it’s what you see

For several days, here, it rained at least once a day. Some days it was stormy, while others, just rain. Sunday was just rain. It was the kind of rain I like to play in. Apparently, it was the kind of rain he enjoyed singing in…because that is what he did. He sat right there, singing, the whole time. I can’t describe the feeling I had watching him. All I can tell you is I get that same feeling again, looking at these pictures.

ALERT, I’m in a crazy mood this evening.

After mowing the lawn, I spent a good part of the afternoon in the man cave shooting him and his toys. He was up and about for a while and nothing could please him more than working on his broken scooter. He’s told me forks are bent, bearings are broken and the handlebars are out of line. The right brake handle is broken but the breaks are okay. So, hopefully in the next few weeks the scooter will be back on the road.

And what man cave wouldn’t be complete without a bit of ale? Actually, what you see are “make your own” 6 packs from Whole Foods. Brad has a variety of ales in the man cave fridge.

Still going through photos from last night (didn’t realize I took so many). I won’t bore you with all of them (I mean really, how many shots of lightning, clouds and moon can anyone be interested in?). This one turned out pretty good (although not as good as I had hoped).

Well, I am off to mow the lawn. It’s suppose to rain again this afternoon, so I need to get it done pretty quickly (it’s clouding up already). It’s hot and SO VERY HUMID out right now.

Forkboy, I know how you hate the humidity…don’t you feel sorry for me? ha ha….

I don’t have anything to share tonight, photowise, however, I do have some wonderful news….  No, I didn’t suddenly become rich nor is Brad completely healed (he’s getting there, though).  The wonderful news is I found out our youngest, Sarah, has a passion and an eye for photography.  I had NO IDEA she even cared for it.  It seems that she has taken an interest in nature/lightning photography (hmm, wonder where she’s gotten that from?).  I guess it’s time we buy a camera for her. 

As we speak, I am downloading almost 100 shots taken tonight.  Some are of Mother Nature’s fireworks display and some are just cloud/moon photos. I am hoping they are okay and I won’t have to scrap any.

As for Sarah…she spent the whole evening with me.

I know, sounds crazy right? Me? I don’t believe it. And truthfully, my sister doesn’t either, but she does it. What does she do?

An old southern tradition…way back in time…some hung blue bottles in trees (or ON the end of tree branches) to ward off or capture evil spirits, preventing said spirits from getting anywhere near one’s home.

So, Friday, I posed my question…”WHY?” Her answer…”Because it looks neat.”

(shrug)

Ok, so, it’s her tree and if she wants to hang bottles (or decorative glassware, silverware, pie pans, wooden spoons, etc…) in her tree, AND her husband is okay with it, then I say, GO FOR IT, as long as she doesn’t hurt the tree.

this one is actually a hummingbird feeder

the rest are just bottles…

I learned just how much fun it is to photograph kids Friday.

While at Brad’s sister’s house Friday I had a choice, sit, drink tea or water and talk with the adults or roam around, laugh and photograph the kids. I chose the latter. Kids, ages 3 to 8, are so much fun to watch. And what is even better, they don’t pay attention to the camera; they keep on doing their thing. Oh sure, every once in a while they’ll make eye contact but they don’t stop what they are doing to pose for a photo (every adult I tried to photograph Friday would stop, look, pose and smile…so I stopped photographing them).

The little guys and little lady in photographs below are Brad’s nephews (two great nephews) and great niece. All, of course, belong to Brad’s oldest sister. Three are her grandchildren and one is her son (yeah, you do the math on that one…she started over after her daughters were grown). There were other “kids” there as well but they were teenagers (my two and Brad’s other sister’s kids). Every time I tried to photograph one or all of them, they’d make a face, so I stopped photographing them as well.

Brad’s great nephew Preston

Brad’s great niece Maddie

Brad’s great nephew Adam

Brad’s nephew Tallon

THEN to my sister’s house for evening fun.

The evening was filled with grilled burgers, a couple bottles of wine, some corona, some ale, not as many people (thank god) and a few fireworks. Oh, and yes, good company and fun conversation. When my family gets together, we sit, laugh, eat and drink. And yes, I chased the boys around the yard with my camera.

I didn’t have the problem of posing and smiling adults while at my sister’s house. We’ve grown up with cameras in our face, so we don’t pay attention to them (my Dad is an amateur photographer…he’s responsible for my passion of photographing lightning and well, all my nature photos). I have a few photographs of my parents, brother in law and sis and will put them on Flickr after I process them. This post is reserved for the kids…

My nephew Duncan

My nephew Patrick

It’s clearly the most amazing one i’ve ever seen. Mother Nature loved me today, not only did this beautiful dragonfly allow me to photograph her, so did the handsome turtle next to her. AND THEY BOTH SMILED!

This morning Brad and I awoke to the sound of screeching eagles soaring overhead??

No, no, that is not the correct description. Let’s try this again.

This morning (about 8am) Brad and I awoke to the sound of Patches screaming outside our bedroom door. Yeah, that’s the only way to describe it, screaming! To her we had overslept. She was awake and walking room to room waking everyone else. She is an early morning kitty. Her day usually starts around 6 am and it doesn’t end till around 11 (of course she naps a hundred times a day).

Of course, I got up and went into the den to play with her. Thankfully I had my camera close. I know he who shall remain nameless will appreciate these photos.