Watery Places and Such

Here are some more pictures from the cemetery.  This time, I'm showing off some of my goose pictures along with some dogwood blooms.

Here I am at the marsh.  Ok, so it's not really a marsh, but the edge of a small lake at a local park that has a very small marshish spot at part of it's bank. I took a personal day on the 30th and the kids and I went to a couple parks after doing a little shopping and having lunch out.

 

Still Outside

Another trip to my favorite cemetery gave me some more really cool shots, this evening.  The swans have been very cooperative lately.  And, with all the early blooming trees, flowers and bushes, there was tons of creative fodder.

loved the way this "tree" (bush actually) wraps around itself

 

 Walking up the ladder to the top of our slide in our back yard

 

Taraxacum

I know we consider these weeds but for some reason they've always fascinated me. Their yellow is so vibrant and their appearance means spring. How can they not bring a smile to your face?

 

 Loved the way this "tree" (bush actually) wraps around itself

 

Eager Puppy!

 

All Outdoors Stuff Today

Walking through the woods I found this little white flower blooming amongst a bunch of old brown leaves.



This is SOOC (with the exception of my initials)

 

 With all this early warm weather, we will be able to plant our garden early!

 

A Swan, A Dandelion and Strawberries

I took a trip to one of my favorite places to practice my photography.  It's a cemetery near our YMCA.  I got some good macros, but also had a lot of fun photographing the water fowl there.  The swans and the geese were the most amusing during this trip.

A tall dandelion...



I love strawberries and hope I can get a few off my plants this year before the bunnies and squirrels eat them all!

 

Bloom Sky Hangin'

One of the violets in our yard in the process of opening it's bloom.
BTW this is photo 300 of my first year doing this project.

 

 More processing fun

 

 Taken while sitting in the lobby at the Y talkin' with the other swim mom.

 

Puppy Play and Me

Our puppies got properly worn out today. They played outside in the back yard for a long time and then they got to go to the dog park and romp for over an hour. They have been very tired tonight. I cannot believe that they will be a year old in less than two months.



Izzy found a friend to play rough with, as she always does.  She always finds one or two other dogs that she just has a ball with.  Then, she spent some time conversing with another Scottie.  There were a lot of Scotties there today.  Livvy (and Izzy) both got hot while at the park today.  It's still unseasonably warm here.  Livvy managed to get some Angela love, too.  Angela is our friend who helps run the local Scottish Terrier rescue.

In a group of friends we were challenged to look at ourselves with a positive attitude and create something to show our acceptance of ourselves and what we have accomplished and what we can accomplish. This is mine.

 

 I have a bad habit of going outside in my sock feet. But, I get so excited about the violets that spring up in our back yard every spring, I couldn't help but run outside without my shoes. I LOVE violets.

 

So Much Fun to Photograph

It just amazes me the way dew drops sit on the leaves of our strawberry plants.  It was a lot of fun to photograph the strawberry plants this morning while the dew was still sitting on their leaves.  It was all just so pretty.

After I uploaded my recent pictures, I started playing with some of the features on my Photoscape software.  I just wanted to see what would happen with some of the tools I've not used much.  I used the color curves tool to create this version of a tree I took a picture of when out walking.  I really like the way it turned out.



My from where I stand photo was taken in my back yard again.  I've posted pictures of my donkey that lives in my flower garden before. Here's an aerial view of him.

Fathers, Daughters, and Early Spring

Tonight was the Girl Scout Father/Daughter dance.  I always take the pictures for this event.  I have so much fun with this.  The dads and the girls are so amazing.  I love seeing how close these girls are to their special guys.  Here are a few of my portraits from this evening.

This month has been very warm.  Spring has come very early to our area after the winter that wasn't.  Our grass is really getting green from all the warm weather, rain and sun.

 

 Since it's been so warm, things are blooming early.  I've been enjoying wandering around our neighborhood shooting pictures of all the blooming stuff.

A Long Day

I was able to get to the lake  at the cemetery that is close to our Y last night.  I am posting pictures from there because I have parent teacher conferences tonight and really don't have the chance to get some pictures for today taken.  So, I'm going to share some pictures of one of the resident swans from that little lake.  He was very trusting of me and let me get within 5 feet of him before he got too nervous and waddled off into the water.  But, even then, he waddled slowly.  I think people must feed them and the ducks at this lake.

Since it's a very long day at work today, I played around with my FWIS photo today.  It's a pic of my feet under my desk, but that was boring so I processed it.  I just had fun with it.  Here it is...

I also played around a little with a photo of an airplane that did not really turn out well.  I decided to play with it and see what I could come up with.  This is what I ended up with...