270- Zinnias in Bokeh

This spring I went down to help my De-Lor-ee-us plant some of her garden. She has lovely raised beds that had become root bound. I helped her dig, garden fork and remove all those old root and then plant her turnips (ick!), tomatoes, melons and other various plants. We had a lovely time.

When I got home I thought, "Hey, I've got lots of old flower seeds I've been saving! Why don't I plant mine?" So since I was already dirty, and tired, I went to it... about 3 nights later I woke up in the middle of the night and remembered that about a month before all this planting I had dutifully Preen-ed (a pre-emergent weed deterrent) all of my flower beds! GREAT COOGALEE-MOOGALEE! All that work with my 10 year old seeds gone to waste!

The only little plant hardy enough to overcome the Preen were these lovely Zinnias, one of my favorite, happy flowers and some California Poppies. I've been so pleased to see these spotty zinnias! I'd never seen spotty-polka-dottie ones before. You can bet that this year I will NOT be Preen-ing that flower bed as zinnias reseed themselves.



And what could make these beautiful fall-day flowers even more beautiful? My nifty-fifty (50mm lens) and a rich bokeh background.

134- Promise of...

This is one of my happiest times of year. I go to the nursery and pick out my bedding plants. I'm always overcome the the promise that each plant holds.

I can see bushels of tomatoes, borders of fragrant petunias and bright, happy Gerbera daisies faces in my deck planters.



Can I also just rave here on how much I love my 50mm lens? You notice the center tomato plant is in focus and everything else fades to that wonderful soft bokeh. I LOVE that look!

130- Green Thumb

I would never describe myself as someone who has a green thumb... but look here! Apparently I do!



I think having a green thumb is something you learn to have. It is also greatly influenced by the climate you live in... and let me tell you, it's a lot harder to have a green thumb in Palmdale, CA than in Springville, UT (but frankly the place where my green thumb was most prolific was in Baker City, OR!)

I'm so blessed to have this very productive little quarter-acre of heaven! I have fruit trees, berry bushes, grapevines, beautiful bulbs, faithful perennials and lots of good sunshine and water. I heard recently that the gardener only does 5% of the work! Nature does the other 95%! Amazing!

I gave My Favorite Lilac a somewhat vigorous trimming last year when I enlarged the flower bed and it has responded with just as vigorous regrowth. It threatens to take over the bed, and perhaps that is not all bad.

076- Shamrocks

I took this photo 2 weeks ago when I was at niece-Cindy's Rosehaven Cottage and saved it special for today. Doesn't this just embody Saint Patrick's Day. I just love the color green and this one is just so *lickably* good!

I'm grateful for my Scotch/Irish ancestors who've passed their love of our Savior Jesus Christ down through the generations.



A friend shared this on Facebook today so I've cut and pasted it here. I like this idea better than what we normally associate with St Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick spread God's word in Ireland. He used the Shamrock to explain the trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Today was not made a holiday to celebrate Irish culture or drink beer. It was made a holiday to celebrate the life of someone who spent his life sharing the gift of God's love and eternal hope. Thus giving them not just one day of happiness but showing them the way to true happiness for eternity. Let's celebrate that!

028- Remember...

that the mighty oak was once a nut like you!

019- Weather Vane

Just across Canyon Rd is a very sweet gazebo and this cool motor bike weather vane. It's stand is slightly bent and it has that wonderful overall rusted look. It called to me today while I was out for my walk in the sunshine.


FRAME- RhonnaFarrer_2ps_BlackFrame FONT- Albemarle Swash, ACTION- DPMoms Perfect Workflow, (A2D)_Lomo V_2, OVERLAY-Sun Shower (left)

015- Lacy Ice

It's been a couple of weeks since our last snow fall but we still have piles of snow all over. The weak winter sun has caused some melting leaving all of these interesting pieces of ice lace. I walked around trying to get some good shots. Do you know how hard it is to get good definition with white on white?

008- SAD Experiment

My title and photo have an interesting relationship: winter brings icicles and SAD.



SAD has been around for ages but just got it's fancy new name recently. Previously it was known as "cabin fever", the blues, the doldrums, etc. And over the years I've been *affected* (yes, I know effected) by SAD.

This year I am being pro-active in my fight against Seasonal Affective Disorder. I know that sunshine is a wonderful antidote for SAD. I am blessed that we are mostly above the *inversion layer* that impacts Salt Lake and Utah Valleys.

I blogged about basking back on New Year's Eve. Wow... how wonderful is it to bask? Just ask you four-legged friends. You can just feel that sun warming you to the bone!

That first day of basking I'd been working outside and could tolerate the cold for a while. Since then I've found a better place than out on the deck in the 20* weather! I just watched Harley; he's the man! On the foot of our bed between 9:30 and 11:30 AM I have the perfect basking place! I open the curtains, pull up the the blinds and bask away! I'll keep you posted on my treatment program.

P. S. If you don't have natural light you can get full-spectrum light bulbs that may help. My sweet niece swears by them.

004- Pink Bokeh Sky

I've been working here in my *playroom* paying bills when I noticed that the light outside was so marvelously pink that I could hardly stand it! I even had pink snow! (sounds like a Dr. Seuss book!) I absolutely love it when I have this wonderful light-changing experience at sunset; sometimes it is pink, other times golden, and occasionally purple.

Ah... there just aren't words to describe how that affects my soul!



I know how fleeting this light is so I snatched up my camera and ran to the front porch in my stocking feet (it's 27* F out there, brrrrr!) It wasn't until I came in all looked at my photos that I realized I had on my nifty 50mm lens! What a serendipitous situation! I love the soft bokeh effect (softly blurred)!

