Friday in Paradise

The first Friday of the new year and it would have been so easy not to do this post.  We are getting a bit of a blizzard here and the weather is frightful but I did decide to take the lensbaby for a little walk in the yard.  It's the lens I usually bring out to have a bit of fun.  The walk was very short as it didn't take long for the fingers to get cold and the boots to fill with snow.

This is one of my favorite yard decorations handing in the yard.  A bit of a breeze usually starts it twirling.  After the photos were downloaded I noticed a bit of colour with the leaves still hanging on.

A little more colour in the yard provided by the birdhouse.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I found this Friday and I do hope your weather is a little warmer.  Sharing with Friday Finds.

Merryy Christmas

May this Christmas season sparkle and shine. May all your wishes and dreams come true and may you feel this happiness all year round.

Merry Christmas everyone

Textured with a layer of kk_letgo and sharing with

I don't really know where to begin this post.  I took a look back and I made four posts this year, not very consistant.  I must admit, I have had a couple of rough years with the appearance of Alzheimer's in both of my parents, their move to a nursing home and ultimately both of their deaths in the past year.

This year I also lost my job, a job I thought I would be at until retirement, but that's another story for another time.  So many changes in two years, sometimes it's been a little hard to wrap my head around it all.

Good things have also come out of the past two years.  I now have three little grandson's, one four year old and two one year old's.  I am also employed part time, so I'm not sure if I'm semi-retired or semi-employed.

Time has started to heal and it's time to move forward.  I couldn't think of a better place to come back to, but with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.  She has been such an inspiration in my photography life.

Here's what I came up with for this week's Texture Tuesday.

I have a vase with bamboo sitting on the table and the sun was streaming through.  The first thing I thought of was using the lens baby with a star filter.  Not being close enough, I added a 4x macro filter.  The photo came out as I wanted with the unfocused light appearing as stars, but the backgound was a little boring, so I added a layer of Kim's autumnburst.  All was going well, but a little blank spot was calling out for an aligator from our trip to Louisanna.

If you've made it this far in the post, thank you for visiting me today.

A very good week

It has been a very good week.  Work has gone well, I'm finished year end accounting, month end reports and all accounts have been analyized, ready for the audit.  Seven working days to complete it all, not bad at all. The healthy eating has been going well, drinking lots of water and on Friday I got back on the scale and lost a whole pound.  Whoo hoo, but at least I didn't gain a pound.  I'll continue on and I'm sure some day I'm sure I see positive results.

Last week did bring some good news.  I joined a group on Flickr, 52 in 2014 where each week has a theme and voting for your favorites  Week one's theme was Abstract and my Bubbles placed in the #3 spot.

Week # 2 ending, today, here's my entry for Bokeh.  This was taken with a lens baby composer and 4x macro filter.  The shaped bokeh is done with the lensbaby bokeh kit and a tin foil background.

It's been nice getting back into photography.  The past few years I've done a 365 with it slipping during the past year.  With family, work and life getting in the way I hoping this 52 group will get me shooting again. I hope you all had a good week and next week is even better.  Thanks for stopping in.

Star Angel

This little lady has graced the top of our Christmas tree for the past 37 years. Taken with a Lensbaby composer with star filter.

Back to Normal

I was going to write this post earlier in the week to celebrate my 60th birthday.  I was going to tell you all how wonderful I was, how wonderful my kids are and how wonderful my grandchildren are.  But a phone call changed everything.  After celebrating my birthday, on Monday, I received a phone call from the nursing home telling me that my mother had passed away.

On Wednesday, our son and his wife welcomed their second child, a healthy little boy into the world. Trips to the hospital, taking care of a three year old and funeral preparations filled the week.  By Friday I was a little worn out and not feeling so wonderful.  I think I probably hit the lowest point of the year.

Saturday was the funeral and I made a decision after dinner that Sunday I would get my life back to normal, whatever normal is.  Photography has become a part of me and a part of my life I've missed during the year, so I'm going to try and get back to a daily for the month of December, using Tracy Clark's, Picture the Holidays 2013 and Kat McNally's Reverb 13 for guidance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it right when he said "When it's dark enough, you can see the stars".

Have you ever noticed that your style of processing photos on any given day, depends on your mood.  I'm not a professional photographer doing work for hire, so my "style" can change on a any given day.  Today was not an exceptionally happy day.  The photos in today's post were taken at the same greenhouse, my happy place, as yesterday's post, but processed this afternoon.

Today I had to go into my parent's home and remove some of my Dad's bedroom furniture and clothing.  He is now on the "First Available List" for a safe place for persons with Alzheimer's.  He's still in the hospital where he'll remain until a suitable place is available.  My Mom is still living at home with dementia and has not come to terms with the fact that he will not be coming home.  Moving his things with her in the house would have been tramatic for her so it was done while she was visiting at the hospital.

