I was ... bored--ish.

Charlie...that goof ball woke us up at 4am. He'd gone into the bedroom by Rich and started howling. I mean howling like he was being murdered. I leapt out of bed and hurried into the bedroom. We still don't know why he started howling.

But that got us up. It was nice in a way because Rich was done with his breakfast, meds, nebs, and morning routine in time for me to drive up to the ridge to watch the sunrise. It felt like a treat to get to my favorite spot and watch the sky and clouds turn colors.

The first shot is with my regular camera lens, the second was with the Lensbaby SOL 22 lens. 

The shot below is more soft as this is what the artistic Lensbaby lens does. I sort of like it!
I wasn't sure about using it in a landscape situation, but without experimenting, we never really know if something really works or not, right?

I got to the Farmer's Market to get some pie for hubby. Ruth is a Mennonite that has a bakery and she is generally there on Market day. I was going to get an apple pie but Ruth recommended the raspberry or the cherry pie. She said fresh apples from the orchard made much better pies that the ones she had. 

I left with a raspberry pie, a cherry pie, 3 bundles of fresh carrots, and several large tomatoes. 

I spent the morning chopping up and blanching the carrots for vacuum sealing and freezing. Last week I froze 3 dozen ears of sweet corn and 3 pounds of green beans.

Growing my vegetables is very satisfying, but with the extra work I have to do here, I've decided that purchasing fresh veggies at stands and markets is easier than toiling in a garden. I'm almost at my goal of fresh frozen veggies for the year.

While cutting up carrots, I had a funny idea. There is a new 'phone' app called NaukNauk that will take a single uploaded photo and turn it into a 5 second animation. So I tried it.

Doesn't everyone need a Ninja Warrior
to help with food chopping???

Both Rich and I giggled over what the AI generated mini movie did with my character. 

By the time I finished the carrots, a full blown storm arrived. The winds were fierce even down in our hollow, we had an inch of rain in less than 30 minutes.

Since the rains kept coming down in buckets, I decided to open up DxO labs and try some of the things they have in their Analog Collection. One of them is called Multilens. It was fun. Not sure what I'd use it for, but it took the photo in a different direction.

I then tried the double exposure component with this shot. 

It doesn't really work as a true double exposure with a shot like this. The program doubles the shot and allows you to resize it, adjust it, and even motion blur it. 

The double exposure section also allows you to add another shot, this time I didn't do that.

I just did a blur on the edges. It was interesting, but not something I'd use often.

I did this one of Charlie in the winter woods a few years ago. This worked out so much better as Charlie was on a white snowy background. One shot of Charlie in the bright snow, and one shot of the forest behind him.

This was done in DxO Labs.

I did an unintentional double exposure. 

I took a few shots of this. The camera was on a tripod and I set the camera up to take 3 shots as I sprayed a bit of mist at the shots.

I set it up in layers and I didn't align them. I liked the result and dubbed it a double exposure.

Dr. Cob and his dog Cog. It seems they are doing some time warping with the minibots.

Uffdah. Time to get out my cleaning supplies and get at it while hubby is up and about.

Nothing like being literally stuck indoors!

But I best get at it.

We are going on our third inch of rain and we are not even in the 'flood watch' area.

Fungus Among--us

Meanwhile the rains and humidity have provided a wonderful world of beautiful fungi/mushrooms. I'm going to just ID these with common names as I could be off with their true identity.

According to 'Google Lens' and one of my ID books, these should be Cany Caps fungi. They are similar to another kind of mushroom, however you have to look at cellular structure and spore prints. I did smell them and they did smell sort of sweet.

I can't believe my luck in finding these. I had walked through a few other places where I always find mushrooms and fungi. I found plenty of deer but not cool fungi.

So, I took a detour to a different section where I usually don't find fungi and was surprised by the amount of cool mushrooms and slime mold I was able to find.

I don't recall seeing any mushrooms in this section of the forest in the past few years of drought. So I imagine the spores have just been waiting for heat and humid conditions.

This fall ought to produce a magnificent showing of fungi.

I couldn't believe my eyes. In a small area, everywhere I looked I saw these.

Angel of Death Mushroom.

Destroying Angel

But.... according to certain sources these are only supposed to grow on the west coast of the US. I am sort of confused because I can't find any other white mushroom that looks like this.

I still think it is a cool looking mushroom. It was easy to spot in the forest and they grew in singles or very small clumps of two near each other.

I'm just going to be safe and obviously not eat them. There are very few wild ones I can identify safely, this is not one of them.

They are quite beautiful though. Pure white with a stunning shape.

I couldn't help but use them in a Rock Monster photo. It seems like Zombies and Monsters would like such a mushroom.

Then there were many spots of 'False Coral Fungi' aka known as Sebacina which don't grow on wood but on forest floor litter. I found so many specimens.

This one was the cleanest.

The Lego Zombies thought it was great too.

Why not get some for supper?
Not that I'd try it, but apparently it doesn't hurt skeletons.

There was so many of them in this little area that I was able to shoot in several spots. 

A vampire knight seems to be happy in this bunch of older fungi.

The mornings have been foggy and of course damp. The past two mornings have been cool along with a heavy dew. Even the flower beds are sprouting little fungi families.

These are more than likely 'Common Ink Caps'. The appear and quickly spore and shrivel up.

Don't eat the mushrooms...at least I don't even try unless it is something I definitely know is safe.

