Looking at the Sky ~ in the Keystone State

I spent a half hour going through our photos to find a sky photo and use it before Ralph gets his hands on it.
Two can play at this digging through our archives game!
Na-na-na-na-naaaaaaaaa...
(Just kidding my love)

This was taken in the summer of 1999. We were entering Pennsylvania. I took it through the windshield of the van. That's all I know.

To see more (and much more interesting) sky photos, visit Tisha, at CrAzY Working Mom, who hosts this fun meme. Thanks, Tisha!

Kwick kwestion about Kats =^. .^=

Has anyone ever had or heard of a feline that plays fetch? Just wondrin' aloud, because our Linus brings a little rubber ball to me to throw for him.
He reminds me of a dog when he does this (sorry, Linus!)

It's so cute. I bounce the ball against the wall, and it ricochets all over the kitchen as he skitters around trying to catch it. Then he brings it to me again, dropping it on the floor.
I roll it down the bedroom hall and it bounces off the wall at the end of the hall.

He also likes me to throw a little felt toy fish, but it doesn't bounce so it's not quite as amusing. But he still chases the fish, and brings it back. If he doesn't give it to me, he pushes it under a piece of furniture so that I have to move the table or cabinet away from the wall so he can reach it.
I guess the cats know how to have fun around here!

(When I was little our neighbors had a black cat named Silhouette, or Silly for short. I didn't realize as a child how silly kitties can be, and how fitting that name is for a cat. If I ever get another cat, and he/she is black, I know what I will name him/her. Not that I'm planning on getting another feline any time soon!)

Me and my snowpeople

Snowmen are not just decorations for the Christmas season, says I.

They are good to decorate with through mid-March, says I. We get snow until then, so why not?

I thought I'd share some of my collection of snow guys and gals, in honor of an impending snowstorm tomorrow.

I took the photo below on Christmas morning. I was rejoicing because Christmas Eve had brought us rainy, yucky weather and the sun was a welcome sight.

This is Rigby, whose image has been figuring into a lot of my posts lately. He and the two snowfellas are looking out the window on a cold night.

This guy has a birdhouse, and a pail to hold his snowbaby.
The last one is blurry, but I still think they are cute. The one on the right is a tea light candle holder.
Notice the snowy backyard in the background...brrrrrrrrr.

I have more, but I think I'll stop now. You have probably gotten the idea that I like snowmen.
Happy shoveling, if you get some of the wonderful, white, wintry stuff like we are going to get.

Ruby Tuesday, feline style

Here's Rigby having fun in the cats' tunnel toy.
It's actually pink, but I made it redder so it was suitable for Ruby Tuesday. Now it looks kinda orange..
To see lots of Ruby Tuesday entries, visit Mary, The Teach, at Work of the Poet. Thanks for hosting, Mary!

On photos, blogiversaries and cats

After two years and four days (I missed marking my second blogivesary last week), I still have a difficult time writing about what is on my mind.
But posting photos can ease some of that angst I feel.
Regular readers know we adopted two feline brothers a year ago, McSqueaky and McLoopy, a.k.a. Linus and Rigby.
Well, they have provided a wealth of blog posts for me and for that I thank them!

Yesterday I put two cartons on the floor in advance of our going to our church to help with the monthly Angel Food Ministries' distribution. No sooner did I put them down near the door (so I wouldn't forget them) that Linus (white and brown) and Rigby(white and black) started to play in them. At least they know how to have fun on a shoestring budget!

Here they are investigating:


Rigby: "What are these boxes doing here, Linus?"
Linus: "I dunno, but let me climb in there too!"

Rigby: "Oh, all right."


Exciting stuff, eh?

Creative Photography ~ Sweet

I snapped this in September at the PEZ candy manufacturing plant about eight miles from our house.
I played a bit with the hue and sharpness. Not too creative, but kinda fun!

This is taken from the company's Web site, PEZ.com : "PEZ was first marketed as a compressed peppermint candy over 70 years ago in Vienna, Austria. The name PEZ was derived from the German word for peppermint... PfeffErminZ. Today, over 3 billion PEZ Candies are consumed annually in the U.S.A. alone. "

Was that interesting? I thought so. ;-)

To see more photos, visit Roger at Idaho Photo and click on the Creative Photo tab.

Looking at the Sky with Tisha and Friends

I snapped these this afternoon in the parking lot at the supermarket. The first one was taken at 3:59 p.m. and the second was taken 50 minutes later. I thought the cloud formations were pretty and I was glad I had my camera with me. (they're slightly different views)

To see many more sky photos, visit our hostess, Tisha, that CrAzY Working Mom.

A bit of local history seen on an historic day

After covering a story yesterday about a group of schoolchildren watching the inauguration with the school superintendent, I stepped outside and was thrown back in time, figuratively speaking.

