Engagement Photo shoot

 A couple of months ago, our son proposed to his girlfriend, and we are thrilled to be able to look forward to another wedding in the family! I think I blogged a couple of years ago when our daughter got engaged, and I was able to take their photos.  So I was excited to be able to find another gorgeous autumn day to take Jordan and Cindy out to do engagement photos.

We divided our time between a lake near their house, which is where he proposed to her, and the Arboretum.  Here's the lake at sunset.

 Since it was a weekend in October, it was hard to find a spot at the Arboretum where there weren't crowds of people everywhere.  Fortunately, we found this lovely, leaf-strewn path.

 Their wedding is next October, and I think it will be really fun to be the mother of the groom this time around!

So much excitement!

Happy Earth Day!

It's hard to believe a week ago I was scraping snow from my car!  Going to the Arboretum today was the perfect way to celebrate Earth Day.  And I wasn't disappointed with the glorious sights!
The Lenten Roses were in full bloom.

 I love all the perfect little layers of this bud.

Even last year's hydrangea blossoms had a magical look to them.

 The crab apple blossoms were stunning.

 The robins are finally able to find food consistently, now that the final dregs of winter are past.

 The Trillium are one of my spring favorites.

 This little bee surprised me by flying out from the flower just as I took the picture.

 New life was everywhere.

 I was leaving the Arboretum and decided to take the long way out.  I was fortunate to spot this guy having lunch.  A good Earth Day for him -- not so much for the snake.

 He dropped the snake from the tree branch while I was watching.  I quietly sat down, hoping he would be more interested in his lunch than in letting my presence scare him off.

 He started flying away, and I snapped this photo, not really knowing if I was aimed in the right direction, in focus or not.  I was thrilled to get home and see what I had captured!

Happy Earth Day to you.  I hope you are enjoying spring wherever you live!

Spring . . . finally!!!

We've had TWO DAYS in a row of mild weather!  There are only a few stubborn piles of dirty snow left in parking lots and along the streets.  Today I made use of the day to take my camera to the Arboretum.  There were only a few tiny flowers popping up, but I enjoyed feeling, hearing, seeing and smelling spring!  Here's some of my photos:  These yellow ones are always the first ones I see each spring.  I'm not sure what they are, but they are a cheery pop of color, and very welcome indeed!

 This is a tiny, tiny grape hyacinth just emerging from the ground.

 Love the red bark on this, and the tiny bud.

 Textures abounded!

 A fuzzy bud!

 This was a close-up of tree bark.

 Just playing with DOF, shape and texture.

 Last year's leaves are floating in the open water -- but a lot of the lake was still frozen.

 I love the look of these trees against the sky.

I really hope spring has arrived in your part of the world!

Overcoming SAD

I have SAD.  Seasonal Affective Disorder.  Or, as I like to say, I'm solar powered.  No sun and I start to run out of energy.  First the physical energy and I start craving sleep, hitting the snooze alarm too many times, etc.  Then the emotional energy starts to go, and it's a quick ride to a very bad place.  Trust me, I've been there before.

The past two winters, at the suggestion of my "shrink", I have taken winter vacations to sunny locations.  And I haven't experienced much SAD.  So this winter, I decided that maybe I don't have to worry about the winter anymore and I'd be fine.  And it has been a pretty mild winter.  Which is why it took me completely by surprise when Monday at work I realized that all the things that I've been experiencing more and more the past couple of weeks was very recognizable:  I was slipping into the dark pit of SAD.

