Exif
Finally got out today. This is the cut through pass to bring our electric in. I'm amazed that nothing interrupted our power during this ice storm. There are still 50,000 plus without power, 3 days into this, in Evansville alone. Just south of us in Kentucky, things are much worse. They do not even have power for the shelters. Many towns have lost their water with no power to run the pumps. I went to Walmart and it was so eerie walking around in a store that had nothing on the shelves. No meat, no produce, no dairy, no frozen foods. I felt like a looter walking around in there. Very strange. No food, so I bought two Goldfish and a hair dryer. LOL
I got these Amaryllis from the clearance bin. Sometimes with a little loving care they will bloom right away. Out of 3, only one will bloom this time around. I had over a dozen Amaryllis and I goofed up and let them get one night of frost. That is all it took - one night. All of them died.
After they bloom, they die back and then you put them outside in warm weather. I normally tuck the pots in with some annuals and let them grow stronger for a winter bloom. During the summer they just grow the strap like leaves you see in the back. You must bring them in before any frost and let them die down. Early December, start watering again and you will get beautiful blooms for Christmas.
This is the back of a little child size garden set - 2 chairs and a table that I bought at a yard sale. It's really cute and I hope to paint it and use it in a photo shoot this spring.
We have about an inch of ice and 3-4 inches of snow right now. They are expecting 4 - 6 more overnight.
Enjoy the simple things.
Behold the beauty inside.
Don't always go with the flow.
Be aware of your surroundings.
Respect the sacrifices others have made before us.
Never give up, complete your task no matter how difficult it may seem.
Respect the all of God's creatures.
All of these pictures were taken in or around New Harmony, Indiana. Tanya (Farm House Kids), managed to pry me out of the house for lunch. We talked cameras and had a wonderful lunch at the Yellow Tavern. Once I was out, I couldn't just go home and sit in my depressing cold house, so I wandered. New Harmony is a historic town in South West Indiana. It was founded as a Utopian Society in the 1800's. The work ethic and strong sense of community allowed the Harmonist to build tremendous wealth and a community that still stands strong today. New Harmony is now an artists' town with a wealth of shops and galleries nestled among historic buildings, parks, and places of worship.
Jack came to use from Caring Paws Rescue. I saw that scruffy little face on the web site and I just had to have him. Many people warned me about Jack Russels and their destructive habits. Not Jack. He hasn't chewed up anything up to now. He is a very possessive, jealous dog though. Good thing that Ms. Sally Weiner can stand her own ground against him. He does have separation anxiety and I cannot get 2' away from him. It's ok, I love him so much.
The hair on the side of his nose is finally growing back. We don't know what happened but we think he rubbed his nose raw chewing on a bone. It looked terrible for a while, but the pink is slowly turning black again and he's getting some hair growth. Poor baby.
Nemo is my son's goldfish. We've had him for 5 years. The past two years he has been outside in the goldfish pond. Last spring I made the mistake of putting some Comets in there. Those are the kind of goldfish like you get at festivals. Before long I had 100 Comets and 1 Nemo. This fall I posted on our local freecycle for someone to take them. In the process of getting all of them, the pond was pretty well trashed. We decided that Nemo would spend the winter inside and we would redo the pond in the spring. Much to my surprise, there are still about 10 Comets left in that little pond. You can see them swimming around under the ice. Guess I'll post again on freecycle and pass the rest along to another lucky soul.
Look who's landed in your kitchen
Bringing fortune to your home
It's me the lucky kitchen witch
Your special little gnome
I'll end burnt pots
I'll keep meals hot
I'll do such magic chores
For I'm your lucky kitchen witch
Keep me safe by your kitchen door.
A Nintendo DS is a great incentive. Do your homework, pick up your toys and make good grades or NO DS. Very effective.
This little Wren inspired me to get out and do some bird shots today. She poked around every nook and cranny on the porch. I think she was looking for spider eggs. It seemed she took interest in every tiny web that was out there. Last year they built a nest in the corner of my back kitchen window. Today, even when I got my camera and went outside she wasn't shy and let me get very close. Of course when I'm shooting with the Bigma, I don't have to be that close.
The feeders were a busy spot today and I got several good shots of various birds. I couldn't just pick one to post today.
Female Cardinal and House Finches
The one peeping around the feeder makes me smile.
Titmouse holding tight to her seed. In the second picture you can see the shell falling away.
House Finches and Goldfinches
Nuthatch busy on the suet block
Last but not least a Male Cardinal
So there you have my birding adventure for today. Standing on the porch, wearing house shoes, with the Bigma on a Monopod and freezing my booty off for about 1/2 an hour. :)
We got a little over 2" of snow last night. School was on a 2 hour delay, then they canceled it altogether. Even though Austin has been having some issues with his breathing, he seemed to be doing pretty well today. After he begged to go outside for the 100th time, I caved in. No sled? Use the Deer Hauler. 2" of snow is enough! The dogs even had a blast. We're inside and warm now and having a pot of Deer Chili for supper. YUM!
We tried a new brushing rinse called Inspector Hector tonight. It turns your teeth blue and then you brush until you have brushed all the blue away. Only problem is now we have to brush his tongue, lips, bathroom sink, towel and the wall!
You can see how shallow your depth of field is at 2.8 in this photo. While the eye of the feather is in focus the tips that are just a fraction of an inch farther away are out of focus.
This has been a "crap" day. Austin is having a lot of trouble breathing. He has Reactive Airway Disease which is a form of Asthma. He doesn't have attacks from allergens or "triggers", he goes into distress any time he has a cold. Even a simple little cold. We have gone from Stage 1 in his treatment which is doses of Albuterol in his nebulizer to Stage 2, which adds the steroids. The albuterol is sort of an emergency fix that should relax his airways and get his body jolted back into a normal breathing pattern. The steriods control the inflamation and he has to stay on that for several days once it's started. Hopefully we won't get to Stage 3 which is the oral steriods and a trip to the ER. He seems to have stabilized this morning and we continue with the Albuterol and steroids. He's already tired of the "HoverMom" and keeps telling me: "Stop listening to me breathe!"
