Rainy Fall

Tags

accident, Autumn, Autumn leaf color, B&W photographs, black and white photography, fall, Fall color, lawn mowing, nature, nature photographs, nature photography, rain

Just because those of us in Hillbilly-land are waiting with such anticipation to take pictures of the glorious Fall colors, the golden hues of Autumn have decided to be late this year.  All around us in this area everything is still green, with just a hint of Fall color here and there.

 After a little mishap I have been spending the last month or so getting back to normal.  Most of the physical damage was on my left side, but I have been careful and healed nicely.  There are only the residual problems that come with broken ribs, which take forever to heal, and I still can’t grip things with my left hand.  Handwriting anything is out, but I can finally type with both hands, so I’m mostly back in business.  Yay!

We have been getting lots and lots of rain here, with just the occasional sunny day.  What that adds up to is that the grass is still growing rampant, while mowing has to be a rush-job between rains during the short times the sun is out.

But, it’s nice to still have a green lawn, although City Boy would beg to differ with me — he is the one having to mow it.

Believe me, I have offered to mow it many, many times, but he has never quite trusted that I can do it correctly.  Now that I actually have not been capable of doing it at all for the last month, it has truly become his and only his chore.

He has been wondering how I can stumble around holding a camera and taking pictures, when things like cooking dinner or doing dishes has been a hardship for me.  Amazing how that works, don’t you think?

Well, for one thing, the shutter button is on the right side of my camera, and it’s the left hand I have the problem with.  And cooking and doing dishes involves getting food and water on a person’s hands, which I have not been able to do with my left hand, so that’s the way it goes.  Now that I can at least do these things again, City Boy is really looking forward to me cooking chili tonight and making banana bread for him.  It’s the least I can do for his first day of handing the reigns (mostly) back over to me.

Actually, City Boy has been a good boy and I have really appreciated his help and understanding while all this has been going on.  I married a wonderful guy, and not because I’m a good guy-picker, but because I got lucky that he came along when I was doing the picking.  Amazing how that works, don’t you think?

And, actually, he picked me, but we’ll just keep that between us, winky-wink.

So, Fall has come in around here with a whimper.  But, the weather people say that the colors are just a few weeks later than usual because of the unusually warm Fall we’ve had so far.  Well, that makes sense I guess.

Until some photo-worthy color comes in, I’ll post pictures I took just before the monsoon started.  After all, even with all of my limitations of late, I never became unable to manage taking pictures.  Amazing how that works, don’t you think?

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Bugs and Slugs of Fall

Tags

Autumn, bugs, fall, grasshopper, insect photographs, insects, nature photographs, nature photography, Pest (organism), spider, spider web

Today was a good day to wander around taking pictures, and the insect population was teeming, so I took advantage.

This little critter crawled right up to me on a rock at my feet where I was sitting.

We used to call these “stink bugs,” I think, but I had no idea he was in the picture until I processed it.

Reminds me of what it looked like when our kids would slosh red kool-aid on our light colored carpet.

I think this poor little sow bug (we used to call them “roly-polies”) was about dead — he was barely moving.

During all this bug photographing, Lucy just HAD to be let in the house, so I let her in.  When I finally finished taking pictures, I went inside also.  The weather was so wonderful it was hard to go in!

Walking through the living room I noticed a dead leaf on the carpet from one of the plants on the mantle, so I snatched it up to throw it away.  Just as quickly, I yelled and gave the cold, slimy thing a toss in the air, and it landed on the front of the fireplace.  It was definitely not a leaf, nor was it dead.

I stopped to take pictures, only because I was in no hurry to pick the thing back up, and then I scooped it onto a paper and took it outside in the back yard.  Hey, I don’t have anything planted out there it could destroy, so what the heck.

I know, the usual thing people in Hillbilly land do is dump salt on them and watch them die in agony, but I wasn’t up for that today.

I figure the nasty thing probably rode in there on Lucy and dropped off onto the carpet.  I have the best luck with that kind of thing (eye roll).

