Brenda's Photo Challenge

NOTICE:  THE CHALLENGE IS NEXT WEEK.....I GOT THE DATES MIXED UP

Red is today's theme for Brenda's Photo Challenge.  I asked myself where I could find plenty of red in one place and the answer was The Natural Gardner in Austin, Texas.

Radio Flyers waiting for customers.

Hardy geraniums are always popular.

Metal flowers never die.

A bright, red lawn chair is always a welcomed addition.

A red water fountain brings serenity to any backyard and the birds love it too.

Once I started taking photos of red objects I couldn't stop.  There are more and surely I can find a way to work them into the blog.  :D

Go here for more Brenda's Photo Challenge entries.

Until next time, God bless.

Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

Straight Out of the Camera Sunday has two rules: 1) photo must be taken by you, and 2) no tweaking.

Maggie is trying to start something with Luc.  She loves to poke him with her nose or nip around his neck.  Luc is ignoring her.

For more SOOC, click here.

Until next time, God bless.

SkyWatch Friday

Along with the rest of the country, we've been in a deep freeze since Tuesday.  A slight snow finally arrived about 6:30 AM.  It's stopped and the sun is coming out.  Thank goodness, the well might thaw out and we can get water to the cows without having to carry it from inside the house to a couple of make-shift containers outside.

Facing south.

Facing north.  Notice the cow-that-hates-me turning her evil look upon me.  She also does not like the black and white cow and will not allow her into the shed.

As a side note, this may be one of the worst norther we've had since moving from Houston in 1982.  We were fortunate in that we did not get freezing rain; it's been a dry cold.  I tried to do more in preparation than ever before.   Unfortunately the heat wrap on the well pipes did not work, but the wrap on the rainwater collection, which supplies water to the house, did work.  I knew the well heat wrap was iffy since it was old and now realize I should have gone with my instinct to buy a new one.  There is not a heat wrap within 50 miles of my house to be had.  I've ordered a heat wrap overnighted which should arrive today if the place of origin was able to get it out on UPS.  We've another cold spell coming in Monday, I think.  I now know what more should be done before Monday and hope the well pipes do not break.

The sun looks very good right now and am hoping everything will thaw out today without incident.

Click here for more skies around the globe.

Until next time, God bless.

Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

Straight Out of the Camera Sunday has two rules:  1) photo must be taken by you, and 2) no tweaking.

First leaves on the bare-root strawberries that went into the ground last Sunday.  Looks like we'll be having fresh strawberries by the first of April.  :D

For more SOOC Sunday, go here.

Until next time, God bless.

Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

It's Straight Out of the Camera Sunday, a meme of Murrita 365.  There are two rules:  1) photo must be taken by you, and 2) no tweaking.  Cropping is allowed.

Momma cow tending to her newborn calf. 

Our cows are range cows so our best guess is that this calf was born Thursday night.  Usually cows will not bring their calves out for three or four days or up to a week; but the momma only stayed separated from the herd for a day.  We haven't gotten close enough to see if it is a bull or a heifer.  We'll know soon enough.  :D

Don't forget to visit here to see other SOOC photos.

Until next time, God bless.

Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

It's Straight Out of the Camera Sunday time, a meme of Murrieta 365.  There are two rules:  1) photo must be taken by you, and 2) no tweaking.  Cropping is allowed.

This was taken last May at the Lady Bird Johnson Wild Flower Center.  A tepee made with cedar branches for climbing vine flowers.  It would be an interesting addition to a garden; and if I am not burned out with weeding and preparing for a Spring veggie planting, I just might get an axe to chop off some branches of one of the hundreds of cedar trees around this place.  :D  You haven't lived until you've chopped cedar -- it's a nasty tree to work around.  Not only does it suck up all the water and store it, but cedar sticks and scratches like crazy.  But, it is a renewal resource that is used for fence posts, tepees, mulch, etc. 

Click here for more SOOC Sunday photos.

Until next time, God bless.

Photo Textures and Effects

After reading Donna's blog the other day, I decided to see what Corel Paintshop Pro had to offer in its Texture menu.   While I did an online class in Corel Paintshop, I haven't played around much with the software since the class.  Donna, Made in Heaven, inspired me to see what can be done and I had a few spare hours. 

This is the original photo.  I cut Luc out of the original photo, pasted into a new image with a transparent background, cleaned up the edges and saved.

The cut-out image.

I closed the original photo without saving the edit, i.e., removing Luc.  I reopened the photo and started playing around with various textures and artistic effects.  After I was satisfied with the background, I copied and pasted the cut-out Luc image on top of Luc in the original photo.

If I remember correctly, this is a canvas effect.    Don't know if you have the same problem but when clicking on this and on that which sometimes work and other times does not,  you forget exactly what you did to arrive at a particular point.  There is no mistaking the neon effect above or the blinds effect below.  Again, I copied and pasted the cut-out Luc original image over the textured Luc image.

This is the blinds effect.  The finished files are huge even with the jpeg export compression.  It was a fun afternoon.  :D

Until next time, God bless.



Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

It's Straight Out of the Camera Sunday time again.  There are two rules:  1) photo must have been taken by you, and 2) no tweaking.

