Thoughts While Riding My Bike*

Ooh – it’s very pleasant this evening – wind blowing through my hair – nice!

Hey it’s the kid who usually races me, but he’s ignoring me. Was it something I said?

Ooh pretty flowers!

Why do I never remember to bring the camera?

What are all these cars doing around? Shouldn't everyone be home now?

Actually, it’s a little humid out here now.

Whee!

Hey lady on your cell phone! Slow the heck down – there are kids (& me!) playing in this neighborhood!

Hey Ruth!

Ugh I hate this hill.

You know – frankly I’m pretty sweaty now.

OK, time to race up the driveway for my big finish!

Oof – my brake works really well. I’m gonna go flying over the handlebars one of these days!

*Did you think I would be having profound thoughts? Not this present moment person!

Portrait Wednesday

We had our portraits done earlier this month for the church directory, & that picture was free, but of course we had to go ahead & get a few more. I wonder if we're the last generation of people who will bother with such things? 

These were taken at around 9:00 at night - we were pretty tired. But they're still all right I reckon.

 

I didn't really like the hand on the chin thing she had Dr. M do - but goodness, could you have resisted those dimples? I think not! Now I on the other hand look like someone who does a lot of leaning on my hand, and this is true. In fact, as I was looking at the portraits trying to decide how to arrange them in order to take this picture of them, I noticed that I was leaning on the washer with my chin in my hand.

2013 Project 365 – Week Thirty-four

This has been a pretty good week (except for the air conditioner in my car dying – grr argh sigh). Dr M posted a lot of pictures from our yard – and his moon shots for the week – here. I’m only using one of the moon pictures on this post – he has the best ones on his blog.

Sunday, August 18^th

Dr. M chased some butterflies around the yard. 

Monday, August 19^th   

One of our volunteer sunflowers – she’s a little wonky, but so Lovely & Yellow.

I visited a friend in the nursing home. The State of the Bug: Grateful.

Tuesday, August 20^th          

Pinky, our pet geranium that we grew from a can (6 years ago), has always had two colors of blooms. I love the light pink, but the salmon is my favorite color.

Tomatoes…

The moon!

Wednesday, August 21^st   

Ah Dale Earnhardt – even 12 years after his death, his memory is alive & well. I grew up in NASCAR country, but it was never my thing (sure, baseball may be just as endless as cars turning left for three or four hours, but it’s less noisy!).

One of the last daisies. This one is huge!

A nocturnal visitor!

Thursday, August 22^nd   

The Tax Time Pig is in extremis!

This is Dr. M’s view out his study window (that’s the garage & back yard). It’s a wonder he gets any writing done!

Friday, August 23^rd  

Our smaller sunflower is just about ready to open up.

Mr. G-Nome has decided that he’s living in a jungle now!

Saturday, August 24^th      

Dr. M & I took a little road trip today & stopped to get some barbecue (it’s really good, but I want to bring my own Carolina mustard sauce next time). Anyway, they had a big sign advertising their catering business & of course this little piece of it caught my eye.

A toad! He says it’s bedtime so go away & leave him alone!

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!

Last Night

Last night I had one of my very few bouts of insomnia. Yes, I tossed and turned from around 2:45 to 3:30. It was brutal! I kept obsessing over a problem from work, and then I moved on to another work problem and then to an issue with a delivery we got yesterday and finally I was freaking out about something that happened a month ago. My usual coping mechanism (imagining winning the lottery) failed me utterly (usually I’m asleep before I verify the last number on the lottery ticket).

I finally fell asleep only to wake at 5:00 from a dream where I was running around a mall with no clothes on. If you must know, I realized that something was wrong, so I was looking for the lingerie department. All righty then!

While I was brushing my teeth this morning I pondered all the anxiety from the night before. None of that stuff was freak-out-able. Really! It’s as if I thought, “I have nothing to blog about so create some drama.” Which, actually, is pretty much what I usually do around here anyway. But next time let’s do it without losing any of my (very) precious beauty sleep! Okay?

So, how was your night?

Caption Wednesday

"That's it - I'm outta here!"

"Psst! What's up with him?"

2013 Project 365 – Week Thirty-three

The moon man has been at it again – but I “only” included four pictures of the moon this week. He also got some other great pictures that I’m not using – you’ll have to check out his blog here to see them (go over there – you need to see the dove!).

Sunday, August 11^th

Our next door neighbor gave us this tiny little cypress tree. I think it has a way to go before it gets as big as its mom!

The moon!

Monday, August 12^th   

This was the day that I got up around 1:45 to see if I could see the Perseid Meteor Shower without any success. Dr. M got up around 4:00 & was able to get a few pictures. No meteors though :(

Pictures from the yard.

  

Tuesday, August 13^th          

Tiny little hummer!

The moon!

Wednesday, August 14^th   

I found a new sheep farm on my commute to work – score!

Critters who love our marigolds…

I asked Dr. M to take a picture of the tomato-scape he had created. When I checked out the pictures on my camera I saw this – yikes!

And here are the tomatoes.

