Photo Challenge: Red

It’s time for another Brenda Photo Challenge! This is our February challenge, so we’re celebrating with a Red theme!

We visited a fall festival last year at a nearby Tennessee town. We had a great time, visiting at various craft booths, eating tasty barbeque, and listening to down-home country music. We were surrounded with old-fashioned, small town charm! A bushel basket of fresh red apples greeted us at the entrance gate. This image was captured with a little Nikon Coolpix S8000, and settings of f/4.4, 1/200 second, and ISO 100.

When we traveled in late 2009 over to Frankfort, Tennessee, we also visited the cute-as-a-button town of Leipers Fork. The exterior of an antique store with chippy red paint and a rusted Coca-Cola sign pulled me in for a photo shoot. This image was recorded with a Nikon D90, with settings of f/9, 1/320 second, and ISO 200. I applied a Topaz Adjust plug-in filter in Photoshop to emphasis the grittiness.

I took a special picture for this challenge and composed it in my studio room. In front is a vintage hobnail milk glass, filled to the brim with red perle cotton balls (used for redwork embroidery). An antique wooden spool cabinet serves as a backdrop. I found this Coats & Clark treasure on a vacation trip many years ago in Maine. I used my little Nikon Coolpix S8000 for the photo. The sidelight from the only window in the room was a bit intense. But I was trying to go a little bit artsy with this composition! I heavily desaturated the image and selectively emphasized the red cotton threads. The camera settings were f/4.6, 1/25 second, and ISO 400.

Now that you have seen my contributions to the challenge, please click on the link at the beginning of this post and find some other great Red images!

Annual Mammogram

Warning! Shoo the children and small domestic animals away from your computer and out of the room! Shield your eyes if you think your delicate sensibilities might get bruised! Later on in this post, I will show an old advertisement for a bra.

I finished up my work week none too soon. Tomorrow I get my annual mammogram. It’s time to make sure that my girls are healthy! I hope that you get your annual checkup too, if you are of the female gender. Please call and make an appointment if it has been more than a year! Promise you will? Girl Scout’s honor?

When you are as ancient as me, you will recall the bizarre advertisements they used to have for bras. For such a button-up and conservative time period, it was amazing that magazine readers would routinely get a visual assaults of the latest underwear fashions.

For a creep-out session, do a Google image search like I did for “vintage bra advertisements”. Keep tissues and disinfectant handy! The styles were hideous back in the day. And it seems that the models always looked a little bit crazed, as if they were excited beyond belief that their girls were secured with a 10-pound combination of industrial strength fabric, wiring, and elastic, all carefully crafted into cone-like support structures.

This model looks especially pleased to be wearing her Maidenform bra while she does a little target practicing in the Wild, Wild West. Yikes! What exactly were those advertising folks thinking back then?! I hope this doesn’t give you nightmares tonight, LOL!

Presidents Day

You have the highest of human trust
committed to your care.

Providence has showered on this favored land blessings without number, and has chosen you as the guardians of freedom, to preserve it for the benefit of the human race.

May He who holds in His hands the destinies of nations, make you worthy of the favors He has bestowed, and enable you, with pure hearts and hands and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend to the end of time, the great charge He has committed to your keeping.

~ Andrew Jackson ~

Grizzly Bear Series – Part 4, Strolling

My last post was a serious one, so let’s have a fun one for a little balance! It’s long overdue for a few more fuzzy-wuzzy bear pictures! These are some of my favorite ones from our trip last year to the British Columbia wilderness, showing bears strolling around on their home turf.

This gorgeous one tumbled out from the tall grass to do little fishing.

While we were riding in the boat, the most common place to see them was wading right along the shoreline. Despite their size, it was surprising to see how effortlessly they moved.

This acrobatic fellow even did a balancing act for us on a fallen log. In addition to being nimble, these guys can move as fast as 30 miles per hour!

They were such remarkable creatures to watch, many with soulful faces. We had to constantly remind ourselves that these were wild bears and we were not at a zoo!

I have a funny story to tell about this last photo. Hubby and I were standing alongside the shoreline, patiently waiting for a bear sighting and chatting with our tour guide. We were standing on a well-worn path that runs parallel to the river, a bear path to be exact. We were keeping a sharp lookout along the path and also the streambed. I was facing them, looking at the trail and river behind them, and they were looking in the opposite direction.

After about an hour of quiet visiting and no signs of activity, all of a sudden I saw movement in the far distance. So I pointed over their shoulders and excitedly exclaimed, “There’s one!”

Now, my temperament is pretty laid back 99% of the time. But when I am excited, my voice goes up in tone and volume. Hubby knew that I had spotted a bear and correctly guessed that it was well off in the distance. He recognized it as my excited voice, not my scared voice.

