The Wind in the Willows

Greetings from Maryland on this mild February day. Yesterday was unusually warm but today it’s back to normal, which is fine for me – considering that it’s February. It’s in the high 40’s and we’ve got some good wind, but the sun is shining on the land.

I love sleeping in late on a Saturday morning. Actually, anything after 6 AM is sleeping in, because that’s what time I get up on the week days. (Anyway, that’s the time the alarm goes off).




I had coffee on the porch this morning with my husband, who had been up for hours doing his daily walk with the pup. I took a couple of short videos which are below.

Quiet.

We were having wind gusts quite often and it was fun to watch while we sat in our protected little area of the front porch.

Wind gusts.

By the way, I couldn’t see a thing while I was filming. The little Sony Handycam doesn’t have a glare proof screen and all I could see was myself. Squinting.

: : :

After coffee and a nice walk with George, I worked on some photos I took this morning. I haven’t taken many pictures this week and had begun to miss it. So I poured the last of my Kellogg’s Granola, splashed on some nice cold skim milk, and headed into the living room to upload my images into the hard drive.

I love playing around in Photoshop. If you’re new to actions and textures, deciding which one to use – especially when you have a vast library – is the first step. I don’t like spending hours sitting around on my butt though, so I tend to make my decisions quickly. But today, for some reason, it took longer than I wanted to get this post up. But for what it’s worth, here’s what I have for you on this fine morning.




Leaf on a grapevine. For this, I used the SOOC version, adding a Kim Klassen texture called Nature’s Beauty (soft light blending mode) as well as her February Magic Edges texture (screen blending mode). The original (SOOC) and the finished version are below because I’m unable to do the mouseover effect anymore. I haven't been able to do it since I went to Blogger’s new template last fall. If anyone knows how, please let me know.



And for those of you who loved my husband’s outdoor decorating scheme, I grabbed a shot of his buoy collection before I came inside.



For this I used Florabella’s Soft Color Pop action and then Slice Like a Ninja, a sharpening action from Totally Rad. (For links, see my sidebar). I also added two SkeletalMess textures, Infectious Grooves (hard light blending mode) and Hell Bound (soft light blending mode). I love the names of some of the actions and textures, don’t you? Original and finished is below. Click on photos below to embiggen, if you like.



For some reason, I felt like putting my watermark on everything today, too. I should probably do it all the time but I’m too lazy.



The original looks so close to the finished product on the photo above, but I’ll post it anyway. I worked on it because the SOOC version had the bowl and cereal a lot brighter than it really was. I ran the Super Fun Happy action from Totally Rad, then used a Les Brumes texture and called it a day.



And now I’m off to run some errands.

And I’m taking my little friend here with me.

: : :

Have a wonderful weekend, all ~

I feel as if I had been through something very exciting and rather terrible, and it was just over; 

and yet nothing particular has happened.

- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Some things I love

I loved your comments from yesterday and was surprised at how many of you liked the old lobster buoys with which my husband has decorated the outside of the breakfast nook at the manor house.

It was beautiful today but I was stuck inside working through all of it and got home late but still in time to take my walk up and down the driveway. What a workout. It takes 45 minutes to go back and forth three times and on the last time coming up the hill, I was treated to a beautiful sunset. I didn’t have time to run inside to get the camera because it was dinnertime.

And someone has dinner on the table at exactly, precisely, perfunctorily 6 PM. Not that I’m complaining. I adore having dinner served to me. I think it’s the best thing ever and it’s one of the things that I love in this world.

Today I’d like to share a few other things that I love and I think I’ll begin with this stunning image by Lupen Grainne.



I am smitten with this fine art print that I found on etsy this week. It was featured in the same treasury as one of my prints, and I loved it so much that I bought it. Her work is amazing.

Grainne Photography on etsy

I was surprised to find out today that she had a blog full of loveliness.

Garden By The Sea

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I’m also in love with these camera bags, but I can’t afford them. So I signed on with Kelly Moore to be an affiliate. I want a camera bag that looks like a handbag and I don’t think it’s too much to ask.



Kelly Moore bags

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And finally, my favorite skin care product, from DHC (the #1 direct mail skincare company in Japan).



