Flowers and Favorites and iPhone Photos at Night

Flowers from Heinen's - 3 huge bunches for $12! I felt like I hit the motherlode on a particularly gloomy February day. (yes, I am a tad behind in posting...)

 

I hacked the amaryllis down in September, when they came indoors for the winter. In late December, I turned on the plant lights and gave them some Miracle-Gro. The flowers this year have been spectacular. You just have to be confident that not watering from September to late December will produce good results. A peach amaryllis is blooming in the living room today, and another stem of 'Apple Blossom' is just about ready to go.

 

Love.these.boots. As Mother Nature is my witness, there has never been a more comfortable pair of hikers made. Merrill Moab waterproof hikers - got them on sale at Gander Mountain.

iPhones do a lot of things well. They even do a good job on photos in decent light. They do not do a great job at night without a lot of contrast. And grain, holy mackerel! This is the burly Civilian Conservation Corp worker who stands outside the entrance to Happy Days Conference Center in CVNP.

 

I'm not much for rings - they catch on everything, and I'm always sure I'm going to yank out the stone. This one is so pretty, silver swirl and amethyst. Worth the annoyance to wear. Occasionally. This was a 50mm 1.8F. Barely got the stone and clips in focus, the depth of field is so shallow.

Shiny New Stuff

 

Finally decided to buy a new car - Subaru Forester. I will really miss the Honda, though. It still looks good even after almost 130,000 miles.

 

 

Going to Yosemite on a photo tour with some photographers from MPEG. I hope I can do it justice. Got a big package of maps and guidebooks from the Yosemite Conservancy, so I'll know exactly what it looks like before I get there. And I'm really looking forward to knowing what it feels like to be there.

 

 

Godiva and yellow roses for Valentine's day. The dark chocolate pretzels are the best!

 

Not feeling very chatty tonight. Work's just got me down. Wish I could wave a magic wand and make it better. But they've set their course and there's no going back.

 

Either that, or being completely caffeine-free doesn't agree with me.



The Times, They are A-Changing...

It's been a year of goodbyes at my company. These are two of my co-workers. He retired, she left for a job at another company. With the recent changes, both of them made good decisions. Over the twenty years I've been there, I watched a bustling, productive and profitable plant slowly grind to a halt. The company goes on, but the plant where it started will finally go dark in May. It will be a very sad day...

 

The Great Big Home and Flower Show. The gardens were lovely, and a reminder that spring will come. We took a winding drive home along the Canalway, a pretty drive when you have some time to spare.

Messing around with the zoom produced a lovely soft look to these soft yellow and rose mums.

I have about a zillion mismatched pieces of silverware. This lovely pattern graces four grapefruit spoons. Yes, back a hundred or so years ago, folks ate grapefruit - when they could get it - with special spoons.

Another mum, this time backlit with the flashlight app on my iPhone.

 

That's all for now. I'm doing a lot better at keeping up with P365 photos that I am with posting them. 

Happy Birthday, Honey!

 

Hope you had a very happy birthday!

Nothing like Living in the Airport

A huge snowstorm in early February, outline all the branches with white. This tree is just inside Chapin Forest Reservation in Kirtland.

 

 

Flying over the Lake Erie Islands on my way to Salt Lake City. The ice was checked with giant cracks - it almost looked like a road map. Catawba Island is on the left ( and is actually a peninsula). South Bass in the middle and Middle Bass on the right.



 

Stuck in Salt Lake Airport. Akron-Canton was closed due to bad weather that didn't materialize until well after I would have landed. 29 hours without sleep tied my previous record from my detour through Paris on the way to Brussels. Thank you once again, Delta. Beautiful view of the mountains from one of the concourses. And, while I was having dinner, bagpipers in full dress came skirling down the concourse. Never found out why, but happy to hear bag pipe music. Photo processed in Snapseed.

 

Finally on my way home...not soon enough. Did finish Anna Quindlen's Still Life with Breadcrumbs and Maeve Binchy's A Week in Winter, both very good.

 

 

Poor Sootie, not enough lap time, and then tortured by having his picture taken. He was back to sleep in about two minutes. He snores like the Three Stooges - weep weep weepweepweep!

 

 
All photos taken with my trusty iPhone.



Last of January, First of February

One of Grandma Wilk's silver patterns. Beautiful Art Deco set, used for special occasions.

 

 

Snow rollers from the weirdest winter ever. These were in my side yard and were about 12" tall. I've seen bigger ones, though. Usually they have a hole in the center, but these are from later in the day, so they may have collapsed a little.

 

Gran Marnier - love the bottle and label design. Couldn't tell you what it tastes like though - no idea why I even have it.

 

One of Chuck's many fountain pens. This one has sepia ink in it. Used and extension tube on the lens to pick up the beautiful detail in the nib.



 

Great Falls of Tinkers Creek, almost completely frozen over. The day I shot this, it started to rain, so we were lucky to get there while the falls were still frozen.