Word Light

Two sunny days in a row...we're on a roll up here. 😂 This rain has become almost more than one gal can take, but I know that I am not alone and that many corners are getting an excess of spring showers.
🌼*🌼*🌼*🌼
That said, I'm popping in a few springy photos taken  yesterday. I was with my dad and we had a good day. Lots of fun conversation and lots of bird watching. 

~on the road again~

~along the way~

~house on the hill~

~ as seen while collecting the newspaper~

~our scene on the world~
~the setting~

 ~the birds were active and happy~

~all day long~

~if Winston Churchill had been a goldfinch~

~wearing a leaf collar~

After all the words of late, you deserved word light with pictures. A happy May day to you...

🌼*🌼*🌼*🌼

Gifts in Spring

Let me try a Tuesday this week...

Three things today:

* gifts
* culling books and furniture
* spring garden 

Last week brought two packages to my door. The first was a gift from my friend Deanna at Creekside Cottage — lovely handmade pillowcases with French seams and decorative top-stitching. True confessions now ... both John and I like to nap on the sofa so we have a regular pillow there for just such a snooze. These pillowcases match my old, but new-to-me sofa. Perfect!  Love them! Thank you for thinking of me, Deanna. 

The second box arrived with a thwump on my side deck. My heart sank when I saw the word "fragile" in block letters on the side. What a happy moment when I unwrapped the gifts and found that each one was intact. Such cute gifts given with thought and in friendship. The giver focused on my love of yellow. 

I had such fun spreading the yellow around. Here...

Here...

 Here...

and one more place, but I'll leave that for you to find.
This Dear One has asked to remain anonymous, though I am sending her a big thank you. What a sweet surprise! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our living room has needed some culling for quite some time. It meant removing a chair and adding a pair of auditorium seats for a place to sit and remove shoes and boots. 

John's chair has moved yet again (this is what I do, shove furniture around) making room for him to actually access his books. It's so cozy in his corner. 

It also means some tidying the bookshelf. John decided to do some culling of books. I find that chore difficult myself so I wasn't surprised to find him back in the chair already distracted by the first book he pulled! That grin is in response to my making some wisecrack about it.

  

