An Awesome View of Life

Multi-tasking... This mushroom was growing out of a knothole in the side of a tree.  Seems to be a busy year for mushrooms.  Love the details of the mushroom.  And I always love moss.

At Sunset. Just a quick walk around the lake at sunset tonight.  What I like about this photo is the tiny bit that is actually in focus.  It is exactly what I wanted.  The golden sunlight on the golden grass is perfect.

Hidden in Green Morning glories tucked under green vines and leaves, splashed with a bit of sunshine. 

lavender haze What a wonderful, warm September day!  Went walking with my oldest daughter today.  It's been dry so things are a bit brown around here.  We are still a week or two away from peak fall colors but I did spot this bit of lavender color in the browning prairie. 

Beauty is in the eye... With too many people obsessing about the horrible events in the past day or so I am choosing to see the beauty in our country.  I'm not sticking my head in the sand but I am so very tired of all the horrible news that is being shared on Facebook.   Life is hard enough without creating fear and apprehension in our lives because of something that happened across the country.  Something the media has put some "terrorist" twist on. Yes, these events are worrisome but I can't live my life being held hostage to someone else's fears.  Or someone else's spin on world events. My plan is to continue this blog to show there is beauty (and a bit of humor) in every thing - we just need to see it.  Because it IS there.  By the way, this is a mushroom that baked in the sun. It still has a unique beauty to it. 

Sprinkled Details The sprinklers were on in the front yard as the sun was setting tonight.  What drew me out there was the flash of rainbow colors as the spray of water went through a narrow patch of sunlight.  But when I looked around there were so many things to capture. The detail that drew me to this particular scene was the red reflection on the cement.  My daughter's car is the reflection.  The dripping branch, the yellow leaves, the fine little cobweb and the spray from the sprinkler are the finer details of the photo.  Another photo that makes me smile.  And that is always good.

Oh so pretty.

Heaven above. My favorite color of fall.  My favorite color in life.  The color of my aura.  This color makes me happy.

Sunshine Yellow These were found on my walk with my daughter Mandi today.  There was lots of reds, a bit of oranges but very little yellows.  These are survivors of our cooler evenings we've had lately. Today is an awesome, wonderful, blessed day.  (:

Red light. Lame I know but I was so excited about finding out I have an ancestor that was banished from Manhattan Island in 1664 for running a disorderly tavern I forgot to take photos today.  Sorry excuse I know but I find this news extremely exciting!  ha!  The woman has quite the jaded history.

Aftermath We had a fabulous thunderstorm come through this evening.  Lots of wind and rain.  A bit of thunder and lightning.  And beautiful blue skies very quickly afterwards. This leaf was on my windshield.  I LOVE this photo.  I love the details of the rain drops, the water under the leaf, the tiny holes in the leaf and the puffs of clouds in the wonderfully BLUE sky.  Like I said I LOVE this photo.  My hubby just shook his head at me which makes me love it more.  ha!  

One from the past. This photo was taken last year on this date.  I seriously need to feel better and get out of here to take some photos.  I am amazed that we do NOT have this much leaf color yet this year.  It is a pretty picture though.

Reflective Creek This is a photo taken earlier this month.  Unfortunately, I am STILL a bit under the weather.  Tomorrow will be a better day.   So a funny about myself and the word creek.  I read it as "creak" but when I speak it without reading it I say "crick".  Not sure why but... Is it a Minnesota thing?  Or a South Dakota thing?  Or just my thing? (:

Simplicity. Today's news has just been filled with ugliness.  Normally I refuse to watch the news.  But today I needed to know why things were happening the way they were.  And there just isn't a satisfactory answer.  Just too much greed.  Even more cynicism.  So many people who have no faith in or compassion for their fellow human beings. Ugh!  So my goal is to brighten my own world with the hope it brightens someone else's.  Hoping some people's anger lessens and they can see a less ugly world.  I can't imagine having such a negative view of life.  We get out of life what we think we will.  Smile and make the most of what is there.

Empty shell. With the sun much lower in the sky now our patio gets very little sun until late in the day and then only patches of sun.  This ground level shot focused in front of the sun patch but captured an empty shell on a maple tree seed. The chipmunks and squirrels will have plenty to store away for winter.  That is if the squirrels quit messing with the bird feeders.  Personally, this is one of my favorite viewpoints.  My daughter Mandi's  blog post   is quite cool.  It has a bit of a different point of view.  And yes this photo once again has green in it.  I promise to find some other color to shoot soon. (:

Pretty in Pink This is one of my favorite things in fall.  Our yard is always buzzing because of all of the bees in the sedem. 

