Picture Window

With all the best intentions of getting an entry up to the journal this weekend, I found myself flat in bed. Yupper - succumbed to whatever seems to be hitting everyone around me. Two days in bed (I'm starting to feel better a little now - please pass the chicken soup around again). It just so happens that the weather here in sunny So Cal was sick too - or at least very wild. We got hail 3 times in one day - twice at night and once during the day. As I layed in bed nursing my cold all of the sudden the hail started to come down - and it came down hard! In the space of less that 5 minutes it turned us into what would be considered a winter wonderland. My dear hubby asked if I was going to take pictures of it. I said something to the effect of no. But then - I started thinking wait - we've been here almost 20 yrs and this has never happened. What the heck was I doing in bed with all those photo ops sitting out there? SO - in my pj's, wrapped in my robe, and warm slippers on I ventured to the decks and took these pics. I'm glad I took them - and now feeling a little better I'm wishing I'd donned warm boots and a jacket! Oh well - better these than nothing!

 

And the chickens --- poor things were under the green bench when it started, they obviously were not well protected, and they made a run for the coop (little beige and brown house in bottom pic) - got to the backside of it when.... the wind blew their door shut! Right after the hail my hubby went out and opened their door. They survived the hail storm without a problem.

cathyterv at 4:16:51 PM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 5 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Once again I've managed to skip my journal entries. Sometimes things get way too busy around here. Right now I'm in the throws of actually getting my office done. Yes - a real office, picture windows (oh my), etc. The painting is done (with small exceptions of a problem area), carpet is due on Tuesday, and hopefully the desk and files will be here within days of the carpet - then then I can get things organized and on track.

Earlier this week I went out to get the eggs from the chickens and was presented with this HUGE egg in the coop - oh my gosh - what goose flew in, layed it, and left?? LOL Well actually it's from one of the hens. It the first time I've had or even seen a double yolker. I've heard of them, but this was my first. Here's a pic (and the scramble egg sandwich that morning was yummy as usual).

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I've been bogged down processing photos of dogs and sheep and dogs and cows, and dogs and geese, and dogs and ducks --- goodness dogs and dogs and dogs and.... LOL seems I've gone to the dogs! But then - I guess that's not new. If anyone is interested in the "dogs and....." those are up on my photo site Dogma Photography at dgtlpics.com

Over the weekend I wend out to a nursery to check out what they've got. Of course one can't go to a nursery that is crammed with beautiful flowers and bushes and trees without coming home with something! Among the things that I bought were 3 pots of ruffled pansies. I had read about these online last year on the Park's Seeds website. I loved what I read and last year looked all over for them - not a plant or a seed was to be found. So you can imagine my thrill when I saw these! I thought I'd snap a few pics of them (hmmm guess not all the pictures are dogs and..... <g>). I've got some other colors and even more ruffled ones too and will try to get some pics of those up sometime too.

 

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Today's a Big Day - 'tis a big B-Day for me. YIPES I can't be that old. Why does everyone suddenly look like they are young enough to be my kid?? Everyone - the policeman, the doctor, the truck drivers, the Fed Ex guy. YIPES -- I feel like Rip Van Winkle and somehow time has sped by in the blink of an eye! OK probably 2 or 3 blinks.
Well - other than that I've been busy once again with photographs of dogs working livestock. I probably took about 500 photos this last weekend.

Here's a photo that's representative of what I took. Although this one is with ducks, the photos in January include dogs working sheep and cattle as well.

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Well, I got behind already in this journal. Sigh. Last weekend I was out of town shooting a herding trial on the weekend - 'twas a lot of fun and 600 photos later (ok 595) I got home and had a lot of post processing and orders to handle. By the end of the week I had it all done and rewarded myself with a quick trip to a horse sale. No - I wasn't buying - those prices are way out of my league! But oh so beautiful. Of course I had the camera and here's two of the photos I snapped before I had to leave.

 

I spent the weekend buying plants and planting them on Sunday - with a little help from the chickens! They are oh so curious and just have to be in the thick of things. I had to be careful not to dig them!!!

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Today was a beautiful day with temps in the 70s. I decided to eat lunch outside in the gazebo which of course the dogs loved. As I was sitting there eating I looked at the firecracker vine that is climbing up the gazebo. The flowers are really interesting to look at with the bright colors, the firecracker shape, and the lovely texture. I thought it would be a good subject for today's picture. Enjoy!

