"Hope" is the thing with feathers

Similar to my penchant for mushrooms, I also have a thing for feathers. It's simple things like this that I find on my walks that make me get down on the ground, on their level. Things look different from down there, you know.

"Hope" is the thing with feathers—

That perches in the soul—

And sings the tune without the words—

And never stops—at all—

~ Emily Dickinson

On the ground

It's normal to see me outside lying on the ground, with my camera on the little gorillapod and taking photographs. Today was beautiful in Maryland and I found myself spending most of the day outside. But I'm not raking up these leaves. I'm really hoping that the wind just takes them away.
Yeah, well it could happen!

I like ladybugs. And that's that.

I'm having fun with the mosaic maker over at Big Huge Labs again, and have decided to show four of my ladybugs. I have more, but I found these four rather quickly.

I'm not a member, so I simply upload my photos into Photobucket and then copy the URL. It's a little confusing as to the placement of each photo, but once you get the hang of it, it works.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving

My husband did something to the camera lens but it turned out it wasn't any big deal. The 18-300 mm zoom lens just wouldn't work and I kept getting an error code. Eventually, I figured it out and lifted the camera to the window and took a shot just to make sure it was working. When I opened this up the next day in Photoshop, I decided I liked how it looked.

This was taken through one of the windows of the house, out the back, into the waning sun. Hope you're all having a good day, whether or not it's Thanksgiving in your neck of the woods . . .

Cold snap

Wineberry leaves dying on the vine. Notice the color the resin on the top side of each leaf. I think it's beautiful with the green veins standing out.
Today I have off and will be planning our Thanksgiving Feast. It's just my husband and myself. We're keeping it quiet this year.

Favorite things: Eldreth Pottery bird house

A gift from a friend and co-worker during the holidays in 2007. I love this Eldreth Pottery bird house, an elegant dwelling for the descriminating tufted tweeter.

Only the strong prevail

Early Sunday morning, as I walked about the yard scanning the ground for photographic subjects in the frost, I came across these two feathers sticking up. So I got down on the ground and took some pictures, but it wasn't until I looked at them close-up in Photoshop that I realized that the crimson stain on the one was actually blood. And then I realized that the owl who sits in the dead tree by our house nearly every night had gotten a meal. Or something like that.
Don't mean to be gruesome, but it's what it is. Nature, that is.

Frosty morning

Tiny sparkles of frost highlight a fallen leaf this morning in the backyard. My husband is inside making me a cappuccino.

Life is good.

Goutte de pluie

This is another picture I took last weekend during that misty, rainy day. And sorry about the post title. It means raindrop, en Francais. I'm feeling a bit French today and am planning on wearing my jaunty little beret. Maybe I'll even smoke a cigarette. A funny one, at that.

Skywatch Friday: Memories of Ocracoke

The path to the beach leads to our own little spot by the ocean. This was taken in November 2006 when my husband took me for my birthday to Ocracoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. The weather was wonderful.
To visit skies from contributors around the world, please visit the Skywatch Friday site.

Feels like home

Candlelight glows on a cold autumn evening in our living room as my husband rests on the couch after dinner and I read and/or play with my pictures on the computer.


Right now, I'm reading the 2nd of the Twilight series books and I'm loving it. To those who said they liked my candle stand from the last post, my friends Karen and her daughter Adrienne gave it to me as a housewarming gift over 10 years ago. Adrienne had picked it up at Pier One Imports. I've looked for it since then, but they don't carry it anymore.

Life is beginning to feel almost normal again.

Through the door

I still don't want to show too much of the house in which we live, but these are a couple of the rooms we're using.
You've seen the dining room in a previous post and this is the passageway into the addition of the house which was done in 1810. On the right is the original staircase, and past that wall is a small powder room. Ahead is the library which we're using as a living room. There's a fireplace, but our loveseat sits in front of it and I don't think the fireplace has been used for years.
And well, that's it for today.

Favorite things: Jewelry box

My husband gave me a jewelry box today. He fashioned it out of an old tool box he found in the deep recesses of the basement. While I was at work, he carefully sanded each little drawer, then the box itself, varnished it and shined up the copper drawer pulls. When he was finished, he lined the drawers with gold giftwrap and put some of my jewelry inside.

I'm posting about it on my other blog today because I was just so touched by his efforts. Sometimes, he truly is a gem.

Thoughts of the past

Just playing around on the computer and reading the history of this area during The Philadelphia Campaign 1777-1778. Yeah, I know. It's super exciting here!
But I love it.
This afternoon, I drove to the mall using the Old Post Road (Old Baltimore Pike), past Cooch's Bridge where the British and Continental armies had a skirmish. History is so interesting.
And Macy's was having a big sale.

