SkyWatch Friday: December Sunset

Sunset, Texas Hill Country, December 2012

(Click on image to enlarge.)

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Blue Monday: Random Blueness

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself, please head on over to her blog.

I've been cleaning up some of my photo files, and pulled out a few shots with bits of blue. Nothing else to recommend them, really.

This first one is a snap of my mother-in-law's dog Daisy, taken several years ago. Actually, Daisy was my niece's dog -- there's a story there that we won't go into right now.  Anyhoo, here Daisy is standing on the blue carpet on  the screened-in sun porch.  Today, both the sun porch and Daisy are no longer with us, sad to say.

A shot of my desk, back in the apartment in Alexandria (one more place I can never go again, but I'm very OK with that). And my Erin Condren planner on top, with my initials in blue.

A cute blue car we saw on the road during one of our recent trips between Virginia and Texas.

A blue T-shirt that caught my eye on one of our visits to Rehoboth Beach.  I love babies in sunglasses, don't you?

And finally, a shot of the front of our house, just after dark and looking very blue-ish.

SkyWatch Friday: Big Moon

I took this from our front porch, back in August. Looks like the sun, but it really is the moon just coming up. (Click on image to enlarge.)

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ABC Wednesday: "P" is for...

Posting! Yes, it is.  And I really can't believe it's been so long since I posted anything on this blog.  My only excuse is that the last few months have been an especially busy time for me, what with relocating and getting all settled in the new house, reconnecting with family and friends, and exploring new (and old) territory.  Lots to do, not much time to do it in.

But I'm hoping to have more time for blogging (and relaxing) from now on.

So, "P" is for posting, but it's also for

Porches!!!

And here are a couple of shots of our front porch, one of the places I'm planning to use for all that relaxing I'll be doing.

I took this one on the day we moved into the new place.  Since then, we've cleaned it up, removed the wreath from the wall, and added some furniture. We're thinking about adding a porch swing, too -- good idea or not?

And here's a peek at the view from the other end of the porch, with the Texas Hill Country in the distance.  And a few of our neighbors, of course.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

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ABC Wednesday: "G" is for...

Today's theme is "Go Green," which is great because that happens to be my favorite color. And "G" is for garden too, and I do love gardens -- even though I'm not much of a gardener myself, I love to spend time in all those wonderful gardens created by other talented, generous people.

One of my favorite public gardens is Green Spring Gardens, near where we used to live in Alexandria VA. It's a beautiful place to visit any season of the year. Here are a few shots I took a couple of summers ago:



But we live in Texas now, and the gardens around here are not quite so lush. Here's a shot of a more typical garden from our area:

And, finally, here's a shot taken in a friend's vegetable garden, complete with cactus, garden hose and garden cat:

(Click on images to enlarge.)

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Wordless Wednesday: Memories of Summer, Part I

Fireworks over Lake Travis TX
July 4, 2012

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SkyWatch Friday: Storm Watch

Lately, we've been having a bunch of afternoon thunderstorms here in the Texas Hill Country. Which is good -- the drought seems to be lifting a bit. And it's made for some pretty dramatic skies. These are a few shots I took from our front porch. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Here we have the approaching storm:



And this was the aftermath:

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Outdoor Wednesday: The Finches and the Fans

We have ceiling fans on our front porch. We've never really turned them on because the wind up here on the mountain (OK -- on the hilltop) blows most of the time and cools things down without the use of electricity. We also have some House Finches who keep trying to build their nests in/on those fans, even though all the surfaces are completely flat, with no cubbies or crevices to hold a nest. The birdies keep taking their twigs and bits of fluff up there, and the twigs and bits of fluff promptly fall right off onto the porch below. But the stupid persistent birds go right on trying.


Sometimes, though, when the wind is really blowing and making the fans whirl, the Finches do take a break; they hop out onto the blades of the fan and just ride around and around and around....



I guess it's like a carnival ride for birds.

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer.
To see many, many more outdoor photos or to post some of your own, please visit her blog.

Saturday Snapshot: Wild Life

I've been just sort of ignoring this blog for the last few months -- concentrating on my book blog when I have some extra time on my hands. But I don't want to let Joysweb die completely, so here I am again!

M and I recently moved back home to Texas, after living "up north" for the past twenty-some years (uh-oh! -- all our Virginia pals would hate hearing the Old Dominion referred to as "the North" -- sorry about that). And our situation is vastly different now -- we went from a highrise in the city to a large house in the Texas Hill Country. I've been experiencing quite a bit of culture shock, but also enjoying the wide open spaces -- and the array of critters that visit our yard everyday. So here's a sampling of some shots I've taken since moving in (click on photos to enlarge):

These two show up most evenings around dinner time. Of course, I think of them as Bambi and his Mom. Hope this Mom has better luck than Bambi's in the story.

Mr. Bunny is one of a pair of rabbits that come around very early in the mornings and nibble on what's left of the green grass in our yard. I think the drought is officially over now, but things are still really dry down here. He's not easy to see because he's pretty much the same color as the vegetation.

