More country photography

nobody@vox.com(Country By Design) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:53:28 -0700

My tiger lillies started blooming today and I thought it would be easy to get a great photograph. Wrong! I took several this morning, and none of them turned out very good. I took a dozen or so tonight and got a couple to pretty good ones. It is going to take some more trial and error to figure out the best angle and time of day.

Tiger Lilly

I thought the petals on the tiger lillies just had dark colored spots, but when you look close, you can see that the spots in close to the center are actually small projections. I'll have to try to get a better picture tomorrow. It was still a little bit early when I went out tonight. I walked down to the lake to get another water picture, but the lake was still choppy. Sometimes it looks like glass, but not tonight.

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Party in the city

nobody@vox.com(Country By Design) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:24:33 -0700

Snake for Vox

Just had to share one more picture. My daughter took this one of me on Sunday modeling my new scarf! In case you are wondering, it is a real, live green anaconda. It is amazing how warm and soft they are.

We had a big party in the city on Sunday to celebrate two birthdays, a baptism, and a first communion. The highlight of the day was a visit by Safari Steve and several of his close "friends". Much to my surprise, almost all of the kids, including the girls, wanted to hold and touch the alligator and the snakes. I'll try to post a few more pictures tomorrow. It was really an amazing, unforgettable day.

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More flowers in the country

nobody@vox.com(Country By Design) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:28:20 -0700

Img_6839 - yellow daisy for vox

I love this picture. I'm not sure if it is some kind of daisy or not. It came up from seed, so I don't have a clue. But it is amazing. All the stamens around the edge of the center are orange. It is a little hard to see at this size, but fantastic when you blow it up.

Back to updating. We spent Friday at our son's house so all the men could work on the deck. The rest of us watched kids and visited. I didn't get any good photos. We went to the fireworks display that night. I tried to take some pictures but I was too far away and I need a tripod.

Saturday was just another day in the country. I thought my computer was dead. I spent all day just trying to get on line. I did pick another batch of green beans and move some more flowers around. I had planted some petunia seed really late and they are just now getting big enough to transplant.

It was cloudy this morning, so I was able to get a few good pictures. I was afraid that is was going to be too windy, but at least some of them turned out pretty good. I had left my computer turned on last night since it was working, but this morning it wouldn't do anything, so I finally took a chance and turned it off. Lo and behold, when I turned it back on it took forever to scan but now it seems to be working fine. I've been working on another Moda table runner and I should have it finished today, too. I'm going to try to load a series of pictures of the daisies and some more daylillies. You need need to click on them to enlarge them.

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Summer in the city

nobody@vox.com(Country By Design) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:35:37 -0700

Sunflower - Taken in 2007

I have taken tons of pictures since I got to the city yesterday morning, but I can't get my daughter's computer to recognize my memory card, so I'm posting a picture from last year, that I took with the same camera on the same memory card. Anyone have any ideas why I can't load pictures this year?

My hubby planted another field of sunflowers over the weekend, so I'm hoping I can get another set of great shot this year, but with higher resolution. Last year I had my camera set to take pictures for eBay, and forgot to change it.

My granddaughters have dance recital practice or dance recital every night this week, so I'm here to watch the baby. The recital practice takes three hours, and that's too long for an 11 month old. He would much rather be outside playing. It is too hot to be out in the middle of the day, but by evening, it is nice.

I want to take some pictures of her flowers, too, but the sun is too bright now. I like a cloudy/rainy day best. Maybe after the sun goes behind the hill...

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Iris and daisies in the country

nobody@vox.com(Country By Design) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:32:50 -0700

Dark red iris with rain drops

We had some rain again last night. We escaped the storms that came through to the south yesterday afternoon. I had forgotten that I even had these dark red iris. They have just started to bloom. Glad I made it home in time to see them. It was still overcast this morning, so I went out to take some pictures.

I'm trying to load a picture of a daisy with a small insect, but I'm having trouble. In the meantime, I think I've figured out how to take black and white photos! I took a couple; now I just have to see if I can do it again.

I got a couple of pretty good black and white shots. I'll post them later. I need a nap!

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Busy day in the country

nobody@vox.com(Country By Design) — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:23:10 -0700

Img_5194 - Baby

Baby came with me this evening when I went out to take pictures for this week's Photo Quest. This picture didn't make the cut for the contest, but I had to share it anyway.

Didn't do any quilting today. Had a very nice visit with two of our sons and their families. We had sandwiches for lunch and ham for dinner, so I didn't wear myself out cooking all day.