However, it was immediately assumed by our tour guide, as indicated by his dinner-plate-size eyes, that there was a bear immediately behind them on the trail. While the poor fellow was about to have a heart attack, I was wondering why he abruptly had a frightened look on his face. I thought perhaps there was one that he spotted on the trail behind me!

The whole episode was quite comical and we really had good laugh that afternoon. Our guide forgave me for scaring the stuffing out of him, and I managed to stop hooting long enough to take the bear’s picture.

Patience, Perseverance, and Planning

Adopt the pace of nature.

Her secret is patience.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

Lessons in the art of patience seem to be on our collective minds these days. It seems difficult for folks today to show patience. With modern conveniences, electronic devices, and multi-tasking, we don’t get much practice to hone this virtue.

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are.

I don’t believe in circumstances.

The people who get on in this world are the people

who get up and look for the circumstances they want,

and, if they can’t find them, make them.

~ G.B. Shaw ~

And perseverance is an inseparable twin of patience. You can’t have one asset without the other.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

~ Alan Lakein ~

And while I am going through the “p” section of the dictionary, let’s not forget about planning. It is the magic ingredient to any successful endeavor. One has to look ahead, imagine how things could be, and formulate a strategy on how to get to that destination.

As I go about my daily life, I wonder if the younger generation is learning these important characteristics and if the older generation has forgotten. Perhaps we should plant a few seeds and get some needed practice.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Love one another and you will be happy.

It’s as simple and as difficult as that.

~Michael Leunig ~

Roba Dolce Product Review!

I’m excited to do the first product review here on my blog! And I thoroughly enjoyed every minute and morsel of the product testing!

Last month, Karen of This Old House 2 put out a call to bloggers, asking them to advertise the Roba Dolce brand of Italian gelato and sorbetto and also post a product review on their blogs. I quickly signed up! As compensation, the company shipped me five 1-liter tubs and three 6-ounce cups of product to taste test. Oh, the sacrifices that I do for my blog readers! And my sweet hubby felt that it was his duty to participate in the tasting as well. See how much he cares about my friends?

Here are the different flavors that we sampled and our culinary findings:

• Blood Orange Sorbetto – Creamy and tart, with a true blood orange taste.
• Lemon Sorbetto – Exquisite lemon taste, with just the right amount of sharpness, but no bitterness. If you love lemon, you have got to try this!
• Mango Sorbetto – Our least favorite of the samples. Very mild in character. I thought it tasted more like peach than mango.
• Pistachio Gelato – Nice crunches with every spoonful because there is no skimping on the pistachio nuts. If pistachio is one of your favorite nuts, you will adore this.
• Coconut Gelato – Extra creamy with a generous amount of shredded coconut. It was so scrumptious, I added a dollop of Hershey’s chocolate on top to remind me of a Mounds candy bar.
• Dark Chocolate Chunk Gelato – Dark, decadent, and rich, with plenty of real chocolate chunks in every bite. This was my absolute favorite of the samples. If my head could have fit inside the container, I would have thoroughly cleaned it out.

We checked the web site and found the Roba Dolce brand is not available in our geographical area. However, they make it for Krogers under the Private Selections label, and we locally priced it at $4 for a large container. Will we be buying it in the future? You bet!

I really appreciate Roba Dolce and Karen of This Old House 2 for letting me participate in this fun and tasty product review! And since I already have you drooling after reading this post, check out the gorgeous country estate where Karen lives!

Tree Trimming

We decided to have some work done to add a few small “hardscape” areas around our cottage and also extend the backyard grass. As part of this improvement project, we’re first having a few trees in the backyard trimmed or cut down. One huge branch on a gigantic oak tree had to go because it was precariously leaning toward our neighbor’s house. There were also some dead/broken trees in the yard that needed to be thinned out and immense poison ivy vines removed.

The trimmers came mid-day and got right to work.  Ah, the excitement of it all! It was fun to watch this fellow climb and cut with the chainsaw. I took a very short break from my procedure editing job to witness the demise of the big branch.

The view from hubby’s upstairs office was perfect to see the action.  Look out below!!!

We could tell that this guy knew exactly what he was doing because he made it look easy. But I wouldn’t go up there and do that kind of work for a zillion dollars! These men work hard for the money!

The tree crew did a great job today. There’s still a little cleanup and hauling left to do, but they are going to come back and finish those tasks on Friday.

I hope that you noticed a little sprucing up here on my blog too! I added new custom blog background and header a few days ago. I created them from a photo I took of an antique quilt displayed at a local festival. I love the bright and cheery colors of the vintage fabrics used, particularly the bubblegum pink! The pattern is called wedding ring. If it could talk, I wonder what stories the old quilt could tell.

Happy Birthday, President Reagan!

In my book, you were

the best President of our lifetime.

We miss you.

God bless you!

