Tomatoes and watermelon

My neighbor and my husband apparently struck deal.
Tomatoes for cucumbers.
We are growing the tomatoes, and they the cucumbers.

Yesterday I laid six little cherry tomatoes on our shared fence, got out my camera and then hallloooo'd to the neighbor!!


He came over and gave a bit of a chuckle while saying "I have cucumbers for you!"
You see, this is the third batch of tomatoes headed to their place.

I watched his hands come into view and snapped quickly!


I said "woooohoooo I am so excited, yummy yummy cucumbers!"

I was generous...he had to use both hands!

He chuckled a little more then said again..."Yup, I've got cucumbers for ya! I will give 'em to ya as soon as they are done growing!"
He laughed out loud then as he turned back to his home to take his treasure in!
Stinker!!!
It was a fun neighborly exchange!


My foodie friend picked this watermelon out for me today when we were shopping together.

I was hungry and tired and my back hurt and I was hungry and tired, so I didn't even think to ask her what she was doing to pick just the right one. I just watched her dumbly as she walked around working her magic.

I know I will get an email from her though explaining it, now that I said so here!! If it makes sense I will share it with you.
I mean...sometimes people have just done something so long they don't even realize what they are doing, and even if they do they can't describe it.

I put this very watermelon out in our raised watermelon planter today, then hollered to my daughter that we had a watermelon finally!
She came running and peered out the back window exclaiming in wonder.

I truly thought she would turn and give me that knowing look and remind me that she had already seen it on the counter top, but that I was funny to try to pass it off on her.

But no, she proceeded to go outside and check it out, thumping and tapping it to see if it was ready.
She was amazed that it was already detached from the vine and reached to pick it up, to haul it in.

The fact that it was pajama day at her school made it all the more precious!

Innocent complete belief in my suggestion, as I hid behind my camera chuckling!

If I were you...I wouldn't mention that I told you this story.
She hasn't gotten to the point where she thinks it is funny yet!!!
(though she did give me permission to tell it)

See ya tomorrow!!!

Monday

I am going to do a token load of laundry...towels!
That practically doesn't count!

I am honoring my picture taking everyday promise, though come to think about it I didn't post one on Saturday. Ooops sorry, I was a bit distracted!
I did take some however. Did I say that in that post? I dunno.

I took a few pictures today with my "kit" lens. I haven't used it in quite some time, so it was good practice.
I had to take it off of manual focus to be able to get a spider web to appear where I wanted it. The composition of those photos however, was not good... so they got deleted!
I moved on to other non thrilling things to further bog down your day here while reading my boring entry for this day.

My dear husband did the watering so I was able to just scan around for droplets!
I took about 12 of this one waiting for it to fall, then missed it when it finally did.

At least there is some drama here with it blowing in the wind!

Enjoy and remember, that what this holiday is all about!

Sunday "dinner on the ground" days always seem to bring..


...lots of mysterious yellow dishes

and I don't mean the pans!

Dessert enough to fill multiple tables and left overs enough to feed a small army.



Children dressed in lovely clothes who eat the tops off of cupcakes and...


...a chance for grand-babies to follow in the footsteps of their grandparents!

This little fellows grandpa always takes the job of icing up the cups for the masses.
He got right in there and got busy and worked hard in the heat for a long time, all of his own doing.

My church family is amazing, and I love them so!!!

What can we do?

This has been my question of late.
I have found that when I have day after day of simple pictures posted on my blog, that my heart is working on a particular something that must be examined. Then I can finally sit to study and explore and can open up to share with you.
This is not an easy thing for me to do, but I know someone out there must have some of these same feelings at some time and feel like good can come from laying out my imperfections and hopes.
So here we go....

It is our practice in this home to have family bedtime prayers.
Each of us takes a turn talking to God, thanking him for our blessings and making our requests known.

I have found myself fighting tears and pleading with God so much lately on behalf of others.

I bet you have a list similar to mine...

a man who's young daughter is fighting Leukemia
a family who is yearning for adoption of children in a system designed against them
a woman who has lost her husband and is herself in the hospital
a woman who has lost a child and is worried for the one she now carries
cities devastated by storms in need of help and healing
people in need of jobs, who have been in need for sometime
and
and
and....
so very much to ask God to work in.
Then prayer time is over and I get back to my suburban life and feel like I am doing nothing all over again.
I was needing some encouragement on this matter and thought you might as well.

