Finalists announced in Name That Photo contest

Two days ago, I posted this photo and asked you to come up with a name for it, a caption, a funny sentence, or anything that would make someone smile reading it.

And you didn’t disappoint. I chuckled reading all 114 of them and it was tough narrowing it down to just five. Remember, this is subjective. What I may find funny, you might not. But it’s my contest, right?

Here are my top five picks:

1. Border Patrol

2. Here’s looking at you, kid.

3. Mr. Demille – I’m ready for my close up.

4. Baa . . . Ram . . . Ewe!

5. Be vewwy quiet. I’m looking for a little grey squirrel.

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!

Help me choose a winner by leaving a comment letting me know your favorite line. Sorry, but I don’t have a fancy polling widget. I’ll tally the votes and announce the winner on Saturday morning. Winner will receive an 8 x 12 Standout print from mpix.com.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I’ll be back tomorrow with the results!

The end of the day

I’d almost forgotten to show you these. I took them Labor Day weekend with the Nikkor 105mm lens that I’d borrowed from a co-worker.

I’d spent a day chronicling the morning glories from their unfurling to the end.

This is the end, my friends.

(if you’ve noticed the jim morrison reference, i am impressed).

If you haven’t, please don’t beat yourself up over it.

Look at these little lovelies. They’ll make you feel better.

I love this one. It looks almost yummy.

They just fascinated me, with their colors – light blue and lavender, and this one with the pale green background.

These are all pretty much SOOC (Straight Out of Camera) with just a little sharpening added. I say pretty much because I remember lightening some areas on one of them.

This one looks like a rock star.

PS – I was not imbibing (as far as I can remember).

This one is the movie star.

If you’re finding it rather odd that I’m assigning personalities to the flowers, you’re not alone. I feel the same way.

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At the Casa de George tonight, we’re excited about the new season of Survivor which for the first time ever, is being shown on Wednesday nights. It’s being filmed in Nicaragua and the tribes are split into the 30 and under and the 40 and older groups. Looks like Chatterbox Wendy’s husband is going to be correct in his prediction that his wife will be the first one voted off tonight.

Yep, he’s right. Goodbye to Wendy Jo the Goat Lady.

It sounds as if all I do is watch television, doesn’t it?

And my heart is hoping that 10-year-old opera singer Jackie Evancho wins in America’s Got Talent in tonight’s finale. And speaking of winning . . .

Check out my NAME THAT PHOTO contest while there’s still time. Winning finalists will be announced Friday morning, and there’s already some good ones!

Thanks for stopping by. Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Contest! Name this photo.

My husband took this photograph of George today and asked what I thought of it. Looking at it, I decided that I’d like it much better if it had a funny caption underneath. My husband said he thought the same thing. But try as we might, we couldn’t come up with a single solitary clever thing.

And then I thought about you. I’m sure one of you could come up with something fun.

This photo deserves a name, a caption, a funny sentence, anything that you think would bring a smile to anyone reading it.

RULES: There are no rules! Leave one caption, or leave several. Leave ‘em in a single comment or a string of comments. I don’t care! It’s wild and crazy here at the casa de George. And this dog looks like he’s up to somethin’ here.

I’ll leave this contest up for two days. On Friday, I’ll post the top five, and then you can choose the winner by voting on them. Winner receives an 8 x 12 Standout print from any one of the photographs I offer on my etsy site. Please make sure I have a way of contacting you if you win.

Here’s an example of a Standout print:

Made with lightweight Gatorfoam with your choice of black or white trim, it can hang on a wall or stand alone.

I have a few of these in my home and I like moving them from place to place.

So please, put on your thinking caps and come up with something that makes you grin. Final Five will be announced Friday morning.

Have fun!

My newest accouterment

I knit this scarf over the weekend. It was very therapeutic.

I love the color and how lacy and airy it turned out. I used #11 needles, and straight knit 27 stitches per row, every now and then doing a row of triple yarn-overs.

I learned what a yarn-over was from the video tutorials on an excellent website that I found. I also looked up how to cast off, because I’d forgotten how it’s done.

If you’re interested in learning to knit, visit Wool and the Gang and click on ‘Tutorials’. It’s great!

I know this may sound crazy, but I’m sort of looking forward to crisp cold autumn nights in my wooly socks, knitting. I may even branch out from just doing scarves.

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In other matters ~

1. It has come to my attention that I’ve reached a milestone in my blogging (ahem) career. Surprisingly, I’ve written over a thousand posts, only noticing last night when I went to edit something. I’ve been blogging since December 2007 and never thought I’d get to a hundred, much less a thousand posts. (I’ll probably hold a giveaway later this week. I love an excuse to have a giveaway).

