Wait, What?

Wait, what day is it? 

What happens when all of your days blend together? 

Some times you don't sleep well and other nights you are just plain restless. One of those nights I woke up ... wide awake at 1:30 in the morning. There was no going back to sleep so I went out on the porch and decided to look at the sky.

Yes, I am very fortunate to live in a 'hollow' with the nearest street lamps 12 miles away. If I go up on the ridge, the yard lights of farms across the ridge do 'pollute' the night sky. So lucky lucky me. I can admire the stars from my porch and my driveway.

Porch view of that night's Milky Way. 
It was clear enough for the naked eye, but the camera can pick up so many more details.

Is it no surprise that I fell in love with the night skies while living here for the past 29 years? 
The stars give me a sense of peace and wonderment [as do most things in nature].

I went out to try a selfie of me looking up at the Milky Way. It didn't work. Other years I've gotten the beam from my headlamp to show up in the humid air...
Not so this night. I tried over and over. So then I turned the red light on and twirled it for a 25 second photo.

It is called light painting, which I never really got the hang of.

But I thought it turned out neat.

I'm going to try it again but wear dark clothes and use some glow sticks. 

Here are some random Toy shots I just felt like doing on an overcast afternoon. 
The Goat herder seems unaware that he is being watched. Squatch who is one of my favorite toys is still around Aurora! He often joins the Legos on adventures!
 

This Rock Monster set up on the cookie tray with a clay mushroom I made, along with bits of plastic leaves and chunks of wood.

Of course. the Evil King and Queen of ... hmmm, I don't know what to name their kingdom, do you have a suggestion?

While out watching the hummingbirds and the clearwing hummingbird moth, I placed an HO figure on one of the Blazing Stars just to see what would occur. 

And he looked as though he became a Bee Keeper! 👇

I spent some time outside yesterday morning with both my macro and long lens. I still have to go through a lot of photos of flowers, birds, bees, and other insects. By 9am, I had finished up outside and mowed a tiny bit before coming in for a shower.

The rest of the day was taken up with a morning visit with hubby's nurse and and afternoon visit for his sponge bath. Rich looks forward to these interactions.

So, yesterday was Monday. Let's see what today brings.

I'm  going to meet a friend I met at the gym and go see her place. 

I feel a bit wicked knowing that I have some free time to do something different.

So yeah.

Wait

What?

And the animals come in....

I believe this herder was supposed to be taking care of his small flock of critters. However, it looks like he had a bit too much wine and didn't properly put his farm animals away...

In the early morning, it seems they pushed open the door and decided to help themselves to whatever the herdsman had in the house.

This is a building was from FunHole Wood-Cabin set. It is a Lego like build with the same sort of bricks. It was the very first 'build' I did over a year ago. It has two floors and came with lighting that integrates with the bricks. 

It was a difficult build and the bricks don't fit as tightly as Lego bricks do, but I enjoy using its detailed inside once in a while to have some fun. It has a kitchen, a wood stove, and a bathroom complete with a tub, sink, and mirror. The upstairs has a bedroom and a desk. There is a ladder that goes from the first floor to the loft.

I've used the outside of the building and porch for other photo scenes and I've taken this room apart and rearranged it several times. My favorite part is the wood stove that actually lights up. Most of the wiring and the contacts do work on this build but to my dismay or ineptitude, not all the ones do.

I took the roof and the upstairs off. Under the first floor, there is a circuit board with wires that runs through the bricks and lights things up. The porch lights, stove and bathroom lights work in this shot. There is a battery box in the lower right side of this photo.

I used a warm light [which actually looks green in this shot] to shine on the partially open front door.

I used another tiny Ulanzi light in a warm color to light up the interior.

And lastly, I stuck the face mister and turned it on so it would make the open door glow like morning sunlight. It also made the wood stove light glow. [I put it in the bathroom and opened the door!]

The herder kept falling off the couch so I had to use a tiny piece of sticky tack to hold him in place.

I had several tries before I was partially satisfied with a shot. Contrary to popular belief, this isn't so easy and it takes a lot of adjustments!

This was another idea I had just pop into my head Sunday morning while I was waiting for our company to show up. I couldn't go out in the heavy rain and winds to work on Princess Sara's story, so I had to fill my 'waiting' time with something else.

I ended up using a 30mm lens with a smaller aperture to try and get all of the animals in focus. 

It was not a one and done. I had to really experiment with settings and lights because I kept getting things too dark, too light, or too many harsh shadows. I had to be careful with the mister also especially when I let it run too long and everything in one photo had droplets on it!

And then! Yesterday the sunshine in the morning was brilliant and beautiful. So I could take Princess Sara out....

and begin another part of her wandering story...