Hope you all are having a wonderful start to your Fall, and that your weather is gorgeous!  Take care and enjoy your bugs!

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From the Wabi Sabi Ranch

Tags

Breezes At Dawn, Life In the Bogs, Maryland, nature, nature photographs, nature photography, photograph, Photography, photography blog, Robin Simmons

Up to now, this blog has been leaning more and more toward my growing interest in amateur photography, although it didn’t start out that way.  My original intention when I started this blog was to highlight the down-home Ozarks lifestyle.  And my photographs, however inexperienced and crude, do highlight that.

As I learn photography and become somewhat better at it (I still have LOTS to learn), I want to also highlight some of the bloggers who are really talented at their photography and for whom it is a passion.  I have learned a great deal and a multitude of skills from these bloggers.

The photographs in this post are taken by Robin, whose blog is Breezes At Dawn.  Robin recently moved to her home on the Eastern shore of Maryland with her husband, who she calls M, and lives on some acreage with a lake and a dock, plenty of flowers and foliage and a multitude of animals and insects.

Robin refers to her home as the Wabi Sabi Ranch, and it is fertile ground for many photographic opportunities, which she takes full advantage of.  Robin has a good eye for picking out things that will make a picture beautiful, stunning, interesting, and/or just plain neat.

Robin is about to enter her first Fall and Winter seasons there at Wabi Sabi ranch, so it will be so interesting to see the photographs in her future blog posts during these upcoming seasons.

Last Fall and Winter Robin was at her former home she calls Breezy Acres.  For those of you who would like look at Robin’s stunning pictures from there, her other blog is Life In the Bogs.

Robin also has a tutorial or two included in Life In the Bogs and Breezes At Dawn, which help us have a clue to a few of the ways she gets the fantastic results she does with her photographs.

A place to purchase some of Robin’s wonderful work can be found on her page at Redbubble Portfolio.  These photographs would look wonderful adorning any home.

For now, Robin has given me permission to feature some of her work from her blog, so sit back, admire, and enjoy!

Check out Robin at Breezes At Dawn for your daily dose of inspiration, fun and loveliness.  I’ll end this post to you wonderful bloggers with her own sign-off:

“Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just be.” — Robin

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In the Prayer Garden

Tags

end of summer, flowers, Garden, In the Garden, nature photographs, nature photography, Plant, prayer garden, Summer

It is the end of the summer, and the Prayer Garden is getting jungle-like, purposely a little overgrown.  It is wonderful how well-planned this place is — there is always something beautiful to be seen here, no matter what the season.  

I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses

And the voice I hear, falling on my ear

The Son of God discloses

And He walks with me

And He talks with me

And He tells me I am His own

And the joy we share as we tarry there

None other has ever known.

“In the Garden” — lyrics by  C. Austin Miles (1868 – 1946)

Be blessed!

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Our Marks In History

Tags

Battle of Wilson's Creek, Creek, Nathaniel Lyon, nature, nature photography, rabbit, Southwest Missouri, Wilson's Creek National Battlefield

One sure thing in life is that we will all one day have to leave this earth.  My father recently announced it for the first time to my daughter.  He believes that his time will come before this Christmas.

Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield

Mom said she hadn’t heard his doctor say that Dad is due to be pushing up daisies any time soon, but maybe being almost 90 has Dad thinking about things.  He’s outlived all of his siblings and most of their spouses, and has even outlived two of his children.

Today Mom just told me that she thinks she is really slipping, big-time — she has said this before, but this time she mentioned going through spells of severe depression.  She said she wanted to ask her doctor about it.  That would be Doctor Indifferent, as I call him.

Woodland path at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield

Many times I have tried to tell Mom that some forgetfulness at her age is to be expected, and not to be so hard on herself.  But when she started having spells of passing out for no reason, that was a different story.  It happened several times when she was driving — she felt it coming on and was able to pull over in time.