2. After he eats his dinner, each and every night since he was a young pup, George comes into the living room and rolls on his back. We’ve never understood why.

3. We have new neighbors. They’re loud and rude and ditto goes for their vehicles. And their children. Lovely.

4. I love listening to our son play the piano in his room.

5. My hair is driving me crazy and it’s been 9 weeks since I’ve been to Hoity-Toityville to get it done at the salon. Luckily I have an appointment later this week.

Anything you care to share? Oh, come on. Don’t be shy . . .

What a wonderful world

It rained today, finally. A softly quiet, gentle rain that began at dawn and continued through the whole morning.

I wondered how the morning glories would look afterward.

So I ventured out to see.

These were shot using my Nikkor 60mm f2.8 macro lens. It did a fine job today.

And I think to myself . . .

. . . what a wonderful world.

Thank you for your kindness after Friday night’s post. It always surprises me, the outpouring of support as well as the fact that there are so many others out there fighting illness like my husband is.

We do what we have to do to get through.

Life ain’t so great sometimes, but good heavens, isn’t it beautiful?

Have a beautiful Monday.

Casting on

MRI day for my husband this afternoon. Every two months for the rest of his life. We arrive at the usual place, the place where he’s most comfortable, which is a drive from our house. We have one closer to us, but he doesn’t like it there. I don’t like it there either.

Anyway, we arrive on time and I begin to fill out the same paperwork I’ve been filling out for six years. And then we sit and wait. Some time goes by and then we’re told that it will be another hour, that they’re running behind.

Anger and apologies and he ends up walking out. I stay and find out that there are no Saturday appointments and this is our only option. I tell them we’ll return.

We get in the car and I take him for a drive, ending up 15 minutes away at the canal town near where we used to live. I think that maybe seeing the water will calm him down, so I park close to it, in front of a shop and turn off the car.

He says “You may as well go in.”

I realize I’m at the yarn shop, one of my favorite haunts in days gone by. I haven’t knit in years, but I get out of the car while he stays outside.

I walked around and then was greeted by the shop owner who said she hadn’t seen me in awhile. I used to knit scarves years ago, selling them in my friend’s shop. But then I began blogging and it really cut into my knitting time . . .

I bought some yarn and we headed back to the imaging center and as I waited for my husband, I began to cast on. But I couldn’t remember how. I sat there, with my eyes closed, and tried to do it by memory. Over and over, I tried.

Eventually, I ended up collecting my things, getting back into the car and driving back to the shop where I was taken to the knitting room in the back and reminded how to cast on. I also bought a book to brush up on my skills.

Knitting is so calming. I’ve missed it.

~ :: ~ ~ :: ~ ~ :: ~

Tonight I sat at the bottom of the back staircase and listened to my son play the piano in his bedroom. It was so beautiful, it nearly made me cry.

He’s gotten even better since I heard him last and I wished I could record it.

Tomorrow will be better. I just know it will.

Thanks for listening. I’m always glad you came by. You know who you are. Thanks just for being there.

Respectfully submitted,

Visitors to the garden

This weather is making me glad. It’s actually cool enough this evening to wear a light sweater. It goes without saying that after the summer we’ve had, this is bliss.

However, I’ve just said it. So it didn’t go without saying, after all.

Speaking of sayings, I’ve added some quotes to the photos I’ve posted below. I found them at the Quote Garden. And I found the insects in the garden over the weekend.

Warning: There may be a bug or two below, so if you’re squeamish I’m just warning you. There are no spiders or snakes, so don’t get your panties in a bunch.

With a butterfly kiss and a ladybug hug, sleep tight little one like a bug in a rug. ~Author Unknown

Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers. ~Robert Ingersoll

Nothing seems to please a fly so much as to be taken for a currant; and if it can be baked in a cake and palmed off on the unwary, it dies happy. ~Mark Twain

We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics. ~Bill Vaughan

And what's a buterfly? At best, He's but a ceterpillar, drest. ~John Grey

If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito. ~Betty Reese

Aerodynamically the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it, so it goes on flying anyway. ~Mary Kay Ash

If you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive. ~American Quaker Saying

Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar. ~Bradley Millar

Some primal termite knocked on wood; and tasted it, and found it good. That is why your Cousin May fell through the parlor floor today. ~Ogden Nash

Have a wonderful Friday, my friends. Hope you enjoyed the critters.

