The colors red

 ..and other inspiring ideas....

Sometimes after a having an dry spell of ideas and lack of motivation one needs ... something. Early this morning I looked around the internet and read a few things then looked at some blogs. Most of them had to do with photography.

Well that added to my motivation and joy. So much so that I was able to go out and look for opportunities.

These are Highbush Cranberries taken last week when Charlie and I took an afternoon walk up the road to check these plants out.

Here is the difference from July 1st of this year:

And here is the photo I took of the berries this morning...

I thought Red! Red! It is the color of holidays, of cheer, of bright and beautiful things. 

I have been following this bush since spring. Oddly enough, I've never gotten a photo of this bush in flower. I hope to get it this coming spring so I can complete my 'journey' of watching it through the season. 

I should mark it with a little flag before it drops its leaves as it will be hidden amongst all the other brush this winter.

Nanny Berry Red! Apparently after red, they will turn dark purple or black colored.

Nannyberry on July 1st of this year. No photos of the flowers this year. Again, I need to flag it somehow.

And then just your run of the mill Sumac. Truly though, they do add so much color to the roadsides!

Of course, there is always this in red....

A Ninja Minifig helping to trim flowers....

And in the spirit of the coming Fall season...

A Vampire Knight... in Red....

Some shots from the morning's walk to the meadow as the sky burst out with color.

The last shot is looking west from the pasture south of the house. This is probably the only other spot I can get a full view of the sky without the forest or trees crowding the sky.

That was my Red Theme for the day. September has been providing us with some amazing morning skies ... finally!

September

Here it is nearly the middle of September. 

At least we've had a few beautiful sunrises this past week! Here is another one. The old pine tree is gone now giving me a clear view of the ancient oak on the fence line to the east.
 

This was this morning over the east meadow where the spider webs were. The Orb Weavers were not out anywhere this morning.

Here is a damaged maple up the mailbox when I went to collect our mail from yesterday.

I thought I'd find more bees in the morning on the Golden Rod, but I only found this solitary one. 

However, I did find quite a few when I went into the volunteer patch of odd pumpkins in the mule pasture.

Here is my latest haul from the volunteer patch.

I need to send a text to the moms of a couple of young kids up the road so I can let the kids come down and pick out a few to take home. The colored and odd pumpkins always go for a higher price when you go out to purchase them. 

I tossed old ones out in the pasture last fall and the mules ate some and must have stomped the seeds into the dirt. Viola! Volunteer pumpkins!

I've always loved the crazy bumpy/warty pumpkins and cool gourds. 

Hubby commented on how hard I worked on that patch.

Wink wink. 

You planted with care and then weeded and nurtured those plants!

Manure and mud. That's my secret recipe.

I'm still struggling with a few little digestive issues, but I think I am coming along. I fixed the fence, put the skid steer back on the battery maintainer, and started filling holes in the yard [from tree cutting].

Most afternoons, I still chill out with the weather being pretty warm. 

I ordered a minifig Doxxie to assist mini-me [aka sigfig] in all things fun. Isn't he adorable?

This way I can still have adventures!

Life is good.

I am on this side of the ground!

Hooves, Hay, and Life

The first couple of days of this week were crazy busy. I mucked right through it because I have to take care of business.

Below is a photo [cell phone] shot of our yearly hay supply. I am so thankful for our hay guy saying he has no problem delivering and stacking our hay for us. 

The skid steer is on the right side of the picture. 

This was our old round pen inside the large shed.

I have a father son team who like to come out together to do our mules. This is Danny working with  Sundance. 

The farriers took time to come up to the porch and visit with Rich for a while. We've worked with these guys for quite a few years. Danny has assisted his dad ever since he could hold a hoof rasp.

Both guys do custom blacksmith work and farrier at the same time. Often our veterinarian refers hoof and leg problems to these guys because they are so knowledgeable.
 

I am behind on removing burrs from the mules' tails this year. Sunshine sports a burr tail. I'll get to it sooner than later. Show Sheen and Hair conditioner work really quite well. It takes a lot of time though.

My new hat. This is safer than a Harris/Walz hat to wear in my area. It takes a moment or few to figure out what it says. 

