Photographic Treasures

Sometimes, very rarely, I have a superior photographic moment.  I know I have a good artistic eye...but the mechanics of the photography itself is such a mystery to me.  Oh well, I like surprises! :-)  Here are a couple of treasures from the past (and photographic semi-successes) for Tom's Tuesday Treasures and Mersad's Through My Lens, and a little later this week for Eileen's Saturday's Critters. (The fact that a lot of these are ORANGE was just a coincidence! :-) )

This is not cropped...I actually managed to get in that close!

A squirrel at the Tucson zoo.

The first year we were here I actually grew this one large pumpkin!

Tucson architecture

Hopefully you have many more successes under your belt than I do!  I love taking photos and these are a few from our first year here in Tucson.  Soon we will be sharing photos from a new home...Oregon. 

For Friday

OK....a lot going on around here, for a change. :-)  Joining in with Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday Five and Amy's Five on Friday. 

1.  Starting with a photo I took with my phone.  "I won't take the camera this time" I said as I left for my very last meeting at Quilt Guild.  I always take my camera.  Of course, two rabbits crossed the road in front of me, then I saw two quail with two baby chicks.  Grrrr. :-)  I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to get those shots anyway, they happened so fast, and though I was in neighborhoods and driving slowly, I WAS driving! I got to Paulette's house (I always pick her up to go to Quilt Guild) and her neighbor's mescal plant was blooming gloriously!  So, out came my phone....:-)

2.  I am six months away from starting my retirement, so I made an appointment at the Social Security office.  Needed a marriage certificate copy so sent off for it, and FORGOT to include the check!  DUH!!!!  The delay in getting that straight is bringing me up to the wire on the appt....Will I have to reschedule at the last minute!?  AGH!  I thought I was being so EFFICIENT making the appointment six months in advance, too. 

3.  Need extra money for the upcoming move, and noticed a photo contest in Birds & Blooms magazine!  Hmmm...do I have any shots that might win?  The prize is $1,000.  Well, I'm going for it!  Wish me luck! :-)http://www.birdsandblooms.com/

4.  Speaking of the move.... Our friend just moved from Utah to North Carolina and had the "move from hell."  Not encouraging to us, of course, hearing her terrible stories!  She had planned so perfectly, and thought it was all going to be smooth as silk.  But, life is forever throwing us curve balls!  OK, we will need LOTS of prayer for smooth sailing when we head out, that's for sure! We don't need any unpleasant surprises! :-)  Hopefully soon I will have some photos to share.  Yay!!!!! 

5.  This has been a weird monsoon start this year.  Early we had a couple of storms followed by a few more, with lots of flooded washes and some people's cars getting washed away (pretty normal) then for the last two weeks it has been dry as a bone!  Not a drop of rain, and 102-104 degrees every day with unrelenting sun.  At least no humidity for this period, but we usually don't go this long during the summer without rain!  Most people don't realize how much it rains here in the summer.  We have some early spring rains, and then during the summer are the monsoons.  The rest of the months are dry. June is always dry and unbearably hot, but then by July the humidity comes along with high winds and dangerously flashing lightning storms, and deluges of rain many times a week.  But the last two weeks...nada.  Also, where we are moving is to the "high desert" area of Oregon.  It doesn't get the rains the coast gets.  That area is  protected by a range of mountains.   I LIKE rain, but not every day, and I am terrified of lightning, because my grandfather was killed by it, so where we are moving appeals to me immensely!  ....Adding this this morning:  last night around 7 pm I heard some squealing on our usually quiet street and looked outside and some teens were having a water balloon fight! :-)  Good way to cool off!

Hope you have a wonderful week!  And again, when there are brief periods of silence from me, it's just because we are packing and it's sometimes hard to get online.  Life should get back to normal after the move!

From My Archives

I loaded some more of my pictures from the past onto the computer this past week, so I thought I would share an archives bird shot for Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday...and later this week for Anni's Bird d'Pot.

I believe this is a green heron...at Reid Park.

A black crowned night heron at Reid Park.  They let you walk right up to them!

Various ducks and (I assume) an egret at the park.  I'm not that great identifying shore birds!
 

It's Friday Again!

For Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday Five, and Amy's Five on Friday, here are mine....

1.  No Dr. appointments for two whole weeks for either of us, and with the blistering heat that has now given way on some days to just high heat and monsoon storms (high humidity) we are staying inside for the most part.  In the wake of my husband's heart incident, he is doing about the same as he was before it happened, and that isn't all that great, but we are so grateful the stent is good and he is free of danger there.  I'm just so thankful!  I am fighting issues of my own, but trying to pack some every day.  Still we are in pretty good spirits.

2.  Last night's news about Dallas was very upsetting however.  Praying for families of the victims, and praying for our Country!

3.  One of the Cooper's Hawks has been back a couple of times to sit on the fence and scope out our yard...this is how it started last year, with a skittish mama coming by to check things out, and then later being joined by her two juveniles, so she could teach them things here in my yard.  Oh what a blessing that was!  It lasted over a month and I got tons of photos!  They became very used to seeing me in the doorway snapping away, and then I started going out onto the porch.  It was glorious!  I hope it happens again...Here's a couple of videos I took last year:

4.  We've been watching a lot of Destination Unknown with Josh Gates lately.  Our love of history and of unexplained past mysteries drew us to the program, and now we are pretty sure the reason we love it so much is because we wish we had a couple of million dollars and could become our 30-year-old selves again, and just travel all over the world seeing all these wonderful things!  We are having to be satisfied with the show (and things like National Geographic channel) and books to satisfy this longing.  Alas, when you get our age you start wishing you could do it all over again, except much better! :-)

Josh being precariously rigged up to descend into one of the underground caves filled with rainwater in the Mayan jungle. [Photo from the internet]

5.  Check out my book review on Springtime in Magnolia, our book club site of End of the Spear!  Incredible book!

Independence Day

Each day for the last week on facebook I have been posting daily Founding Fathers quotes regarding the basis for Christianity in our fledgling nation, and the original intent of the Constitution, in their own words.  As we celebrate another Independence Day, let us remember to approach this day (especially now in light of so many tenuous threads holding on to our Sovereignty and apparently even to common decency in this country) prayerfully, asking God to bring us back to the Nation we once were! 

George Washington, October 3, 1789: " Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor....Now, therefore I do recommend....that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the ...favorable interpositions for His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been able to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particular the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed...."

Hope you all have a blessed, and safe Fourth of July...those of us in the U.S.!