We have to serve and love where we can.
I cannot leave my family and go to Joplin or Japan to touch lives there.
I have to choose to serve here in ways that are possible for me as a Mom of 3 children who need me here. (You have to serve and love where you are.)

I know there are opportunities here for me that I am neglecting.
Things that I can be doing which are so far into my zone of discomfort that fear and doubt that keep me from doing them.

I don't want to be that person....
I don't want to desire to love and serve for the Lord then pass up chances when they are presented because of my personal weaknesses and fears.
I have got some growing up to do and fast, because there is too much need in this world.



I must,
you must...answer the call, do what we can;
then we have to be okay with that being all we can do, and sit down to pray some more.

Do where we can, pray where we can't.

Do where we can...hmmmmm?
I can use words to encourage many of these people.
I can visit the hospital.
I can put together a pile of clothes for those in need.

That is it!
What a measly ridiculously small list of cans.
It almost makes me sick to my stomach.
But wait, we still have to factor in prayer.
Suddenly there is hope again for the amount of change you and I can effect.

James 5:16b-18
The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.

Proverbs 15:8b
the prayer of the upright is His delight.

Psalms 34:15
15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry.

Phil. 4:6-7
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Psalms 145:17-19
17 The LORD is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds. 18 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. 19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them.

1John 5:14-15
14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.


My prayers choked out with tears are requests for healing and respite from pain. Prayers for change in what seems like a path of frustration for people who do love God. Prayers to understand HIS will in situations that seem fraught with only heartache.

I find myself in a constant struggle of seeing what I think is best in a situation and knowing with faith that God's will is perfect and right.
Pleading for change while knowing that the outcome, whatever it may be, is for his purpose.

I want to keep these thoughts from Proverbs close to my heart
16:4 The Lord works out everything for his own ends

16:9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

19:21 Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails

21:30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.


So?
What can we do?

Do where we can and pray where we can't.

Well I suppose for the most of us, that means a little more of the same.
And, for some of us that means more of reaching outside of our comfort zone into where Christ would have us be.

Well, I have a whole lot-ta boring for you late this evening.
BUT, on the other hand I did get out my camera and take notice of the light today, which frankly is my mission!
If you are entertained then that is a side benefit.

First for you, my new (costly) ignition switch and key!

The light and shadow on that really caught my eye!



There really is a "magic" hour when the light is perfect for portrait taking!


Even happy snails look fantastic right around 7 p.m.

That is all I've got!
shrug!
sigh!
Hey, there is always tomorrow!

Lots of color...

I can't seem to find a good run on consistency!
I know it is supposed to be "color Thursday", but sometimes that just doesn't work with my day.

This is bound to be another crazy rush about day so I shot off some photos early and I am now rushing to get them up so I can get out the door.

Here is my shot from yesterday, when I finally got the camera out.

My dear husband is very patriotic, so I can always expect to see our flag waving proudly certain times of the year!


A sweet friend of mine has been itching my ears with tales of this flower for 3 days now!

This morning found her driving by with 2 stalks of the blooms for my photographing pleasure!!




I ♥ when plants look like a

don't you??



Shelby says "Hi!!"

Actually that is her squirrel chasing face, but man oh man it looks like a happy grin to me!!

Sorry to rush you through all of that, but it is what it is!
Have a wonderful non color Thursday blog friends!!

Blurry or not??

Sorry, not much time for you today!!
I kinda have to do the Mom thing this afternoon, not to mention the housewife thing...which does include cooking supper.

So, in that case I promise (without my fingers crossed behind my back) to take out my camera in a while and snap some photos. In fact I will even work on the skill I will show you that I was attempting to work on the other day.

Creating sharp images in motion as opposed to creating blurred images in motion.
The super-realist in me wants, craves, desires above all else super sharp crisp images always!!
I know with the other part of my brain that there is more to picture taking than that and know I must pursue perfecting the blurry kind.
The first thing I must do is attempt to control the adrenaline output and do more than just click the button "hoping" for something good.
I will show you my adrenaline shots anyway...and you will know that really I was just trying not to get trampled by this stampede of horses every time they came by!!!

I set my camera to shutter priority, which means I told it how fast I wanted it to see, and it would choose for me the aperture. This helps to be able to capture motion without guessing on both things.
I set it at 1/80 and got this:

The camera chose an f/stop of 10

I switched it to 1/3200 which is getting close to as fast as my camera can go (arrrggghhh)
and got this:

f/stop 1.8...as small as it will get, or technically I think that is actually as big as it will get. shrug!!


See the difference???
Blur at 1/80:

f/stop 10



1/320:

f/stop 5.6 This larger number means more of it will be in focus!! NICE!


Well I hope you learned something there...I sure did!
Focus, and work on skill not just fear and hope!!!
I will be practicing this some more, cause I just happen to know where these horses live!

Got Milk?

Hey!
The picture I took today is poorly done and not blog worthy, so I will take the time to tell you a short horse tale!

I will begin by introducing you to Eve!
She is the pretty brown and white painted pony closer to you in this picture.

She is supposed to be working on getting some training done, but she has other ideas about the needs in her life right now.

Eve is just over a year old and was penned in a pasture yesterday with other ponies her age and up to two years older.

Her Mom...was wandering about in the field just next to this one well within spitting distance!
Maybe I should modify that to say neighing distance!

Eve called out loudly, and I mean loudly, to her Momma...and her Momma came trotting over.





It was really sweet how they communicated over the fence.




Momma seemed to get finished "talking" and turned to stand along side the fence, seemingly unaware of her baby.


At least that is what I thought until I walked around to the front of her!!!



Ohhhh ho! Eve was determined!


And she thinks I am crazy for telling you this story!


See ya tomorrow, for I must rush off now!!

Back at the ranch

More where that came from tomorrow!

Another busy Sunday

I made pizza four lunch today, and headed out to the garden for some veggies for toppings.
This was my haul!! Mmmmm, mmmmmm!


I then headed out with some friends to take some time taking pictures!
It was nice to meander around and click away.

As we were leaving we drove by this cute little restaurant and were astounded at this gorgeous dog.


I was brave enough to roll down my window and snap off a few frames.

Well, it is late....see ya tomorrow!!

Early Saturday

The last thing I said before falling asleep last night was "I don't want to get up early in the morning. I sure hope the dog sleeps in and the neighbor kids aren't jumping on the trampoline before 7!"

6:08
Who gets up at 6:08 on a Saturday morning????
Ha, well I guess the person that wakes up then.
It is not my fault really; I took some pictures yesterday which were still stuck in my mind that I am itching to get back to.
I had a really big picture taking day yesterday which I enjoyed more than I can even describe to you.
My artist brain was racing 90 to nothing... composing, judging lighting, and wrestling with color. The other part of my brain slugged along wrestling with ISO, aperture, and metering.

But ya know what???
I have learned in these past months not to let my pride and limitations get in the way! (I mean, yeah it took me this many months and a whole bunch of missing wonderful things but lets not concentrate on that.)
When I got stuck yesterday with calculating light I proudly switched my camera over to Aperture Priority, took a shot, adjusted then let the camera do the thinking while I let myself do the creating.
It was so freeing, and really let me work as an artist!

Can I just tell you there is NOTHING in the world like someone believing in you, and taking a chance on you.
Nothing!
(That has got to be why the plan of salvation and Jesus is so wonderful, right??)

Happy Happy Happy Sigh!!!!
I will share some of those pictures with you when I can!!

I find myself laughing here as I go from gushing about being an artist to my photos for today!
Oh well, it is what it is.
Seeing as how I was up at 6:08 this morning and haven't yet figured out how to hook up a remote control to my coffee pot; I slowly meandered into the kitchen, pushed the button and went outside with the Shelbster for her morning duties.
First things first...track all squirrels that had been in the vicinity since her last trip outside.
This, and the slow drip of the coffee pot left me time to wander about the yard in my pj's!
NO, I am not getting dressed this early in the day...only the birds and dogs are up.

