Scavenger Hunt Sunday

CAMERA PHONE

Taking a picture of forsythia blooms now showing on my photoblog. If you'd care to see click on the link in my sidebar.

CAMERA

This is my Mom's Brownie Camera that recorded all of my childhood memories.

SHOES

I know, I know, many people think they're ugly. I totally agree that they can't compare with the red soled Christian Louboutins or trendy Manolo Blahnik stilettos but hey; I'm old, I have terrible knees and they are the most comfortable shoe I've worn in a long time and this teal blue goes from spring to summer!

CHAIR

This little primitive wooden chair was my Grandma's. I don't recall her letting us sit in it. She didn't want it to get broken. It sat beside her bed and held her flashlight within easy reach in case she needed to get up in the middle of the night. When she broke her hip she needed to be moved to a nursing home and I asked if I could have the chair. She happily passed it on to me.

The original seat is gone having long ago been replaced with a scrap of wood. One arm is only half the size of the other. It retains much of its original red paint. Grandma cherished it and now so do I.

IMPERFECTION

"If you look closely at a tree you'll notice its knots and dead branches, just like our bodies. What we learn is that beauty and imperfection go together wonderfully."

Matthew Fox

HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE!

To see others interpretations of the prompts join Ashley here.

The Tree Has Eyes

My computer space is in the sunroom which has a set of sliding glass doors on one wall and a large picture window on another. When the temperature drops outside I'm often cold sitting at the computer while I do my blogging.
Hubs came home one day with a heat lamp that he clipped to a piece of furniture behind me. One day last week I got up from the computer and noticed the light reflected in my picture window. I grabbed my window thinking I might get a reflection shot of some kind. As I played with the angle of the camera and the reflection I found the oak tree outside looked as if it had eyes. Since the window is double paned there were actually two reflections and pointing just right with the camera gave me the fun result you see here.
One more thing. Hubs playfully calls the lamp my 'chick light'. You see it's really a brooder light used for keeping baby chicks warm! And, all that lovely snow you see is now gone!
For more Weekend Reflections join James here.

Midweek Blues: Swallowtail In The Oak

The Original Image

A Close Crop of the Original

My goal in photography for the summer has been to do what I could to take better images of butterflies. I've been somewhat successful with these results that I've posted on my photoblog here and here.

Last Saturday afternoon I was looking out my sunroom window and saw this butterfly high up in my oak tree that stands right outside the window. I knew by the time I picked up my camera and went outside it would have fluttered away. So, camera in hand with telephoto lens and shooting through the window the first shot is the result. Admittedly, this is not the kind of shot I had been hoping for and a quality closeup will just have to wait; but at least I can add the elusive swallowtail to my photo lifelist.

If you have your computer speakers on the song you hear is from an album by Bob Lind from February 1966. It was a song I grew up with and I always think of it when I watch butterflies. Isn't it funny how some songs stay with us? I went to look up the lyrics and only had to read the first few words when the whole song came back to me and I was singing away!

For more Midweek Blues join Rebecca here.

Mellow Yellow Oak Blossoms

(enlarge for best detail)

For more Mellow Yellow click here.

Sky Watch: A Pink Sunset

Many times I'm sitting at my computer and can look out the huge double window in my sunroom. As I look through the branches of the big old oak tree often I catch a glimpse of the sky and know a sunset I wouldn't want to miss is about to happen. Traces of pink in this image were enough to make me grab my camera last Thursday as I was looking at Sky Watch posts and head outside.

Reaching my front porch this was the view over my front yard.

Waiting patiently I was soon treated to this beautiful pink sunset. Having lived almost thirty years in the city I know how lucky I am to be able to witness the beauty God spreads before me at my own front door.

For more gorgeous views of skies around the world please click the badge at the top of my post.

Sky Watch: Through The Branches

The past couple of weeks we have had snow off and on. It snows, it melts, it snows again. I took this last Sunday. The snow and overcast skies of the previous days gave way to a beautiful crisp and clear day. Yes, the sky was this blue. This photo is straight out of the camera.