I think I finally turned a corner. I spoke to a nurse and she recommended taking probiotics and avoiding acidic foods for a while. I had probiotics and I made bland food for myself for supper.

This morning was the first time since September 1st that I didn't wake up with nausea and a splitting headache. I am crossing my fingers on this and hope it continues.

One day at a time.

Enough now ...and good people

 

I think I am tired of not feeling well. I'm SO over it. 

It probably isn't a good idea to survive on jello and crackers either. But if I was trying to lose weight, I suppose it may work.

I've been either in bed or on the couch reading. How is it that just sipping a cuppa coffee makes me grimace and set it down? 

On Sunday my son asked if I tested for Covid. I said no because I just figured it was a simple sore throat and a fever that broke in 24 hours. But the headaches, nausea, and fatigue has been a bit overwhelming. Hubby hasn't shown any signs of getting whatever I have which is a huge relief.

Yesterday I had our yearly hay delivery. Generally Rich unloads and puts the hay away. We discovered one more disturbing thing. He can't get in and out of the skid steer safely and the effort of driving left him  short of breath even with his little portable concentrator.

I called the hay guy and asked him if he could help out. He agreed to unload and put the bales in the shed for me. I asked him if I could pay him extra and he said NO. When I handed him the cash he looked me in the eye and asked if I'd snuck in any extra money. 

"No," I replied, "Rich said you'd be offended if I put it in the envelope anyway."

His answer? "I would!" I couldn't ask for a more kind person!

Not only did the hay guy unload and stack with our skid steer he also re-graded the driveway where he tore up the gravel.

The bales, if you are wondering are 3' X 3' X 8'. Their average weight is approximately 900 or so pounds. 

Anyway. I feel better one day and then rotten the next. The appetite has gone by the wayside along with my energy levels.

The events of the past week has had me rethinking our situation of living so remotely. If I got really sick, there is no real good long term solution. That is a sobering thought.

Today is another day. So far, so good.

Quiet Day Saturday with Memories

Saturday was another chill day. I thought I was going to feel great but that didn't quite happen.

Instead of hiking or taking a nice long walk, I took a dive down memory lane.

I decided to look at the photos my brother scanned from Dad's slides and shared with us online in a private album. 

My brother picked out slides from my Dad's enormous collection of photos that covered many years of our lives. My favorite ones are those of us  staying together in Hawai'i on the Big Island. 

My Dad had an friend at work who had a vacation home. Dad saw some lovely pictures of it and asked if he could rent it and take our family on a vacation. My dad's friend said sure and quoted him a price. Dad took him up on the offer.

He then told my dad it was in Hawai'i not in Florida. Dad wasn't fazed. Apparently he said yes and our first big adventure began.

Hawai'i became a state in 1959. This was 1965 [I think]. Around Christmas Dad had us sit down and watch a TV show. Unusual, because my Dad worked in Advertising and never insisted we watch the 'Boob' Tube.

A commercial for United Airlines came up with Hawaiian music in the background. The voice over said, "Guess what Tom Rogers is getting his family for Christmas! A trip to Hawai'i!...Fly the Friendly Skies of United!"

We kids sat stunned. 
Heck, I didn't even know there was a place called Hawai'i. 

Mom got our schoolwork from our teachers since we went during the school year. Mom was probably the hardest teacher we ever had. 

But here is what I recall.

My sister and I were inseparable. We played endlessly 'on the rocks'. We scoured the tidal pools and made up stories and pretended to be horses. We'd trot across the rocks in flip flops to lead our imaginary herds to safety.

We would build coral homes for our trolls to live in and then redo them after the tides washed the coral away.

It was a place like no other. Sometimes we would just sit and watch the waves crash into the lava rocks.

The photo below is of my sister and I in orange. The neighbor next door had gotten a great job at the newly built Mauna Kea Beach Hotel up the road. He had a Luau to celebrate and everyone that lived near was invited. Even us Haoles. [white people]

My sister and I are peeling cooked flesh off the pigs head.

Here is my mother in one of her beautiful dresses. I recall my father doing this 'shoot'. We kids were giggling. Dad was fussing with his camera. We were probably making faces and being idiots. But wow. It was an amazing shot with the sunset. Mom looked like a goddess.