A Blustery Day

It’s a blustery day outside our cottage. Thank goodness there is no ice or snow visiting us right now! Some of my blogging friends have gotten clobbered with snow lately and my heart goes out to them.

I now have three very busy weeks of work behind me. It seems like a LOT longer! It’s frustrating that I haven’t seemed to make much a dent in the assigned work. I’m also having problems adjusting to the lack of time for personal endeavors. I’m hoping to catch my stride soon. There isn’t going to be any let-up in the level and intensity of this particular contract, unlike the last one. I am preparing myself for an endurance marathon into a blustery headwind! While I was in Chattanooga last week, I finally got to meet everyone in the work group. Everyone is really nice, so that’s a plus. I should get my first paycheck this next week too. I’ll feel better after I hear that initial kerplunk sound in the checking account. OK then, onward!

We are in the process of finishing up plans for the “on-our-own” time during the July trip to Alaska. Making the tour reservations was the easy part! The decisions for self-touring activities and lodging are a bit daunting. It was happy news when hubby was able to pay for our flight reservations with frequent flyer miles. He got that task done just in the nick of time. It was surprising how few open spots were left for a trip that is a more than five months away!

We’re seriously thinking about getting an iPad this spring when the new generation rolls off the production line. We’d love to leave our big HP laptop home and take something lighter on our traveling adventures. So if any of you out there in blogland have an iPad, I would love to hear which model you got, how well you like it, and your favorite apps.

Grizzly Bear Series – Part 3, Peek-A-Boo!

Welcome back to my series of photos and stories about our grizzly bear adventure last year in wilds of British Columbia!

When we were riding along in a float boat or visiting the bear viewing stand alongside the Atnarko River, we never knew when we were going to be surprised with a bear sighting. The anticipation kept us alert! And when we least expected it, one would peek its head out of the bushes along the riverbank!

They could travel hidden through the tall grasses, and then suddenly be poised on the water’s edge, looking for their next meal of tasty salmon.

We kept a steady lookout along the well-worn bear trails, and we were frequently rewarded for our vigilance.

We also kept a lookout in the river to spot partially hidden ones like this fellow!

And every now and then, a particularly handsome bear would pause from its hiding place and graciously allow us to take a formal portrait!

Please come back later to see more of this special photo series!

February – A Look Ahead

Let me start out by saying this: January did not turn out the way I planned! The major upheaval was my sudden boomerang back into the working world via another contract with my former employer. This job is going to keep me very busy. So those slacker retirement days I was fondly dreaming about have been put on hold once again. Yeah, yeah, I can be bought! I am already greatly missing my spare time, but I’m going to bite my tongue and not whine about it. I don’t have to work. I’m choosing to work. There’s a big difference. And the extra money will go toward vacations and projects around the cottage. I count my blessings every day!

I started a sewing project and it is currently in a hazy state of incompletion. I am making a corded fabric plate to put on the shelf in the laundry room and give the space a jolt of color. The plate is now sewn but I still have to complete the trim around the edge and do some embellishment. With any luck, I’ll get it done this month and then I will be able to show all of you what sewing madness I created.

Last month, I planned to take some pictures of my studio and share those images with you. Well, since my sewing project is taking 100 times longer than expected, the room is not quite presentable right now. So much for that bright idea! Later, folks.

I am happy that at least the grizzly bear picture series got underway here on my blog, and I will have a few more posts in the series. I’m glad that you are enjoying them! Some of you have been asking how close we got to the bears. I would estimate that those shown in my pictures were mostly 30-80 feet away from us. A telephoto lens brings them up close. I also digitally zoomed in with Photoshop and cropped a few pictures if they were sharp enough.

We hope beyond hope that most of the awful weather is history for this winter season. Realistically, we know that February is traditionally our worst month of the year for snow and ice. Let’s just cross our collective fingers that I don’t have to do business traveling while it is frightful! We are both looking forward to the end of the month, which is when the early daffodils start blooming. Spring isn’t too far around the corner now!

My annual wrestling with the income tax return preparation will commence toward the end of the month. Oh joy. And I mean that in the most disgusting tone of voice possible. I despise the whole exercise. The process is an abomination because of the tax laws. Did you know that the U.S. tax code is now about 72,000 pages long? Oh, I could very easily go on a tirade like I did in this post a couple of years ago. And it doesn’t help when the IRS is still dragging their feet on issuing us a refund from an amended return submitted in August! Grrrr!!!

On a much happier note, we recently scheduled out second big vacation for the year. We’ll be taking a two-week photo tour of Alaska in July, and we’re adding on some of our own personal travel days before and after the tour. Hubby is in the process of making all of the final arrangements. He used to live up in Fairbanks for many years. So he is anxious to see again some of the memorable places in that gorgeous state. And everything on the itinerary will be all new territory for me! We can’t wait!