I must say that I felt like a bit of a thief when I was there, wondering who was watching me.

And who might be giving me the evil eye from behind their curtains.

But it seems that there's always those neighborhoods where no one really sees or cares what is going on next door.  Today I was lucky I was in this type of neighborhood.

I must say after being with my parents today and seeing how well he's doing in the hospital with proper care and how much she's failing living at home alone, I feel much better about working towards having them live together in safe, assisted living.

Pack Up Your Troubles

"Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
And smile, smile, smile"

Following this advice from an old WW1 song it's just what I did this morning.  Our camera club had an outing at Salisbury Greenhouses, which just happens to be one of my favorite places.  The worries and troubles are left at the door the minute the warm air and the scent of flowers greet you.

I had originally planned on picking a few favorite photos from the morning for today's blog and I know that a few photos should be able to tell the story.  Unfortunately, a new set of flower pots in the greenhouse stole my plans and my heart.

I also know that one photo of a subject should be enough, but I couldn't stop.  I'm not sure if it was the rustic feel to these pots or perhaps the delicate painted flowers that drew my attention, or both.  Perhaps I'm a potaholic.

And the more I photographed them the more I was drawn to them.

Sanity finally took over and I grabbed this square pot, put it on my pile of things to buy and it now sits on my kitchen table.  I'm thinking that next time I'm going past Salisbury Greenhouses, a nice pot of basil would look lovely in it.

Lensbaby Pansies

Wake Up at 5:30 am

Post daily photo

Shower

Eat Breakfast

Leave for work at 7:00 am

Work

15 minute break at 9:15 am

Work

Lunch break at noon

Work

15 minute break at 2:15 pm

Work

Leave work at 4:30 pm

Arrive home and start supper

Husband home at 5:45 pm

Supper at 6:00 pm

Process photos, watch TV

Bed at 9:30 pm

For the past four years that was my daily routine.  Very structured and organized.  My work in accounting was also very structured and creativity during the day was really something that did not happen.  Bad things happen when one gets creative with accounting.

When I got my first DSLR, 3 years ago, my photos were also very structured.  As I had taken a few courses in photography, I knew what DOF was. f2.8 gave out of focus photos, but when you spend good money on a sharp lens, why would you want to use anything but f14. To me f2.8 was something you used when you needed more light.  My photos had to be sharp and in focus all the time.  A photo copy of reality is what I was after.

A couple of years my husband gave me a Lensbaby Composer for Christmas and I called it my “play” lens.  Great for shots of the Christmas tree and lights but I didn’t use it much.

During the past couple of years, being part of the Daily community on Smugmug, I began to appreciate f2.8.  Now, the majority of my photos are taken at f2.8 or f4. My new job is less structured.  I still don’t get creative with the accounting, but there are no buzzers to tell me when to take a break and when to eat lunch.  I’m starting to feel a little less like a trained mouse.

Sunday morning I woke up to a beautiful day and I put the Lensbaby on the camera and decided to play with the pansies in the yard.

 

My first thought was that the rain drops were ruining the photos and then I began to see everything a little different. I added a little star from the bokeh kit to see if I could catch a few out of focus drops.

And came across the wet leaves of a daylily.

Again back into the house to add a macro filter to the lensbaby.

It’s now Tuesday and I still have the lensbaby on the camera.

Sharing with

 

The Garden Walkway

It's been my dream to have a flower garden on the south side of the house. Years ago we did have a little flower bed, but as time passed, it had grown over and attention turned to a larger vegetable garden. The south side of the house has been sadly neglected, with the exception of cutting the grass for quite a few years. With our daughter getting married in the yard in August, landscaping changes have had to be made. The vegetable garden hasn't been used for some time and has been turned back to lawn. The south side of the house needed attention, so the flower garden dream turned into a reality. Since the house has a walk out basement a walk way was needed through the flower bed and it started with a trip to Totem to pick up a few pavers.

The walkway had been leveled by my son-in-law to be and filled with sand by my husband so all I had to do was level the sand and place the pavers.

 

This iris is the last remaining plant from the original flower bed. It's been growing in the lawn for the past 25 years and withstood the "renovation" giving us a few blossoms this year.

 

The wagon wheels were purchased at an auction years ago and repainted last year, waiting for their place in the garden walkway. We still have to put in a deck between the garden and the house, but the wedding isn't until the end of August, so we have a little time.

 

Sharing with

 

Texture Tuesday - The Washday Greens

It's been awhile since I've participated Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday but this weeks challenge of using her texture "And then some" was perfect for a couple of photos taken at a museum at Aldon's Auto Salvage during a recent camera club outing.  An auto salvage yard isn't the place one expects to find a wringer washing machines so this was a very pleasant surprise.  Both photos were taken with the Lensbaby Composer and I couldn't decide which one to pick so I'm posting both.