A New Family Member

She still doesn't have a name and B is freaking out a little about that. She is tired and out of it from being spayed this morning, but she is very snuggly.


Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--
it was peace."
~ Milan Kundera

Reflections

Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.
~ Camille Pissarro

Leadership

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
~ John Quincy Adams

Me, Myself, and I

I have decided to accept Donna's challenge of a self-portrait a month (actually she suggested one per week but 52 pictures of me is too many - 12 is pushing it). Through this picture I am almost able to see someone I am becoming. I think I like who she is.

We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.
~ e.e. cummings

A Herring

First you must find... another shrubbery! (dramatic chord) Then, when you have found the shrubbery, you must place it here, beside this shrubbery, only slightly higher so you get a two layer effect with a little path running down the middle. ("A path! A path!") Then, you must cut down the mightiest tree in the forrest... with... a herring!
~ Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Work

I long to accomplish a great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.
~ Helen Keller

New Life

On my walk this morning I spotted a hawk in a tree. When I got home I noticed in the photo there were two hawks plus a nest! If you can't spot them go to my leftovers and check it out there in a larger size.

As I continued my walk I found another nest in another tree. Great morning.

Birth is the sudden opening of a window, through which you look out upon a stupendous prospect. For what has happened? A miracle. You have exchanged nothing for the possibility of everything.
~ William MacNeile Dixon

Sunshine

I think the quote says it all today.



Just living is not enough... One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
~ Hans Christian Anderson

One more try . . .

I was not completely happy with my new camera so I ended up exchanging it for this one. This has features I thought the other one had - the main one being image stabilization. I have shaky hands so this is very important to me. The other thing is an electronic viewfinder. This way I can hold the camera up to my face instead of out in front of me looking at the LCD. This means even more stabilization.

And since I posted pictures of my girl yesterday today it's the boy's turn. He takes a lovely photo, don't you think?



The most effective form of birth control I know is spending the day with my kids.
~ Jill Bensley

My beautiful girl

I went to the park today to get more pictures of ducks and ended up with pictures of my girl. Much better than ducks any day.


It is rare that one can see in a little boy the promise of a man, but one can almost always see in a little girl the threat of a woman.
~ Alexandar Dumas

Power

We had an unexpected power outage tonight. They don't happen very often around here! I was glad though because it gave me a good photo op - eating dinner by candlelight. I probably should have cropped it, but I just want to post.

I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.
~ Og Mandino

The times they are a-changin' . . .

There were so many better photos to choose from today but this one is indicative of times to come. My one respite in suburbia is showing signs of construction to come. I am not happy. In fact I was pretty destructive in pulling out the stakes with which they marked my running trail.

Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,
For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain.
America, America, man sheds his waste on thee,
And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea.
~ George Carlin


Beauty

As I was drying my hair this morning I could hear B yelling, "There's a 'possum in the backyard!" I ran for my camera. He just sat there as I took shot after shot. They are definitely not pretty animals. I think he may live in the vines on our back wall.

I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, — light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.
~ John Constable

Piano

We were supposed to have piano lessons today, which is where I was going to take my photo, but they were cancelled at the last minute so I had to take it at home. I am having fun practicing with shutter speeds.

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
~ Victor Hugo

Chai

Went to Starbucks today to get some work done for school. There were a couple of other photos I wanted to post but B wouldn't let me so they are on my leftover page. It was a difficult math day. I did have fun with the macro setting tho!

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.
~C.S. Lewis

Back to School

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught.
~Oscar Wilde

Camera

My new camera came today! It is much smaller and hopefully easier to handle than the other one.

These are just practice shots. I have a looong way to go.


When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
- Ansel Adams

Church

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.
- Anne Frank

Time

Spent the day in Pasadena and found a new favorite store - Anthropologie. It gave me quite a few photo opportunities.

Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard

A Dog's Life

B has been begging for another dog so I did some "research" at the local animal shelter today.

We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment.
~George Eliot

Winter is here . . .

This may look like a break in the storm, but it is the storm approaching. After a week of 85 degree heat I am ready for warm sweaters and gloves.

I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood.
- Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes

Tea Party

Wednesdays are our days for tea and books.

E bought me some special flowering teas for Christmas. This one is Dragon Lily.

There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.
~Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

My City

You can see the urban sprawl in the background . . .

To one who has been long in city pent,
'Tis very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven, - to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.
~John Keats, Sonnet XIV

Failure

No matter how hard I try I don't think I will ever be a gardener . . .

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.
- George Bernard Shaw

Leaving

Life is a train of moods like a string of beads; and as we pass through them they prove to be many colored lenses, which paint the world their own hue, and each shows us only what lies in its own focus.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hiking in Palm Springs

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
- Albert Einstein

Friendship

I'm in Palm Springs with friends for the weekend. Kindred spirits are good.




Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You, too? Thought I was the only one."
- C.S. Lewis

Games

The kids and I play Scrabble once a week with H at an assisted living place near us. I'm not allowed to take photos of faces, but I loved her hand as she looked at her tiles.

I also took the girls to play racquetball this afternoon and practiced some action shots.


We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.--Charles Schaefer

Birthday #39

Todd celebrated the first of many 39th birthdays today.

Inside every older person is a younger person -
wondering what the hell happened.
- Cora Harvey Armstrong

The Joy of Life

Life as it was meant to be lived . . . with complete and utter abandon.

The New Year

Celebrate we will
'cause life is short but sweet for certain
- Dave Matthews