Taken last night with Sigma 150 2.8 Macro and posted today.
Hoar frost forms when water vapor condenses out of the air and immediately freezes on the surface of an object that has been chilled below 32°F. This is on pine needles on the surface of my Goldfish pond. Somewhere under the ice are my pretty Goldfish. I used my Sigma 150 2.8 Macro hand held for this photo.
This is just a small part of my massive shell collection. Some of these things I've had since I was a kid. I guess that makes them antiques, like me. We used to have an old fashioned pharmacy here in town. It had a little bit of everything there. A diner, household items and a gift shop. In the gift shop area, Mr. Mann, the owner kept his fabulous shell collections. When he gave up the business he put his collections up for sale. I bought everything I could afford at the time. I still wish I had enough money to buy the Giant Clam shell he had. It was at least 4 foot across. You cannot buy them now because they are protected and very rare. Taken last night and posted this morning.
Many people think this is a Red Headed Woodpecker when it is actually a Red Bellied Woodpecker. The Red Headed is a distinctly different bird. The Pileated Woodpecker is the one with the pointed top knot and a very large bird. We do have them here and I see them fly from one woods to the other, but I've never been able to get a shot of them. They also have a very distinctive sound when they fly.
I have corrected the identification of this bird thanks to Christopher who has posted a detailed id in the comments section. Thanks Christopher! You can view his very interesting blog here Picus Blog.
Miss Sally Weiner came to us from a family that decided that they just weren't dog people. She was well taken care of and is a very sweet little dog. She's a digger doo though. She spends her days digging the yard after moles. By spring she will have turned over our entire 5 acres, I'm sure.
This was taken with my Sigma 50-500 also called The Bigma. I went out with the intention of getting some bird shots, but that didn't happen so here she is.
I fell in love with these candles, but taking a good picture of them proved to be a challenge. They are tall stemware and the stems kept becoming transparent on the black background. The base would show well and the tops with the candles, but not the stems. I also had a lot of reflections from everything in the rooms showing up. This is something I need to work on and figure out. I'm also trying out the image upload on Blogger instead of linking to my Smugmug account.
Today I found a template I can live with. I wish is were wider and I'm not happy with the graphics, but I'm working on changing that up a bit. Stay tuned!
How can you resist that face? Meet Chester, our Miniature Donkey. He’s such a sweetheart and always hungry. Chester is another one of our rescues. He’s been lucky twice in his life. The first time he was rescued off a trailer full of donkeys that were heading for the killers. The people that rescued him from there fell on hard times and could not afford to feed him, so now he has a permanent home with us. Babyface (our rescue Thoroughbred) and Chester get along famously. They are tried and true buddies. From the looks of their thick shaggy coats, it should be a cold winter. They sure are fuzzy.
This is Spike. Of course he had to have his nose in the middle of whatever it was I was doing out there at the fence. Might miss a morsel. Spike is also another rescue. He was a tiny kitten that would barely fit in your hand. He was dumped in the median of a busy 4-lane highway. He is the sweetest thing and has grown into a beautiful cat.
Dana’s rescue is just about full!! We have a horse, a donkey, 3 dogs and 4 cats. All rescues or unwanted animals. They will live out the rest of their lives here with us. No more worries for them.
I loved the colors and textures of this poinsettia leaf. It was a beautiful plant this year with the varigated leaves. It’s starting to show it’s age, but hopefully I can keep it alive until spring and plant it in the garden.
It’s look pretty cool in a high contrast black and white.
This year I let Austin pick out the angel to top our tree. He took a long time, looking at each one carefully before he decided on the Snow Angel. He was so proud of it. When we got home my husband had rigged a gold lighted star on top of the tree. It was all crooked and flopping over. Austin though it was ok and he wanted to set his Angel on the table holding the tree.
Today my husband came to me with the Snow Angel and asked what happened to her wings. After careful examination, I KNOW what happened to her wings. Miss Sally Weiner dog took her pointed little micro snoot and flead them off. There was not another mark on the angel at all. Just the wings chewed down to nubbins. I know it was her with that pointy little nose. She’s a nibbler and I find her mark here and there. Jack would have done the Jack Russel thing and ripped it to shreds leaving his evidence covering the entire living room.
So now we just have a Snow Queen……………
A blue bowl of generic Fruit Loops. Blahhhhhhhhh! Ran that stupid carpet cleaner all day non stop. I do have to say it looks great. White carpet should be banned! My Dad is so happy with it. It’s worth the smile on his face.
I did, but not from drinking. I did have two Bailey’s and Creme. It was the ribs that my husband cooked on his smoker that did us all in. He cooked 5 slabs. We just had family over for a quiet dinner and evening. Trouble was after we ate all those ribs all we could do was sit around and moan!
We started cleaning all the carpets in Dad’s house today. Two rooms about 40 x 60 each. We took a couple hours time out and took the boys to the zoo so they could burn off some energy. It didn’t work.
I’ve decided to join a group of ladies in a 365 project. One photo a day for a year. You’ll never know where I might point my camera. This could be quite interesting or boring as hell depending on your point of view. I’m a little late in joining in on this, but I have been taking the photos daily. As soon as I get my new computer up to speed, I can post easily. For now, I’m on my laptop which jumps all over the place as I’m typing. It’s not easy to process photos like this either. I’ll be in heaven when I get everything installed on the desktop. Maybe tomorrow, as all the family has gone back home after the holiday rush.