Layered. Layers of a similar shape.  All ovals of sorts.  All different colors.  The silver chain on the black wrought iron chair with the "helicopters" for a background. We have a huge maple tree that shades our patio so currently our patio is covered in "helicopters".

Point of view. Just a different view.  Love the little pebbles, tufts of grass and the moss.  The out of focus "big" background is pretty cool as well.

Footprints. A day of errands, lunch and a quick photo adventure.  All in all a great day.  This was taken along the banks of the Mississippi.  Maybe these footprints belong to the crane we saw downstream?

No need to ask Alice... at least I don't think so.  Because of the amount of snow we got this last winter our yard had several spots of mold in the spring.  Now this fall we have mushrooms growing in what were the moldy spots.  Aren't these just beautiful?

Poor little guy... This little thing fell into one of our window wells.  He's been in there for quite a few days.  Finally, tonight I climbed in and rescued him.  I'm afraid he was in there too long. He's pretty cute though, isn't he?  (:

In love with... This particular wall has been photographed by this photographer twice before.  I love this wall.  I love these doors.  I love these colors. I love this building. I guess you could say I love this photo.  Just one thing - I wish the light post was centered between the other two doors.  It would make the light post a bit more interesting. (:

Construction Sunset A mix of old and new in the St. Anthony Main area of Minneapolis.  The sunset reflecting off the glass windows and the shadows of the evening make this seem like you could just walk right into the photo.

Color. Fast. This pinwheel has been on a shelf in the garage for about a year.  I just couldn't figure out where to put it.  Today I took it out and stuck it in an old watering can and it was perfect.   This was another lesson in the manual settings on my camera.  I love how this turned out.  You can see leaves, branches and grass in between the blades.  I  just like everything about this one.  The best part of my photos today was when they downloaded to my computer the screen was filled with thumbnails of this pinwheel.  It was so pretty.  It took 58 shots to get what I wanted. 

Treasure or Junk? This morning was spent with my sister and my daughters at the  Mantorville Marigold Days Flea Market .  Tammy Jo and I used to do this every year, coming home with some awesome treasures.  I do believe all of my yard art is from this flea market. Some of the stuff is definitely junk but what an inspirational place.  I love coming back with new creative ideas.  Now I just need to get my act together and get busy with some of these ideas.   The best part is each of us came back with some fun treasures.   Hmmm... I see that blue snow sled and wonder how it didn't come home with me?  ha!

For those looking forward... Just a reminder to those of you friends and family on Facebook who are looking forward to football and hoodie sweatshirts, etc. -- this is what comes next.  It is inevitable.  ):  Here's to a long stretch of Indian summer with this stuff delayed until March.  (:

Once again -- lost in time. Another evening into night researching my family history.  Which means no REAL photos.  Today I was contacted by someone who's great grandfather is my great grandfather's brother.  This always gets me started trying to find a missing piece.   Just a few minutes ago I found this passenger list for a ship that departed in Germany and arrived in New Orleans in February 1838. This one may be a stretch but I have seen this family name spelled so many different ways.  It is Aulwes but on the is record it kind of looks like Olvers.  But the first names and ages are exactly correct as is the arrival date and place of departure.  It is the very top record on the screen. Of course I am using this as fact until I prove myself wrong.  I've searched for an Olvers family with those first names and have NOT found anyone to match.  My next step will be to find the German departure record for this ship.  That ...

My what big eyes... We love this baby more than words can ever explain.  This was a rare moment of sitting still today.  Man this little girl is wild and crazy.  Go, go, go!  (: The photo below is the typical little girl.  "Let me have a turn with the camera, Grammy! No really, I can do it.  I've watched you use it and know how it all works. Really."

Angelic This is the sunlight shining on our patio table through the tree.  Just thought this was kind of unusual. 

A Dazzling Red Green Moment By far my favorite Red Green Moment to date.  For some reason I knew my camera would see the red of the sunlight through the trees.  Without looking through the camera I couldn't actually see the red but knew once I looked into the camera the red would be there. It was like I saw the finished picture before I even had the camera out.  Too cool.  Also, I like the fact the focal point seems to be one of the chimes on the wind chime and every thing else is undefined and blurry. The wind chime was originally suppose to be my subject matter and you barely even notice it is there. This is probably one of my more favorite photos in quite awhile.  I haven't been feeling very creative with my photos for quite some time so... Not beating myself up or putting myself down.  We can't be creative ALL the time.  I don't think anyway.  (: