Wordless Wednesday (The Be Back Next Week Edition)

2013 Project 365 – Week Twenty

With a couple of exceptions, this week is basically “As seen in the Bug’s back yard.” Nice quiet week around here – full of laundry & mowing & waiting impatiently for our vacation. Even so there are a gazillion pictures. I’m just getting you ready for next week because that will be out of control. Or maybe I’ll split the pictures up into different days. We’ll see. Oh, and as if these aren’t enough pictures, if you haven’t already, please check out Dr. M’s post. There are some pictures I put into a collage here that he shows individually, so you might like to see those.

I’m posting this tonight because we’re leaving early tomorrow & I don’t think I want to mess with posting pictures once we get there. Ha!

Sunday, May 12^th – Mother’s Day

My Facebook status for the day: Happy Mother's Day to all you mothering type people! You know, back when my grief was fresh I resented the hell out of Mother's Day. "Where is Motherless Day?" I wanted to know! But now, 8 motherless Mother's Days later, I am back to being amazed by mothers. What a job! (And, just because I'm the person I am, I have to point out that when you say the word "mother" too many times in a row it starts to sound hilarious. Ha!)

The doggie next door. He is always so curious about what we’re up to.

Mr. Ken’s irises.

Downy woodpecker – I love the one where he is giving the house sparrow that look – “what are YOU doing here?”

Clouds

Monday, May 13^th

I can never resist robins in the bath.

I took this day off to do some things to get ready for our trip. We decided to take a little mini road trip. Yep.

I love these exploding tulips!

Papa cardinal.

This looked pretty scary from Dr. M’s perspective – although I’m sure they were further apart than they look.

My latest project.

The moon! Whew – did you think this day would never end?

Tuesday, May 14^th           

Red-bellied woodpecker.

Squirrel on a wire.

Crow!

I pass these flowers on my way home – lovely…

Wednesday, May 15^th   

Goldfinch!

The man behind the camera…

Thursday, May 16^th    

Honeysuckle on the back fence.

Our hanging basket is looking gorgeous.

Grackle – love the fanned tail.

The moon!

Friday, May 17^th  

The State of the Bug – I woke up with a cold. Yes, the day before vacation. I ran out of Kleenex at work & resorted to some paper towels that were in my car. They were still softer than the facial tissue our office has.

Ahhh Choo!

Our neighbor is going to babysit the hanging basket while we’re gone.

Aren’t his poppies lovely?

Saturday, May 18^th    

We’re headed to NC’s Outer Banks today. See you later!

Go to Mamma Fran’s blog here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants. Have a great week!

Most of our photos are taken with a 12 megapixel Nikon D5000 DSLR, using a 55-200mm zoom lens. This is the camera that Dr. M takes with him most days. He also takes pictures with our old reliable 7 megapixel Canon Powershot A710.  The Bug uses our new Nikon Coolpix S6200 most of the time. If you’re interested in which camera was used for a particular shot, just ask! 

Flat Paper Folded

I spent time today

making dozens of

origami cranes –

flat paper folded

into life with a tug

on each paper tail.

They soared across

my desk, mingling

with Oreo crumbs

and hope.

Wordless Wednesday

Bittersweet Day

I joined the Cult of Creative Memories in the early 90s. Would you like to see my photo albums? No? After we moved to Ohio in the early aughts I joined the Cult of Stampin' Up (they're not the least bit incompatible, & in fact each cult encourages the other). I made cards for friends and family for about five years. Here's one of my favorites, sent to a friend who was getting ready to have breast reconstruction surgery:

I stopped making photo albums when my mom died. I think I did a few more pages & then just quit. Apparently I was making the albums for her. (Well, getting a good digital camera also contributed to my lack of print picture interest).

And then about five years ago I lost interest in making cards. When we moved I thought that maybe a change of scenery would pique my interest. Not so much. And so I've had all this STUFF sitting around collecting dust for all that time. I finally decided that it was time for me to get rid of the vestiges of these two cults. I am giving it all away to some folks who I know will appreciate it.

I had some fun testing all the ink pads to make sure they still work. Although there was a twinge - I used to stamp the penguin on the backs of the cards I made & then write "Danamade" in its belly. Feels weird to know I won't be doing that anymore.

And then I came to this box:

It was a silly extra thing that I just had to have - it came with plastic pages where you could arrange all the pictures you wanted to put in an album & then store your layouts in the box until you were ready to put the pages together. I opened up the box to see September 2004 - the trip that we took to Lake Erie six months before Mom died.

And wow it was hard to take those pictures out of that box, knowing that I'd never put that album together. Fortunately, Dr. M knew this would be a tough process, so he brought in a cow to stare at me :)

Really, I'm glad to give all of this stuff to someone who will use it. And it removes that feeling I've had over the years of something left undone. And as we all know, I have a new obsession now. All that yarn has to go somewhere!

2013 Project 365 – Week Nineteen

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there!

I decided to not overwhelm everyone with pictures this week. I mean, after all, my last post was a picture post. AND Dr. M has a nice post of this week’s pictures. So you can go here to see his pictures and here to see my 10 on 10 post if you would like.

Sunday, May 5^th    

Dr. M got us a new hanging basket for the year – so pretty! I’m sure you’ll see more pics of it as it fills out.

Monday, May 6^th

Our friend Linda calls these guys the Board of Directors – they are definitely in session these days!

Tuesday, May 7^th           

More birds in the hood.

Our dinner tonight. I was highly amused by the potato – doesn’t it look like an armadillo? It’s from one of those Facebook recipes that has been making the rounds. Really tasty. Oh, and that’s turkey Spam and asparagus in the background.

Wednesday, May 8^th   

Our neighbor’s flowers – love love love the bee sticking its nose in the wisteria.

Thursday, May 9^th    

More flowers – Pinky, our pet geranium, seems to be doing well.

And I LOVE poppies!

Saw this bumper sticker on my way home and it made me laugh out loud.

Friday, May 10^th  

The goldfinches are so bright these days!

The State of the Bug – listening to my audio book during a break at work (you didn’t think I was going to use that awful siesta picture again did you?).

  

Saturday, May 11^th    

I think this is my favorite picture of the week. Shoot – of the whole year! Silly puffed up windblown sparrow :)

The Weekly Squirrel is telling us it’s time to get out of here!

Go to Mamma Fran’s blog here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants. Have a great week!

Most of our photos are taken with a 12 megapixel Nikon D5000 DSLR, using a 55-200mm zoom lens. This is the camera that Dr. M takes with him most days. He also takes pictures with our old reliable 7 megapixel Canon Powershot A710.  The Bug uses our new Nikon Coolpix S6200 most of the time. If you’re interested in which camera was used for a particular shot, just ask!