Some fun & Close...

 

I thought I'd have some fun on Sunday with my Lego Castle set.  I wanted to do more than just a few neat shots like the one below.

This is Clarence, he is one of the Castle Guards. 

After this shot, I thought it would be really fun to try a 'stop motion'. I did it the old fashioned way without an app to help. I guess there is an app you can install on your phone to do this and there is also and AI app called NaukNauk which will take a still video of a minifigure and make it into a short animated film.  It is slick as all get out. I feel like it is a cheap cheat, even though I've seen little videos that are pretty fun.

But it isn't true stop motion like I learned as a kid. I learned from the artists at my dad's office as they did animation. It was careful step by step drawing or using a photograph. I learned the old fashioned way.

I enjoyed this so much, it was quite a bit of fun.

In this castle there is a skeleton that has been locked in a cell. Obviously, the guards must have forgotten to feed him!

Looks like he is happy to have escaped!

After the last storm I had to go check for more downed trees. There was one. What a year for falling trees!

I of course had an idea for something fun to shoot while checking.

I used battery powered mini-lights and strung them out on a deer trail then placed my space people in the path and viola!

I didn't even think of a follow up to this shot...but I imagined the minifig in the orange saying to the other astronaut: See! I told you I saw strange lights!

I was just happy to quickly set things up and grab the shot and be on my way back home.

Though I did find these....

They were way passed their prime of course but I think they could have been some sort of Boletes. When they are fresh, they look rather beautiful.

There were more 'False Coral Mushrooms' popping up in one area of the forest that I had to backtrack through as the original ridge trail now has been blocked by fallen trees from the last few storms. No fence damage, but it is a pain to climb through or go around.

My Monday was a success. I called all the places I had to call and did all the boring things I had to do, then took some time to sit on the porch and watch the birds and think about the upcoming heat wave. This part of the summer is not my favorite.

By evening the air was breathless. However, I did still see lightening bugs! They must really love heat and humidity and ... still nights. I think my Grandmother used to describe weather like this as: Close.

Close: a weather condition when the relative humidity and the temperature are both the same. Often with no breeze where the air feels stagnant and heavy making it hard to breathe.

The A/C will get a work out for the next few days. It will be 'close'.

No Subject

I will admit that is has been a tough week with a few changes here and there. Mostly changes in my not so routine routines.

I fell asleep one night sitting up with hubby watching a Britbox program we both enjoyed called Death in Paradise.

As soon as I did go to bed, I was wide awake for most of the night. I tried reading, I tried writing in my paper journal [do people do that any more?]. Then I sat up on the bed and looked out the window.

The Fireflies were out but not in great number. I decided to go out and see if I could take a few shots of them.

 The Fireflies put on a show for me right away in the above shot I took in the driveway. Then they stopped. Maybe they were shy or maybe I scared them. Not really, but in order to see more, I would have had to walk up to the ridge or out to a pasture.

I didn't. Instead I sat down on the driveway and just watched what I could see of the stars and the Fireflies in the distance. I noticed the sky lit up from a distant thunderstorm. Eventually the sharp gravel irritated my bum so I got up and went back inside. By 2am, I actually fell asleep and the other half awakened me at 4am.

There are constantly things of beauty around me to keep me amazed. The peonies this year were exceptional. I had one huge bush that just produced and produced the most beautiful flowers. I simply couldn't get enough of them.

I picked buds and set them in glass bowls in the house to open up. The amazing thing is that they lasted nearly a week indoors.

There is a photographer on Flickr that shoots abstract shots of peonies, so I grabbed my Lensbaby and tried a few shots myself.

Not stellar, but it was a fun little experiment. I'm still trying to learn how to really do an amazing job of flower photos with the Lensbaby. I'm studying those photographers who do this professionally. I like a challenge and this lens is a challenge.

I'm sort of digging the abstract-iv-ness from the lens in a way.

Play.

I'd left some Legos out on the table last Friday when our friend Steve stopped by with his daughter, her hubby and their daughter. The daughter had a great time playing with the Legos on the table.

I miss my 'play' time and creative time where I can wander off with a backpack and some ideas. Or sort out my Princess Sara stuff and continue with her story...it is just itching to happen.