Our mushroom colony was out in abundance this morning and the cool early morning light was too much to pass up, so I went back inside, up the stairs to the desk grabbed my camera, back down the stairs and back out to find myself kneeling in the still wet grass.
If you know me at all...you know that what I saw must have really struck me to go up and down the stairs AND get in the wet grass.

I am pretty sure you won't be as thrilled as I, but that is okay!
These guys come up so fast and with such force that they bring along all the available mulch with them.



This slate blue color makes me happy!!!

They only have this tinge of color for a small time in the mornings. As the sun comes up and puts more yellow into the morning they begin to look more and more gray and they also shrivel up on themselves and die.
Wow...what a way to end a blog post!!!

Ha ha ha! Ah well, it is just now 8:00 and I still have a day to fill ahead of me!!
Happy Saturday.

Trombone no more

I haven't taken any photos yet today but wanted to share these with you.
I actually had them loaded up on yesterday's post but didn't want to share this moment with bananas.

You know I am not really up for sharing lots of personal moments about my kids, nor their photos. First of all I don't want this to be "that kind of blog" and second of all I just don't wanna.

But some days, moments come along that I feel like I just have to share, like this one.

Four years ago, I took my little graduated 4th grader to the band open house afternoon at the middle school.
He, with sincere tone told the band instructor that he wanted to play the flute.
I, as his mom knows it was because that was one of the smallest instruments to carry around and therefore the least taxing on his extremely physically fit self??!!
She had his number and asked him to stand, pointing out how tall he was...and what long arms he had!
She then gave him a bit of a sideways glance with a twinkle in her eye and asked if he had considered trombone.
He gave her that classic sheepish shrug which could mean anything from yes to you are crazy.
She wrangled him into trying that mouth piece and confidently let him know that this instrument was meant for him and that she would see him after the summer for a great first year in band.

Fast forward 4 years.
Tuesday evening I loaded my cumberbund and bow tied child into the van to drive him to his last concert.

His LAST concert!!!

He has decided to pursue other things which will need his time but still benefit him the way I had hoped band would. (think discipline and order and responsibility...oh and a phenomenal group of people to hang out with)
As I got farther along down the road, I got more and more melancholy about this event. He is an excellent musician and has always vacillated between first and second chair...mainly due to some lack of gusto on his part. I hate for this time in his life to end, but also know that he is making good choices that I agree with.
I had packed my camera, which has been a rarity for me these many years when it has come to concert pictures.
At each red light along the road I made an adjustment to the camera so that I would be ready to take this series of shots that I suddenly began to crave, like a woman is want to crave chocolate.

He got out of the van and adjusted his fancy duds, which gave me a chance to get out on my side and head around to set up for my shot.
He gave me a bit of a "mom you aren't really standing in the school parking lot with that big old camera" look and headed off.
I planted my feet firmly, adjusted my grip and gave a big holler!
He stopped his hurried walk and turned around to see what I needed.
He grinned and shrugged me off when he saw that all I wanted was a picture.
Then he started running.


And my heart felt like it was gonna burst or explode with pride at this man child who is slowly but surely heading out of my life and heading more and more into his.


I felt another glimmer of pride as he disappeared through that door, knowing he was fully ready to tackle the concert of the evening.
Then I got all weepy over again because there is still so much I have to teach him, and help him to understand before he leaves through that dark doorway leading into the "real world".
Sigh!!!

I turned around to head back to my van and caught sight of another mom sitting in her van, having just dropped of her little cupcake too.
She was clapping and grinning from ear to ear and then she gave me a double thumbs up, proud that I had taken to that craving and fulfilled it for myself.
She was so happy for me, and so was I.


I love my kids, and that is all.

Color Thursday!

Yellow!
Ughhhhh, so sorry for this picture.


I am in a huge rush and this was taken under duress.
As in, it is 4:45 and my husband will be home in 1 hour and will want a supper...not to mention those kids who are always hungry!
I threw in some ground beef to thaw for the pasta sauce now cooking and my pasta is boiling. That gives me about 12 minutes, only if I don't go stir the pasta cause it still takes me awhile to get up and down the stairs!! Ha ha ha!

I was carefully selecting these bananas today and my buddy said in a rather stunned way, "WHAT are you doing???"
People, these 40 years of my life I have always just picked up a bunch of bananas!

