This photo shows the temperature in my yard just before 7 p.m. tonight . . . 108° . . . here in Dallas we are now at 30 straight days of triple-digit heat . . . this is officially the 2nd longest heat wave on record . . . the record of 42 days straight occurred in 1980 when they had a total of 69 days when the temperature reached 100+ . . .
Happy Birthday, Gini . . .
I wish you . . .
rainbows and butterflies
wallflowers and starry skies
and dreams that aren’t afraid to come true
sunsets and autumn leaves
snowfall and make believe . . .
adapted from lyrics by
Billy Swan
P.S. I know it's a day early . . .
but the photo-op happened a day early . . .
and the lyrics just seemed to fit!
Look in the lower left corner . . . they are creepy looking little creatures . . . this doodlebug was working hard going in circles in his sand pit . . . this was the best image I caught of him . . . most just showed him throwing sand . . . keep in mind that these little critters are smaller than the size of a pencil eraser . . . a doodlebug excavates its pit by using its oval-shaped abdomen as a plow and its flat head as a shovel for flicking sand upward. It circles backward through the sand and repeatedly flicks sand upward, raising its head above the soil surface. . . .
I have a tree I call my butterfly tree . . . because every year the butterflies literally just seem to come out of the bark of this tree . . . and it's been blooming butterflies lately . . . hence all the butterfly photos . . .
Clicking on this photo will take you to an altered version of this image of a page from an early 20th century Bible . . . altered using Picasa and IrfanView as well as a texture from playingwithpsp . . . please do let me know if you come up with a good use for it . . .
The above stained glass image
was created from the following photo,
using features in Picasa as well as IrfanView . . .
Clicking on this altered image will take you to another altered image from the same photo session with my palomino friend . . . please do let me know if you use this texture for a project . . . I would like to see what you do with it . . .
Bad haircut . . . and razor burn . . .
and Riley ain't happy with me . . .
Memories curve inward
like grey spines
on Devil's Pincusions.
They sit like cacti,
low and round
in red clay.
Ordinary blotches
in brown grass
among prickly pears
Memories hold
deep green and rose pink
traces of color,
Sky-full Texas sunsets
lingering late
across orange plains.
Until stars pierce
blue twilight
and a full moon rises.
The two textured backgrounds were created from this photo . . . using features in Picasa as well as IrfanView . . . I think they have kind of a southwest flavor . . . please do let me know if you come up with a good use for them . . .
On this date in 2003 . . . Sunday, the 13th day of July . . .
Bennie Everhart (1948-2010)
wins the SIMS Summer Jubilee in Cleveland, Texas . . .
No photo ideas again today . . .
so here's another texturized photo for use as a background for a digital collage . . .
Clicking on the photo will take you to a Picasa album
showing several bee photos captured about 1 p.m. today . . .
while Jake & Mandy were mowing the yard!
Can you see the angel? . . .
head is upper right . . . robe flows down to the lower left . . .
notice the feathery / lacy edges of the wings . . .
Robert E. Henry
(1905~1976)
married
Elizabeth Marilla Smith
(1912~1932)
in
Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts
on
Monday, the 8th of July 1929
aka Bob & Betty
they are my maternal grandparents
This is Riley's favorite toy . . . and it is in need of mending (and washing!) . . . the inset photo on the following contact sheet is an out-of-focus shot of Riley doing what I call his death shake with this poor little lamb . . . during this activity the lamb usually winds up half-way across the room . . . because Riley thinks it's fun to let it go flying . . . and then wait for me to retrieve it for him . . .
Using features from both Picasa and IrfanView (free programs), I created multiple background textures from a cropped area of that out-of-focus photo . . . clicking on the contact sheet will take you to a Picasa album containing each of the background textures shown on this collage . . . please do let me know if you use one of these textures for a project . . . I like to see what ideas others come up with . . .
I am currently researching cordless (battery-powered) mowers . . . so if you have a love / hate affair with a cordless mower, I would love to hear comments . . . in the meantime . . . this a.m. I staked Jake in the middle of the front yard (non-fenced area) . . . and put Mandy on a long leash that was not tied to anything . . . and they ate until they were bored with eating . . . will repeat as necessary :) . . .