 

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Today was a therapy day at the Naval Med. Center. My dogs work there as therapy dogs and today was Brill's day. She had a great day visitting with her patients and staff, but it took just short of 45 minutes to get a parking place. This left me with idle time to ponder. My thoughts went to the Christmas holiday. I thought of Dr Laura and her radio talk show - mostly because we had written her 5 or 6 times via snail mail and about 10 via email offering to give her two cases of our children's book for her childrens My Stuff Bag program. We were not looking for endorsments, publicity, or anything - just a chance to put a smile on some the faces of children who need to smile. We were not even given the courtesy of a reply. We sent a book with our first letter so she could see it without having to search it out or even ask to see one. I know she and her staff must be busy but basic courtesy just doesn't seem to exist any more. Since we got no response from them we did give the books to the Naval Med Center for their Toys For Tots program so some kids did get smiles I'm sure.

But back to the courtesy thing... it took 45 minutes of waiting for a parking place. There is one row of parking spots that is reserved for Volunteers - and 3/4 of those spots were taken by people who parked in those spots that are not supposed to park there. I guess it's just so very frustrating to have to wait that long to get a spot that should have been there in the first place. If the wait is longer than 45 minutes I usually just hang it up and go home. For us that's a 36 mile round trip and which ever dog I've got with had to have a bath the night before and a thorough grooming that morning - fur, nails and teeth.
Sorry for dumping my bucket but it just seems like a lot of the people today have forgotten basic manners. Either that or I'm just getting old!

On to lighter things. I was out playing with my camera today and tried out the multiple exposure feature. At first I had a plan to get Kodak (one of the dogs) and the flowers - but I couldn't do it within the time constraints of the camera (no more than 30 seconds between shots). Since that wasn't possible one of the chickens obliged and let me use her as part of the experiment!

 

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I thought that today I would go out and take photos, but something else got a hold of me. A project that I've been thinking about for a few weeks. The project was to put in a flagstone path between the grape vines and the orchard. It's an area that I walk daily to get to and from the chicken coop. When it rained last week it got a little muddy and since then that ground has been soft. So with this beautiful spring like weather we've been having I set about getting it started. Boy that flagstone was heavy and it was at the far corner of the property - a long way away. I tried to load it into my cart - but the first load almost got stuck in the soft ground. I decided I'd take a few days and carry up a few loads every day. Well, one load lead to another and I just kept at it nearly tripping on the chickens a few times! Once I got them all up to where I wanted them I had the brainy idea to use my little Mantis rototiller to break the ground for the path. Ya' just gotta' love power tools it was a snap getting the path ground soft and easy to work the stones into. So - my pic for today is the new path...

It's also time to start thinking about planting around the gazebo and I'm looking for suggestions!!!! Here are some pictures of the gazebo....

 The Front

 One Side

 The Inside

On the floor I plant allysum seed between the flag stone. On the sides are vines - the front has Star Jasmine, one side has morning glory and snail vine, the back has a red passion flower, the other side has a red trumpet vine and a regular passion flower vine. What I want to do is put a planting bed around the gazebo and have it edged with large cobble stones (got those already but have to carry them up). So - the advice or suggestions I'm looking for are what should I plant there!!!??!? I'm looking for relatively low maintenance and something that if the dogs eat it they won't get sick. Ideas anyone?

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Hmmm, isn't there a song by that name, Just Another Sunday? Not much out of the usual here today other than I woke up at 1:30am and could not go back to sleep. So at 2:08am (don't you just love digital clocks?) I threw in the towel and went to work on the computer and working on my online class. I thought perhaps I'd catch some rays of the sunrise but I ~think~ I fell asleep at 5:30 and then the dogs hopped on me at 6:15. Oh well, another day and I'll catch it.

For those who have asked about my new camera - it is a Nikon D200 digital slr and I'm loving it. There is so much that it does I just keep exploring what it has. Super fun things like multiple exposure (no Photoshopping that - really), time lapse photography, and goodness only knows what else. Of course new camera means new lenses or rather the "want to get list" grows! LOL

Today's picture is from Torrey Pines State Park with the Pacific Ocean in the background.

 

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With all the entries about the chickens and the eggs (my chickens came first ) I thought I'd try to take some pictures of "the girls". So I went out with the camera and sat on the bench - they all of course came over, hopped on the bench and were looking for snacks. Sigh - no way I was going to get a picture that way! So I sat and I sat and finally they got bored and wandered into the grass. Two of them wandered beyond the grass and down the hill out of sight. Again - sigh - guess they are camera shy! I started snapping pics of the dark chicken (she's darker than the other two and has a little green in some of her feathers).
Here she is

Well - after a few shots I think the others may have decided they needed some time with the camera too - so they both came over the edge of the hill together and I was quick enough to catch them with the camera - watching chickens run is a riot - truly a funny sight to behold - but in this picture it looks like they're dancing (maybe they were watching Dancing with The Stars in their coop the other night!

 

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