Is that what you do??
Just get a bunch of bananas all at the same ripeness and then you must either eat gross speckled brown bananas or make banana bread or throw bananas in the trash because you waited to long to make banana bread??
Well NO more my friends.
It is a new day around here!!
My cooking buddy Janice referred me to what I like to call the 1,2, 3 banana plan.

This is revolutionary and will change your life.
Hold on to your banana peels cause here it comes!!!

Choose a few bananas that are ready to eat tomorrow.
Choose a few bananas that will be ready to eat in 2 days.
And finally, choose a few bananas that will be ready to eat in 3-4 days!

Seriously!!???!!!
DUH!!!???!!!
Whoever said you had to only buy a bunch of bananas anyway??
Oh, the change my world has taken since this amazing plan has been put into place.

I wish this for you and yours as well.

Please, I beg you...try the banana plan and see for yourself what a difference it makes to your world.

I think I still have about 4 minutes!!! Just enough time to go throw some frozen broccoli in the microwave!

See ya back here tomorrow!!
Oh, and no time to scan for errors, so very sorry if you find some.

Learn something new

I headed out to conquer my watering duties this morning, quite bummed that we have total cloud cover without a single ray of sunshine.
I wondered how I was going to practice my metering.
I really feel like I need to seal it in my brain as well as my trigger finger as soon as possible.

Then I heard a distinct coo-coo, coo-coo from above me.
That is dove talk in case you didn't know.

I learned in my "Light" reading last night to always adjust as many camera settings as possible before heading out on a shoot so that you can be prepared to simply flick a switch and not miss a shot.
So when I heard the call of the dove, I was already set to go.

I swung my camera up, quickly attempted to adjust the meter to read the median gray and snapped.
Here is what I got.


Not too bad, not to good either.
So, like yesterday I tried again
and again, and again, and again.
Then the dove flew away!
Fine I thought, that was too much pressure anyway.

I lowered my ISO all the way down to 100, trying to correct a bit for the massive amounts of light coming in and got this.

I felt pretty good about this one. It captures the shadows (and unfortunate algae) on my house as well as the fun clouds passing by.

I decided that the composition needed a bit of a boost, so this one went to the crop board!
I felt like there was too much competition between the negative space (the sky) and the positive space (the house), leaving the picture a bit blah and bland.
Yes, I realize it is a picture of siding and indistinct clouds...what could be exciting about that anyway??
Well, I am just a crazy artist, but I say this gets pretty close.

The soft, lightness of the clouds up against the hard angles of the siding...does it for me!
I boosted the saturation as well, so we could enjoy the blue behind the clouds.

Okay, enough of that I have way more to cover today!
The first being assorted water droplets!




In the past I would have deleted this picture immediately, but am beginning to learn how to slow down and appreciate the beauty of blur.

My intention on this shot was to capture the droplet of water on the closest point of that tomato leaf,to catch it falling while balancing on my haunches trying not to get wet, while also hopefully getting a few of the incoming water drops as well.
This girl doesn't balance well.
But overall I gotta say I like the outcome.


The second thing I want to cover (if there is still anyone with me...anyone???) is a tidbit from scripture.
We are gonna head over to Exodus 3:1 where God is calling Moses and talking to him from the midst of the burning bush.
1.Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law , the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

I did a big ole search on the internet for Horeb the mountain of God, wanting just to see its specific location, and frankly there is not much out there in the form of a simple map.
Then I did a face-palm and searched for my colored pencils...remembering I could draw one just fine!!!
Ha ha, sometimes my greatest limiting factor is myself...ya ever feel that way?
Okay, so I drew a map AND colored it for you with the location marked on it!

See way up high is Jerusalem and where Canaan will eventually be, to the left is Egypt, and down at the bottom right is our Mt. Horeb nestled in Arabia, close to Midian.

Okey doke, now that we are all at the same map, let's move all the way down through the conversation to verse twelve.
But to keep us in context I will start with verse 11.
11. But Moses said to God, "Who am I , that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?"
12. And He said, "Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt you shall worship God at this mountain.