The photo below is of my dad pointing out the island Maui to my sister. I'm sure my brother took the shot for Dad. He rarely was out from behind the camera.

We made trips to see the volcano. The road we drove on was called the 'Chain of Craters Road'. It wound around different sleeping  volcano craters. 

I recall Dad saying he wouldn't want to live near this area, he was sure that the Volcanoes  were not sleeping. He was proven right a few years later.

Mom took on a part time job to help pay for our rental. She caught the bug of Deep Sea Fishing and we booked at least one trip a week while there. 

I can say one thing mom was pretty ingenious. She packed our clothes in coolers. On the way back, the coolers were filled with dry ice and Mahi Mahi, along with Tuna. Our clothes were sent home in the mail.

We spent all year budgeting and saving for our yearly trip. I suppose folks wondered if it was all worth it. I say. Yes. We skimped on many things so we could go and spend a month on an island.

Our last trip was when my brother was a Senior. College tuition and life changes ended our trips. We had a good run. Nine years of summer adventures like no other.

The photo below is of myself on the left as you face this photo. My mom on the right. Spitting images of each other right?

However, that was not the end of that story.

In 2001, my father was legally blind and no longer drove. He wanted to go back to Hawai'i. My brother asked me to chaperone Dad on a two week trip to Hawai'i. 

It was another memorable trip. I took so many photos of Dad. This time I was the one behind the camera.

We went on crazy adventures together. At that time the wild donkeys of Kona were still wandering freely and there was a movement to find them a sanctuary as they kept getting hit on the highway.

I made some phone calls and inquiries and ended up talking with the head of their version of the DNR on the island. I inquired at coffee shops and other places on how to find and photograph the donkeys. It paid off.

We found them. 

I wrote a lengthy article for Mules and More Magazine and a sent a copy to the Governor of Hawai'i. 

[Eventually donkeys were captured and moved to a Ranch to be cared for not my doing really, but it was exciting to do some legwork while I was there with Dad.]

Dad passed away in 2005. When we talked on the phone before his death, the subject turned to Hawai'i and how happy he'd been there. How he wished he could be in Hawai'i forever.

In 2010 I went back with my son and his first wife. I carried Dad's ashes with me and ... well. He got his wish.

I'm with my Dad on this. Hawai'i was a magical place where we created and lived some of the calmest and loving times as a family. 

The rest of our summers were spent in another remote place in Wisconsin. We'd live with mom in a small cottage on my Grandparent's place and garden, fish, and play. No TV, no phone, no hot water, and no bathtub. 

Before school began, we'd pack up our canned and frozen produce to take back to the suburbs and adjust to Suburban Life. 

There are so many warm and wonderful memories of being on the island together.

I'm a lucky one. My parents gave us experiences that not many other families got to have.

I got to spend 9 summer vacations on the Big Island. I got to spend the rest of my summers in a remote location where I learned skills from my Grandmother and we essentially ran a bit wild with my cousins. 

Maybe it was all the different places and adventures I'd had through my childhood that makes me yearn to travel again.

Me in the 1970's
with a stray dog

My last trip to Hawai'i. Sunset over the ocean on a drive back from seeing the volcanoes with my son.

The sound of the ocean
Soothes my restless soul
The sound of the ocean
Rocks me all night long...

Last night in my dream
I saw your face again
on the white sandy beaches
of Hawai'i.

IZ 
White Sandy Beaches of Hawai'i

 

alive...

After a week of feeling like crap, I'm finally doing better.

I found out what it is like to be short of breath and feel as though I was wading through mud up to my shoulders. It is not a good feeling and I empathize with anyone who has experienced this.

This was a strange one for me. Sore throat for a day and then a fever for a day. Finally, the feeling of not being able to breath for days. I could breathe, but the feeling was horrible. 

I did get out last Friday early in the morning to see my friends the Orb Spiders and enjoy some quiet time before the tree guys came in with their machinery.

I don't think I will ever see this sort of scene without gasping. Just imagine if you were afraid of spiders, how would you react?