I wonder if the dinosaurs were told to be careful???

Gee, I don't know.

Get up and go...

What do you do when it is 90+ F outside with humidity that chokes you? Well, first off, chores have to get done when the sun is coming up. 

Later in the day any sane person would retreat from the heat, there is mowing and yard work still to do with breaks in between.

To enjoy some mindless quiet time, I get out the crafty stuff and start to imagine what I'd do with mushrooms, mosses, glue, paint, and soda bottle tops.

How about little 'flat' pretty marbles? I imagine them to be like Lily pads with little micro flowers on them. Perhaps a butterfly or two would be fun too.

So all these ideas came about when I was at the Farmer's Market a couple of weeks ago and saw a lady who took pieces of wood and had glued mosses to it. She had some tiny mushrooms she'd made and painted that she attached to the little logs.

I studied it and thought it would be cute to have this for my own. Until I saw her price tag. $68 for little 12 inch 'stick' that was about 3 inches in diameter with a few bits of moss and two tiny mushrooms.

She had different sizes and prices. But I couldn't spend even the $28 for one of them. I studied it. Then I decided to use her wonderful idea and make my own decorations. 

My own decorations turned into scenes for my Lego minifigs. 
 

The morning light was too good to pass up. So I took my camera out on the porch to let it acclimate to the heat and humidity while I grabbed my old cookie sheet and made a pond.

Arranging things on a cookie sheet to do a tiny scene was so engaging.

I put it on a plastic crate for easier photographing.

I tried both my Lensbaby SOL 22 lens and my 25mm prime lens. I ended up liking the softness of the Lensbaby best.

Shooting on the porch concrete proved a bit harder to get 'the look' I wanted. But this will give you an idea of why I moved it.

I find the little cookie sheets very helpful in 'setting' up a scene. It keeps me focused on a small area which is what shooting tiny figures is all about. The porch garden provides a perfect backdrop to the items on the tray.

I needed to make this shot look as if it was in a swamp. So I picked some weeds and quack grass out of the garden and dropped it into the water on the sheet.

Glenda meets Alli along with Alli's friends. 

Most Legos are not evil...Glenda and her new found friends decide to take a tour of the swamp.

I haven't quite worked out the best angles to really do a great job, but I am enjoying the process. I can also hear Rich when he rings the bell inside the house for assistance. 

I get a bit of down time along with a bit of play-->distraction time.

What will I do with all my bits and pieces? I don't know. When I am done using them for now, I'll keep some bits out to decorate my flower table with and I'll store the rest in a tote.

I will have one tote full of bits and pieces from junk I repurposed two summers ago for scenes about space or exploring other avenues. 

Example:

[the bits and pieces are script containers and bits of CPAP tubing]

Now I can add these bits and pieces for 'natural' settings without going out into the woods and finding them.

[I'd rather be in the woods, but that is too far away from watching over hubby.]

I can't wait for another decent morning to try out some more tricks on the porch with my cookie tray.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As for the 4th? We didn't do anything but we had a wonderful visit with Ariel. We heard fireworks going off on Thursday night in the surrounding area. We enjoyed a simple cookout and a lot of visiting.

Ariel and I took evening walks together after supper while hubby watched Death in Paradise. 

The yard is mowed, the laundry is hanging out to dry until the rains come again. The next two days are going to be quiet too.

Astra says...

"If you were able to fall a hundred times as a child and rise, 

you were able to fall a thousand times as an adult and soar."

~~Matshona Dhliwayo

Oh what joy...

 Really! 

I had a joyful hour of photography yesterday!

So you all have figured out by now that if I can get out and spend a bit of time with Miss Mom Nature, I am a happy camper.

I spent the morning setting up my temporary strings of fence hotwire and gates. In one direction, the gate allows the mules access to the forest. 

Moved the other way, they have access to the Merry Meadow [named by Ariel when she was little].

I'd fence, go back to the house to check on my patient -- go fence some more. Back and forth I went all morning. 

This included cutting down multiflora rose and cutting back Honeysuckle from where I was putting the electric fence. Yes, so much joy in that!

Done with that project. 

Next, I may have to revive the ancient mower and use it to cut down some thistles that are coming up in the meadow. 

If I mow the patch often with the push mower, I won't have to hack at it with the scythe. Anyway that is my industrious plan. Not sure it will happen but I'll try. 

That means putting the push mower in the cart that is attached to the old 4 wheeler and hauling it out there.

So.
Back to the photography.

Remember the odd looking moss/liverwort reproductive system in the rain? 
I found this yesterday. You can see that the little 'balls' blew open and 'spored' out for more plants.

Charlie was bored with me getting down low. But I can see the world better from his perspective.

I do have a fascination of little things. Big broad landscapes are really not easy to do in our landscapes of steep hills and valleys. So I find the little things.

The Spring Beauties as we call them were literally covering a section of our woods.

How lucky was I to not only sit among them, but when I studied the flowers I was able to find bees working the flowers.

I was using my Lensbaby SOL 22 lens. It is a frustrating and beautiful lens with an f stop that is set at 3.5 with a movable focal point. All of the work with this lens is purely manual as the lens doesn't communicate with the camera. 

I love the challenge.

Forest violets and yard violets....

Where the Maidenhair Fern Grows....

That's it for today.

It is Sunday morning and the day is looking bright and beautiful.

Time to get going and see what I can find today and work on my flower beds.