I started cleaning up some of the pictures I have saved on my computer. I am running out of room! I had to delete a bunch of files just so I could get my pictures off the camera. Need to do more deleting. Or get more storage.

Time for bed, but I want to try to send some pictures to Snapfish. Wish it didn't take so long to send them.

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I went for blooms but all I got was seeds

nobody@vox.com(Country By Design) — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:34:32 -0700

Seed Head with small bug

I wish you could see this blown up to 8 x 10 or larger. It is perfect! The little bug is just sitting there in just the right place and the one little parachute is just about ready to take off. I love it!

I went outside this morning to take pictures of my one iris that is just opening up, but ended up with pictures of seeds. Strange how that works! This one is my favorite. The next one is the seed pods of a hyacinth.

Hyacinth seed pods

The detail in this one when it is blown up is fantastic, too. The next one is a pine cone. I like the branch arrangement and angles.

Pine cone

The ambient lighting was perfect this morning. It was overcast enough that there weren't any shadows and bright enough that the colors are perfect.

My hubby's brother came out to go fishing this morning, so I'm going to head down to the lake to get a few pictures. My beans and beets are just starting to come up, so we planted another row of beans. The radishes are looking good.

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Birthday party in the country

nobody@vox.com(Country By Design) — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:23:13 -0700

Papa with his twins

Here's a picture of "Papa" with his one year old twins. Their birthday was April 26th. We went to their house yesterday for their birthday party. We also celebrated their big brother's birthday; he will be three next Sunday. It was rather cool, but most of the kids went outside to play. The babies wanted to go out, too, but we kept them entertained in the house. They are wearing outfits that their other grandma made for them. Very cute!

White picket fence

Here's the white picket fence that we all have been working on for a couple of weeks now. It really looks nice, and it is nice to know that the little kids can go out to play and will stay in the yard. The landscaping is the next big project. They were working on the gates today. They want a small walk thru gate on each side of the house, plus a large gate that you can drive thru on the garage side.

It has been beautiful here today. I went out and hoed my radishes again. There is a little bit of spinach coming out, but very little. No sign of the beans or beets. I used old seed, so may have to replant.

We had frost again this morning. It was 34 degrees when I got up. I took a chance and didn't bring my plants in last night. It looks like they all survived.

I added a border to the yellow and white baby blanket this afternoon. It didn't look quite finished. I took some more pictures, so now I need to edit my Etsy listing.

I started loading some of my pictures from yesterday up to Snapfish, but it takes 6 minutes for each picture to load. Wish my computer was faster! Guess I should be thankful to have a computer at all.

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What spring means to me - Photo Quest #13

nobody@vox.com(Country By Design) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:48:32 -0700

Here's my description of spring in the hills of Missouri.

Red bud tree

I'm not sure if I like this picture of the red bud tree best, or the one I took yesterday. I had to go out earlier today because it was getting hazy. The sun angle was different today, and the buds were more open.

Blooms on crabapple tree

The crabapple tree in full bloom means spring has sprung! It is beautiful this year, and full of bees!!

Spring flowers

I had to get down close to the ground to get this shot. Most of my spring bulbs are already over the hill, but these just opened yesterday. Wish I could remember their name.

Please let me know if this is not the correct way to submit entries for the photo quest. Thanks to Darcy for encouraging me to enter. It was a lot of fun; I only spent 30 minutes taking these three pictures!

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Getting frustrated in the country

nobody@vox.com(Country By Design) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:01:16 -0700

I have been trying for two days to upload pictures and nothing happens. I can't get them to load on Etsy or Vox. Very frustrating! I'm sure it's my antique computer, but don't know why it used to load pictures, very slowly to be sure, when it won't do it now. I did get one picture of my latest table runner loaded on Etsy, but I wanted five pictures. I can't even remember how many times I've tried.

I finished another runner today, the second one with shoo-fly blocks. I like the blocks, but I'm not sure about the sashing and binding. Maybe it will look better after it is washed and dried.

We had lots of sunshine today, but it was a bit cool and windy. I had to go to town this morning to run some errands. Took time to stop by the school where I worked last year. It was great to see the crew I used to work with.

I'm going to try one more time to load a picture here then it's supper time. Later!

Lavender table runner

Well, I'm not sure. The picture is in my library, and it looks like it should be here, but it's not. I'll try saving it and see what happens.

Doesn't look like you will get to see the picture. I'll try again later. Sorry!

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