Electric Sky

Well, I am still without my camera (going on two weeks now), but it is in transit and should be here in 3 more days. I have also been busy preparing for my upcoming photo exhibition at the Johnson Heritage Post in Grand Marais, MN. Those two factors mean that I essentially have not had any new photos to post from the last two weeks. So, here is one from 2006 that I would like to share. This was a lightning storm that hit in the middle of the night and woke me up from a deep sleep. I actually shot this photo from my open bedroom window. The storm and the lightning were VERY close, so I didn't want to risk going outside. As it turns out, the best lightning was happening directly over my driveway which was perfectly visible from my upper-level bedroom window. I opened the window, popped the screen out and set up my tripod. For the next half-hour I had a blast capturing photos of the lightning. This is not the "best" shot of the night, but it is a favorite. I will have a print of the "best" shot on display at my upcoming show. Be sure to check it out, the show runs from August 17th to September 8th!

Happy Anniversary!

Twenty years ago today we moved into our little blue cottage. It was, and still is, my dream house. There's very little I would change if given the chance.
When we first moved to Georgia thirty years ago, we found a typically southern two-story with white columns out front and two wings on either side. It really wasn't ME, but I wasn't sure at the time what ME was. The colors inside were all wrong. The woman who built the house was a redhead, so she chose earth tones in brown, orange, and gold. I changed the wallpaper in a few rooms but didn't want to rip out the tile floor in the kitchen and dining room. Too expensive.
So I lived with it and started looking for an old house with some acreage. I was homeschooling four children at the time. Actually three; Dylan was two but definitely a force to be reckoned with. He's the reason I gave up homeschooling for a time, but that's another story for another day!
So after we finished schooling, I would pile all my little children into my Ford F-150 pickup and drive through the country looking for abandoned houses. We were able to go into quite a few where I would take pictures of ceilings, mouldings, staircases, etc. I was collecting ideas.
There were plenty of old, abandoned houses around. Some were for sale, but they didn't come with any land. Most would have to be moved. My husband wasn't on board with that. We didn't have any land to put one on anyway.
In fact, my husband didn't want to live in an old house. He had grown up in one and knew the kind of upkeep required and didn't want to fool with it. Sigh...
I eventually found a piece of land that had a mature pecan grove on it, some woods, and an open field. Only thing lacking was a pond. I figured three out of four wasn't bad. Husband was brought out to look at it and actually liked it! We bought the forty acres, but it didn't come with a mule. It did come with an outhouse, pig sty, and barn. Unfortunately we had to tear down all three due to termite damage. I really wanted to keep that outhouse!
I started looking at house plans. Since I couldn't have a REAL old house, I wanted my new house to look old. I also started collecting antique bathroom and light fixtures. A man who tore down old houses gave me some beadboard for the walls. I paid $200 for the upstairs flooring being torn out of an old house in the middle of town. It was heart pine and enough to do most of the upstairs.
There are dozens of stories that could be told, but you'll have to wait for the book. This is getting too long, but a few more things need to be told.
I couldn't find exactly the house plan I wanted and was getting frantic when the strangest thing happened. I had been to Tennessee to visit my parents and had stopped in Macon to see a friend. We had a good visit and before leaving I made a trip to the powder room. There in a basket on the floor was a Country Living magazine with the perfect house on the front. I yelled, "That's it!" It was their House of the Year for 198? I can't remember the exact year. I asked if I could have the magazine, she said yes, and as soon as I got home I ordered the house plans.
I spent many nights sitting up into the wee hours of the morning drawing out the rooms on graph paper and changing the plans until they were perfect for our family. We started building in January of 1990 and moved in on July 9.
Happy 20th anniverary little blue cottage! I love you!

Oscar

The cat who's trying to adopt us.
I should say, the wild tomcat who's trying to adopt us.
The wary cat who won't let us near him, but who will handle all the food we might happen to leave lying around.
The wily cat who really needs to go to the vet but can't (so far) be caught.
Fresh from a recent Odd Couple viewing, Hubby named him Oscar.

Eagles at Manawa

John (ham radio, cycling, photography friend) had been over at Lake Manawa State Park to shoot photos of the eagles. My visits to Bosque del Apache and talking with birder friend Tom, I planned to bring the camera bag with me Sunday morning.

Sunday John brought a print we took at coffee. After coffee, I headed to Manawa to find the eagle. John had seen them in the area of Boy Scout Island and E. Manawa Drive.

I started on the West side where I visited with Tom. No eagles. Next stop was Boy Scout Island. A few geese, and some large birds further into the lake. Took a couple photos but was getting discouraged.

