Morning Sun

Today I wove a pattern in the sun
Embroidered memories with threads of gold
And always where you came into the weave
I tied a knot and prayed that it would hold.

Nancy Richey Ranson

Bricolage :: Pink Blossoms

The flower images used here started out as the following slightly out-of-focus photo of the blooms on another weed on my property . . . I'm not sure if it is tie vine . . . or bindweed . . . or wild morning glory . . . or what! . . . anyway . . . 



I opened the above image in IrfanView . . . and applied the oil painting effect . . . and then the rock effect . . . and that yielded the following image . . . 



The next one is cropped from the above image . . . 



as is this one . . . 



The verse on the collage . . . which was created in Picasa . . . is from a little book of poetry called Texas Evening . . . by Nancy Richey Ranson . . . who was Poet Laureate of Texas from 1941 'til 1943 . . .

Bricolage :: Scherenschnitte Angel

This rusty tin angel stands guard in my living room / computer room . . .

I took this close-up of one of her wings . . . and opened it in IrfanView . . . and flipped it and saved it . . . horizontally and vertically . . . to create four copies that were actually mirror images of each other . . . then back in Picasa, I created a 5x7 grid collage using those four copies . . . and then created a double-exposure collage using one of the textures from playingwithbrushes and the collage I just created . . . then played with the saturation and sharpness . . . and came up with the following scherenschnitte image, suitable for use in a vintage family history collage . . .

I will be loading a 1600x1143 version on my facebook page . . . or send me a note if you would like a larger copy . . .

Bricolage :: Little Yellow Flower

Above is my boring photo for today . . . so I used Picasa to create a double exposure collage using another one of the fantastic textures from playingwithbrushes . . . and that gave me the following image . . .

And then I took the collage made from today's boring photo . . . and used the collage I created from yesterday's boring photo . . . and using the grid feature in Picasa, I came up with the following display of today's boring photo . . .

I know I'm straying more than a little bit off-topic for the typical photo-a-day project . . . but even I'm getting bored with my photos . . . so I'm just trying to get myself inspired again . . .

Bricolage :: Vintage Blouse

The above image is the photo I took for today . . . it shows a section of a vintage blouse purchased years ago in a little shop in Biddeford, Maine . . . boring . . . but look what happened when I created a multiple exposure collage in Picasa using the above photo . . . plus > THIS < texture from playingwithbrushes . . . did a little editing in IrfanView as well as in Picasa . . . and voilà! . . . another background suitable for a vintage family history collage . . .

Bricolage :: Fairy Rose

OK . . . I cheated on this one . . . again . . . the subject was a plate of dried roses . . . and this is cropped from one of several photos I was not happy with . . . then I applied the rock effect in IrfanView . . . and then applied the sharpen effect in Picasa . . . the plan is to use this in one of my heritage collages for displaying my family history . . .

Nighty-Night

Eeyore's Favorite Food

Dancing with the Birds

First Day of Summer

Queen's Crown

Raspberry Lemonade Green Tea

This is my own special blend of raspberry green tea . . . and raspberry lemonade . . . and regular iced tea . . . with the soft ice cubes made by my counter-top, no-plumbing-required ice-maker . . . I've been consuming lots of this tea blend on these 100+ degree days we've been having . . . and it's not even officially summer yet!

Where There Is Smoke, There Is Fire!

You can tell by the flags and the tree
that the wind was a real problem for the firefighters . . .

clicking on the photo
will take you to a Picasa album
containing assorted photos taken today . . .

Ford Blue

The Man and His Words

This book arrived in my mailbox today . . .

George Sessions Perry
The Man and His Words
by
Garna L. Christian

Looking forward to reading it . . .

Mount Homer Cemetery

This is a photo of a section of page 70 out of my Texas Atlas & Gazetteer . . . used the Focal B&W feature in Picasa to highlight the area where the Mount Homer Cemetery is hidden (literally!) . . . we spent the morning on Monday hunting down and traipsing into and photographing this little country cemetery . . .

Helping Unpack

Home again . . .
and Riley is helping unpack the SUV . . .
by carrying his toys back in the house . . .

Hiram Daugherty

This is the grave of Hiram Daugherty (1809-1870) . . . who was first the step-father . . . and then the brother-in-law . . . of Charles Goodnight (1836-1929) [findagrave] . . . on the 1850 census (page 24b), Charles and his Mother and siblings were enumerated in Milam County, Texas . . .

Water Moccasin

Unidentified Large Night Moth

Queens Crown

Cedar Berries

These arrived in my mailbox today . . .

Cedar Berries
by
Dorothy Lee Hansen

and I quote . . .

The rolling hills of Texas
keep pulling on my heart,
reminding me of childhood days
and loved ones on the farm. . . .

There's the sky like nowhere else,
big and blue and wide,
always full of cumulus clouds.
I'll love it 'till I die.

Special thanks go to
Judith Richards Shubert
for last November's introduction

The year is 1879

This is my hometown . . . Rockdale, Milam County, Texas . . . at five years of age . . . and as shown on pages 230 and 231 in The Texans . . . which is a part of The Old West series of books published by Time-Life Books . . . the caption on this photo says . . .

Cotton bales ready to be weighed on scales (extreme right) lie along the main street of the town of Rockdale, northeast of Austin. The year is 1879, and similar towns were springing up to the west as railroads spread across the plains, opening the hinterland to Texas farmers and ranchers.

My Mailbox

Watching Paint Peel

In the Gloaming

In the gloaming, oh my darling,
When the lights are dim and low,
And the quiet shadows falling,
Softly come, and softly go.

When the winds are sobbing faintly,
With a gentle lull of woe,
Will you think of me and love me,
As you did once long ago?

In the gloaming, oh my darling,
Think not bitterly of me,
Though I passed away in silence,
Left you lonely, set you free.

For my heart was crushed with longing,
What had been could never be,
It was best to leave you thus dear,
Best for you, and best for me.

These are the lyrics to the song In The Gloaming as sung by Dana Reeve at the end of Christopher Reeve's directorial debut from the film of the same title . . . written by Anne F. Hamson & Meta Orred . . . performed by Dana Reeve . . .

Young Cardinals

I've been trying to capture these young ones (with the camera) for several days now . . . but they are way more skittish than the baby mockingbirds . . . they fly away the minute they see me come around the corner . . . this image is filtered through the mesh of the screen on my bathroom window . . . that's what created the soft-focus look of this photo while I manually focused the camera on the birds . . . I was watching as many as eight cardinals while taking photos . . .

Weed, Minus the Green

Unwelcome Visitor

Gotcha!
He is actually in my fenced-in backyard in this photo . . .
with my goats!
He lives two backyards away from my back lot . . .
and this was at least his 2nd visit today . . .

Blooming Butterfly Vine