taste)  My favorite dancing team,  Max and Meryl the Ice Dancer from the Olympics.  -  I also think Billy Dee Williams is out of there 1st.

                                   (From a Garden up the street)

3.  I had a great birthday and thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes.  Got to go out for dinner; I chose to eat at Applebee's and had the Trio sampler with Steak Quessadias  towers and 2 orders of Won-Ton Chicken Tacos, Yum!

4.  These two are getting along a lot better now.  Oh they are still tussling with each other every morning but I'm not worried now that Cuddles will hurt Spooky.  Here he's holding him down giving him a bath. The poor thing was sopping wet after Cuddles got through washing his head.

                               (Coleen and Pixie on our afternoon walk)

5.  I seriously need to lose some weight.  Problem is I take Thyroid Medication and it is extremely hard to lose weight while taking thyroid meds,  no matter what your thyroid doctor says.  If you research it you will find many people have the same problem but their doctors will tell them it's not the medication. -  Anyway I'm going to try again to start walking more and cutting back on the sweets.  We'll see what happens.


Quote of the Week:

GROW YOUR BLOG

Hi,  My name is, Ida and I'd like to welcome you to my blog.  I am participating in the 2014 Grow Your Blog event hosted by Vicki from, 2 Bags Full.




I started blogging back in 2007.  My first blog (Faith Artistry) was designed to be a craft blog where I showcased my cards.  Then I got an idea to create this blog and use it to chat about my family and my hobbies etc...then one day I discovered some photography related blogs and I thought how fun and exciting they were to visit.  I could visit places through their blogs that I might not ever get to see in real life and I loved it. 

Then I got a brilliant idea that I could start sharing my photographs and such with other like minded bloggers.  Now mind you I'm not the world's greatest photographer and still have a long way to go but I am so enjoying the journey and hope you will enjoy visiting often.

Cats are my all time favorite animal in the entire world.  We have 6 cats of our own and have been know to feed strays and neighborhood cats on a regular basis.  I love photographing them.  The one below is "new" to the neighborhood.  I'm not sure if it's (male) or (female) because it won't let me get close enough to find out.  Tonight it "almost" let me pet it.  I love the expression here.  It's almost as if the cat is saying,  "Hey, lady get that camera outta my face!"

My granddaughter, Coleen is a very important part of my life.  She and her mother live with us and you will frequently find her featured in my blog posts.

Here she is along with my mom's little dog, Pixie taking a ride down the slide at the school just down the street from where we live.

I love nature shots of all kinds and am always on the lookout for something new and different to photograph.  Lately "birds" have been on my list of subjects.  This morning I managed to capture some of these sweet little birds that roost in the next door neighbors shrubs everyday.  They sure make a lot of noise when they're all chirping at once.

There was some excitement this morning at the back bird feeder and oh how I wish I would have had my camera with me.  My mom & I returned from a trip to the bank and as we pulled into the driveway sitting up on the fence by our bird feeder was a small hawk.  We just sat there in the car watching it for a few minutes. Once we got out of the car it flew off but I was thrilled to have even had the chance to see it up so close even though I have no photo to document the event.

Flowers are another favorite subject of mine to photograph and to grow.  I'm so looking forward to spring when my new Tulips and Daffodils bloom.  In the mean time here's a shot of one of my lilies from last summer.

There are many things that I enjoy doing such as Reading, Cooking/Baking, Bowling, Flower Gardening, Music and of course blogging.  You just never know what you'll find here.  It could be a recipe for some new dish, a book review of a great book I've read, or whatever comes to mind when I sit down to post.

I love participating in various photography memes. Many of which are listed on my side-bar. 

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I enjoy hearing your comments and also visiting your blogs. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions or would just like to chat a spell.

Random 5 Friday

 



It's Friday and time to share some Random thoughts.  Please join me and of course the wonderful host of Random 5 Friday, Nancy from, A Rural Journal in sharing some randomness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.  It's birthday weekend here so I am busy, busy, busy.  My mom turns 85 tomorrow and Coleen turns 9 on Sunday.  Thanks to everyone who stopped by an view Coleen's recital photos (see post below this one) and video.  She loved knowing that people enjoyed hearing her play.  Great encouragement to keep her practicing for sure.  Edited to add if you want to see the cards I made them for their birthdays go to this post:  http://faithartistry.blogspot.com/2014/01/birthday-cards.html

 

2. Birds make me smile.  I leave seeds/peanuts out for the birds (and squirrels) and every morning I have a bunch of crows that show up for the peanuts and some sweet doves that enjoy the bird seed.  This one appears to be doing the "Happy Dance" while enjoying the bird seed.

 

 



 

3.  I'm thinking it's going to be an early spring here, some of the trees are already starting to bud.  Even though it's been a mild winter here I still look forward to flowering trees and sunny skies (It's super foggy here today).

 

 

4.  This week I discovered a new "guilty pleasure"  Shhh don't tell anyone but I discovered Cappuccino Nanaimo Bars at the local store bakery and oh my gosh they are so yummy!  - Sorry no picture,  I didn't have time to take one since I couldn't control myself long enough to photograph one!

 

5.   I need to walk the dog around the block more (see #4 ) since I'm indulging in sweet treats again now that the stress of the holidays is over.

 

Hope to get by a few of your blogs this weekend but with back-to-back birthday celebrations I'm not sure how much time I'll have for commenting.



Random Thoughts With an Orange Twist

Yippee it's Friday!  -  What a week it's been. I feel like I've been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.  So many things going on and just not enough time to get them done.  But enough of that.


 

Let's get started by joining in on the fun of Random 5 Friday hosted by Nancy at A Rural Journal.  I'll also be participating with Maria from Life's Sweet and Spices for Orange You Glad It's Friday.  Hence all photos today will have orange in them.





Random Thought # 1:  I want a "clone of myself"...That way I could be two places at once and get twice as much done! 

                        (Coleen and Pixie enjoying colorful Fall Foliage) 

Random Thought # 2:  Weeding is hard work!  I started clearing out the flower beds this week in hopes of getting them ready to plant all the new bulbs that I bought.  Still not finished because to many other things keep coming up.

                              (Straw flowers blooming at the Yogurt Shop)

Random Thought #3:  Bowling is an aggravating game.  This week I totally "stunk" and had the lowest game and series that I've had in quite some time.  I'm not sure what's going on but I am about ready to throw my ball in the garbage can.  Perhaps I should spray paint it orange and use if for a Halloween decoration.  -  We took a little tour around town the other day and spotted some fun decorations.  Here is a shot of some of them.

Random Thought #4:  Fall is my favorite season - Okay so this isn't so much a random thought as it is a Random Fact but when you get to see stuff like these leaves can you blame me for loving this time of year.

                     
                         (My Entry for Orange You Glad It's Friday)
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Random Thought #5: We took in the Corn Maze this year.  After 2 years of Coleen being to sick to go and the weather being nasty we finally made it back.  Only took us about an hour to get through the maze.  (Sorry for the quality of the photo but I had my other camera with me and it was dark out so this is the best I could do.)

That's it for me.  Thank you for stopping by.  -  I also want to thank all my new followers and of course all my followers.  You make my day brighter when you stop by.