So, despite my begging Mom and Dad to get a doctor who will actually DO something for them, they continue to tell their ailments to Doctor Indifferent so he can nod, say nothing, and then tell them to make an appointment for three months from then.

Wilson’s Creek

Lately I’ve been praying and trying to stay positive about the direction things are going with my parents.  I have such a long history with them, and I always figured they’d live forever.

The pictures have been from when my son Joel and I visited the site of the battle of Wilson’s Creek.  This history goes a lot further back than Dad and Mom, but doesn’t effect me the same way.  It is the battle where Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon lost his life, and the park itself is total wilderness.

Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield  

There is quite a bit of hiking involved to see everything, and the site has been allowed to be much like it was when the battle took place.  They do keep some paths mowed, and it’s a good idea to stay on them.  We were rattled-at by several rattlesnakes along the way.

Most of the site, which is huge, is grown-over and very natural.  Back when the battle took place the land was sparsely populated with homesteaders.  When the soldiers marched in, the few houses were taken over by armies from both sides.

It’s an extremely interesting story for another post — I just wanted to show off a bit of the scenery we took in while touring this historical place.

We also met a little friend on one of the paths — he didn’t even run away when we walked up.  We were afraid he was going to crawl into our laps!

Joel tried to imagine being a soldier, marching through this wilderness with a gun, backpack, and wearing a heavy wool uniform in 95 degree heat.  It was easy to imagine, since it happened to be 95 degrees the day we hiked the place.

It’s beautiful country — it is very easy to see why the people who settled there loved it.

Wilson’s Creek

Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield

Beautiful things are all around, all the time — sometimes they are hard to see unless we look.  Have a great start to your weekend full of blessings and beautiful things!

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Little Visitors

Tags

Evening sky, geese, goose, nature photography, outdoors, Photography, rabbit, Sunset, wildlife

Some things just never cease to amaze me.  I guess some things shouldn’t amaze me, but then I don’t mind that some people have considered me to be naive, half-witted, or not-in-the-know about things that still bring about a little wonder in me.

At a doctor’s visit a few days ago on an overcast day, a flock of geese landed in the grass beside the parking lot just as we were walking out to our truck.  This in itself is not that amazing so much as the way they kept moving closer to the vehicles and didn’t seem to mind us as we approached them.  

Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t just dumbly walk right up to them calling “Here, goosey goosey goosey.”  But they ended up right in front of the truck, and to get to the truck we had to walk right up to them.

They didn’t hiss at us or anything, and they even posed for a few pictures.

Once we were home, we had another visiter waiting for us in our yard.

This little rabbit is much smaller than our rabbit friend that I have posted about before, but this one also didn’t mind me taking his picture.  I just stooped down underneath a tree and snapped away.

What amazed me about this day, and a lot of other days, was that I don’t live way out in the country, or even on the fringes of town.  I live right in a populated town, and yet we see wildlife like this every day, the bulk of which I see but don’t manage to get a picture of.

I lived in the middle of the woods for years, and I didn’t see wildlife this often.

One final thing on this day that never ceases to amaze me and never will:

I can never get enough of a beautiful evening sky!

Have an amazing, wonderful day!

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Cleansing Rain

Tags

Grass, ladybug, Lawn, macro photography, nature photography, rain, rain drops, spiderweb, Storm

The fresh look and smell of the world after a rainstorm makes it seem like it has been cleaned up just for us.  Living creatures of all kinds come right back out to play as soon as the rain stops.

A few clinging spider silks…

…or mazes of webbing masterpieces that have been freshly washed present a clean house for Mrs. Spider.

Lately we here in the Land of Ozarkia have been getting a lot of storms, but many of them are just hard rains.  Everything is green and growing.  When City Boy mowed half the lawn one day and then the other half a day later, the first half was already twice as tall as the newly-mown part.  

“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.”  Roger Miller

It’s hard to complain when things are thriving and growing and beautiful from the nourishment of the rain.