Looked there were a group of folks stopping along the East side of the lake. Drove there and parked along the road as there were several large birds flying in the area.

I forgot how difficult it is to fallow birds in flight and keep the lens in focus. Auto focus was having a fit. Switched to manual focus (which I am not accustomed to - like how to move rings to focus vs zoom). Was able to a get a couple "in flight" photos.

One immature bald eagle decided to perch on a branch right over my car. Gave me some time to fine tune the focus. Here's the best of the photos I took.

Tennessee Neighbors

This fair lady is the neighbor of my parents in Tennessee. Last time I visited, she gave me a huge cabbage from her garden. When I got home, I sliced, blanched, and froze it. I'll make cabbage stew this winter.
I've taken photos of her barn in all seasons. I want to do a watercolor of it soon.
When I was a small girl, I'd visit her parents with my grandma. Two smells I associate with their house and yard; tobacco (one of both of them dipped) and boxwoods. They had these huge ones on either side of their walkway you'd have to pass through to get to their front door. Today when I smell a boxwood, it makes me swoon. I guess that's one of the reasons I love Williamsburg so much. There are hundreds of boxwoods there. I'm going to order two English boxwoods for containers. They are the ones that have the wonderful smell. I'm not so sure they'll flourish down here with our humidity, but I won't know unless I try.

Grocery shopping on a bike: An exercise in practicality

Earlier this week, my fitness/commuter goal for April was put to the test by general necessity.
My cupboards were bare, my fridge nearly empty and the only things left to eat around my apartment were ranch dressing, pancake syrup and leftover Buffalo Wild Wings food from Lord knows when.
It was time to go grocery shopping. However, since my biking/running totals are still catching up to my driving mileage for April, I had to figure out a way to pad my mileage. Beyond that, gas prices have been going up like crazy lately and unfortunately, my modest salary is not matching that rate of inflation.
So with that in mind, I put my car keys away, grabbed a backpack and did my grocery shopping on a bike. My shopping included stops at Cub Foods, Kwik Trip and Aldi.
Surprisingly, it wasn't as difficult as one would think. I essentially bought all the groceries I would have gotten with a car, only I took two trips. The method I used for packing the groceries included my backpack and dangling a pair of grocery bags from my handlebars (first photo on the right).
The most difficult aspects of it were figuring out how to make everything fit and keeping myself balanced for the bike ride home. The only real trial and error came from determining that the weight of items in the grocery bags on the handlebars had to be relatively light, otherwise steering would get awkward (I initially tried this with a gallon of milk in one bag, bad idea).
I will touch on the experience more in a column I wrote for Monday's paper, but for the time being, here is a list of groceries I was able to carry home on each trip, with photos accompanying each list. As you can probably guess, the second trip was a lot tougher to package and carry than the first.
First trip (Cub Foods and Kwik Trip)

• 2 bags of hashbrowns
• 1 pound of grapes
• 2 pounds of bananas
• 4 boxes of cereal
• 1 gallon of milk
• 1/2 gallon of orange juice
• 2 bags of pizza crust mix
• 1 dozen eggs

Second trip (Aldi)

• 1 bag of apples
• 2 jars of peanut butter
• 1 jar of jelly
• 4 cups of yogurt
• 1 package of breakfast sausage patties
• 1 box of pancake mix
• 3 boxes of rice
• 1 box of banana bread mix
• 1 package of chocolate chips
• 1 container of bread crumbs
• 1 package of tortilla shells
• 2 jars of spaghetti sauce
• 2 pounds of shredded cheese
• 1 package of dried fruit
• 1 package of baby carrots
• 1 box of mashed potato mix
• 1 6-pack of bagels
• 1 package of pepperoni
  
• 1 box of cereal

(Note: this isn't intended to depict me as a hulking figure of grocery getting ability. Rather, it is meant to illustrate how much a person can actually carry on a bike if they organize it correctly. Also, I realize my eating habits probably seem a little odd, but I happen to like cereal ... a lot.)

Edinburgh Christmas bustle

The pre-Christmas 'bustle' at Here and There Slocan inspired me to post a similar shot of Edinburgh's 'Main Street' today. To get an exact comparison I had to stand in the middle of the road - not an easy thing to do in the middle of the day on Princes Street.
Many people are still at work, so it wasn't too frantic out on the streets. Marks and Spencer's food hall however was living up to its pre-Christmas reputation, so I was glad to escape to the relative tranquility of the lingerie department, from where I knew I would get a bird's eye view of the street.