For the past five years, I have used this product every night. Who would think that  a product made with olive oil would be good for your skin? But I tell you, I love this stuff. It removes makeup effortlessly and leaves my skin ready for the next step. I often use the DHC olive soap but it’s pretty expensive. And besides, a friend gave me a big bar of beauty soap for Christmas and I think I’ll be using that for the next five years (it’s huge).

Right now, the Deep Cleansing Oil is on sale at DHC.

DHC Skin Care

: : :

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and a great beginning to your weekend. Thanks so much for coming by today. I appreciate each and every one of your visits and comments. Cheers ~

My hillbilly home

It was a beautiful day here in Maryland and after work I was able to take my walk in a light jacket. As much as I love winter, it sure does feel good on a beautiful day that holds the promise of Springtime.

Tonight my fingers felt so chilly that I had to make myself a nice cup of hot chocolate just so that I could wrap my hands around it in between sips.

Yum.

Last night, I wrote what I thought was a ridiculous post using a song that got stuck in my head and some bird photos from last year. Then I closed the computer and didn’t check my mail until this afternoon.

When I opened my gmail account, I was floored to find so many comments, as well as a Post of the Week Mention for Good Photography (thank you very much, Hilary). Sometimes the blogging world surprises the heck out of me.

It really was such a nice surprise, though.



A not so nice surprise was the picture below, taken by my husband this afternoon.

I think I will entitle this photograph . . . “My Hillbilly Home”.




It’s almost embarrassing, this picture my husband took while standing at the dogwood tree looking towards the breakfast nook window. Personally, I cannot stand the array of lobster buoys he has strung from the window ledge. I think they’re completely tacky, especially because we live nowhere near the water. But he found them all in Maine, and he brought them home, and he seems to like them.

So I keep my thoughts to myself.

But the rest of it? Ugh. All the ironwork poles you see in the foreground used to be for the bird feeders, but now my husband just keeps them around for the birds to perch upon while they wait their turn at one of the many feeders that he’s got strung across the wire that runs from the house to the tree. This is his squirrel-proof bird feeding system – and let me tell ya – as ugly as it looks, it really does seem to be working.

He has strung a sturdy wire from the tree to the house, supported by the many poles and branches you may or may not notice. Strung across the wire are various bird feeders, hung with ‘S’ hooks and taped with electrical tape to keep them steady.

It’s shabby backyard chic. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

On the anti-squirrel front – he told me today that he watched a squirrel try everything in its power to get to those feeders. It was quite amusing, he admitted. And finally, he saw it come to rest on the roof of the birdhouse on the dogwood tree, staring across that wire and looking so angry. He said the squirrel was seriously upset. And that it actually rubbed its hands over its head several times before leaving in a complete huff.

Husband 1

Squirrels 0

So how was your day? Inquiring minds want to know.

Snippet

Wild thing

You make my heart sing

You make everything

groovy.

: : :

I said wild thing.

* smiles *

Hope your day is a good one ~

: : :

Photos taken exactly one year ago today.

Groovy.

On being nice

First off, see the post below for the Giveaway winner announcement.

That having been said, let’s get to today’s post which is chock full of swirly loveliness. I went to a local florist over the weekend, looking for flowers to purchase so that I could bring them home and photograph them.

There was the usual array of roses, carnations, gerbera and regular daisies – but I kept searching the refrigerated room and was finally rewarded. I’ve always wanted to photograph calla lillies.

Unfortunately, they were all spoken for except for these three which I presumed were the runts of the litter.

I bought them regardless, because they were a little different, sort of swirly, and I thought they would make great subjects for my macro lens.



They’re a little camera shy, but I got them to glow for me in the afternoon light on my bedroom windowsill.




I love swirls.




These are my sister Charlotte’s favorite flower. She carried calla lillies on her wedding day, but I only got to see them in her photos because I was in the hospital having my first child.

Charlotte, I’m so sorry that it was my idea to lock you in the attic when we were young so that you couldn’t win our mother’s Be Nice contest again. You were the best of the bunch of us, and when you kept winning the contest week after week, I needed to resort to taking you out of it, so that someone else (namely, me) could win.

I’m sorry I made you cry. Even though you say you don’t remember it at all.

Because I never forgot that I did something so mean.

I hope you like these flowers, because they are for you.

Love,

or as you know me, your big sister, Katy.

Giveaway winners annnounced

The results are in on the recent Giveaway held for reaching the 800 mark for followers on this blog (that I never imagined anyone would visit, let alone follow).