Respectfully submitted,

Enchantment in the garden

I hope you’re not getting tired of my morning glories. Please let me know if they’re driving you crazy. Although I’m sure most of you are too polite to say so, feel free to shout it out: “Kate, stop it with all the ding dang diddly morning glories!”

Of course, you know I’ll be extremely hurt. (Not really).

Today, I present to you . . .

. . . more morning glories.

They’re one of the most photogenic things in my yard at the moment.

I took these little beauties on Sunday morning, many of them in the process of unfurling.

Then later on, I took phots of them curling up, which I plan to post tomorrow.

Please try to contain your excitement. I just love these flowers, you know.

The Victorian-era Language of Flowers lists the meaning for morning glory as “love in vain”. Back in those days, one could convey their thoughts by sending a small bouquet of flowers called a tussie mussie which carried a coded meaning meant only for the recipient.

At the other end of the spectrum is the night-blooming moonflower which I plan to plant next year. Its meaning is “Joy, inspiration and hope”.

The petals will begin to fade just before they start to curl on the edges.

Sunday was beautiful here in Maryland and I wanted to get as much use out of the borrowed 105mm lens as I could.

We have four different colors of morning glories. These are the blue and white. We also have white, blue and purple, and blue.

Before I go, I just want to say that today was much better. I was surprised at how many of you had a bad day on Tuesday as well.

Tonight I’m watching another Netflix movie while my husband watches baseball. Enchanted April is playing and I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

As always, thanks for visiting for awhile with me here. Always a pleasure.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Point blank

I would love to tell you that I had a lovely day today. I really would.

But that would be a lie.

You gotta take the bad with the good, though, right? And hey, nobody got hurt.

That’s how I look at things.

I actually wanted a drink after I came home from work today. A drinkie drink would help me calm down, I reasoned. But I’ve got these rules that help govern me. I made them up myself and am the sole enforcer. Some may say I have issues, but I could care less what others think about my issues.

The rules I’ve set for myself include no drinking during the week. Well, unless it’s a special occasion. And just because it’s Tuesday and I’m feeling sorry for myself does not constitute a special occasion.

Hey, it works for me.

Photoshop works for me, too. Besides, I don’t like using alcohol as a crutch.

Can Photoshop be a crutch?

Hello there, little moth with the chocolate chip eyes.

You know what? You really are all that and a bag of chips.

~ :: ~

I returned the 105mm macro lens to its rightful owner today and I’m here to tell you how much I’m really going to miss it.

At first, I found it cumbersome and heavy. But in the end, I found that I loved the depth and the clarity of the photos I was taking with it. It’s more versatile than the 60mm. All of the photos in this post were taken with the Nikkor 105mm 2.8 macro lens and were all hand held captures.

I love feathers.

And George loves his daddy. Here he is half in his dad’s lap.

 

 

What George doesn’t love is an intruder.

He found this cat cruising around our property and chased it up the dogwood tree in the backyard. It was several hours before it ventured down again.

George and Miss Blackie were double teaming it.

But it is a pretty little thing. And very photogenic.

And I really do love this lens.

Hope your day was a good one. I’m prayin’ that tomorrow . . . everything will be alright.

A valley through the middle of my soul

I’d love to tell you that I had a wonderful trip to Amish country on this perfect day. But let’s just say that it wasn’t what I expected. As I mentioned yesterday, my husband had said he’d like to take a drive to Amish country on Labor Day, just to go somewhere and see some different scenery.

Unfortunately, I forgot to read his mind before we left. Because I do believe that what he really wanted to do was to merely drive through Amish country on the way to yet another hike that involved steep terrain. Of course, because I didn’t read his mind, I didn’t bring my hiking shoes (thank heavens) to which he promptly told me that I’m never prepared.

We were up and out by 7:30 though, and WXPN in Philadelphia was playing a Labor Day special of Bruce Springsteen songs from A-Z. So that was pretty cool.

We saw some beautiful scenery, like the photo above, but there was no stopping and all of these were taken through he car windows.

We saw Amish children hurrying to school.

The two boys in the photo above aren’t wearing shoes. And can you imagine letting your children run out of the house, shoeless, and setting off for school along a well-traveled road? Well, I guess I could if I were Amish.

I’m going to think about this when I sit behind the bus tomorrow as it stops every 50 feet to pick up children.

And if any of you out there know what’s in the field above, feel free to shout it out. (I already know; I’m just seeing if you do!)

The trip wasn’t a complete bust. I got to listen to some Bruce tunes that I haven’t heard in years. This one is one of my favorites.

Hope your week is a good one.