SOS

I thought we could all use a nice, cool shot today to remind us that life may seem hotter than blue blazes here in Arkansas in August, but this too shall pass and the snow will fall. Then we'll be complaining about the cold! :-)

Red Rows - Two Birds/One Stone

The fam piled into the Blazer this last Saturday to go look at Heath's house that he is currently building. It is a partially underground house, so the effect from the back corner looking across the metal roof was a shot I couldn't resist.

SOS

I couldn't decide which shot to put up. I captured these this weekend at mom and dad's farm.

Chain

This is the chain from a ceramic bird house that was a gift from a student. I love it!

Dig

I always wonder when I find a dark, mysterious hole in the ground, "What creature is lurking in there?". Don't you?

Twist

This is a rag rug that my mom made for me. I love the colors!

SOS

Can you guess what this is?


These are the wildflowers that Jeanie and I took on my birthday in Gepp. These are my favorite wildflower. And, yes, it is surprising since I'm crazy about orange. But this periwinkle color is just fabulous!

SPS

L and I went to Mississippi to take the girls to see their dad's family on Saturday. I could see M sleeping in the back seat. I spent lots of time trying to work with the shutter speed and such to get a pic. This one was actually one where I accidentally used the flash. The color looked distorted, but in black and white it turned out well, I think.

Can

This is an antique milk can on our farm.

Educate

This was a notepad given to me by a student this year. It was the utmost of compliments this year. I think teaching a child to dream is the most important gift you can give a child.

Ripe

Plums on our farm.

Bell

This is the bell that is my mom and dad's yard. It is an antique church bell. Wisteria vines grow up the post and the nearby pecan tree. I'm not at my parent's house today, so I had to take a picture out of my past photos. This bell says a lot about my family and what we are. We treasure those things of the past. Each antique holds a history that we may never know, but to hold it in your hand means that you honor that past and in a way partake in it.

SOS

I took this picture at the park on Friday. I love to photograph nature. I saw this mushroom and when I got up close to it, I thought I might see a Lazy Smurf dozing under its canopy or Smurfette who would invite me in for tea :-).

Moonflower

This is the flower of a moonflower. My mom took a picture of a seed pod bursting open. They plant is not ready to bloom yet, so I went back through my archive to show you what the flower looks like.

SPS :)

This is from M, M, and my trip to the park today. I have to say that these two young ladies are my best subjects for my photography exploration. They have been for years. They have always been eager to help me and to pose even if their attention spans didn't quite last as long as the amateur photographer needed it to last :-). But now that they have gotten older and more mature, they have even started helping. And I must say that they have great ideas. I have to applaud them today for their eagerness to help me with the prompt. We make a great team!

Reaching for the Bubbles!

My two adopted nieces and I went to the park today. We bought bubbles to play with. So they helped me with the brainstorming and shooting of the shots for reach. If you want to see the full day, check out my slide show that I'm working to complete for my other blog.

M is keeping M's chocolate bar just out of her reach.

To Drip or Not to Drip....That is the question!

I must say I've never realized how temperamental water can be. This afternoon I was waiting to go to an appointment and thought I'll just go outside my door with my trusty watering can and get a drip shot....real quick. Yeah, right! That's not quite what happened.

Did you know that water will drip too quickly when you are trying to get your camera to the right spot or when in position it will sit like concrete, not moving, not even a millimeter until you take your eyes off of it then, plop! Then the shot is gone!

But it was fun setting up this staged shot. I got on my knees and up close to my cabbage plants. I hurt my feet on the cedar mulch in my flower bed trying to get the drops off of my vinca. I poured water over my bushes. I'm sure if anyone had been watching they would have thought that I was a few bricks shy of a full load. But oh, well, I'm sure you ladies out there understand. Hope you enjoy as much as I did trying to get the elusive drip shot!

Burst

I went back to my previous pictures for today's challenge. Today hasn't been a good day for me and the creative juices just weren't flowing. So I found these two that I love and show burst.

Below, crocus blooms just waiting to burst open for the first touch of color in the spring.

Above, M with a look that reminds me of the phrase, "Someone just burst my bubble." Kinda the way I've felt today.

Trapped

I've been to my second day of in-service today on video book talks. A fellow teacher and friend went with me. I told her over lunch that I needed to find a pic of 'trapped'. We were brainstorming things that I could shoot, her ducks or goats at her house, a woman's wedding ring :-). When the host came up to our table to tell us that this semi truck had hit the school car. S went out immediately to see what had happened. Turns out, it wasn't our vehicle that had been hit, but there still was a problem. A truck had tried to make a delivery and was now trapped in the parking lot with no way to turn around. Shari and I helped the truck and several cars as they maneuvered for position. But I turned to her and said I think that I've found my trapped.

But now I was on a role, so I was still thinking what else does trapped mean to me. So while waiting on S at Hasting's, I was checking out the new supernatural, vampire, witch books when I spotted the games outside in the lobby. You know the one that takes your money 99% of the time because you have one shot to trap the unsuspecting stuffed animal. So I went out to take my picture hoping that no one from Hastings would wonder what in the world I was doing and have enough courage to say something to me. So I did capture that shot and almost got an action shot. A lady came up and almost played, but she said there weren't any that were easy to grab. She said she grabbed these stuffed toys for her dog to play with. So this was a fun one today especially having someone else with me to brainstorm.

Look at those poor, trapped faces. Lonely and wishing to be the lucky one to be taken home!

Track

These are my four wheeler tracks that I made while picking up rocks out of my brother's new-to-be front yard. My brother is in the process of building a house on our farm. He has just recently finished building a fence around his yard so that the cattle could be turned into that field. So on Friday, while my dad was cutting hay across the creek, I took the four-wheeler up there and picked up rocks out of his yard. This is a picture after the first trip down the hillside to the wash where I was dumping the rocks. I thought that I would take a picture of the pile of rocks-sorta a "Look what I did!" kinda shot. But, by the time I had picked up 6 loads of rocks, I was plum tuckered out and it didn't matter how large the pile or how great it would be later to put on my blog, I just wanted to head for the house!

SOS

This is a shot from my mama's place on our farm two winters ago. I love these old out buildings and the contrast between the leaves that have held on past the first snow. I used both of these images for a calender for my dad.
This is of the bridge in Cotter. I went fishing there last summer with friends. Didn't catch anything, but a good shot!

SPS

Self-portrait-Ugh! This day I was working on the farm with my dad and brother. This never leads to a gorgeous day. These types of days are for practicality-ponytail, visor, sunglasses, sunscreen, and no make-up. Cows do not seem to mind what I look like or what I wear. For that matter, neither do my dad or brother as long as I follow orders and don't do anything careless. I took several, but this is the only one that I would even dream of publishing.

Bloom

Thistle
Hollyhocks

Two blooms.....one wanted and let grow without restraint-one a nuisance that spreads like wildfire.

Creep

This is our creeping wisteria on our farm that I took last Thursday.

Creep

Okay, ladies, I know this is cheating, but I think you will allow me this digression for a moment when you realize the circumstance. I have to admit the first thought I had when I saw creep was not the innocent definition of creep "To wander in a stealth or slow manner. Also to describe a plant growing against the wall or ground". No, I thought of the creep you meet at the corner who leers at you or makes a rude comment. The guy who won't call you back. The guy who says one thing but means a totally different thing. The many guys that you meet while trying to date (that's me).

So I looked for the definition of that one:

1. someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric, spook, weirdie, weirdo, weirdy

2. Slang An annoyingly unpleasant or repulsive person.

So, I actually have a picture of a creep that I could show you, but I don't think I will do that. So, for those of you out there who understand and get what I'm saying, drop me a line and let me hear about it.

And, ladies, I mean no disrespect to the daily prompt. I truly did not have a picture of anything that reminded me of creep. If I find something today on our family's farm, I will post that to stay true to the prompt.

Laze

This is my precious baby, Winnie. Named after Arwin from LOTR, not Winnie the Pooh. There's nothing she likes more than chewing a bone! It brings her absolute joy and can keep her occupied for hours. This is her lazing in the shade this Spring on our family farm.

Lumpy (Heffridge Trumpler Brompet Heffalump)

Lumpy. First thought was of my favorite stuffed animal, Muttster. Yes, of course, there's story behind the name.

Muttster was my pet dog, a poodle, that came to our house one day. He had definitely been a house dog. The poor old fellow had gotten mange and obviously had been discarded either by purpose or chance by our house. The most soft-hearted people in the world especially when it comes to animals. So we set about to healing this guy with a very stinky, yet very effective, mange cure and bonding with him. He and I became best friends. I named him Muttster. It fit with the times. I believe it was one Christmas, my mom found this stuffed animal that looked very much like him. So I cuddled with this little stuffed guy many a nights thus making him into this lovable lump.

Lucky Number 7

Here's my lucky number 7. I enjoyed experimenting with some new software for editing my photos this morning. It's like make-up, botox, or liposuction for women!

Freckles (and slugs!)

Only M could have such a great smile with a slug on her face! Oh, and don't forget the freckles galore!

Flotsam

Here's the elementary teacher version of flotsam. I am landlocked also and only been to the ocean a couple of times and long before my photography days. So my mind went to this wordless, book that tells a story just through the illustrations. If you or your kids haven't seen it, look for it. It is an outstanding book!

Flora

Okay, I couldn't post just one post either. I was looking through and saw the ones I took this weekend. So I thought I'd post it too.

Flora

Ladies, this is my favorite so far! Flowers are my joy! I couldn't pick just one. :-)

Star of Bethlehem

Tiger Lilies

Daisies