hello / friends

L - Nikon / T -iphone

Sorry I have been so absent. I hope you will forgive me.

(I really like this photo Taylor sent me. I love the light; the way her new dog seems to be making friends with her cat; and seeing the portrait she did this summer in the background)

a good path / a good trail

L - Nikon / T- iphone

What a wonderful weekend it's been. The long weekend started with a nice visit with my friend Judy on Thursday. We enjoyed Chocolate Berry Earl Grey tea (with vanilla froth) and apple dumplings by the fire and talked about different things. She left me with a bowl full of wonderful colored pottery pieces she made that I can incorporate into my metal work - they inspire me so much. I was glad to have a day off on Friday so I could experiment with them - they are the perfect accent to my feather necklaces and a new butterfly necklace I am working on, possibly some rings. Then I was surprised with a life changing question in the woods Friday afternoon and a wonderful Italian dinner to follow. Saturday I had fun teaching my brother how to make a ring - he was very good at it (as expected). He enjoyed it so much that he made 3 rings during the weekend and felt proud of his accomplishment. It was a joy-filled weekend. I hope your weekend was splendid as well. / so happy. it's been too long since i've been in a saddle. my small group from church went horseback riding up near helen, ga (i'd never been to helen - it's a cute little town) this afternoon and the weather could not have been more ideal - and the ride was awesome. i'm back on my goal of owning a horse one day. i will be so happy.

warmth of sun... / warmth of home...

L - Nikon / T - Nikon

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Warmth of friends... for these things I am grateful.

I know many of you will be busy this week preparing for family visits, shopping and cooking and getting together with friends, so I want to take this time, this Sunday night, to express my thanks. I want to say thank you for your visits and your kind words, your inspiration and your support. You take minutes out of your busy day to visit with me and that means a lot - you know it does. So to each and every one of you - I am grateful for the warmth of your friendship.

dinner / movie

L - Nikon D60 / T - Nikon D40x

The drive home was so pleasant tonight - a nice breeze was in the air. I got off work at the normal time for the first time this week and was looking forward to getting out of heels and into flip flops. When I walked in the house there was the wonderful aroma of onions cooking - Taylor was busy in the kitchen, the table was set and all I had to do was fill the water glasses. Taylor had prepared Chicken Succotash for our dinner with my parents (our schedule was off because of me working late Tuesday). So to say the least, I am happy that Taylor is staying home this summer instead of in Athens like she had originally planned. / i kind of like doing the grocery shopping when i have a specific list in hand. tonight i cooked for our weekly dinner with my grandparents, but i was disappointed in the way the sugar snap peas with sweet onion vinaigrette recipe turned out. it did add the needed 'green' to the plate however. (i learned this from my grandmother - she always makes sure there is something green on the dinner plate.) tonight i'm going to the drive-in theatre with friends.

lovely

solo post - L

I hope your day was filled with many sweet and wonderful things - all things that made you feel special and loved. You are special to me.

uplifting / daunting

L - Nikon / T - Nikon

When T sent me this photo late Sunday night I knew I had to put it together with my photo from my Sunday morning walk. Her's being a late night scary walk in the dark, with friends... mine being an cheerful walk in nature, alone. My walk had a one little obstacle, her walk was had several. I did not get lost, she did. / my best friend came into town this weekend from charleston and on her way back home to atlanta. it was great to have her back in town – i hadn't seen her since i moved into my house here. she's such a breath of fresh air in my life. however few and far between our interactions it's always nice to see her. since happenings in my little town were slow, we decided to make a twenty minute road trip with one of my other great friends to watkinsville, where washington farms and their famous corn maze are located. we got there around eleven and.. we did not make it out alone. by the time the field was closing at eleven, we were nowhere near the exit. none of us had ever been to a corn maze before and it was actually a lot of fun, however a little daunting! i would really like to go back and conquer it.. maybe when it's a little lighter outside!

night vision / light writing

L - Nikon / T - Nikon
I'm so behind on my blogging these days, work has been in the way, but I won't carry on about that. T and her friends built a bonfire out back and roast marshmallows the other night (4th of July) just like they did last year this time. Last year they camped out there too, setting up 2 tents. This year was much more laid back and quiet and I worried less about the neighbors complaining . I wanted so bad to get some photos of the group but as I sneaked around the side of the house to take some I was afraid they would see me and think me a snoop so I quickly snapped a photo and headed back inside. It looked like they were having a nice time. / my best friend's birthday is on the 4th of July. makes for a great party. sparklers and a camera are fun.