No, I do not intend to float that table smack dab in the middle of the floor. Good grief!
~~~~~~

Not a lot going on in my spring gardens. The chives are up, the rhubarb is, too; the front garden has one dandelion, grape hyacinths, and coral bells. I was able to get the yard work accomplished with the help of my neighbor who swept all the debris caused by the snowplow off from the front lawn. Now we are ready for warmer days and some blooming flowers. I can't wait! 

The inserts are more or less where they exist in the actual garden. I was experimenting at PicMonkey with the collage maker when I decided to attempt something different.

Over and out...
ツ  

A Few Pictures or Ten

A small nod to autumn...

 ~not framed~

 ~framed~

I've had the vintage housewife graphic for so long that I forgot where it came from; otherwise, I'd give credit. I've always liked her pantry! Anyway, I've obviously edited it using my Distressed app and added the little poem of a few days ago. If it's of interest to anyone, feel free to snag. 

The spider lilies↑ did the best this year. They seem impervious to Japanese Beetles.

Those trees are really leaning, but as John tells me, "They're not ours." Right. But they will fall, if they ever do, on what is.

~soaring~

You can probably guess what is soaring. This reminds me of the time my daughter was patiently explaining to my grands how to tell the difference between eagles and turkey vultures. "Eagles have some white underneath," she said. Just then a seagull went flying past and my grandson said, "Oh look! There goes one now!"
A happy holiday weekend to my countrymen and to my cousins to the North.

A Vulture Story and More

Who could possibly imagine the excitement that goes on behind this front door at this unassuming home on a quiet street in a sleepy village well into October?

Okay, my son doesn't look too excited. Lamb Chop? Comatose.

John has joined Lamb Chop in coma land. Michelle is still awake, though!

Even the birthday girl was relaxed. It was all so very dull that I suggested to the grandsons that we go out and scare off the vultures.

Just the day before I had seen that vultures had been encroaching once again. See them? 

There! To the right of the roofline!

Tree killers!

So in the early evening, while it was still a little light, I had taken my camera, set the flash, and had gone down to disturb the vultures roosting. I have proof that they were mightily disturbed; unfortunately, it might also reveal that I am mightily disturbed as I was doing a regular Mexican hat dance down there at the forest's edge. I'd show you the video, but you'd be ill in seconds with all the stomping, flailing, and swishing about. Swishing...remember that word.

No evidence in this photo that they were there, but they were definitely there...fifty or a hundred...freaky vultures!

Back to the night in question — the grands couldn't wait to join me! They were all for going out after dark, way after dark as you can see above. 

It was pitch black out there. No amount of flailing, Mexican hat dancing, or taking flash photos could rouse those vultures. After a few minutes, Sam whispered, "I can hear someone swishing and it isn't us." 
We stopped to listen. Sure enough, there were footsteps on the lawn above and beside us. I thought it must be my neighbor out with his dog. Sam said, "I'm going to go see." I took another photo or two when Sam said, "There's a man dressed in white and he is staring at me."
Now that got my attention. Jake had decided to go in so I went up to stand beside Sam where I peered into the darkness. Sure enough! There was a man dressed in light clothing all softly outlined against the night.  I said, "Well say 'hello.'" 
Sam said, "hello." Nothing. The man stood perfectly silent not sixty feet away. I don't think he was my neighbor. 
Creepy. We decided to go in ourselves at that point. When we tumbled through the patio doors, telling our story, John  said, "Shhh...Don't talk too loud. The window is wide open." Ackkk!
 Needless to say, we won't be out chasing the vultures away any time soon.
*~*~*
A Blessed Thanksgiving weekend to my Canadian friends!

Personal Photo Challenge~Birds

I changed my mind. A woman's prerogative, right?

This photo was the reason I wasn't going to participate. The only birds I've seen around lately are crows. Still I was willing to give it a try, especially when I read that I could show the birds interacting. Crows interact a lot. 

Then they got very angry with me and bombed my house, which was a nasty kind of interaction. I kid you not. John had to go out there in the rain and wash the house down. I shudder to think what would have happened to me if I had been out there with them. As it was, the photo was taken through the window and came out terribly. I'm blaming the crows. They are highly agitated, up-tight birds who never stay still.

PicMonkey provided the color focus (highlighting the interaction) and the raindrop texture. I provided the terrible photography.

~ ~ ~

Wait a minute! I have had some relatively decent bird photos on the blog. Let's see, there was the *eagle* I found perched in the treetop. PicMonkey's weave in textures helped him a bit.

Then there was the *chickadee,* my personal favorite. I used the auto adjust at PicMonkey. The bokeh was my own.

Finally, I had a little *cowbird...*

The Orton Effect at PicMonkey really made his colors pop. 

So the moral of this story is that cheating playing can improve a photo. If you don't believe this, just click on the name of each bird to see the before.

Thanks, Donna. My thinking has been stretched again. I've learned that I can use my car as a blind for taking photos of birds, that I can lure them in with food, and that I should focus on their beady little eyes.

See what others are sharing here at Donna's Personal Photo Challenge.

Bald Eagle

Short post: big subject.

We had an errand to run in the big city yesterday. That would be Portland (ME). We would be shopping at the mall. (A very sad place it is these days. Hard times have taken a toll.) I thought that I would take my camera and get some photos of ships or sailboats, but just as we were leaving our own hometown and at the river's edge, I noticed this.

Please forgive my excitement as the photo quality suffered. I never checked settings and, sure enough, the "shake" feature was off from having used the tripod the day before. Darn. If you want to see great eagle photos go *here* and *here.*

A happy day to you. (I'll catch up soon...company this weekend.)