HAPPY SPRING!!

Happy First Day of Spring everyone! I woke up this morning to this: 

It was 62 degrees and sunny yesterday, all week as a matter of fact. My first Crocus's emerged with a burst of purple and yellow. Here they are: 

Can you see them buried under the snow? Along with the Iris shoots starting to grow? The Daffodils shot up this week as well. The flowers are fat little pods under a thin papery skin, ready to burst.

Yeah. Mother Nature sure has a demented sense of humor. I see where I get it from. Well, it's not supposed to last. 


Here's a funny story that just happened while I was typing. I sent my daughter outside to get the mail and she comes running in with a mitten-full of pink snow. She says "Mom! The snow on the front bush is pink! Look!" and she shows me a little pink snowball. I'm flabbergasted and go out to solve the mystery. Sure enough the bush has a spotty layer of light pink snow... Hmmm. Then I remembered that when it was sunny a few days ago, I had put a piece of paper on the bush and sprayed it with Cherry Red Glimmer Mist! It was the overspray that turned the snow pink. My daughter was incredulous. "You glimmer-misted the bushes??" I said "Yes. I thought they would look pretty all sparkly." LOL. Mystery solved.

My Sentiments Exactly

This canvas was abandoned a long time ago when I did a transfer experiment on it. I transferred three Da Vinci images... one fell right off, one is just to the right of the leaf and is barely visible and the last one is the reversed Mona Lisa on the left. Then I threw the canvas in the corner, hehe. A few months later I found this quote by Da Vinci and I thought it was perfect. I also needed to try out my Golden's Crackle Paste and Iridescent Bronze paint. Wham bam slap stick. Is it finished? Probably not. But it's being abandoned again.


I think spring is finally rearing it's muddy head. I found some daffodil buds poking through the ground. Almost all the snow has melted. Now I have a winter's worth of defrosting dog poop to clean up!

I was visiting the parents down on the farm a few weeks ago. This time I brought my snow boots so I could wander around outside. It was a full moon that weekend. 

This looks a little like a blob of ice or a snow ball but it's the moon, I swear. I just pointed my little camera at the sky and zoomed in as far as I could and this is what I got. Have I told you how much I LOVE my camera? In case I didn't... I LOVE my camera! 

 

In this shot I stuck my camera out the door at about 10:30 at night and took a picture. The clouds were really cool and the moon shadows were awesome!

The next day I walked around the property right before sundown. The lighting was beautiful... soft and warm. I couldn't resist some shadow shots!

And I leave you with an Iris. I mean ORCHID! (Thanks Janet!) One of nature's most exquisite forms... Have a wonderful week!

Finding Beauty in a Frozen World

I am really having a hard time getting through the month of January! I can't remember the last time I saw the sun. It was supposed to be 40 last weekend but the weatherman lied. I have to admit there was ONE benefit to the weather, the trees and shrubs were beautiful, covered with hoarfrost. But I forgot to bring my winter boots and my feet froze while I walked around my parents' farm taking pictures. It really wasn't optimal shooting conditions either. White snow, white fog, white frost, white sky. Geez, talk about monochromatic! It almost hurt. (Well, my toes did anyway!)

There was a layer of frost crystals on everything. Serious crystals, the little pointy ones. This is the wire fencing.


Even the cobwebs hanging from the eaves didn't escape the frost.


Winter berries still hanging on the Crabapple trees. At least it provides some color!


I sat inside and defrosted my toes and watched the birds outside. My mom has tons of birds and they know how to party! I caught some pretty colorful visitors.



I have to take the opportunity to say that I LOVE MY CAMERA! I upgraded my camera this Christmas, alas it's not a DSLR (yet) but I think it's the next best thing. I bought a Sony Cybershot H2O. It has a 10X superzoom, one of my requirements. But because of the extended lens it's a bit bigger than a pocket point and shoot. But that's okay, because I LOVE it. And cameras really weren't meant to go in your back pocket anyway, right? Best of all, it's very easy to use. Intuitive and user friendly. If it were a computer, it would be a Mac, hehe. All the bird pictures I took (and there are LOTS more) were taken from inside the house through a glass door. Super zoomed in. Awesome huh?

Huh. I just let my dog outside for her bedtime pee and saw a coyote running down the street. Yes, I live in the middle of suburbia. About half a mile from the tollway and other major streets. Weird. I'm glad my dog is afraid of the dark or she would have run to the street to greet it. I'm also glad my dog is bigger than the coyote. Several small dogs have been snatched in the neighborhood by coyotes. But I digress...

Well, I'll leave you with a picture of Dusty the barn cat. He expresses my exact feelings about the dreary winter days.