Bucket List – Friends, Fire and Frogs

Such a good time was had that there are no photos..  After spending a day working, some worked at their jobs, some worked on farms, cars and roofs 🙂

The day was spent inter-acting touch base like a dance between everyone, but towards the late afternoon, over a bit of time, we all started pulling in.. all the different ages, hugs and smiles as folks arrived, the joy of seeing the young adults jumping out of to loud music blasting cars and going..  Fire!

You see we were having the first fire of the year, the first big outdoor hot-dog roasting on sticks and sitting on stumps and buckets and chairs and even the horse mounting block got pulled over to be a extra seat..

We ended up burning all the raspberry canes for a clean up and then we did a fast burn on some yard branch clean up but by the time we were ready to get really rolling, we had a huge fire with lots of coals.

It was a perfect evening, no bugs yet, stars everywhere, no other lights other then the fire, no music but we had sound.. so many frogs were singing as where the coy-wolves in the distance but not that far away.

However it was the company that made the evening be bucket list worth.. 4 dozen hotdogs later, a few beers and or drinks depending on ages and desires and the stories where flying and the laughs were heart warming.

My blood family may live out west but last night, my heart family filled my farm and my world with their love, laughter and care and in that. I am so blessed indeed.

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Looking Back.. Planning forward

Just a short wee note.. I am quite excited about planning my 20 year wedding bash.. yes I am head of the game by two years yet LOL have to see if anyone has a copy of this that does not show quite as much wear.

And I am not having it on the same time at all.. I am having it on the farm in the summer, not at Christmas time..

We were so young!

Time to pick up that paint brush

My mom paints and she is good at the style she likes, my favorite is barns and farms, mountains and streams and such. I admire her ability very much.

When I painted, I did watercolor and I do a funky abstract style based on nature in different forms. I did take watercolor lessons to learn how to fix issues, how to paint within and how to properly use light and shadow.

Painting made me a better photo taker and this style of painting made me a micro photo nut.. because one of the challenges is to see the world at the micro level, take the picture of it and then use it as the base of the painting.

I put down my painting 17 years ago when everything in my world focused on my daughter Maeve and her birth, and death and then years of trying and then my son’s and his birth and death as a neonatal baby.

The other day I was showing a dear friend a few photo from both NWT and Nunavut and in it, was a picture I had taken of sand.. Sand that the water had painted into a landscape with a big tree on one side and a hint of mountain on the other. Its a stunning photo..

I painted that photo so many years ago and it made me look at it and then huh..

It perked for a few days and then it firmed up and I decided that yes, its time to pick up the brush again.

I expect that I am in for a bit of shock in loss of skills over the years.. use it or lose it..

I will just have to work on it regular and I am sure that it will come back to me.. I lost my painting book in the last move, I left it up north as part of a art program.  Thankfully I found it on amazon at a second hand store and ordered it. It should arrive first week of may. It will be very helpful to have the same book to work with as last time

But I could not help but notice that the style of painting has new books available, back in the early 90’s, that single book I had from 1984 was considered the bible for that type an style.. now there are two or three more artists that have books out related. I only picked up the second hand one but I put 8 others on the wish list.

I thought about putting up a picture of the style, but nope.. you are going to just have to wait for me to do my first painting again.. I have it all planned in my head, we will see how easy that is to get onto the paper..

Sometimes thorns are a good thing

While this rose bush needs a pruning and some clean up and love, I took this picture yesterday for a solid reason.. to remind myself that thorns can be a good thing.

You see last year, some smart breeding pair of birds made their nest in the middle of this bush and they safely sat their eggs and hatched and feed their babies in this tangle of green and thorns so big and sharp that they will bleed you..

Not a single farm cat bothered them, because they used a nature to their advantage..  Like to many things in life,  if you look and your take the time to be have a good defence the odds are increased in your favor.

The second thing I love about my bird nests is that they are all made to some degree with sheep’s wool.. from the littlest one to the biggest.. they are layered in white, grey, brown and black wool.. Smart birdies!

Turkey Vulture or not

What lured me out of the house was the amazing huge turkey Vulture that was sitting on a post checking out my yard to see what it might like to hunt at some point..  I got nothing but a blur..

So I decided to bring in the smallest farm purrpot and call the bigger ones in.. most came, my biggest two hunting male’s did not..

Sophie was in a playful mood, so I tried to get a nice photo of her.. lol.. nope..

I got the I am playing and having so much fun on this wood root pile but I look cranky Photo..

I got, I would look amazing sitting on a tree mushroom with the bark but let me grab this tree whip and chew it lol

or how about I photo bomb the photo but make sure that the background looks poorly.. fa-la-la.. Still they do show her great eye color, amazing coat and that the snow is melting!

The past 24 hours of rain has really made a difference to the melt out and while others in the province got snow, we did not.

Pushing myself in regards to Photography

I have a mini goal of taking photos every day, does not mean that they will end up in the blog, or a post but I will look at the world around me every day with a eye on a photo.

I will be stretching myself this year in a number of ways, more candid photos, more photo shoots with idea’s being figure out and coming to life on the screen, more nature, more people and lots more critters..

So far I am happy with what I have been getting done, however I might hit the book store and get a book that I will work though and learn and challenge myself even more.

I want to step up my photo skills for the food blog posts.. I will be making colored boards, and I want to get a light box set up..

I want to reach for more nature photos in so many ways..

I want to do at least six to ten photo shoots with people, animals and people etc

I want to take photo that make me feel just a touch like I need to close up or push in and find a new angle, a new way of looking at it..

I also want to challenge myself to learn how to use the Photo programs even more.. Above the photo as taken..

Round one of cropping and regular touch up to get it ready for the use

Finished photo after I altered it to create what I saw in my head when I took it.. all three versions are interesting to me..