Trees in black & white

How obvious for a post title, right? Perhaps if I were more clever, I could come up with something unique and exciting to title this photograph. But not today.

I took this on a misty, wet and dreary day this week. Well, some may have thought it dreary, but I was revelling in the weather and when I got home I thought I'd try this out in black & white.

The beauty of the rain

And you know the light is fading all too soon
You're just two umbrellas one late afternoon
You don't know the next thing you will say
This is your favorite kind of day
It has no walls
The beauty of the rain
Is how it falls, how it falls, how it falls

~ Dar Williams

I took a walk alone today, after a ride with my husband. I was thinking that things were beginning to feel normal again. I like a rainy day every now and then, don't you?

Skywatch Friday: Cupola at school

This is the cupola that's on the roof of the main section of our school. I think it's beautiful.

For more Skywatch Friday pictures from all over the world, visit this link. You will be glad you did.

Bittersweet and old lace

Much better than arsenic and old lace, isn't it?
I know that bittersweet is beautiful in the fall, but it's extremely detrimental to trees, for it has the capability of felling giants. Bittersweet will strangle a tree, eventually killing it. But let's not dwell on that aspect, shall we? Let's just enjoy it in a vase, next to a curtain of old lace.

Standing in the dining room

I don't like posting a lot of photos of the house in which we live because well, it's not really ours. We're just living in it and taking care of it. It's a wonderful, comfortable home and I love how it smells when I walk in the door. At first, I thought the wallpaper in the dining room would drive me crazy but I'm getting used to it and I now think it's sweet. This is the original staircase of the home and dates to 1769. On the wall hangs my Ann Ehringhaus photograph that I bought from her personally in Ocracoke, NC in the fall of 2004. She doesn't know it, but she was a big reason I fell in love with photography and it was so good to finally meet her.
Through the doorway leads to our living room which is actually the library. We're using it as our living room, though. I can't tell you how comforting it is to be in this place. It actually feels like home to me.

Tree in Silhouette 2

I guess I could have used this for a Friday Skywatch post. Sometimes I forget about the photos I have in my files, but found this one tonight when I was working on uploading pictures I will be offering for sale on my Etsy site. It's very time-consuming setting up shop and it's why I posted a contest for the next couple of days on my Chronicles blog.
Go ahead over and enter.
In the meantime, I'm working on getting about 30 items on Etsy for sale, including this one.

Favorite things: Little bee

I've had this little bee for years and it's really much tinier than it appears in this photograph. It's all of two inches and was given to me as a Christmas gift by one of my favorite people in the world. Wherever I've lived, I've always had this little bee hanging where I can easily see it. It was my eldest son who gave it to me when he was in about 7th or 8th grade and every time it catches my eye, I think happy thoughts.
The other good thing about it is that it doesn't have a stinger. Ha!

The precipice

This little ladybug is getting ready for take-off. Hope she finds what she's looking for . . .

Daisies in autumn

Taken last weekend at Bombay Hook Nature Center. I spotted the white puffs from the road as I was driving and was glad that I got out and walked across the field. Hope you're all having a relaxing weekend.

Skywatch Friday: Our front yard

What it looks like from the hill where I live. This is the view from my front door.

How now, brown cow

I'm still having loads of fun with the mosaic maker at Big Huge Labs. This is my chocolate edition, which is actually just brown but I like saying chocolate. And if you want to see what this cow is really thinking, you should visit here.

Hanging with my homegirls

And homeboys too, I assume. I was thinking of putting a lovely little poem right here but I thought what the hey. It's just a buncha ducks and geese and weez just all hangin' out. 'Nuff said. And that's the name of that!

Looking up

Live each season as it passes;
breathe the air, drink the drink,
taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.

Henry David Thoreau

Little bug

While at Bombay Hook the other day, I noticed some yellow wildflowers growing by the roadside, so I pulled over and changed lenses to take this photo. The weather was perfect, however there was a gently blowing breeze and I waited between gusts to get this little shot.

I'm moulting . . . moulllll-ting . . .

This morning, we drove to Bombay Hook Nature Center in Delaware where we saw lots of snow geese and other birds. The tide was super low. And it was my husband that spotted this Great Blue Heron, who, upon closer inspection, was found to be moulting.

Mums the word

This is a bloom from a scraggly mum plant that is growing here. It's an old wooden bucket and I'm thinking of planting it, when I get around to it. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow. Or the next day. It's certainly bright, and pink!!