Tiny bloom full of rainwater.

May your rainy days end up bringing beautiful things to you!

“Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.”  John Updike

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Morning Collection

Tags

butterfly, insect, nature, nature photography, Photography

Dawn To Dusk

Tags

Beginning photography, Dog, flowers, miniature schnauzer, moon, nature photographs, nature photography, rabbit, Summer, Sun, Sunrise, Sunset, Supermoon

Mr. Sun got caught in the power lines when he rose early yesterday morning, so I helped him get loose — he thanked me by shining all day.

Our corner of the world was happy to see Mr. Sun, including the flowers.

Mr. Rabbit was so happy to see Mr. Sun that he allowed me closer than I’d ever been to get a picture of him.

But Miss Ladybug was scurrying around in too big a hurry to stop and let me get a clear picture of her.  “We’re wasting daylight!” she exclaimed.

So Lucy and I sat out in the sunshine and lazed around for awhile — well, Lucy chased birds and got into things.

So then City Boy took Lucy to be washed, clipped and groomed.

 

We stayed in the house for a while and I worked on some projects while Lucy rested from her grooming ordeal.  Then City Boy and I ran some errands.  When we got back it was evening and the sun was setting.

Looking up in the sky from our front yard we saw Mr. Moon shining brightly, while blue and pink clouds danced around him.

Mr. Moon wasn’t full, but he still made a good showing.

Looking up at the sky from the back yard found some pink clouds that had decided to call it a day and head home.  

City Boy, Lucy and I decided to call it a day too.  

I thought maybe I would try to get a picture of the Supermoon my friend Cindy reminded me about.  That’s going to be tonight — how exiting!

Have an exciting night and a week full of sunshiny days!

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Another Saga of Yard Wildlife

Tags

Bird, city wildlife, nature photographs, nature photography, rabbit, rabbit photographs, Robin

“The other day when I was walking through the woods, I saw a rabbit standing in front of a candle making shadows of people on a tree.”   Stephen Wright 

The other evening, just before the sun was about to sink below the point where it can be seen, City Boy caught sight of a rabbit sitting in our front yard.  Knowing the little creature would disappear the second he heard the front door open, I was tempted to try taking a picture of him through the window pane.  But, I hate the bluish cast that tends to add to the pictures, so I decided to take a chance on sneaking out and maybe catching one decent shot before the rabbit hurried off.

Lo and behold, I opened the squeaky front door and stepped around the corner, and there Mr. Rabbit was.  I kept creeping closer, unbelievably, until I was only several feet away from him.  He didn’t move, and I got a couple of slightly decent shots of him.

Next thing I knew, Mr. Rabbit got up, and showed me what he thought of me being so close!

Although he looks like he is in attack mode, this rabbit’s reaction to my presence was to give a lazy stretch.  The picture isn’t as clear as I would like it to be, but I did manage to catch him in mid-yawn!

It was hard to decide if I should be happy or insulted that a little wild bunny rabbit found ME to be absolutely no threat at all, to the point that he started grooming himself in front of me.

Then he turned around and nestled down with his back to me.

Maybe I’m interpreting things wrong, but I kind of took that as an “up yours” kind of attitude.  I moved around to the other other side of him, and hurried to try and get a picture of him before he fell asleep.

Maybe I should mention here that there were cars going up and down the street, kids playing basketball directly across the street, where there was also a little dog barking its head off at Mr. Rabbit, and none of this seemed to phase him.  Finally one of our curious resident robins landed and started hopping towards him to get a better look.

“Can’t you make HIM leave so I can get to the bread crumbs you threw out in the grass for me?”

Finally, when I took a few steps closer to get a really clear shot, Mr. Rabbit decided I was close enough and got up, ready to go.

He turned around and I got one parting shot of him before I went inside.  

Later on, while it was still light enough to see, I looked out the window and there Mr. Rabbit still sat.  Maybe Mr. Rabbit is nocturnal.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and stay safe!

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