zest / spice

L - Nikon Sigma 30mm / T- Nikon Sigma 30mm

Fresh Squeezed color. Aren't these petunias cheerful? They're called Lemon Zest - the description on the container says they give the garden the freshly squeezed color of lemons; says they'll grow into a 3 ft wide mound. I planted 3 along the walkway. I hope they grow well – they just may become a favorite of mine. Do you have a new variety of flowers you're planting this season? / my friend adam took this photo of me today during our visit at starbucks (the usual meeting place). he was goofing off snapping photos of the people in the drive-thru staring at that box with the voice inside. the expressions on their faces... one lady downright angry looking. i think she caught him in the act. oops.
they're are so many friends i missed during the school year. it's been fun reconnecting with them. i love my friends. i enjoy how each of my friends has something different to add to my life. aren't friends the spice of life?

forage / find

L - 200mm / T - 30mm you'll have to click on the image to see the birds

I love watching the birds from my dining room window. Today the Nuthatches where really active - flying about and searching for food. They would go to the feeder and then fly off to a tree where they would crack open the seed. Did you know they get their common name from their habit of jamming large nuts and acorns into tree bark, then whacking them with their sharp bill to “hatch” out the seed from the inside. They're interesting to watch because they often turn sideways and upside down on vertical surfaces as they forage for bugs.
This past Saturday T and I went to a yard sale, but not just any yard sale. It was Elizabeth's from Gifts of the Journey. Do you know her? I have enjoyed experiencing the coast of England through her eyes – she is a talented writer and photographer. We formed a friendship through blogging back in August and when I met her for the first time in November I felt like I had know her all my life. Saturday was a messy, rainy day but we had the best time visiting while T browsed her items for sale. T is looking for things to furnish her home for next year and Elizabeth was too kind. T would be eyeing something like a pretty vase, or nice bowls and Elizabeth just said, "hey go ahead and take it." Thank you Elizabeth. It was so good to see you. Hope you have recovered from the hard work of the yard sale. / i'm so excited about this piece elizabeth had for sale at her yard sale. it's a cool bird cage on a stand. i'm going to give it a fresh coat of white paint and i'm thinking of either putting christmas lights or candles in it. actually i have a lot of ideas – what would you do with it? thank you for the fruit biscuits and chocolate mint gum, elizabeth!

long day / end of the day

This photo looks like the start of the day - all ready to "go". In actuality it is the end of a VERY long day - all I had the energy to bring in from my car (packed to the brim with boxes of festival stuff) was my purse and these tasty treats from a special friend. Elizabeth, from my blogging community, visited us today at the festival and it was definitely the highlight of the day. It was so nice to meet and talk with her face-to-face. I appreciate, so much, the fact that she took time out of her day to come by and visit. She brought us a special treat all the way from England - the fruit biscuits filled our empty stomachs after the slim breakfast we had earlier in the morning. What I found nice was that the conversation seemed so natural and easy - like we already knew each other. And I guess we really did in a way. What's neat about the blogging community is that people are pretty open and through the daily sharing online, we learn a lot about each other - sometimes sharing more online that we do with the people we are around daily. But to actually meet the person we have been "talking" to online is very special. Thank you, Elizabeth for coming by - it really was the highlight of my day.
She took some photos of me and I took a couple of her but we promised to get each others approval before posting. / today was an interesting day but a very long and tiring day. there were a lot of eclectic people to talk with, and watch, and i enjoyed that immensely. but i'm not used to 9 hours of standing (mom forgot the chairs) so that made it tiring. i sold a good bit but what was pretty cool was that the lady whose worked i admire when i first got there came by at the end of the day and wanted to trade. i got 2 pieces i wanted. she traded for a framed print and then came back and bought another framed print. nice!
my photo clearly shows the end of the day - here i wait - almost the last one remaining - kind of alone and sad for the day to end - while mom went to get the car so we could pack up and go home.

rainfall / weekly picnic

We finally got a much needed rain here today - it's been a month since we last saw rain. I'm sure the earth was delighted for a drink at last. / rained today in athens. the photo is a polaroid from yesterday. we have another name for tuesdays now - picnic day. we felt solitude, despite the incessant student traffic, out on our picnic blanket with plundered dining hall food and reading material. i can't wait for autumn to arrive full force.

just a day / day for a picnic

This was an uneventful day for me, busy at work. I felt somewhat out of whack and not sure why. Do you ever have days like that? / thursday is my short day of classes, the breeze was cool and the sun was shining - perfect day for a picnic - so we grabbed the blankets, music, the polaroids and some food and headed for the open grass.

today / one year ago

Relaxing Sunday. It was such a wonderful day of reading out on my deck - started out cool enough for my sweater but I soon peeled off that layer and enjoyed the sun against my skin. / i have no photo today but looked back to what i was shooting just one year ago. this photo was taken at the GA fair on this exact date one year ago. what a fun night. i miss claire.

direction / reflection

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose."
- Dr. Seuss, Oh! The Places You'll Go!
/ "Everyone and everything that shows up in our life is a reflection of something that is happening inside of us."
Alan Cohen