I immediately called my shrink, who is a very wonderful lady.  She changed the dosage of my meds right away.  The other things that always help are exercise and sunshine.  So yesterday I ran two miles on the treadmill (OK, so it was great for the endorphins, but pretty bad on the calf muscles this morning!)  Today was my day off work, so I planned to get together with a friend at the Arboretum to walk in the sunshine.  No sooner had I finalized the plan that another friend (my walking buddy) called and said she was free to walk this morning.  The sun was out, the temperature was mild, so I agreed to meet her.  We ended up walking three miles.  Here's a picture I took with my phone during our walk:

You can see it was a beautiful day for a walk.  After walking, I worked on a couple of projects, had some lunch and left for the Arboretum, where my friend and I took a leisurely mile long hike.  Then I got a text from my son, suggesting that he come over and walk the dog with me.  Since I never turn down my kids on any offers like that, I agreed.  A half hour after getting home from the Arboretum, Jordan showed up and we walked the dog -- to the Post Office, around the lake, through the wooded area and back home -- a total of three miles.  Here a picture I took with my phone from that walk.

So now I'm home, with my calf muscles screaming at me.  But it sure was a fun day.  And I'm thinking that I've staved off SAD for at least another day!  I hope so, because I may not be able to move tomorrow.  :-)

Happy November

Today I realized that I have been taking lots and lots of pictures for various projects, but haven't played with any new pics in Photoshop.  So, in honor of November and the fading autumn beauty, I bring you a few Arboretum pictures from last week-end.

I'm going to miss the wonderful, warm colors.  So the challenge is to find the beauty in the winter weather.  It can be done, I'm just not looking forward to it.

Happy Wednesday!

Yesterday was glorious out, and I had some free time to go to the Arboretum.  The redbuds were breathtaking!  And I had a chance to use the tutorial from Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers class to create frames around my images.  Fun!

After trudging around the Arboretum for an hour, I stopped at the library briefly and ended up locking the keys in my car!  It was only a mile walk home, where I leashed Skyler and called my friend and hiked back to the library to further enjoy the day with my canine companion and walking buddy.  (Today I'm a little tired!)

I also wanted to share a recipe that my daughter pinned  from Pinterest.  It's a bedtime smoothie that is delicious and seems to help both of us sleep better!  It was pinned from this site,  Tart cherry juice is expensive but well worth it!  We double the recipe each night, but instead of adding the cup of soy milk for 2 smoothies, we substitute 1/4 cup of rice milk, since we like it better.

Sweet dreams and happy hump day!

Arboretum tree

Here's a few more pictures of our work-in-progress.  I had to leave the actually tree decorating festivities early so I don't have any pics of the finished product.  Soon!

Letter tags that we made into garlands:

Origami stars:

Putting it all together:

Stay tuned . . .

Christmas ornaments already?!

Our calligraphy group is decorating a Christmas tree at the arboretum this year.  So all members have been invited to submit decorated tags and papers.  Some will be cut up for origami ornaments and some will be hung as is.  Here's what I've come up with so far:

I'll post more pictures as the process continues.  We're getting together Sunday afternoon to begin to pull it all together.

Early Fall Beauty

Last Tuesday morning I was rushing around getting ready for work when I noticed the play of light in the early morning mist.  It was so striking that I decided to skip breakfast and instead take my camera to the Arboretum for a quick detour to the office.  Not only was it the most life-giving thing I did for myself all week, but I got a couple of nice pictures as well.  This heron was enjoying a leisurely breakfast in the still water:

The dew was magical!

It was a great way to start the day!

More Mosaics

I said I would post some of the other projects from the class I took over the week-end and here they are.  Most of the participants made benches, and two of us did birdbaths.

This is Ginny's birdbath.  I love the red and white motif!  She used three identical plates for all her pieces. and a few flat marbles for the center.

 We had one man in our class.  He decided on a farm motif.  I think it's very whimsical.

 His wife was working very precisely and therefore had to take her piece home to finish it.

 Twin sisters who had done this before brought some of their own hand-made garden themed pottery pieces and added them to their benches.  One is grouted and one is not (and one is upside down!)

 This bench in shades of blues and greens will be an inviting place to sit in a garden.

 Here's one final shot of my birdbath.  It's sitting in my living room because I have to let the grout cure, then seal it before I can put it in the yard.  Sorry, birdies, you'll have to make do with the plastic one that's out there now!