This guy shows up most evenings, too. He was a challenge to get a shot of -- at the slightest hint of movement, he speeds into the bushes or under a rock. Had to take this with my telephoto lens which makes him look formidable and distinctly dinosaur-ish. In reality, he's only a few inches long.


Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books, and as she says: "To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online."

ABC Wednesday: "M" is for...

Well, naturally --

MOTHER!!!

And today, it's even more definitely for Mother, Mom, Mamma, Mommie because today would have been my mother's 91st birthday. I miss her so much, and this is one of my favorite photos of her. She was probably about twenty (or maybe younger) in this one, and the photographer must have said something really funny to inspire that grin -- generally, she hated having her picture taken.

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Blue Monday: Springtime Blues

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself, please head on over to her blog.

I've really been neglecting this blog again. No posts in March, and this is the first one in April. Not very happy about that, but STUFF just keeps getting in the way of my blogging. And I've been concentrating on my book blog lately, so Joysweb has had to take a back seat.

But spring is here, and I'm feeling a little surge of blogging energy. And we're having a really spectacular spring around here -- abundant blooms everywhere, and lots of unusually warm sunny days. Soon our condo community's outdoor swimming pool will be open for business, and I always think of that as sort of the unofficial beginning of summer. Last week on one of our walks around the place, M and I stopped off and checked out the pool area and I took a few shots of the pool and the gazebos above it (used for outdoor parties when the pools are open).

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Not the best of photos -- I'm still learning how to use a new camera. But I loved the two different shades of blue in the pool and sky. Now if it would just stay like this until next fall, I'd be absolutely content.

Blue Monday: Fire!

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself, please head on over to her blog.

A couple of months ago, we had a fire in our building, in the condo right above ours. Fortunately, no one was injured, although that upstairs apartment was pretty heavily damaged by smoke and the water used to put the fire out (our place escaped without any real damage, also fortunately). Everyone had to evacuate the building for several hours while the fire department did their job, and during the wait, I took some photos with my cell phone camera. Hadn't really even looked at the photos since then until this weekend -- and when I did, I was surprised by how well they came out, given that it all happened after dark. These are a few of the shots, and I'm amazed at how blue the sky looks in all of them -- in reality, it was pitch black. I guess my flash is more powerful than I realized.

Saturday Snapshot: Mom and Dad

I wrote this post several years ago for my family history blog, which I've mostly neglected ever since. But as the anniversary date has rolled around again, I figured I'd recycle it for Saturday Snapshot.

❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥

This would have been my parents' 70th wedding anniversary. I wanted to put up a photo in honor of the day, so I went searching through my albums. I knew I wouldn't find a wedding photo because there weren't any. My mom and dad were married in 1942, two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and just before my father enlisted in the Navy. It was a sudden decision, with the ceremony performed at the county courthouse – no fancy trappings or guests. And no commemorative photos.

But just finding a photograph of the two of them together was a challenge. Neither of them really liked having their picture taken, so they rarely sat for professional photographers. This shot is one of the earliest I found – taken in 1939 when they were high school sweethearts. They "went together" for a number of years before he popped the question. According to my mom's version of the romantic tale, he told her if she'd just get a job they could get married!

Well, she never got that job – her only ambition was to be a housewife and mother. And it took the uncertainty of a World War to push my father into action. They were happily married for fifteen years – until he died of heart failure a few months before his 37th birthday. My mother outlived him by forty-four years, and never remarried.

Yes, he was very tall – unfortunately, his height is something I didn't inherit. And although in this photo my mother looks like she's dressed herself from Salvation Army bins, she ordinarily had a much sharper fashion sense!

I miss them both.

❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books, and as she says: "To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online."

Saturday Snapshot: Big Moon

It's been quite a while since I posted anything on this blog -- been neglecting it, poor thing. Lately, I've had all I can do just keeping up with my book blog, so this one has gone sort of dormant.

Boo-hoo, right?

Anyway, here are a couple of photos I took of the full moon we had earlier this month. I was amazed at how huge it looked and snapped a couple of fast shots, without using a tripod or anything, so not the best quality I'm afraid (click on the images to get a better look).


They tell me that the moon looks bigger when it's right at the horizon because you have buildings and other reference points to compare it to. But this one really looked enormous and a little scary.


Reminds me of the Bob Dylan lyric, "Don't the moon look good, Mama -- shining through the trees."

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books, and as she says: "To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online."

Blue Monday: Blue Sky over Fort Washington

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself, please head on over to her blog.

I've been sorting through the photos I've taken during the last few months, and found this one from back in October.

(Click on photo for a better view.)

M and I had been to Mount Vernon for lunch (the restaurant there is one of my favorites in this area), and on the way home I snapped this shot of Fort Washington across the Potomac in Maryland. It was a little early for any autumn color in the trees, but the sky was a nice clear blue (except for that one tiny cloud right over the fort).

We've never visited Fort Washington, but it's open to the public, and it's supposed to be a great place for a picnic. So I'm putting a trip to the fort on my "One of these Days, Definitely" list.

ABC Wednesday: "B" is for...

Butterfly at the Beach

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

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