Here’s the numbers chosen by Random.org as the three winners:

#20 – Sandyandcosmo

#17 – Louisianna Belle

#51 – Andi

Congratulations, all. Each winner will receive a print of their choice, plus a set of photo greeting cards.

I would also like to congratulate myself on finally proving it properly. Look! I copied them correctly for once.

Aren’t you proud of me?

Thanks to everyone who participated. I often have Giveaways here, so I’m sure there will be another coming up at some point.

Saturday doings at the manor house

Today I did some cleaning and was hoping the weather would be as warm as predicted, but come to think of it, 40 really isn’t all that warm – especially when, more often than not, the clouds are hiding the sun.

I polished the furniture and made it gleam. And then I swept and swiffered the wood floors. I vacuumed the old rugs, pretending that I was using my dream machine rather than the poor excuse for a cleaning tool that I own. {{{I don’t want to say that too loud, though, in case it hears me and completely stops working}}}.

Someday I’m going to own a decent vacuum. As God is my witness, I will never be hungry again!

For a good vacuum.




That guy on the bike that you may or may not have noticed in one of the picture frames in the bookcase is my husband, taken about 20 years ago. When I look at it, I think I cannot believe that it was that long ago but it was. He was competing in mountain bike racing back then and actually scored quite high in the standings for the mid-atlantic area in his age group one year.




Meanwhile, out in the backyard, my husband was busy too. I had no idea what he was up to while I was inside cleaning until he showed me when we were both finished.

: : :

At first, I thought he’d gone off the deep end. But then I began to think that maybe he had something in his ongoing battle against the squirrels who continue to raid our bird feeders. It wouldn’t bother him so much, but he spends good money on bird seed only to have much of it eaten by the little varmints. And the property here is covered with nut bearing trees.

Don't feel sorry for the squirrels/ There were enough nuts to feed an entire army of squirrels this winter. And some are still on the ground.

















Unfortunately, the system he’s come up with is not pretty at all.



In fact, our yard now looks like a hillbilly haven. (No offense to hillbillies).

Rather than have each feeder suspended vertically from wire off the branches of the trees, my husband decided to string one long wire from the side of the house to the dogwood tree, hanging each feeder from the wire and securing it in place with tape.

Crazy?




Maybe a little.

But this is what they do when confronted with wire. They simply slide down, the little scamps.




He just finished the project this afternoon and I think this wire seems way too thin for the squirrels to inch across.

But only time will tell.




I’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, there’s still time to enter my latest Giveaway.

Thanks for stopping by today ~

Another Giveway because I luvya

It has come to my attention that I have reached another milestone in my followers widget and for those who have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that this means it’s giveaway time.

Without your support, I may have gone a little cuckoo with all the things that have transpired in my life since I began blogging in late 2007. And without your support, I would have never begun to sell my work. Oh, I meant to tell you that I have two pieces for sale in a local art gallery as well as an assortment of my greeting cards. Yay!

To thank you, my followers, I’m offering a set of greeting cards to 3 winners PLUS an 8 x 10 or 8 x 12 print of your choice from my etsy shop.

This giveaway is for followers only. If you’ve been reading along but have yet to become a follower, well now is your time to do so. And if you’re thinking of coming on board just to enter this contest, that’s ok too. I just won’t love you as much.

I’m kidding.

When I took these photos this morning, the clouds were closing in, changing the colors in the room back and forth. As a result, the pictures below aren’t the best representation of the cards themselves. In fact, they’re quite bad. But what the hey.



MUTED TONES

For a better example of one of the photographs, click {here}.





CARDINALS

To view one of them, visit {here}.





PAPERWHITES

A better photo of one of the prints is {here}.



THE RULES


1. Visit my etsy site and choose the print you would like to receive.

2. Then choose the set of greeting cards you’d like from either this post or the etsy site.

3. Enter your choices in the comment section and make sure I can get in touch with you if you win. This means I need your e-mail address.

4. For followers only. Because I love you.

The random integer generator at random.org will be used to choose the 3 winners. Contest will run until Monday (Feb. 14), 6 PM Eastern Standard Time. Winners will be announced Monday evening. Anyone - anywhere can enter, as long as they follow this blog.  Good luck ~

The fog comes on little cat feet

I’m excited that it’s Friday – the end of a long week and the beginning of a weekend that promises to be quite lovely if the local weather forecasters are correct. Our temps are supposed to soar up to 50 - both days, and other than the slushy mess that all this frozen snow is going to create, I plan on getting a little sunshine in my soul.

Good news from my husband’s doctors at Johns Hopkins – the last MRI is clean and his re-checks are being stretched to every three months rather than two. In early May, it will be seven years since the initial diagnosis of stage IV brain tumor (Glioblastoma Multiforme) when he was given three months to a year to live. So I am happy ~

: : :

Every day, I’ve been walking up and down the driveway, trying to kick up my walking workouts. It’s quite the challenge coming all the way back up the steady incline of the 1/3 mile long driveway and I can now do it two and a half times without stopping. Woot!

Now if I can begin to shrink my butt from the size of Montana into something more manageable, like maybe Delaware, or Rhode Island . . .

: : :

I found these photos that I’d taken over the weekend and had forgotten to share with you.



I took them late Saturday afternoon, after heading upstairs to get something from my bedroom. And I stopped when I saw this foggy, dreamy landscape out my bedroom window. So I went back for the camera, and opened the bedroom window to take the photos here.

The branches of the dogwood tree looked so beautiful against the mist with the woods in the background. I added a texture that made it look a little vintage and rumpled and imagined that it must have looked very similar out this very window a hundred years ago.



Looking to the left of the open bedroom window is the edge of the house – the 1810 addition.
This is a window in an empty bedroom that’s awaiting repair. I thought it looked interesting, with the old black walnut tree in the background and the vines that are growing on it.

At the base of the tree is the old fireplace we discovered under the bush and vines that used to lie there.



And then I went downstairs and baked a pie. And it certainly didn’t help with the Montana situation that’s going on right now.

* snort *

Hope you’re having a wonderful Friday. Friday night I’m going to a Faculty/Trustee dinner at a great local restaurant on the water. The food is always excellent. Thanks for stopping by, my friends ~

Oh, and before I go - there's a GIVEAWAY at the blog of a friend. Check it out!

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

My day in photos

I had the 50mm lens on the camera today, which I brought to school to take the final portraits for the Lower School Spotlight Board. Every month, it is my job (and has been for years) to take photos of whatever class we’re highlighting on both the main board and the lower school board. Last week, I photographed all the 9th graders (44 of them) and then about 30 lower school students. Today I took photos of those who were absent last week.

It takes me about 5 minutes to go into a classroom and photograph about 20 kids. The trick is to do it fast. And do it right. I believe you also have to really like the kids, which I honestly do. They smile for me because I believe they like me, too. I tell them they are naturals, or that they love the camera. I joke with them. And because I do it so fast, I sometimes have to retake one or two.

Today I snapped a few extra pics while I was at it, thinking that if I had nothing to say tonight (which I do not), I’d share these with you.



Coming in the school driveway at 7:20 this morning.



The cupola, viewed from inside one of the courtyards. I actually opened the door to take this shot and the icy blast nearly knocked me over.



A moment of weakness after lunch.

I have many moments of weakness some days. Today Andy, who teaches government & economics in the upper school, brought in tons of little candy bars, left over from a project to teach the students about supply and demand.

What to do with all the leftover candy? Hey, let’s put it in the main office and drive Mrs. Young crazy! Capital idea!

Those big m&m’s are filled with peanut butter.

Can you feel my pain?



The Varsity and Junior Titan cheerleaders warm up in the lobby before a basketball game this afternoon. Our cheerleading squad is one of the best, if not THE best, in the area. Our coach is one of our parents, who also happens to have coached for years at the college level. We are blessed to have her. And the squad is absolutely amazing to watch.

I never post photos of the kids at our school, but these two young ladies (they’re sisters) have their backs to the camera, so I hope it’s ok.



Driving home through town at the end of a very long day.



About to head up the hill where I live. Our house is on the very top, at the end of a long driveway. The long driveway which I walked this afternoon, up and down, up and down – trying to negate the effects of m&m’s and what have you. (Tiny little Almond Joys, Snickers, Reece cups).

Thank heavens I only had the m&m’s.

Ok. I had two Almond Joys but who’s counting?




And at the very top, he waits for me. Every day.

And then we walk together.

The End.

Respectfully submitted,



PS – My husband and I are watching the end of one of my favorite movies from when I was a kid: The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming! Fun!!