328- Frozen Thistle

Yesterday on my explore out to Miss Lewis' class I had my camera at the ready to take photos of all the interesting things I KNEW I would see. I wasn't disappointed! There are just so many wonderful things to see and capture on film on that trek across the valley to the far side of the lake. I will be sharing those with you over the next few days.

We had a light but blowing snow on Sunday night and although much of it had melted, the north face of this tenacious thistle was still ice encrusted. I love how you can see the bubbles in the ice! I got this with my 50mm lens! This is untouched except a slight unsharpen mask (which never makes sense to me since an unsharpen mask sharpens things!!)



Growing up I always liked the look of a thistle in full bloom... (but I couldn't like it when I stepped on them in our lawn! This is where you laugh like a manic, P!) Where I lived we had purple and pink. Since leaving Greenville I've only seen purple until...



Camille and I hiked the Y last spring! I was so happy to see that there are pink thistles here too.

316- So Confused

I've told you that we've been having lovely weather... here is the proof! Not even my poor lilac can determine what season it is! I think it is too funny.



But it need not be confused much longer... THE STORM is moving in.

303- October Sunset

Earlier this evening I was sitting here in my *playroom* and saw that wonderful pink light!!! I grabbed my camera and was out the front door in a flash. I stood on the front porch and walk for about 10 minutes as I watched (and snapped) the sky brighten and then fade. What a beautiful sight! I never get tired of sunset shots. Here are a couple to share...

Japanese Maple with bokeh sunset background

October sunset

236- Sunflower

This is an image that I had fun with adding filters and blending modes. I just love these wild sunflowers that grow wild on all the ditch banks, roadsides and fields. This on is in Grannie Annie's back garden.

214- Rosebud

About four weeks ago my large rose bush had finished blooming. It has a tendency to take over the whole front yard (well, I suppose that is just a little exaggerated!) I've never seen a rosebush get this tall and crazy... I've seen it grow 10' tall before I cut it back (with wicked pokey thorns!).

But it seems that it appreciated the cutting; it has sent out a second, even more copious, set of blooms. There have got to be several DOZEN on the bush. Wow... who knew?

This is one of those serendipitous photos that is perfect SOOC (straight out of camera)! With all that time saved on editing I had fun creating an August frame.


JOURNALING PATH- JSprague_4-squareTemplate BRUSHES- RhonnaFarrer_2ps_SnapShotFrameKit, FONT- Felix Titling

205- Gerbera Watercolor

Today in little spare moments between bathing and clipping Harley, laundry, changing sheets and cleaning I managed to find time to play with this Gerbera daisy photo that I took a couple of days ago. I captured it in the late evening and it has that wonderful bokeh background that I just love.

First I ran a new action (Orton Effect) that I got over at CoffeeShop (she has some lovely actions that are very useful), then I played with some filters (watercolor and stylized-find edges). You should have seen me. At one point I'd run 4 different actions on this photo trying to decide which ones I like the best. Then I just needed to make a different frame for my new creation so I dug into my digital files and pulled out these fun snap frames by Rhonna Farrar ( you can find her things here and here. But I couldn't find these particular frames) Wow, are there ever a lot of really talented people out there! I just love to play with all this digital goodness!


FONTS- Problem Secretary, CK Cursive, BRUSH- KPertiet_LedgerFrames, FRAME- RhonnaFarrer_2ps_SnapShot_Frames, ACTIONS- CoffeeShop Orton

124- Dandelion Wishes

Remember when you were a child and used to pick the puffy dandelion heads, make a wish and then blow? Do you ever wish for those days again... when life wasn't so complicated? or hard? Yeah, me too...

Yesterday one of our little 12-year-old deacons got up to bear his testimony in church. He said, "Yes, I've had an interesting life. I've had lots of trials. People keep leaving (sister married, brother just left on mission) and people keep coming (he is one of 12 children)". Then he said something that was wise beyond his years. "When you have trials (sweet boy, doesn't know about real trial yet) you either learn how to help yourself or you learn how to help others."

Wish it was that easy!



FONTS- Problem Secretary, CK Cursive, BRUSH- KPertiet_LedgerFrames, kimi inked edge, jb's red moss texture

117- Gerbera Daisies

I'm not sure if it is the bright electric colors, their happy faces or [and I just learned this] that they are perennials but I just LOVE Gerbera daisies. Although they come in yellow, orange, white, pink or red colors these two are my favorites; with yellow being a close second.



I got these at my favorite WalMart on Friday and [wisely] kept them inside to enjoy. I wish I'd done the same thing with my tomato plants which I left outside, it's been warm right? Yeah, 'til it snowed on Saturday. Gordon rescued them for me but they are looking a little cold shocked...

090- A [dandy]LION sort of day...

Remember way back on March 1st when I declared it a LAMB day? Boy howdy, have we every had the mood-swings of March this month! We've had lovely spring days which encouraged my apricot tree to bloom and heavy snow days which battered those same little blossoms (which fortunately seem to still be hanging on! I'm hoping for more apricot-y goodness this summer.)

So today, being March 31st, I thought I'd try to determine what sort of day this is. I've decided that it is a [dandy] Lion sort of day! We have an overcast sky, melting snow, high of 50, some breezes and a few hardy little plants that are showing their happy faces in spite of the mood-swing weather! (And you know what? But the time I get to this point in Utah winters I pretty much mood-swing right along with the weather.)



I took a little walkie around my backyard and found other signs of imminent spring. My old-fashioned lacey lilacs are in bud... I can hardly wait!



These hardy little violets pop up in the grass all spring and summer. I just love them. It wasn't until I uploaded the photos that I realized that I also have a photo of a swine-ant (close relative of the swine-deer) climbing on one of the stems (I just can't like ants!)