This was taken the night before after my daughter called from Virginia and wanted to know if I could see the moon because it was so large. It was right before sunset but the cloud cover was too heavy to see the moon. However, the clouds above the rooftop were very wintery looking.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone

Through My Window ThursdayThe Leaves They Are A-changin'

(click to enlarge)

Autumn Is Here

Opening Doors: Through My Window

A photo challenge hosted by Jientje at Heaven In Belgium.

On Thursdays I post something for you to see that I've seen Through My Window. What was I going to post this week that I could possibly tie in to Jientje's Opening Doors Challenge? It wasn't looking so good until the idea came for me to show you at least part of the big old oak tree that I have often talked about in this blog. I sit everyday and gaze through it's branches that shadow the yard below.
Hanging from one of those branches is a bird feeder that helps supplement the meals of some of the birds that visit it daily. What the cardinals and sparrows and occasional mourning dove let shake to the ground the squirrels, turkeys, and bluejays feast on from below. My little feathered friends keep me amused on a daily basis. Sitting in my sunroom looking around something caught my eye and I had a tie-in for the challenge.

What caught my eye was this glass-like doorknob.

The doorknob was attached to the church birdhouse sitting on my sunroom floor. The doorknob is for a little birdie to perch upon before entering his house. There you have it - I still got to show you the view Through My Window and a little 'door detail' as well!

As always, I hope the view through your window is a pleasant one today!

Through My Window Thursday With Photographic Reflections

These were the visitors I saw through my window this week. You can see the deer really are close to the house. If you enlarge this first pic you can see where a buck deer is lying in the grass to the left making himself at home. In the right side of the photo you can make out the the legs of another deer standing by the Rose of Sharon bush. There were six or seven deer on Monday.

Zooming In On The Buck

My 'yard art' moves!

Since I've been participating in Quilly's Photographic Reflections Challenge this week I thought I would show you the outside of my window with the reflections of the huge oak tree I often talk about and the tops of some walnut trees.

I hope the view in your world today makes you smile!

Buried Treasure

As I watched from the window the little grey squirrel ran down the lichen covered oak tree. He stopped and looked to the right to see if the coast was clear.

He scampered to the left beside the Rose of Sharon bushes. All winter he had stolen walnuts from the neighbor's trees and ran down the property line and into the woods to who knows where. I guess on one of his trips he had to stash the loot and run! As he dug furiously at the ground you could tell he was back to retrieve it.

He sat staunchly on his back paws and gnawed at his treasure from the ground. All the while not knowing he was being spied upon!When he was satisfied he had it the way he liked it off he went. To where - who knows - maybe to eat his little morsel or perhaps to bury the treasure again!

The "Kiss"

Tuesday night as I sat at my computer the howling winds whipped ferociously around the house. If I hadn’t known it was warm and raining I would have imagined blowing snow piled high in drifts upon the landscape outside. Before going to bed I stood at the sunroom window listening to the wind. In the stream from a neighbor’s porch light I could see a trash can tossed about by the wind’s fury. For weeks I had gazed at the barren branches of the oak tree outside this window and marveled at how they seemed to reach searchingly toward the skies. On this windy night my thoughts darkened fearing the wind might bring some of those branches pounding to the ground. My trepidation wasn’t relieved once I had gone to bed. The gate on the porch pounded deafening blows against the railing. Its hook had been torn from the wood in its struggle to stay latched against the wind. Wednesday morning I wasn’t sure what I would find behind the storm’s path. Walking to the sunroom I noticed through the window that indeed a couple of small dead branches laid sprawled under the oak tree. My surprise was what I saw on the patio table. Looking at my photo you’ll see the “kiss” my mighty oak left me as if to say “what were you worried about.” I remembered the old quote about the mighty oak starting as a little acorn. Just by chance in searching the Internet I found an article entitled In Worship of Trees by George Knowles. In the article he speaks of how the oak tree was used in worship long before the Druids gave prevalence and significance to other trees and it is believed the first tree created by God was the oak. He discussed the so called protective qualities of the tree. Most interesting to me was his statement that carrying a small piece of oak on your person will bring about a sense of security and well-being as well as protection from harm and that acorns placed on window ledges protect from lightening strikes. I’m not one to believe in ancient Druid customs or protective quality of trees and other things. However, the little present from MY mighty oak gave me pause for morning musing.