It's ball throwing time.  How do you tell?  Notice the lone shoe and the mouthing of a pillow?  Luc will not stop gathering various articles until I put on my shoes and head for the door.  He then leaves the stolen objects to ring the bell hanging on the door.  The bell is both Luc's and Maggie's way of telling us they want out.  :D  The bell generally hits the floor from his over exuberance.

BTW, this photo was taken the first night the repaired Canon was received.  The second night's photos are a couple of blog entries down.  lol

Go here for more SOOC Sunday photos.

Until next time, God bless.

Skywatch Friday

These two Skywatch photos were taken with my Canon camera when it was working properly.  The camera was sent to the factory repair center on November 29 and returned to me on Wednesday, December 8.  The camera worked properly for a few pictures then malfunctioned, i.e., the flash did not pop up and the shutter stuck.    The camera will be on a UPS truck tomorrow to the Canon factory repair center with a request for a replacement camera.  :D

I liked taking the photos of the sky through the bare branches of the Bur oak tree.

For more Skywatch photos from around the globe, click here.

Until next time, God bless.

Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

I haven't done a SOOC in a while.  There two rules:  1) photo must be taken by you, and 2) no tweaking.

I love remanents of old houses.  I have no idea when this chimney and cistern were built but seeing them takes you back to a simpler life.   

For more Straight Out of the Camera Sunday photos, click here.

Until next time, God bless.

Visitors

I think we may have a diva here.  Doesn't she pose nicely?  Tried to get more contrast between her and the vegetation but she is wearing her grayed, winter coat.

These ladies and fawn are just a few feet from the yard fence around the house.

I never tire of seeing wildlife around the place.  I always get a little thrill.  :D  Hope you do too.

Until next time, God bless.

Luc Shows You How To Do Geometry and Algebra

My mom is outside doing the yard, so I thought I'd sneak in here to write my own blog entry.  It's been at least a year since I posted.  You know I've been in something called "therapy dog" classes.  I love to learn new things, but geometry and algebra are my most favorite subjects.

I don't mean to brag, but I'm quite good in calculating on the fly.  Allow me to show you how it is done.

 I am ready for the first problem.  BTW, the weather is deliciously cool for this type of problem solving.

Man, this is an easy one -- a softball throw.  I'm no pansy.

In for the kill, errrr, catch.

I got it, of course.

I just love problem solving that I have a hard time giving up the ball for another throw.  I particularly like to mouth it and sometimes Mom gets her finger in the wrong position and I bite down a little too hard.  No matter, no blood is drawn or even a skinned finger.  I try very hard to keep track of where she has her fingers on the ball but I get soooooo excited when its math time.  It's a lot more fun than therapy dog training.

I see it.

Stretccccch.........got it. 

The first two problems were easy ones.  What's up with Mom?  She knows I like a real challenge!

Time out. Grass bur.

Now she's cooking.  This looks like a good one.  Ok, calculating distance, speed, best angle and how high to jump.

Keep your eye on the ball and don't let anyone tell you that geometry, algebra or higher math is hard.  It isn't; stay focused.

Got it. 

I hope you have a better understanding of math calculations from this lesson.  Remember two things:  1) Stay focused, and 2) math calculations are not hard.  I've also been very lucky because I've not been caught at the computer.

As Mom says, until next time, God bless.

Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

It's Straight Out of the Camera Sunday time.  There are two rules:  1) photo must be taken by you, and 2) no tweaking (cropping allowed). 

Our weather seems to think it is Spring since we got 6 plus inches of rain in September. The flowers caught my eye as I pulled up to a stop sign along my regular route from my house to the highway.  I've never seen this wildflower before and did not notice the spider web until I focused in with the camera.  

Aren't these delicate and a delightful splash of color?

These too were below the pink flowers.

But to prove that we are entering Fall, these leaves were just a few inches to the side of the pink flowers.  :D  We here in Central Texas are not known for our beautiful "Fall" colors. 

For more SOOC, click here.

Until next time, God bless.

Nighttime on the Ranch

When you see an orange-red moon like this, you just know something is going to show up during the night. 

Of course, the dogs kept wanting back outside 3-4 times after the usual "potty" time before going down for the night.  I'm never quite sure if there is something lurking in the dark outside the yard fence or if it is a ruse to get another treat.

We had this visitor the next night.  So, Mr. or Mrs. Fox may have been roaming around out of camera range the previous night.

I'm almost sure the cows spy on me to see where the camera is placed so they can get their picture taken.

Maggie looking for intruders.

One of the jack rabbits that have taken up residence near the house.

Ooops.  What is this?  It's me mowing outside the yard fence. 

This just might be the day I go to the back of the property to place the camera.  :D  I know, I know that I keep promising to do it.  It is kind of a pain to do because we have to drive to the back since there is a very steep hill covered in loose rocks.  You risk a broken bone or two if you slip and slide.  Driving is the safest way to go down and back up.  In addition to taking the camera,  you need a branch lopper, gloves, and a small branch saw to clear brush before attaching the camera to a tree or fence post.  We also take a small caliber gun for rattlers, coyotes or whatever because the area is undisturbed for months at a time.

I use to walk Luc back there a lot until the walking/driving path became too treacherous with the loose rocks, but I've always felt uncomfortable since my nephew told me of coming across a half-eaten deer carcass a few years back.  He made a fast retreat up to the house.  :D  In other words, you never know what you might come across:  nothing or something you'd rather not meet up with. 

Until next time, God bless.