Fortunately I had my camera with me, and got a shot of the stately Derby United Methodist Church, snow and all, which is the oldest of the three churches that grace the historic Derby (Ct.) Green.

The church was dedicated in 1837, and if you click here you'll see it originally looked more like a typical New England Congregational Church. Derby actually has two white Congregational Churches in just 5.4 square miles, and we belong to First Congregational Church, which I posted about here.

I thought I'd give the photo an old-fashioned look using sepia:

I hope this history lesson was enlightening. Short and sweet, yes?

Ruby Tuesday ~ got pizza?

Actually when I took this picture Saturday at an aforementioned birthday party I wasn't even thinking about a Ruby Tuesday photo.
Or was I doing so unconsciously? Hmmm...



To see more Ruby Tuesday entries or to post one of your own, visit the hostess of this meme, Mary T, the Teach, at Work of the Poet.

Creative Photography

Experimenting here. I took this photo through the windshield as we were going through the West Rock Tunnel in New Haven, Ct. My son said it would help the photo below if I could use a blur brush, but we don't have the software.


Please look at the second photo from a distance of about six feet from your monitor. Gracias!

Anyhoo, this is what I learned Saturday: There is light at the end of the tunnel.

To see more Creative Photography entries, visit Roger at Idaho Photo and click on the Creative Photo tab.

What's better than pizza and cupcakes?

That was the menu for a first birthday party we attended Saturday for our niece's baby (see pizza boxes piled behind her!). Her aunt baked the birthday girl her own pink and white cake to shmoosh and enjoy. And she did. There were quite a few little ones under age 5 at the restaurant, which made it a bit chaotic but a lot of fun. Ah, the next generation is upon us!
Here's the birthday girl with her proud (and young) grandfather:

Nothing like being able to dote on your first grandchild! And dote he does.

A bit of a chill to wake up to

Weather.com says it's 0 degrees here in balmy s-s-s-southern Connecticut. But it's sunny, that's the good news.

That 4-letter word that begins with 's'

This was my view outside the back window this afternoon. I thought I'd share this chilly scene. Too cold for the deer and the antelope today, I'd say.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

In Black & White:


and some sepiafied snow:

Photographing Wednesday's sunset

... for Looking at the Sky on Friday.




It's the same sunset, just seen over a three-minute period from two different vantage points in our neighborhood.

I realize there is not too much sky showing here, but I figured the sun is in the sky (!)


For more sky photos, visit Tisha, that CrAzY Working Mom of 3, creator of this fun meme.

Linking to a friend's blog today ~

Last week I wrote a story for the newspaper about high school students raising money for the local animal shelter, and today one of my editors reprinted it here on Tesla's Love, her blog about animals and why we love them. Last I knew she is taking submissions, if anyone is interested in writing about their pets.


Behind the scenes: while the photographer and I were there at the school Dixie, the dog in the photo, peed on the carpet. Poor thing was nervous, she was getting so much attention. Fortunately that is all she did. ;-)

It's berry interesting

I feel like I've seen quite a few photos of berries around the blogosphere in recent days. Was it just me?
I thought I would get in the swing and photograph a hedge in our yard which has red berries growing in just one small area of it.
So here goes:

And below, with hue and saturation:


Trying to do close-ups with my point and shoot.


And below with some hue and saturation:



The white in the background is snow.

If you don't like these pictures, I have more photos of my felines to share...just sayin'.

Hate to miss a day of posting, so here are my cats

(for the umpteenth time!)

I just can't help myself. They are so ridiculous sometimes; and they're always fun to photograph.

Ruby Tuesday

So soon? Where does the week go??


Digging into my photo archives once again ...

I took this picture in April, 2004, on our daughter's second school trip across the pond. The first time we only went to Paris, but the second time we did what all the groovy people do and went to London as well.
I thought it was a possible Ruby Tuesday offering. Those uniforms do have a lot of red in them.

To participate and to see many more Ruby Tuesday photos, visit our hostess, Mary T, The Teach, at Work of the Poet.

Good thing I'm not a perfectionist . . .

...or I would never be able to post any of the photos I snap when I'm out and about.

Now this one is crooked, I know. But scroll down, and you'll see how I got around that.

Woo hoo! Less building, less crookedness.

I then tried sepia, which I thought worked pretty well with a 19th-century edifice.
Does this look like a church? It's actually our city's public library.

Doing some Internet research, I discovered that although the building was dedicated in 1892, it sat vacant for four years because the town fathers refused to provide the $1,500 a year toward the library's operating expenses. (info taken from www.biblio.org.) It opened in August, 1896.

I hadn't planned to take a picture of it. I was in the neighborhood Friday to cover the opening of a food bank located in the basement of a church directly across the street. When I came out of the church, a majestic-looking building in its own right, the red stone library against the blue sky caught my eye.

Below I used the ink sketch application, and in the last one I used oil painting. Which is the most pleasing to the eye? Any thoughts?