I started to create a little scene on the table last night after we had cereal for supper. [I was exhausted physically and mentally and wasn't hungry at all.]

Rich watched as I moved the minifigs around. He asked who was who...I do have a tenancy to give them names and create minifigs as people I know.

I pulled up a photo that I did last week and gave him my minfig rundown...

These are our helpers. To the left with the red headband is Shay, our Respite Gal. She looks different than the minifig, but her spirit IS very swashbuckling, so it fits that she is a female pirate.

Next is a visiting nurse. How surprising it is that out of 5 of the nurses we've seen, 4 have been male.

The wheelchair minifig is Rich. But I've changed his 'clothes' since I took that shot.

The guy with the fish is Steve. Why not? He really looks like Steve!

Next is the Chaplain and the Social worker we see. 

I posted this on IG and labeled it as our support team.

Rich watched me arrange and arrange the Legos on the table and finally said. 

You need more that time. [remember he has aphasia]

What?

You need more time to ... his hands flutter... You know... to do that and not be so busy.

He may have a lot of health issues, but he still is pretty perceptive. 

I grabbed my camera and Rich looked at what I'd created. 

I kept messing around with the figures until I had a small scene. I guess what I was doing was fidgeting. Fidgeting relieves stress and calms the mind.

Figuring out how to photograph something on the table just for fun was relaxing.

I came to a conclusion which was very hard for me. I love going to the gym and my gym friends. But I hate the scheduling as I can't seem to fill the times properly and I don't seem to get real 'respite' out of it.

I'm pausing the gym stuff for now.

So this morning when Shay gets here, I'll take Charlie and go for a morning walk before it is too hot. I'll adventure, I'll look for fungi, I'll take some minifigs with me. I'll breath the warm humid air and find myself and perhaps get smacked with some creative juices.

Then I'll go to town and get groceries and pick up meds. Boring but a necessity.

Wednesday is another Steve-Fishing-something-adventure day. So I have to organize Oxygen tanks, snacks, and whatnot.

I do feel a bit of guilt making me time. But I am realizing that if I don't ... well, they be picking me up for the Loonie Bin.

Birds and Stuff

Meanwhile during the snowstorm. 

We spotted a bluebird!

The bird never turned around for me and I had to get this hind end shot.

I couldn't help myself.  I had to go out and mess around looking for some fun in the bright white snow.

I thought the guy who plows would have showed up, but he didn't. The snow was supposed to melt quickly. Under the white snow, we had dirty slush from the dust in TX I think. This is the second time we've had dust and dirt in our snow/rain.

I decided the driveway might be too iffy for the visiting Home Health person to go up and down, so we cancelled that for this week.  My 'Ru could handle the hill and the snow, but maybe not the cars they have for Hospice workers. Though, I did notice that three of them drive Subaru CrossTreks. 

While I let Charlie wander the yard looking for mice or voles, I thought it would be fun to 'shoot' this Pegasus on a snow covered stump in the yard. White on white.

The hood of the Subaru provided a nice ski slope for my minifigs. They enjoyed using it over and over again!
I wish I had their energy.

While my minifigs were playing, I heard a 'goose' like sound in the sky east of me. I looked up and saw swans! I've missed many opportunities this year to go watch the Eagles on the Mississippi or hunt for Sandhill Cranes and Swans at the KVR.

So, I was quite tickled to watch these guys fly overhead.

With nothing on my schedule, I waited for hubby's afternoon nap to take a walk.  Charlie is being such a good boy, but he does need some hiking time too to keep up his musculature and health.

We went east through my favorite woods and ended up in a round about way in the valley and then followed the creek back up to our land and up different trails to get back to the house.

~~~~

So the day before the storm we had this going on in our yard! I never really saw until I shot this series ... that Robins actually get airborne to dive into the ground! Like a fox catching a mouse under the snow!

Such a common bird, but still so great to see them appear to let us know spring is near...

The snow melted quickly and when I went out to check the meadow and the fence, I came across dozens of Cedar Waxwings.

The photo isn't great, but I didn't have a long lens ... but there you go. Birds are moving about and it is so pleasing to hear all of their songs again.

....

I still have to get to the rest of the fun photos I am doing for the new minifigs that arrived from Aurora!

Here is a taste...

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!