Thursday, August 15^th   

A coworker gave me some stale popcorn to give the birds. It was so funny watching them fly to the roof next door & try to wrangle the popcorn. It would start rolling down the roof & they would go hopping after it. Hilarious!

The moon!

On his way back in from taking moon pictures Dr. M saw this little toad. We love our toads around here :)

Friday, August 16^th  

I took a day off from work just because & decided to check an item off of my 50x50 list. I visited the local fen (my list says I have to visit during each season – I’ve been there in winter, spring & summer so far). The State of the Bug – happy!

Dr. M got out his toys to play with the cairn – ha!

Saturday, August 17^th      

We used to see hot air balloons all the time where we used to live, but now it’s a novelty. I like this one – it has Ohio themes (Wright Flyer, Dayton skyline, barn).

Dr. M sneaked & took this picture of me while I was looking at the balloon.

Wondering about the pirate flag? At that time of day the sun sneaks below the canopy of our swing so he decided to put up a barrier. Made me laugh when I saw it. He always likes to get this flag out when school starts. Wonder why? Ha!

In case you can't read it - the flag says, "The beatings will continue until morale improves."

The moon!

  

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! 

Wednesday's Words: Merrymaker! Festive! Happiness! Frolic!

I'm going to visit a friend in the hospital today. When I pulled up the directions I noticed something interesting about the neighborhood around the hospital:

Made me smile :)

Interview with the Universe

Apparently there’s some sort of meteor thing going on, so last night when I woke to up go to the bathroom I decided to head on outside to see what was what. In anticipation of the event, Dr. M had set up a citronella candle and a chair in the middle of the yard. There is a LOT of ambient light in our neighborhood so I didn’t think I would be able to see much.

So, it’s 1:45 a.m. and I trundle outside in my pajamas and sit in the damp chair (ooh – that helped calm down the hot flash!). Dr. M said that it takes 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to darkness so I was hoping to be out there for at least 30 minutes – even though it wasn’t actually all that dark. But then the neighbors came home (loudly), and I sneezed, and I kept getting distracted by the lights around me, so I lasted 15 minutes. Go me! Ha.

But oh the stars! Even though it wasn’t all that dark around me, the sky was completely clear & the more I looked, the more stars I could see. I was wishing I was awake enough to go drive out into the country because then I just know I would have been able to see ALL THE STARS.

I slip on my purple
bamboo flip-flops
and slide out the door
into a cacophony of
night music.
The cool damp is glorious –
the chair placed just so:
This is an interview
with the universe
and I am wearing
purple pajamas
that match the purple
bamboo flip-flops.
The universe asks
one question only:
“What do you see?”
“Grace,” I reply,
“and the vast open arms
of redemption.”
And the great
cricket chorus
Says, “Amen!”

Here you go, dear Bug: Perseus, about 4:30am EDST ~ Dr. M

2013 Project 365 – Week Thirty-two

What a weird week! Our pictures look pretty normal, but this week just seemed out of kilter to me. Today was nice & low-key, so maybe this next week won’t feel so odd.

Sunday, August 4^th

A friend from church rode her motorcycle on Sunday. I had to get a picture :)

The daylilies are winding down.

The flower garden Dr. M planted for me is just popping with color! This picture is not enhanced in any way!

The yarrow is still pretty with its more subdued color palette.

Goldfinch!

Monday, August 5^th   

I’ve been drinking mostly water lately. Today I added blueberries – yum!

The last daylily of summer :(

Bumble on the hanging basket.

Tuesday, August 6^th          

Tuesday was for the birds – ha! Here’s a house finch.

Juvenile robin.

Hummingbird on a wire.

Wednesday, August 7^th   

We had pictures taken for the church directory. Our appointment was at 7:10. We got home at 9:45.

The State of the Bug: Tired & annoyed!

Thursday, August 8^th   

Grackle!

Rosie.

Rainbow after the storm.

Friday, August 9^th  

I was originally going to get 15 bags of mulch for the church yard. Dr. M said he didn’t think 15 bags would fit, so I just got six. Here’s the Bugly with three bags still in it. I don’t know why he thought 12 more bags wouldn’t fit. Ha! I do NOT have good spatial orientation.

Our army of tomatoes is growing. The small ones are volunteers. The larger ones are Fourth of July tomatoes (just a tad late).

Saturday, August 10^th      

I posted this on Facebook: I used to be the Four Leaf Clover Queen (well at least the Queen of our yard) - my bible had dozens of four (& five & six) leaf clovers pressed in its pages. I finally decided to quit picking them & now I just take pictures. I have a "pet" four leaf clover in our yard. Periodically I go by & grin at it. So I had to run out & take a picture.

Another shot of the flower garden – again, this is unedited. Gorgeous!

This hummingbird came by while Dr. M was checking out our volunteer sunflower. She didn’t see anything she wanted so she went on her way.

Every time the neighbor across the street mows, his boys get out there with their mowers. It’s just about the cutest thing ever. This isn’t a great picture – I was trying to be sneaky. 

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!