This is about 5 acres of meadow and it all looks like this when the Orb Weavers are busy. They actually are around in the spring, but they are tiny. They mature in the fall and the Females build large webs, the males sometimes build webs too.

More about Orbweavers here from the BugLady who writes for UWM Saukville, WI. Her site is full of cool information about insects. She actually has a featured blog for Bug of the Week.

A small Orbweaver according to the BugLady's latest news on Orbweavers, this could be a male...

Beautiful webs...

All I know is that I had to carefully poke my lens alongside one web to photograph this spider from the side. I was looking to get the dew drops on its body and the amazing maze of webs behind him/her.

This year has been pretty sad for butterflies. I saw one Monarch flutter by this week and am hoping that my Zinnias attract more! I spent one afternoon chasing a Swallowtail earlier this summer on the Bee Balm, but haven't seen one since late July.

When I look back on my archives on I noticed that I didn't get a lot of shots of Monarch until the start of September. So perhaps I need to be patient and keep an eye out for them. I had shots of Monarchs from September 1st through October 2nd.

A shot from last year:

In the meantime. I'm going to be grateful I can breathe much easier and I actually feel like making supper.

No more spiders today. Maybe I can find some awesome and cool looking fungi this weekend now that I feel like doing something again!

Of Dragons and Princesses. Just for fun.

So ever since I found those cute little 3D printed dragons while shopping with my Granddaughter, I've been caught up in my love for dragons.

I did imagine the dragons needing help in some way from other dragons. I did imagine that there needed to be villains and a heroes.

But dragons can look so fearless and ferocious. 

Or they can be cute and charming.

What if. Princess Sara's Quest and Destiny is part of a bigger picture? What if her destiny as Lego Princess is to save a Dragon from Lego Monsters?  How would she find out?

The Frog told her months ago that she just needed to keep wandering and her Quest would become evident. [That was me thinking...I don't know where the h-ll this story is going, but I'll keep having fun]

Surely if the Rock Monsters steal the precious legendary dragon egg, you'd think that the dragons would do anything to get it back.

But rarely are fantasy stories ever that direct. There's always mystical magical stuff going on. Always a Quest or a Good Deed to be done. 

There is Good and Evil, and Finding Your Way through Self Exploration. The main character must be tested and tested again.

And what on Earth does a Magical Frog have to do with all of it other than he set her on her course.

[Actually, with the original post, it was all about making a build from a video that Four Bricks Tall had made about mirrors and extending backgrounds. I named it  Princess Sara and the Frog's Quest in March of this year.] 

Off and on all summer I've tried to figure out exactly what her Quest should be. I knew IF I wandered aimlessly and let my creative mind echo in my brain that eventually I'd figure out something.

I didn't mean for it to become a story in my head or in photos. But it just seems to happen.

I suppose it is a form of play and a form of learning to relax the brain.

----

I think I'm finding my way. Or should I say, the story is playing itself out bit by bit. I just have to follow it.

The Forest Dragon, Emerald has heard of a Legendary Warrior Princess who welds great powers who could save all of the dragons from extinction. Perhaps it is her destiny also to save The Egg that has been stolen by the Rock Monsters. 

That Egg has been said to hold a Mythological Dragon that can also unite all dragons and people. Cracks had formed in the Egg which meant the Dragon was to be born soon.

He spots Princess Sara in the woods and notices her incredible and strong aura of strength and perseverance.

How could he approach such a magnificent warrior woman without being slain? He knows that all almost all Princesses, Kings, and Knights regularly slay dragons! 

He must, must find a way...

Princess Sara and Joan of Knight are still trudging along and wandering the deep forest, searching for an answer to her quest.

And deeper in the woods. Emerald contacts Yoga [yes, a pun on Yoda from Star Wars]. 

Yoga promises to contact the Mystical Frog to relay the dragon's plight.

---------------------------------------------------------

With this play, my mind stays active and my love for photography gets challenged by having to create a 'scene' and the photos are like a story board.

What better way to keep exploring my inner sense of kid and relaxation at the same time.

Hmmm, or is it my subconscious trying to figure out a way to deal with being a Caregiver that has to stay close to home and cannot go on all the travels she had planned to do after she retired?

Stay tuned to meet a new character in the Princess Saga.