Hmmmm "this mountain" huh? This one here...in Arabia? This one here one past the Red Sea??
Isn't that the place where Moses first got water for the people through God? (Not "that" time, but the time before that. That other one is in Numbers 20)

Exodus 17:6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Okay, so let me get this all straight in my brain.
Moses leads the people out of Israel(ch.13), they cross the Red Sea (ch 14), they sing a song of deliverance to celebrate (ch 15), they complained of hunger (ch 16) and then in 17 at Horeb God gives them water.
So I am just wondering, why does my Bible map have the Israelites there...between the two
forks of the Gulfs of the Red Sea.

My whole life I have been taught that Mt. Sinai is there, but I am not sure that it is!
Suffice it to say, this is not a salvation issue, which is why I am perfectly comfortable bringing it up here!

It is exciting to jump in with explorers who have the time and opportunity to discover a world I will likely never see, to judge with my own two eyes... and camera!
This mountain is now called Jebel al-Lawz.
This is a fun place to start when you have some time.
And if you have about 45 minutes to spare...this is intriguing to watch!!
And here is a nice review of that short film in case ya wanna read that too!

Just a little intrigue to stir the pot!

Practice makes you need more practice

Ohhhhhh, I got a new photography book in the mail last week and finally had a chance to give it a look see!!
It is called Chasing the Light by Ibarionex Perello...however you pronounce that!
Improving your photography with AVAILABLE LIGHT is the tagline on the cover.

He begins the book taking the reader through the basic trio of important settings on the camera. ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.
Though I know this information, it still feels like new to me. Every time I read about it from anothers perspective it takes on new light...and thankfully becomes a bit more clear with each explanation.

Pages 26 and 27 made a huge impact on me last night as I lay snuggled in my bed reading.
Are you wondering why?
Well, this could be helpful to anyone with a camera because it is just practical information.

The camera is measuring the light reflecting off of the subjects we aim at.
Our camera meters are calibrated for an average reflectance supposedly midway between white and black.
So as the camera "sees" it tries to convert (in its little mechanical brain) everything to a medium gray.
He makes the point that this is fine if you are photographing a man dressed in gray on a gray wall, but what to do for a man in white on a white wall??? The camera in its wisdom will want to render out the white as medium gray...in those extreme situations.

Is your head spinning??? That's okay, mine is too! Even though I think I understand this in theory, it is just gonna take some practice with my camera to make it work in my little non mechanical brain.
So, I set out to make this principle practical today.
The sun comes over my fence in the morning casting wonderful patches of very bright sunlight in my yard and upon my house.
It set up a perfect opportunity to practice this very thing.
I set my camera on full automatic and pressed the button.
This is what the camera saw.

It wasn't all out wrong, but it wasn't right either.

So I switched over to manual and tried to "meter" off of what seemed to be the median gray in our shot.

Whoa, too bright.

Try again!

Still a little bright, but closer to what I was seeing with my eyeballs!


I tried about 5 more times. Adjusting settings and aperture.
I think I should have tried about 12 more times 'cause it didn't get any better than that shot above!
So, after loading it my computer I took it through my program and adjusted the levels there.

And that is as close to what I saw as I could get.
The point though was to be able to do it with the camera "on sight" rather than adjusting.
Don't worry I am not being too hard on myself...just noting the need for lots more practice and more understanding of how this works.


I did shoot off some more pictures so as to not feel defeated!
I feel like this has got some good early morning sun qualities as the light and shadow play across these leaves.


And, I caught the Shelbster in action!
She heard the back yard neighbor dogs, got in a good huff....
...began barking to rile them up sufficiently...


...turned to jump on the fence (look at that action, frozen in midair)



...and clawed away in glee as she communicated with her buddies as she is want to do everyday.

This lasts all of about 8 seconds!
Just long enough to get the humans all worked up about the barking and make a move to cease it. Then they are done!
It is the exact same every. single. time.
Interesting, well to me anyway.


Then I turned to what I know I can do, and shot a close up of my cherry tomatoes.
They are freshly watered and oh so happy!


I look forward to more reading the very practical information in this book.
But for now...the buzzer of the dryer calls.
Tuesday is finish up the laundry I didn't finish yesterday day.
Make it a great one!